Tragedy in Karachi

Bilal Qureshi

Tragedy stuck Karachi Pakistan the other day when about 20 women died from suffocation while attempting to collect wheat flour that was distributed by a charity. It isn’t the only time that poor Pakistanis have died tragically, but this one is especially awful because it started with very good intentions. Because the price of flour is very high in Pakistan during Ramadan, a rice trader decided to help the poor in the community by giving away for free what is scarce and expensive – wheat flour, but his desire to help the poor destroyed at least 20 families.

President has ordered an inquiry, but it is obvious that no body will be held accountable for these tragic deaths. Actually, from what I have heard and read about the incident, it really was an unfortunate accident. However, if the trader who was actually distributing free flour had a) informed the authoritarians and b) opted for an open venue (perhaps a park), we wouldn’t be talking about this tragedy. But, hindsight is always 20/20 and I know the man who was trying to help poor in Ghori Garden Karachi regrets his noble efforts.

Poverty forces people to take risks, and this too was a risk on part of these poor women who went to collect free flour. They knew very well that the place and the space designated for distribution is too tight and too small, but they went there anyway. Regretfully, 20 women will never come back – they are dead.

This should be a lesson, a tragic but a valuable lesson that right intentions are not enough – there has to be planning and everything has to be taken into account. This becomes more important when someone tries to distribute free food in a poor area. We have all seen images of people fighting with each other when the aid arrives, but this is the first time I have really understood what it means when people fight each other for food. It is just awful.

As always, everybody has started talking about ‘where is the government’ even though, this act of charity was conceived and organized by a trader working independently in Karachi without consultations or informing anyone in the government or the local authorities. But the anger is directed towards the government as always, because people need a villain and the government is always there for everyone to attack. No body would talk sense; no body would ask for calm, no body would ask for the people to understand what went wrong, no way. Instead, they are all talking about government’s failure in preventing this tragedy from happening, even though, the government didn’t even know about the event. But, government in Pakistan can’t do anything right as reported by the media and the government should have somehow figured out that this is going to happen.

Yeah, time to call in the physics!

At times, I do think that sanity has left Pakistan. . Everyone look for a reason to start firing verbal missiles towards the government, even though the society never takes responsibility either individually or collectively. For example, a famous singer in Pakistan was recently in hospital recovering from multiple problems and his family kept saying that the government is not doing anything to help him. When I asked someone why should the government help this man, I was told that this singer is an asset and he has served the country (by singing?) etc and therefore, it is the duty of the government to pay his medical bills. When I asked the same guy that the singer opted to be a singer because anyone in the government asked him to be a singer or he decided to sing on his own, I was told that it was his (singer’s) passion that helped him become a singer.

So, he decided to become a singer on his own, but now that he is sick, he wants the government to pay for his medical bills. Why? Because by singing, somehow he served the national interest of Pakistan. Yeah, I am not joking, this is what is implied whenever there is anyone associated with showbiz is sick here.

Welcome to Pakistan. Here, almost everyone wants a free ride, especially if it is from the government, but never wants to pay taxes or work for it. If you listen to Pakistanis being interviewed by the reporters for TV channels in Pakistan, you will hear the same thing. Government is not doing anything help us, but when you ask them to specify what is that the government should do, a very long list of things is cited that the government in Pakistan should do, but what would be missing from this list is the desire or the need to work for what they want, let alone deserve. Yeah, the overall message from the public in Pakistan is give me all and give me for free. But this mindset has to change if the country wants to become strong, better and independent. What people in Pakistan have to understand is that in order to become a independent nation, they have to first become independent individually without relying on hand outs from the government.

However, the unfortunate, poor and deserving women in Karachi lost their lives while waiting to get free flour won’t come back. It is also a fact that this tragedy was well, a tragedy. But, isn’t time, yet again, to re-think how Pakistanis approach acts of charity and being responsible when confronted with a challenge? The easiest thing today is to blame the government for everything, but is that the right approach? Isn’t it time to be objective, honest and serious about how to fix the problems that are resulting in chronic poverty, joblessness, and sense of doom and gloom in the society?

