Published in the State Press on September 14, 2005.
The president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, pledged $100,000 dollars on behalf of his country for Hurricane Katrina disaster relief last week – an impressive number from a country currently $8 billion in debt.
The contribution is even more impressive when one considers a teacher’s annual salary in Afghanistan (which incidentally has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world) is only $600.
Afghanistan’s American ambassador responded to the gesture by praising Afghanistan’s “compassion and generosity.” Given the consistently unmet needs of the Afghani people, however, perhaps that compassion and generosity is a tad misplaced.
The 53 percent of Afghans living below the poverty line could certainly benefit from such compassion and generosity, as could the hundreds of thousands of Afghans displaced by bombardment and warfare – forces just as devastating as a hurricane.
That’s not to say the country hasn’t been struck by its fair share of natural disasters.
The U.N. reports that, in the last six years, an earthquake killed 1000 people, and disastrous flooding followed a drought affecting millions. And to top it off, there are still those pesky social problems – acid burnings, rape and the ever-prevalent forced marriages.
So, how can a country provide relief for the disasters of Afghans when, according to the U.N., it generates less than half as much revenue as it spends and is donating $100,000 to aid the richest country in the world?
Maybe Karzai figures we’ll be giving it back in no time anyway.
The donation, ironically made on behalf of the starving Afghan people, has received some criticism. The Revolutionary Afghan Women’s Association (RAWA) responded to Karzai’s actions on its Web site, stating, “While hundreds of thousands of Afghans are facing starvation … and Mr. Karzai and his government frequently call for help from other countries, this kind of donation is worth laughing [at].”
But, with the scant amount of media coverage Afghanistan receives, it’s probably pretty easy to indulge in the fantasy that Afghanistan, after the Taliban, is Eden with active landmines.
Humanitarian organizations repeatedly report on the lack of improvement in Afghanistan. But the ongoing suffering of the Afghan people is too old to be news and too invisible to be history.
If nothing else, Karzai’s donation (whether hypocrisy or a gesture of good will) should remind us of our own responsibility to a nation whose fate was irrevocably altered in our name, if not by our own decree.
The number of Afghan civilians killed, injured and otherwise affected by U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, both before the Taliban’s rise and after its fall, is comparable to the devastating effects of a Katrina or a tsunami.
So when you make your $10, $50 or $100 contribution to the Red Cross for Hurricane Katrina relief, send another $20 to the women of RAWA. They’ll use it to buy school supplies for about 100 kids. And if you’re really feeling generous, throw in another five, you know, for food.
Catherine A. Traywick