Reflect on these facts from our friends at wikipedia:
The 2010 Pakistan floods began in July 2010 after heavy monsoon rains, largely affecting the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. At least 2,000 people have been killed and more than 722,000 homes have been badly damaged or totally destroyed. The United Nations estimates over 20 million people are suffering with over 160,000 square kilometers (one-fifth of Pakistan) affected as a result of the flooding, exceeding the combined total of the affectees of 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Around a fifth of Pakistan’s total land area was impacted by the flooding. UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon said that it was the worst disaster he had ever seen, and asked for an initial $460 million for emergency relief, 20% of which had been received as of August 15, 2010. Extensive damage to infrastructure and crops significantly harmed the struggling Pakistani economy.
This year it seems our planet Earth has been tumbling around the roulette wheel, too frequently landing on the letter “C” — for cataclysm.
This makes five so far for 2010: the earthquake in Haiti, the Icelandic volcano, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the heat wave and massive fires in Russia, and now the floods in Pakistan.
In the US, a comparable disaster this magnitude would drown all coastal states. California, Oregon, Washington would be gone. The east coast from New York to Florida, and the Gulf states would all be under water. Yet, as 20 million Pakistanis struggle to survive the aftermath of these terrible floods, aid is still just trickling in. So far, the aid they have received falls too far below the requested UN aid, which addresses the country’s immediate needs as the monsoon rains abate and waters recede so that rescue and recovery can commence.
But its the longer term costs of returning 20 million people to a new “normal” life that should concern us. The recovery of this fragile state happens under a web of immense political tension: Pakistan borders India, our economic partner, and Afghanistan, where we are waging a ten-year war. The weak government in Pakistan, a nation with nuclear weapons, is focusing all its efforts on disaster relief while the Taliban, like a spider, lies in wait for opportunity.
Yet its so odd that there isn’t the same media circus we’ve come to expect of our disaster coverage for this disaster. Is it because a flood is not as instantaneous a disaster as a volcano that disrupts international airspace or the flattening of a country by massive earthquake? Is it because we’ve reached the limit of so many disasters in one year that we’re feeling relief fatigue?
Or is it because the reason why there’s an abnormal heat wave and devastating fires in Russia and epochal floods in Pakistan is that the waters of the planet have warmed up by one degree — another clear indicator of climate change? This year, we’ve seen a “snowpocalypse”, the hottest summer in decades, and the worst monsoon season in Asia in over eighty years. I wonder if there’s anyone old enough who is still alive who could attest that what we’re seeing is part of a normal weather pattern.
Perhaps our reluctance to address Pakistan aid is a form of denial, a mental compartmentalization helping us block out anything having to do with our responsibility in the planet’s warming. The floods in Pakistan may yet be seen as one of the first environmental cataclysms with serious geopolitical fallout triggered by global warming — the cost of our over-consumption of energy in the western world. Disaster comes home to roost.
That Pakistan is a predominately Muslim country probably puts another brick into the wall imprisoning our hearts. Maybe that’s the reason we can’t hear more than a whisper about the country’s flooding disaster — there’s too much yelling about whether a new Muslim cultural center should be built close to Ground Zero, New York. The house is burning and yet we don’t want to understand that we need to stop whitewashing the fence. We really don’t have the luxury to quibble about the ridiculous. Not by any stretch.
We mark this week feeling our bodies, as Len, Eric, the cardinal cross and the T-square would have us do. Not just our own physical human bodies, but the body of our mother planet as she goes through yet another shock to the system. This time, she’s being pulled from all four corners: elements of earth, water, air and fire all active, powerful, contentious, wounding and stretching her and her children to the max. Our mother’s physical, mental and emotional body is stressed; reflective of our own black and white dialogue on immigration, terrorism, religious freedom, freedom to marry and race, which seems to have neither solution nor end.
Include in that mix the hearts and minds of others from whom we fearfully separate by countries and cultures in disagreement, and can find no common ground. The square between Saturn and Pluto, which Eric describes as “the immovable object versus the unstoppable force” makes us highly suspicious, obsessed, paranoid and looking to find a scapegoat. And nothing it seems, is on a small scale. Certainly in this case, not disasters, and certainly not the disaster in Pakistan.
