I hate to sound pessimistic, but hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars were pledged to Haiti after their earthquake this past January, and the country and its people are for the most part in the identical situation that they were a few weeks after the quake. The money has apparently vanished.
This reminds me of the billions of dollars that the Bush and Obama administrations gave to banks here in the United States over the past year and a half. The money is nowhere to be seen. It is certainly not in the taxpayers’ pockets, and banks are definitely not issuing loans; so where did all this money go? Answer: where it always goes, to the thieves (politicians and CEOs).
I have one bit of advice for the people of Pakistan: don’t even think about getting help from your government. If it comes, consider it a bonus, just don’t sit around waiting for it, as you may die of old age before receiving anything from governmental/political organizations. TGO
Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States and other countries worldwide have now pledged a total of more than 700 million dollars towards flood relief in Pakistan, a senior US official said Monday.
The United Nations General Assembly meeting last Thursday was “a real galvanizing moment in terms of contributions from other countries,” said Dan Feldman, the deputy special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“By our count, we?ve seen over 700 million dollars pledged, including our own 150 million dollar commitment, from over 30 countries,” Feldman told reporters without giving a country-by-country breakdown.
He also said there are an “additional 300 million dollars in as yet undefined commitments” from a variety of countries.
He said there would be more multi-lateral meetings to coordinate the international aid response in the coming weeks, including a possible gathering on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in late September.
The Financial Tracking Service (FTS), a UN database that aims to track all donations, showed late Friday that 490.7 million dollars has come in for Pakistan’s floods, with another 325 million dollars promised.
Just over half came via the UN’s emergency appeal fund while the rest came via bilateral aid, chiefly from Saudi Arabia, charities or private organizations and companies.
The United Nations launched a 460-million-dollar appeal for donations on August 11, saying this was the amount it estimated was needed by Pakistan to recover from the disaster.