Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 23:37:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: wputnam <wputnam-AT-unm.edu>
Subject: Re: Question about charities




On a related topic, here are two addresses for information about
fund-raising efforts to aid the Afghan people who are facing a dire
combination of war, drought and winter: 

http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/vLCE/Afghanistan?OpenDocument&StartKey=Afghanistan&Expandview

http://www.unicefusa.org/

UNICEF just decided to earmark all funds raised by its annual "Trick or
Treat for UNICEF" campaign to go to Afghan relief.  With some 5-7 million
people on the edge of survival (including perhaps 1.5-2 million "new" 
refugees expected as a result of the current bombing campaign), this is
truly an emergency effort.  It is interesting that a few officials have
pitched it as a way to avoid creating the conditions that erupted in the
Sept. 11 attacks (although there were no Afghans among the perpetrators).

It has also become obvious that humanitarian aid is coupled with the
Western military intervention.  The bombings are being justified in part
by saying that they are necessary to clear the way for air drops and
overland deliveries of supplies to stranded and hungry Afghans.  So we
bomb them and then feed them???  And now with Bush recommending that every
American child put a dollar in an envelope...!

The disproportion between the aid efforts for the victims of September 11
and the victims of the Afghan crisis is shocking.  Not to take anything
away from the former, but one wonders when the benefit concerts and
Hollywood events will kick in for Afghanistan (except Angelina Jolie's $1
million donation).  The U.N. estimates that it will take some $580 million
to meet the most crucial needs of the Afghan people.  And this is just a
down payment on the reconstruction aid that will be necessary once Bush &
Co. have finished their job of bombing the country to rubble.  

I don't know that they will be trick or treating on the streets of Kabul
this year.



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