Worldwide Vigil for
Quake Victims Held on November 8
By Ras H. Siddiqui
People
in several dozen cities of the United States, Canada, Australia
and Pakistan held a candlelight vigil on November 8, 2005
marking the one-month anniversary of the horrific earthquake
that hit Kashmir and Northern Pakistan on October 8. From
Toronto and Ottawa in the North to Sydney and Canberra in
the South and from San Francisco through Boston and New
York to Lahore, Pakistan, lights of hope were lit by small
groups of dedicated individuals, sending out just one message
to the world: “Please don’t forget the millions
left homeless by this calamity,” they said, as winter
approaches and the chances of freezing to death out in the
open remain very high.
SAQUAKE.ORG (www.saquake.org) or South Asian Earthquake
Relief coordinated these activities working jointly with
groups like Association for the Development of Pakistan,
Association of Pakistani Professionals (AOPP), Breakthrough
TV, Developments in Literacy (DIL), Friends of South Asia
(FOSA), the Human Development Foundation of North America,
Ibtida, LRBT, the Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs
of North America (OPEN), The Citizen’s Foundation,
COPAA, Sakhi and Youth Outreach to name a few.
This
short writing has been put together with the help of quite
a number of our Pakistani and other community members across
America (just too numerous to name here). All the photographs
were emailed via the SAQUAKE-VIGIL Group on google.com and
much of this information has been archived by Sabahat Ashraf
on his WikiPakistan site. Bennet Ratcliff (bratcliff@groupsjr.com)
and his correspondence helped in this attempt condense a
geographically challenging day and last but not least full
kudos to Paru Yusuf in California and Samar Sheheryar in
NYC who as national contacts in the United States for this
vigil did a really incredible job.
The pictures sent, tell us many stories. Just a few are
being presented here, but they do portray a public show
of caring for people “back home” that has no
recent parallel.
But did it move people in America? This is one instance
where President Bush has been far ahead of the rest of America
in aid for Pakistan. The Democrats in this country are just
beginning to take notice of this issue and the mainstream
media although not completely stirred by the passion to
help (thank God for the PBS Newshour) is still trying to
make a case for helping people that it has been asked to
vilify with great gusto in the past few years.
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But one cannot be too judgmental
and we will take whatever we can get for now. Individual
friends have been generous but fellow Muslim-Americans appear
to have taken the lead in helping Kashmiris and Pakistanis
in their time of need. And if most Indians are still being
hesitant, they are missing a huge opportunity to open many
barriers which even the Line of Control in Kashmir does
not cover.
In closing a few words of thanks (again) to all the individuals
and organizations associated with this vigil. Let us keep
this light lit to remind ourselves and others of the suffering
of over three million people as long as we can, and let
us ask the world to show its continued generosity even after
this disaster fades from the short-term memory of the media
moguls in affluent countries.
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