‘Let them eat cake’
Monday, June 1, 2009
The News International, Pakistan
Monday, June 01, 2009
The French queen Marie Antoinette is famously - and wrongly – said to have uttered the infamous phrase ‘then let them eat cake’ on hearing that the peasantry had no bread to eat; and it was probably said 100 years before her by Marie-Thérèse, the wife of Louis XIV. The phrase has become synonymous with the arrogant attitudes of the ruling classes to those at the bottom of the pile and although we hope that nobody here is so heartless as to actually say it, we do take note of some chronic insensitivities towards the IDPs. In particular we note the fact that Punjab, in making a contribution to the support of IDPs, has donated wheat. Wheat as we all know needs to be ground into flour before it can be made into bread – and giving somebody a sackful of wheat without the wherewithal to grind it is about as much use as presenting them with a chocolate bicycle on midsummer’s day. A consequence of this anomaly is that IDPs are forced to sell the bags of wheat at knock-down prices to the millers in order that they can afford to buy flour to make the bread that will feed them. The millers then grind the wheat which they re-sell at inflated prices to the IDPs, thus recycling back to the millers the money that they used to capitalize what for them is a very lucrative business.
The stock of cake in the godowns of one of the leading aid agencies, UNICEF, is also running low. It has almost exhausted its contingency funds and stocks of relief goods and has appealed for an additional $41.4 million for providing immediate assistance to people displaced by fighting in Swat and elsewhere. UNICEF is providing drinking water, nutrition, health support and education for many of those in the camps and the far greater number accommodated in host communities and extended families. With around three million now displaced and no end to their misery in sight we face a problem of medium-term sustenance rather than emergency relief. The random and often inappropriate donation and distribution of aid helps nobody and often serves to heighten the sense of loss felt by IDPs. Giving wheat to people who need flour is tantamount to saying ‘then let them eat cake’ – which we are sure is not the message that Punjab wanted to give to the IDPs.
Source
Labels: IDPs, Military Operation, Punjab, Refugees, Swat Operation
posted @ 9:42 AM,
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