Candlelight vigils for the Pakistan earthquake were held in 25 cities worldwide tonight. In NYC’s Union Square, chic midtown suits sold fundraising bracelets, listening somberly and flirting subtly. One white paramedic who volunteered in the relief effort spoke of doing amputations in the open air without anesthesia, of villagers hoisting near-dead relatives upon their backs and hauling them seven hours down the mountains to the paramedic camp. After the speeches, Nusrat sang quietly in the background.
A buddy of mine, Monis Rahman, penned this first-person account of volunteering in the mountains:
Two weeks earlier, a Sungi volunteer named Tariq took a helicopter filled with relief supplies to one of the mountain villages. The villagers rushed the helicopter, which was hovering slightly above the ground… Amidst the chaos, one fell to the ground. As Tariq reached to help him up, the rear rotor blade of the helicopter struck his head. He died instantly…
… we saw smoke coming out from a distant peak. Yasir casually asked Farooq if it was a volcano erupting. Our village guides immediately stopped, clearly terrified by the possibility of another catastrophe. There had been rumors in these areas that a volcano would erupt to further punish the villagers for their sins. Most of them believed that something they did as a community was responsible for the devastation they faced… I quickly pointed out that it was just a man-made fire… [Link]
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p>From the vigil organizers (via SAJA):
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74,000 confirmed dead in Pakistan; 1,500 dead in India
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Over 74,000 injured
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Over 3 million homeless in Pakistan
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10,000 children at risk of dying in the next 2 weeks from hypothermia
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100,000 survivors at risk of dying in 4 weeks
One speaker claimed the quake will end up being worse than the tsunami, but that doesn’t seem likely at this point (275K dead in the tsunami, distributed across multiple countries). It’s an enormous tragedy regardless, with a higher death toll than the giant Iran and Gujarat temblors.
Was at the Vigil…nice turnout and great stuff!