Surge in Homeless Pupils Strains Schools

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Her family is facing eviction, but Charity Crowell, 9, and her younger brother are enrolled in elementary school in Asheville, N.C. More Photos >

By ERIK ECKHOLM

Published: September 5, 2009

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — In the small trailer her family rented over the summer, 9-year-old Charity Crowell picked out the green and purple outfit she would wear on the first day of school. She vowed to try harder and bring her grades back up from the C’s she got last spring — a dismal semester when her parents lost their jobs and car and the family was evicted and migrated through friends’ houses and a motel.

Multimedia

Photographs

Students and Homelessness

Enlarge This Image

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Charity Crowell said that in the turmoil of homelessness last spring, she had trouble sleeping, nodded off in class and saw her grades slip. More Photos »

Enlarge This Image

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Katrina Crowell and her children, Charity Crowell and Elijah Carrington, who were homeless for part of the last school year. More Photos >

Charity is one child in a national surge of homeless schoolchildren that is driven by relentless unemployment and foreclosures. The rise, to more than one million students without stable housing by last spring, has tested budget-battered school districts as they try to carry out their responsibilities — and the federal mandate — to salvage education for children whose lives are filled with insecurity and turmoil.

The instability can be ruinous to schooling, educators say, adding multiple moves and lost class time to the inherent distress of homelessness. And so in accord with federal law, the Buncombe County district, where Charity attends, provides special bus service to shelters, motels, doubled-up houses, trailer parks and RV campgrounds to help children stay in their familiar schools as the families move about.

Still, Charity said of her last semester, “I couldn’t go to sleep, I was worried about all the stuff,” and she often nodded off in class.

Charity and her brother, Elijah Carrington, 6, were among 239 children from homeless families in her district as of last June, an increase of 80 percent over the year before, with indications this semester that as many or more will be enrolled in the months ahead.

While current national data are not available, the number of schoolchildren in homeless families appears to have risen by 75 percent to 100 percent in many districts over the last two years, according to Barbara Duffield, policy director of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, an advocacy group.

There were 679,000 homeless students reported in 2006-7, a total that surpassed one million by last spring, Ms. Duffield said.

With schools just returning to session, initial reports point to further rises. In San Antonio, for example, the district has enrolled 1,000 homeless students in the first two weeks of school, twice as many as at the same point last year.

“It’s hard enough going to school and growing up, but these kids also have to worry where they’ll be staying that night and whether they’ll eat,” said Bill Murdock, chief executive of Eblen-Kimmel Charities, a private group in Asheville that helps needy families with anything from food baskets and money for utility bills to toiletries and a prom dress.

“We see 8-year-olds telling Mom not to worry, don’t cry,” Mr. Murdock said.

Since 2001, federal law has required every district to appoint a liaison to the homeless, charged with identifying and aiding families who meet a broad definition of homelessness — doubling up in the homes of relatives or friends or sleeping in motels or RV campgrounds as well as living in cars, shelters or on the streets. A small minority of districts, including Buncombe County, have used federal grants or local money to make the position full time.

The law lays out rights for homeless children, including immediate school placement without proof of residence and a right to stay in the same school as the family is displaced. Providing transportation to the original school is an expensive logistical challenge in a huge district like Buncombe County, covering 700 square miles.

While the law’s goals are widely praised, school superintendents lament that Congress has provided little money, adding to the fiscal woes of districts. “The protections are important, but Congress has passed the cost to state and local taxpayers,” said Bruce Hunter, associate director of the American Association of School Administrators.

Fairfax County, Va., where the number of homeless students climbed from 1,100 in June 2007 to 1,800 last spring, has three social workers dedicated to the homeless and is using a temporary stimulus grant to assign a full-time transportation coordinator to commandeer buses, issue gas cards and sometimes call taxis to get the children to their original schools.

Like Fairfax County, the Asheville area looks prosperous, drawing tourists and retirees, but manicured lawns, million-dollar homes and golf courses mask the struggles of many adults working at low-paying jobs in sales and food service.