But the immovable object could be the human heart meeting the unstoppable waters, and maybe, with a little luck, cooler heads and warmer hearts can start getting involved in this situation. I want my country to get involved, but its got its head too far up its mosque-fearing ass to pay attention. And it needs to pay attention. Perhaps Uranus in Pisces and Mercury retrograding in Virgo can help unveil more truth and let us reconcile ourselves to our roles and responsibilities in this disaster. There needs to be thinking beyond what will attract viewers in a 24 hour news cycle, or what will get one more closeted bigot’s vote closer to a Republican majority in Congress.
I wish the elements of this piece were far more mundane. I wish I could be writing about potential election results for the Senate seat in California than a natural disaster that probably came man made and with geopolitical implications. But I also wish that somehow the magnitude of this moment, and the lesson inherent in it for all of us here on the ground does not elude us.
I wish for the sake of all of us, that the waters of the human heart spring back to life and find something deeper, something better than the false fears that keep us apart. This is a much bigger, more connected world than we let ourselves realize. The simple movement of planets above us, below us and at our sides, tugging and pulling at creation, keep telling us that in events that need no words other than these:
We need each other to be bigger than ourselves.
There is so much that we all have to do.
Yours & truly,
Fe Bongolan
San Francisco
What we have at the moment are the dueling energies duking out what stays unconscious and what becomes conscious, and what becomes transformed (if anything) into something useful. What that is for Pakistan will not be the same as it is for the U.S., and what it will be for each of us will be determined by this process and our own souls.
Be:
Knowing you, you’ve probably been following the saga over at Starlight as well as the discussion here.
I’m trying to introduce constructive, creative ideas into this churning Saturn-Pluto cauldron, because, speaking in the language of tarot, “Temperance” or “art” as its sometimes called, may be needed and ultimately be found, and perhaps from that, some evolution of thought or mindframe. It is painful to watch, but I think this current time, at least for us, could be a “healing crisis”. We need to accept first that it still hurts, and move from there.
f.
Dear Fe,
Belated thanks for such a poignant article, but I’ve been digesting all this and have some thoughts regarding the Saturn square Pluto energy that might have bearing on your subject.
As I understand it, Pluto represents a primeval, primitive and unconscious energy. I like my friend’s term “snake brain” for sensing how it expresses itself. it is concerned with instinctive basic survival and is associated with transforming something useless into something of value.
I understand Saturn as representing energy that involves a greater whole, is protective and concerned with its survival on a conscious level. It creates structures mean to protect, that take time to build, are well thought out and meant to last. Both energies encompass fear and both energies will fight to protect what is theirs.
Whether we talk about these energies in an individual, or a society, or a species of life, when pitted against each other as in a square, it is the conscious entity vs. the unconscious entity. It is up to the conscious entity to accept and make space for the unconscious entity. It is up to the unconscious entity to transform the conscious entity’s hold onto the obsolete.
What we have at the moment are the dueling energies duking out what stays unconscious and what becomes conscious, and what becomes transformed (if anything) into something useful. What that is for Pakistan will not be the same as it is for the U.S., and what it will be for each of us will be determined by this process and our own souls.
Personally, I believe your words open the door to making conscious space for the primitive parts of our being through the tortuous battle of soul searching. May the force be with us in that battle for our souls. Keep on speaking your truth Fe.
be
Hypnotic and aword:
A pleasure always. And as Eric has reminded me today, we will hopefully begin to see less smog in our media coverage when Neptune leaves Aquarius.
PW is here to help us connect the dots. In the meantime, we all work together – PW crew and readers, to stay vigilant.
The hypocrasy of mainstrain journalism makes us sick to see how priorities are set, and Fe, Eric and PW you have illuminated truths of this disaster and global situation in a way I have not seen anyhwere else. Fe, bless you for astute observation and writing, Eric and Planet Waves for continuing to set the bar by publishing this very important piece of awareness. (sorry I am late to catch up with my reading)
Fe,
Yes 😉
And to put it out there into the universe the remembering that water is also our friend; that sense of remembering balance when the world seems to tilt to one side.
xo
Fe, et al…
The monsoons are centered in the Swat Valley, now considered Pakistan, but more traditionally known as the Land of the Dakinis. This is the place where the incarnate goddess Shabana al-Kalam was murdered by the Talib back at the beginning of 09.
Bad idea, that.
Everywhere I see good Muslims crying out to Allah to save them from this ‘catastrophe’ without the first glimmer of consciousness that these are the consequences of their cowardice and knavery.
