Middle East, Central and South Asia Working Group

IDRC’s first Coffee and Conversation explored the issues of humanitarian relief and development in Pakistan. As I’m sure you are aware, Pakistan has been ravaged by massive flooding creating a humanitarian crisis of large proportions. Twenty million people were displaced and half a million babies will be born to that displaced population in the next month.  The need for basic items is tremendous – food and drinking water especially; however, the means to fulfill this need is complicated.  Aid that is intended for victims of the flood does not always reach the people it’s supposed to. Furthermore, nations are more inclined to spend money on defense measures than they are to commit dollars to humanitarian or societal problems.

In the neighboring country of Afghanistan, according to a recent report issued from the Congressional Research Service, The United States spent 297 billion dollars in Afghanistan since 2001. To put this staggering amount of money in perspective: if you were to go back in time 1 million seconds, you would travel backwards by about 11.5 days. If you were to go back in time by 1 billion seconds, you would travel backwards by about 31 years (thank you to Mahan Mirza for pointing this out). An additional breakdown of U.S military spending shows that the U.S. has spent $941 a second every second since 2001 to present in the War in Afghanistan.

Why are we so willing to spend excessive amount on destruction and so stingy when it comes to lending a hand to our fellow human? In an opinion piece published a few months ago in the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof points out the for the cost of one soldier in Afghanistan, we could build 20 schools. For the cost of just 246 soldiers posted for one year, America could pay for a higher education plan for all Afghanistan. Greg Mortenson, author of “Three Cups of Tea” and humanitarian extraordinaire has built 145 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan and personally attests that the most effective method for eradicating terrorism and extremism is through the eradication of ignorance and poverty; therefore, through the promotion of education.

So what’s preventing us from employing such an effective solution? Fear. Fear for out safety. Because missiles make us feel safer than schools. Because sending troops into a country makes us appear safer than a group of children reading books does. When we can scrap convention wisdom, when we are willing to invest as much on education as we are on missiles, then we will make progress.