Emily Walters, the liaison to the homeless for the Buncombe County schools, is busy as school begins, providing backpacks and other supplies and signing children up for free breakfasts and lunches. But her job continues through the school year as other families lose their footing and those who had concealed their status, because of the stigma or because they were not aware of the benefits, join the list.

Sometimes it includes driving families in crisis to look at prospective shelters — a temporary solution at best, Ms. Walters said. When the county receives a two-year stimulus grant next month, she said, she hopes there will be more money to help people avoid eviction or pay security deposits for new rentals.

The evening before school began, Ms. Walters drove 45 minutes to an RV campground to deliver a scientific calculator and other essential school supplies to Cody Curry, 14, who lives with his mother, Dawn, and his brother, Zack, 11, in a camper. Mrs. Curry had to downsize from a trailer, she said, when her work as a sales clerk was cut to two days a week.

The first day of school, Ms. Walters drove to a men’s rescue shelter in the city to take Nate Fountain, 18, to high school. Nate said his parents kicked him out of the house last spring, during his senior year, because he was not doing his school work and was drinking and using drugs. With Ms. Walters’s help, he said, he expects to finish high school this semester and study culinary arts at a community college.

“I spend a lot of time just making sure the kids stay in school,” Ms. Walters said.

The busing service was especially valued by Leslie Laws, who was laid off from her job in customer service last year and lost her rental apartment.

Ms. Laws and her 12-year-old son are staying in a women’s shelter in Asheville, far from his former school. He is deeply involved with activities like chorus. Now he must catch the bus at 6:05 a.m. and ride one and a half hours each way.

Educators and advocates for the homeless across the country said that in the current recession, the law had made a difference, minimizing destructive gaps in schooling and linking schools with social welfare agencies.

Charity Crowell, despite her vow to bring up her grades, may be in store for another rough semester. Her stepfather works long hours delivering food on commission, but business is poor. Her mother, Katrina, wants to look for a job, but that is difficult without a car.

Food stamps help, but by the second half of each month the family is mostly eating “Beanee Weenees and noodles,” Ms. Crowell said. As school resumed in late August, the family was facing eviction from the $475-a-month trailer and uncertain about what to do next.

In Unemployment Report, Signs of a Jobless Recovery

By PETER S. GOODMAN and JACK HEALY

Published: September 4, 2009

The unemployment rate surged to 9.7 percent in August, signaling that joblessness and financial anxiety were likely to endure in millions of American homes for many months.

Skip to next paragraph

Enlarge This Image

Paul Sakuma/Associated Press

Sergio Fuentes sought help from a state worker while looking through listings in San Jose, Calif.

Multimedia

Graphic

Economic Indicators in August

Video

White House Reacts to Jobs Report (CNBC)

Today's Business: Jack Healy on the Jobs Report

Related

Teenage Unemployment Rate Reaches Record High (September 5, 2009)

Enlarge This Image

Tony Dejak/Associated Press

Maureen Sanders looked for a job in Parma, Ohio.

The Labor Department’s latest employment report, released Friday, added weight to a growing belief that, at least technically, the economy had already escaped the grip of recession. Though 216,000 net jobs vanished in August, the losses continued to moderate from their worst numbers of the year.

Yet the report also lent credence to a deepening consensus that, even as the economy resumes expansion, the recovery was likely to be weak, prompting most companies to hold back from aggressive hiring.

“In the context of a full-blooded recovery, this report is disappointing,” said Alan Ruskin, an economist with the Royal Bank of Scotland in Stamford, Conn. “We’re still clawing our way back.”

Many experts envision a jobless recovery, in which the economy grows but job losses persist. That would reprise the end of the last recession in 2001, when payrolls continued to decline for nearly two years afterward.

Such an outcome would confront the Obama administration with a potentially nettlesome political problem heading into next year’s midterm elections. After the government unleashed $787 billion to stimulate economic growth, and after it bailed out financial institutions and the auto industry, the unemployment rate exceeds worst-case projections envisioned by the administration early this year.