May the Swat Valley free itself from the stupidity and arrogance of ‘theism, whether mono or poly.
May the Wrathful and Peaceful Yoginis of the Trans-Himalaya wash the vomit of Sharia law off of their sacred ground.
Compassionate but clear,
Mysti
“Grow your love and your compassion. Its time.” … this is why I keep coming back to this site, punctuating my day with a breath of fresh air. Yes, we do. And one charity to think about for those whose wallets are not empty (I hear you Mary) is the work of Greg Mortenson, of Three Cups of Tea fame. He knows this region better than any Westerner and most Pakistani’s I’d wager give the amount of time he has spent there building schools and women’s centers. He is a respected local figure in Pakistan and Southern Afghanistan, and has access to the community in ways others couldn’t dream of. Prayers of compassion, and any pennies we can spare for peace and education, to lift the grinding poverty of the region which is the fertile soil in which the extremists food and shelter as a way of embedding themselves in communities that would otherwise reject them. Maslow’s heirarchy of needs anyone? So I just want to echo Fe one more time:
WE NEED EACH OTHER TO BE BIGGER THAN OURSELVES.
GROW YOUR LOVE AND COMPASSION. IT’S TIME.
Hear, here. Compassion and love headed to Pakistan and the Planet Waves community of spirit.
oh, and thanks for the Van Morrison awordedgewise – floating in my head too.
Hey aword:
That song stuck in my mind the minute me, Eric and Len talked addressing the retrograde, Uranus in Pisces and the Pakistan floods. Such a place and such a time on this planet deserved something cool and cleansing. The planet could use a break.
eric:
What you say may more than likely be true. But does Pakistan have 20 million people who fight us in Afghanistan?
There has been concern over whether or not the disaster relief funds would reach the right (not corrupt) hands. I am sure there is plenty of corruption there as everywhere. But to ignore this situation is to make an already tenuous situation even worse–failed state. If we thought we had enemies before in Afghanistan from Pakistan, I would hate to imagine what might happen if the chaos of hunger and disease becomes too big to manage. People will do anything to survive.
and ooh! .. just because you mentioned it Fe – this favorite tune brings relief to the tension of the day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX8nAZftZL4
Van Morrison
‘And It Stoned Me’
Half a mile from the county fair
And the rain keep pourin’ down
Me and Billy standin’ there
With a silver half a crown
Hands are full of a fishin’ rod
And the tackle on our backs
We just stood there gettin’ wet
With our backs against the fence
Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Hope it don’t rain all day
And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like Jelly Roll
And it stoned me
And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like goin’ home
And it stoned me
Then the rain let up and the sun came up
And we were gettin’ dry
Almost let a pick-up truck nearly pass us by
So we jumped right in and the driver grinned
And he dropped us up the road
We looked at the swim and we jumped right in
Not to mention fishing poles
Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Let it run all over me
And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like Jelly Roll
And it stoned me
And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like goin’ home
And it stoned me
On the way back home we sang a song
But our throats were getting dry
Then we saw the man from across the road
With the sunshine in his eyes
Well, he lived all alone in his own little home
With a great big gallon jar
There were bottles too, one for me and you
And he said, “Hey, there you are”
Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Get it myself
From the mountain stream
And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like Jelly Roll
And it stoned me
And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like goin’ home
And it stoned me
All about it. Lately I’ve been helping tend to the salad bar at the beautiful but no less susceptible to the political, not the paradoxical, human condition. Maybe I should have more to show for myself having just turned thirty, but I’ll settle for my soul; that’s okay. That and a few good friends and some basic creature comforts. Oh, what for a world without such ubiquitous pettiness.
After Wikileaks informed us that Pakistan is funding the people we’re supposedly fighting in Afghanistan, while we simultaneously provide them with $1B a year in aid, I think that most Americans are going to say, “Let them take care of their own problems.”
And Mary, I truly understand about the $$$ fatigue.
If nothing else, continue with holding compassion for the millions affected by this flood. Good energy is incredibly valuable.
Hey all:
Took a brief break to do some quick surgery on my mouth. Everything is fine.
I said and didn’t say that there is a real poignancy to this current moment:
While we in America, the biggest carbon bootprint on the planet, are haggling as to whether or not a Mosque is built so near WTC, question whether our President is a Muslim, and are showing our bigoted asses to the rest of the world, a sublime opportunity for compassion that would have multifold effect is passing us by.
