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20,000 Dead in Pakistan Following Massive Earthquake, Officials
Fear Final Toll Could Exceed 40,000
Indian Tribes and Hurricane Katrina: Overlooked by the Federal
Government, Relief Organizations and the Corporate Media
Indigenous Activists Blast Columbus Day as "Propping
Up of Racist Propaganda"
Sonia Bock 1897-2005: Amy Goodman Remembers Her Grandmother
20,000 Dead in Pakistan Following Massive Earthquake,
Officials Fear Final Toll Could Exceed 40,000
At least 20,000 people have died in Pakistan and India in
a massive earthquake Saturday. Hardest hit was the area around
the Pakistani Kashmir capital of Muzaffarabad. It is believed
to be the worst natural disaster in Pakistan's history and
officials fear the final death toll could exceed 40,000. We
go to Lahore to speak with author and activist Tariq Ali and
a Moeen Cheema, a professor of law and policy in Pakistan.
Rescuers struggled to reach remote, mountainous areas two
days after Pakistan's worst-ever earthquake wiped out entire
villages, buried roads in rubble and knocked out electricity
and water supplies. [includes rush
transcript]
The official death toll stands at 20,000 but is widely expected
to rise with some estimates putting the dead at double that.
Aid agencies are saying more than 120,000 people are in urgent
need of shelter and up to four million could be left homeless.
The 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck close to Muzaffarabad
in Pakistan-administered Kashmir on Saturday morning. The
tremor was felt as far away as Kabul and Delhi, but the main
areas affected have been Kashmir and Pakistan's North-West
Frontier Province.
Many towns appear to have been flattened and government aid
has yet to arrive. Most of Muzaffarabad has been destroyed
or severely damaged. The city's cricket stadium is being used
to house the homeless and tend to survivors. The rescue effort
has been slowed by landslides which have wiped out roads and
bridges, and a lack of helicopters to ferry in vital heavy
lifting equipment. Anger started to build as help failed to
arrive. In many places, people reportedly dug with their bare
hands in an attempt to reach friends and relatives trapped
in the rubble.
Many of the earthquake's victims were schoolchildren, who
had just begun classes when school buildings collapsed on
top of them. Pakistan's military spokesman Major General Shaukat
told Agence France Presse: "It is a whole generation
that has been lost in the worst affected areas."
In the capital of Islamabad, as many as 150 students are
still trapped in the wreckage of a school, but with no heavy
equipment, rescuers have all but given up the search. In the
town of Balakot, as many as 250 students are thought to be
still trapped.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf appealed
for international help and asked for tents, blankets, transport
helicopters and medicine. The United States has offered eight
military helicopters and said it was contributing $50 million
dollars in aid. Many other countries across the world have
offered financial help and practical support.
- Moeen Cheema, professor of law and policy at the Lahore
University of Management Sciences. He is the head of
the Adventure Society, an outdorr group that has travelled
extensively throughout the region.
- Tariq Ali, author and activist. He has written more than
a dozen books on world history and politics, including "Bush
in Babylon" and "The Clash of Fundamentalisms."
Indian Tribes and Hurricane Katrina: Overlooked by
the Federal Government, Relief Organizations and the Corporate
Media
We take a look the plight of American Indians living in
southeast Louisiana weeks after hurricane Katrina hit the
gulf coast. Tribal leaders say they have been overlooked by
the media, relief organizations and the federal government.
[includes rush
transcript]
Though there has been massive attention to the devastation
brought by Hurricane Katrina, some victims have been overlooked.
An estimated 4,500 American Indians living along the southeast
Louisiana coast lost everything to Hurricane Katrina according
to state officials and tribal leaders. Hurricane Rita, which
hit four weeks after Katrina, dealt another blow to the tribes.
Officials estimate that 5,000-6,000 American Indians lost
their homes or possessions in that storm. The Louisiana tribes
most affected by the back-to-back hurricanes are the United
Houma Nation, the Pointe-au-Chien Tribe, the Isle de Jean
Charles Indian Band of Biloxi-Chitimasha, the Grand Caillou-Dulac
Band and the Biloxi-Chitimasha Confederation of Muskogees.
Tribal leaders have complained that they are being overlooked
by the media, by relief organizations and by the federal government.
Houma Nation Chief Brenda Dardar-Robichaux said in an article
published in the Houma Nation newspaper last week, "We
are an Indian tribe here that is falling through the cracks.
Nobody has made contact with us except the native media. Everything
we are doing has been a grassroots effort, and it's taken
weeks to get this far with the help of many volunteers and
private donations. We're basically doing it on our own."
The problem is made worse for the Houma nation and some of
the smaller tribes because they lack federal recognition from
the government and the accompanying money that comes with
such official acknowledgement.
- Charles Verdin, Chairman of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian
Tribe.
For information on sending
donations to Native American tribes in need that have
been affected by Hurricans Katrina and Rita.
Indigenous Activists Blast Columbus Day as "Propping
Up of Racist Propaganda"
Today is known as Columbus Day - we take a look at why some
people are not commemorating the arrival of Christopher Columbus
to the so-called "new world." [includes rush
transcript]
Today is known as Columbus Day which is supposed to commemorate
the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the so-called "new
world" in 1492. But the holiday has long caused anger
amongst people of color, especially Native Americans, who
object to honoring a man who opened the door to European colonization,
the exploitation of native peoples and the slave trade.
Sonia Bock 1897-2005: Amy Goodman Remembers Her Grandmother
Amy Goodman's grandmother, Sonia Bock, died October 5, 2005
at the age of 108. She was born in 1897, in Ruvno, Poland.
She lived through Tsarist Russia, the Bolshevik revolution
and the Holocaust.
I'd like to take this moment to thank everyone who wrote
in last week to express sympathy on the loss of my grandmother.
Sonia Bock died October 5, 2005 at the age of 108. Yes, she
was indomitable: a woman of three centuries.
She was born in 1897, in Ruvno, Poland. She lived through
Tsarist Russia, the Bolshevik revolution, the Holocaust. Though
many in her family did not. Two of her brothers and their
whole families perished. I remember my mother telling me the
wail. The wail that went up in the bungalow colony that my
grandparents my mom and her sister went to every summer. The
wail when my grandmother got the news that her family had
been killed. She came to America by boat in 1929. In 1930,
she gave birth to my mother in Harlem with my grandfather,
an orthodox rabbi.
In her fifties my grandmother contracted cerebral meningitis
and was sent to a sanatorium in the Catskills. Not expected
to live, she cut everyone's hair and was out in two years.
She was an unusual mix of old fashioned and modern in her
views of women. "You must always be independent,"
she would say. "When your husband comes home meet him
with a hug and supper, then give him the newspaper to read,
but you should have already read it. Then discuss it with
him. Communication is everything." She was the eternal
student. She spoke four languages: Russian, Yiddish, Hebrew,
English and was always taking conversation classes in French.
At about 4 foot 10 inches tall, she was a pint size fireball.
A life force. My heart.
I'd like to share a poem that I also read when my father
died:
Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there.
I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning s hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush,
of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft star that shines at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there. I did not die.
Mary Elizabeth Frye, 1932
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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