On Friday, Jared Bernstein, the top economic adviser to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., said the picture would look far worse were it not for the stimulus spending. He added that more help was on the way as the government distributed the remaining two-thirds of the package.

“Our interventions have contributed to significant cuts in the rate of job loss,” Mr. Bernstein said. “We’re headed in the right direction, but we’re far from out of the woods. There are simply too many Americans seeking work.”

If the jobless rate continues to climb, as is widely expected, that could generate pressure for another stimulus spending package. But given intensifying concern about the size of federal budget deficits — now projected to exceed $9 trillion within a decade — any new spending could be politically perilous.

The latest snapshot of the nation’s labor situation testified to the drastic improvement since early this year, when nearly 700,000 jobs a month were disappearing. Yet it also underscored the continued bleakness of the economic landscape.

“It’s a good picture compared to where we were, which was just a free fall,” said Dean Baker, a director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. “But compared to anything else, this is just a horrible report. The rate of decline is slowing, but it’s not going to stop. We’re likely on a path toward more than 10 percent unemployment.”

Most economists see recent improvements as the result of pulling away from the disaster of last fall — when the investment giant Lehman Brothers collapsed, spreading fear throughout the financial system — and not a sign of vigorous growth ahead.

After years of borrowing against soaring home values, tapping credit cards and harvesting stock market winnings to spend in excess of their incomes, millions of households are being forced to conserve. That limits consumer spending, which makes up 70 percent of the nation’s economy. And that makes businesses that might otherwise hire and expand more inclined to hunker down.

“Household balance sheets are shot,” Mr. Ruskin said. From here, spending “has to come from income, and income has to come from employment, and at this juncture it looks like employment will only improve very slowly.”

The unemployment rate is up from 9.4 percent in July, when the economy lost 276,000 jobs.

The jobs report underscored the broad reach of the labor crisis, which has imposed austerity even on those still employed. In the last year, average weekly earnings have increased by only 0.8 percent — a decline, after factoring in the rising cost of goods. So many companies have trimmed working hours that paychecks have shrunk.

The so-called underemployment rate — which counts the jobless along with those working part time because their hours have been cut or they cannot find full-time jobs — reached 16.8 percent in August.

In recent months, the economy has benefited from a slowdown in the pace at which businesses have slashed inventories, prompting factories to expand production. Auto sales have been aided by the cash-for-clunkers program, which gave buyers incentives to trade in cars. Home sales have been stimulated by a tax credit for first-time homebuyers, an inducement that expires in November.

After those programs wear off, the nation may again confront a fundamentally weak economy.

“Everybody is looking around saying, ‘Where is a robust recovery going to come from?’ and not finding it,” said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the labor-oriented Economic Policy Institute in Washington. “We’re going to have elevated unemployment for four years to come.”

In Williamsburg, Va., Ginny Hoover, 49, has remained unemployed since she lost her job at a pharmaceutical company in November 2007. She has maxed out her credit cards and borrowed money from friends. She broke her apartment lease and moved in with her boyfriend. But other than an offer to sell insurance door-to-door for commissions only, she has found no work.

“I thought maybe a month or two and I’d have another job,” Ms. Hoover said. “I never would have guessed that it would be as brutal as it was out there.”

Despite increased factory production, manufacturing shed 63,000 jobs in August. Construction lost 65,000 jobs. Health care remained a rare bright spot, adding nearly 28,000 jobs.

“I don’t think businesses will hire back anytime soon,” said Allen Sinai, chief global economist at Decision Economics. “Companies are rewarded by the stock markets for not hiring and keeping their costs down. We will see another jobless recovery.”

In Delray Beach, Fla., Donna Angelillo lost her job as a property manager in May and quickly exhausted her savings. Her $1,000 monthly unemployment check does not cover her $1,030 monthly rent.

Jobs are scarce, she said. Past-due bills are abundant.

“I don’t have September rent, but right now I’m more concerned about the electricity,” she said. “Either today or tomorrow, they’re going to shut it off. I’m getting desperate.”