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United States Continues to send 100’s of Millions of Dollars
as Economic Assistance to Pakistan. Then why all this US
Taxpayer money creating 1000’s more enemies instead of winning
the Hearts and Minds of the Pakistanis?
Couple of simple reasons. Most US money for economic aid to
Pakistan is being channeled into Pakistan through USAID. There
is likelihood that no serious qualification; accountability or
verification before and after the contract is awarded. USAID
solicits bids for implementing poverty alleviation and
education programs on the ground all over Pakistan. This has
spawned a major new industry called the NGOs. I now hear that
we now may have close to 60,000 NGOs and Companies operating
in Pakistan that mainly rely on getting USAID contracts. Most
are only on paper and fly by night operations. Possibly 90% of
the USAID money with these NGOs goes into overhead, expenses,
salaries. Maybe less than 10% goes to the project making no
difference in the poor villager’s life in any way. The cycle
of few becoming richer at the expense of village masses
becoming poorer gets worse.
At
the same time US bombings are killing very high percentage of
tribal civilians and very small number of foreigners linked
with terrorism. To US it is collateral damage but to the
tribals it is plain murder. Tribals are not highly educated
and don’t understand the word “Collateral Damage” . All they
see is a foreign enemy in the sky preparing to take over their
1000’s year old land, destroy their livelihood and kill their
friends and families. This has created more enemies and hatred
against the West along the entire tribal belt. Pakistan is
paying a heavy penalty for this US action.
The
best way forward is for US to connect with the select and
qualified Pakistani American Diaspora specially the Diaspora
from the Tribal area in US to understand the tribal cultures
and start winning hearts and minds of the people with the help
of the diaspora.
By: Pervaiz Lodhie (email:
PLodhie@LEDtronics.com)
www.LEDtronics.com
www.Shaantech.com
www.PABE.org
www.PAL-C.org
www.NCHD.org
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http://www.pakistanlink.com/ledtronics.html) |
