 |
|
||
 |
|||
 |
 |
 |
   | 
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
Your e-mails: After the quake
 Mansoor Shah sent in this photograph of the Margala Towers in Islamabad, Pakistan. RELATEDSPECIAL REPORTYOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- CNN is appealing for stories from people who witnessed or have been affected by the earthquake in South Asia. The following are edited selections of your replies. Much as this has been the most awful time for our motherland in some ways it has been our finest hour. Never have I seen love for our fellow men on the scale that I have seen in the last couple of days, neither have I seen people who have so little give so much. I have been struggling for over a month to come to terms with what Katrina did to my beloved home and city. It has been a more challenging experience than I ever imagined -- and all whom I know are alive and well. Living through that experience makes what is happening in Pakistan seem all the more real. I have never before felt such a strong desire to be in a disaster location to help. I think daily about flying over there to do my part. I am a Norwegian citizen with Pakistani background. It's very hard for us living abroad to watch the terrible scenes from Kashmir. Here in Norway, everyone is trying to help, with clothes and money. I am happy to see the solidarity of many countries around the world, and I think Pakistan should have taken military help from India too, this is not the situation to think about political issues, it is the time to think about humanity. Me, my family and almost every Pakistani is very thankful for the help Norway, USA, UN, Canada, Britain, Turkey and many other countries are giving. Even though the disaster is big in Pakistan, we have to remember the flood in Guatemala as well, many people are confirm dead, and many are still missing. May God bless all the victims of these kind of disasters. As a Pakistani based in Lahore we only felt the horrific earthquake. It's our fellow countrymen in the north that are bearing the brunt of this tragedy. Even though help is slow in coming, it's extremely unfair and unreasonable to judge the government and the army. In the northern areas it is the army based there that is the first to react. Their own infrastructure is completely gone. Along with the civilians they are burying their own soldiers who have perished in this tragedy. I personally know of an officer who buried 50 people yesterday with his bare hands. We as a nation have mobilized ourselves and have come together. Lets save more lives and criticize less. It has been unimaginable destruction. No channel can show it. No words can explain it. It is just like the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The effects of this quake [will] remain for several years. Muzaffarabad has gone 50 years behind. Pakistan is crying. The magnitude of the loss in the earthquake is horrible. One employee reached his collapsed house near Kashmir in the north yesterday from Karachi; after burying three family members, he called us and described what the situation was: "There is absolutely nothing left all around us. Above us we have the sky. Below us we have the ground, but even that is shaking." I was asleep when the earthquake hit. The shock woke me up. It was really horrifying -- the lamps and the fans were shaking and it seemed like the roof is gonna come down. I can feel the pain of the people who are homeless and without food with their loved ones buried in the rubble. May all the others that are still trapped come out alive. I'm really grateful to all the countries who are helping us. I was so happy that the rescuers pulled out the 3-year-old boy. I'm sending all my good thoughts and prayers to the people suffering. And thank to all the helpers. Everyone is doing a lot for us -- thank you. I was one of the few eyewitnesses who reached the site of Margalla Towers immediately after the earthquake. Among many of the survivors of the standing portion of the towers was a foreign couple which was stranded at the top most apartment of the building. Amazingly, instead of shouting and waving, they were busy knitting a rope out of the bed sheets and within minutes the man had lowered his wife to the apartments below. Soon after the baby, hardly a year old, was sent down and the man followed. However the most inspiring part of the story is that the man, after the fire brigade arrived, sent his wife and baby down and remained on the roof of the lower apartments to help other people who couldn't come down. This was the time when the aftershocks of the quake were coming in and there was every possibility of remaining tower falling off. Not only did he not panic but also helped and rescued other people out of the danger. I tried getting the name of the gentleman but in such situations it becomes difficult to reach to a person. This guy not only deserves a salute but tons of gratitude for being a help rather than a liability. I was in a nearby bank across the road from my office. Approximately at 9 a.m. the tremors began. All of the people including me went outside in a small park in front of the bank from where I saw cars vibrating and the buildings shaking with the impact of the quake. When I was standing on the ground it felt like standing at rushing tidal waves. It is comforting to receive humanitarian aid and the response from the international community is overwhelming. One needs hindsight AND foresight to deal with such situations and unfortunately, the Pakistani leadership lacks both. My fear is that the money received will not get to the people who need it most. I believe that the aid received so far and being promised for the near future can rehabilitate these unfortunate, calamity-stricken poor who now have nothing. We can at least give them a decent home which has already been paid for by the people of the world! 
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
| © 2007 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us. Site Map. |
|
External sites open in new window; not endorsed by CNN.com
Pay service with live and archived video. 