I see the dialogue across the internet, which, I firmly agree with Eric, is fueling fear and killing joy. We are toxic with blame of everyone else but ourselves, while 20 million people are displaced in a country very vulnerable and heading towards being a failed state. This we cannot afford on ANY level.
I am relieved our little website shows alot more vision, courage and heart. We need to be holding that energy and letting it grow. These next few days under the Saturn-Pluto square are going to be intense. Grow your love and your compassion. Its time.
Beautifully said, Fe.
Really good piece, thank you, Fe.
I find it interesting; the aid that is from the US is being given by our millitary, soldiers who are deverted from the war in Afghanistan.
Some of the fatigue maybe financial…..Many folks I know are well aware of the horrific nature of the floods but their own ecconomic struggle prevents them from being as generous as they woud like….. their hearts are open but their wallets are empty
Thanks for this Fe. Perhaps, just perhaps, clearly mixed motivations for all those who could provide aid notwithstanding, the strategic implications of this appalling disaster will cause it to get the attention it needs. Let’s pray that this is so.
See this editorial from the Wall Street Journal today:
“A disaster with security implications for the U.S.
This has been a year of epic natural and environmental disasters—in Haiti, Chile, Russia and the Gulf of Mexico. The flooding that has now submerged a fifth of Pakistan is not yet the most lethal of these disasters, though that may change if its 20 million victims aren’t soon provided with potable water, food, shelter and medicine. It may, however, be the most consequential strategically if Pakistan’s government and its international partners botch the relief effort.
“If we cannot deal with it there are chances of food riots leading to violence being exploited by people who are known,” Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mehmoud Qureshi told us in an interview yesterday. “People who are known” include the network of jihadi groups and affiliated Islamic charities whose own modest relief efforts aim to discredit the government as part of a broader effort to topple it.
That might have happened after Pakistan’s last major humanitarian disaster, an earthquake in the country’s north that killed an estimated 80,000 people in 2005. Pakistan was fortunate then that the U.S. was able to supply heavy-lift helicopters from Afghanistan to provide immediate relief in areas that the Pakistani government lacked the resources to reach. The Bush Administration invested more than $100 million in that effort, which bought modest dividends in terms of Pakistani perceptions of the U.S. but major ones for the country’s longer term stability.
The Obama Administration has a similar idea, deploying C-130 cargo planes and CH-46 twin-rotor helicopters to evacuate some 6,000 people and deliver 717,000 pounds of relief supplies, according to the State Department.
But that effort needs to be massively expanded given the scale of this disaster. The area affected by the 2005 earthquake was confined to nine districts, or some 11,500 square miles. This time, the devastated areas include 74 districts covering 52,000 square miles, which is larger than the whole of England. And it could get worse: The monsoon season has several weeks to run, rivers in Pakistan’s east are beginning to swell, and the government expects a third wave of flooding.
In his meeting with us, Mr. Qureshi emphasized the need not only for immediate relief—tents, clean drinking systems and sanitation facilities—but also the longer term challenges of preventing mass migration into the cities. That will prove particularly difficult because farmers have lost their livestock and field tools, and because the ground may not be dry in time to sow winter wheat in November.
International aid organizations have a mixed record in dealing with catastrophes—for the negative, consider Haiti, eight months on. The U.S. efforts in Pakistan in 2005 and in Southeast Asia after the Christmas 2004 tsunami succeeded not least because they were led by the U.S. military. One bit of good news is that Vice Admiral Michael LeFever, who oversaw the 2005 effort, is now the U.S. defense representative in Pakistan and is already involved. We’ve seen him in action: The more authority he has, the better the relief will run.
Congress and the European Union can also do their part by fast-tracking trade initiatives to give Pakistani textile exports duty-free access to their markets. The consequences of the floods will be felt long-term and the responses must be equal to it. Ultimately, nothing can relieve Pakistan’s leaders of their obligation to adopt pro-growth economic policies and combat the jihadists their predecessors once encouraged.
Natural disasters invariably pull at the heart-strings of the West, though they typically elicit half-hearted responses. The catastrophe in Pakistan is something altogether more than that: a strategic issue for Western policy makers, requiring close attention and genuine follow through.”
Fe,
Raising the bar again, this piece does. Thank you for addressing a difficult issue and for incorporating the astrology so well. Your conclusion is eloquent and moving. You are so fine.