Shatter

I am still in disbelief about the earthquake. Tragic. I spoke with his parents. Everyone that they know of is well and has not been affected by the earthquake. Ammi was saying that everyone in the family is busy gathering toiletries, medicine and medical equipment to donate. They have also purchased a number of cloths to help cloth the dead so that they can have a proper Muslim burial. DH and I made a donation to the President’s Relief Fund. I wish we could do more.

The Edhi Foundation has been working tirelessly. They are amazing. I recently read Edhi’s biography and I am amazed at this man’s ability to single-handedly impact Pakistan’s welfare state. Check out http://www.paks.net/edhi-foundation/

Abbu was talking with such sadness. He was talking about how virtually an entire generation has been wiped out in these small towns with so many school children dead and critically injured. So many women widowed, children orphaned, parents left childless. So many people are dying of hunger and thirst. So many will become amputees. How will they ever go on having been so poor from the start?

Can one ever imagine this devastation? May their souls rest in peace and may their families maintain their amazing faith and have courage to rebuild and go on.

I was talking to my Mom and she was talking about how she and all her friends are feeling like all this devastation from the Tsunami to Katrina to the earthquake are signs of the end. I promptly told her I wasn’t buying into that. She may be ready to buy the headstone and plot, but no way am I!

The reality is that there are some serious environmental and poverty issues at play. It may be religious, but I am too logical to accept that as the answer. Fact is that we are overpopulated and overcrowded and pushing mother nature to her limits. Fact is that we should have never built on the shorelines on New Orleans and we should never have built such unsafe and unstable buildings. Shame on all the greedy developers who know of these construction crimes, but choose the dollar over safety.

Now that I have been to Pakistan, I see the world so differently. We are the most fortunate people in the world. Although cumbersome, expensive and ridiculous, we have kazillions of rules and codes that protect us and provide us with the greatest infrastructure. While there would be destruction, we would never have the same destruction as that of a poor nation like northern Pakistan with the type of buildings they have.

Sometimes I feel so guilty for being born a white American. Then again, maybe I am the unfortunate one because of the stress we Americans endure and along with my struggle to give up all trust unto God.