President Pervez Musharraf is wrong to claim Westerners won't donate readily for earthquake victims in Pakistan because, unlike with the Christmas tsunami, no Westerners were among the victims.
This assertion is as facile as it is foolish: I suspect that many potential donors, such as myself and my wife, hesitate to support giving aid to a country that likes to spend big on arms and builds atom bombs, rather than prepare to fight the natural catastrophes in the region.
Add the fact that your own army and local authorities are reported in the West to have used aid shipments to distribute to their own cronies or buy power, similar to what is allegedly happening in Zimbabwe, and that your own Islamic 'enemies' don't see the need to ease their co-religionists' plight, and you'll understand our reluctance, General!
In this context, it is good to hear that you'll put the purchase of 50 expensive jetfighters on hold - unless this is of course to goad the arms suppliers into political action...
We feel with the 'quake victims, as we felt for the tsunami victims - for whom we, as pensioners, contributed a larger proportion of our income, I suspect, than would have Mr Kofi Annan or his son - but perhaps you'll see fit to start your collection in these quarters first?
With undiminished compassion for the true innocent victims worldwide,
yours truly,
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