Devastation In Pakistan: Sanjay Gupta's Special On The Enormous Humanitarian Crisis That's Unfolding

[Turborama]

Run time: 02:23 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rGnb2chCj8   Posted on YouTube: August 31, 2010 By YouTube Member: Naskeleng Views on YouTube: 3   Posted on DU: September 01, 2010 By DU Member: Turborama Views on DU: 639

 
Due to YouTube limiting the length of time of videos to maximum 15 minutes I could only upload this segment as a portion of the full documentary.

Uploaded to YouTube by me to help raise the profile of the enormous humanitarian catastrophe that's unfolding and continuing to get worse in Pakistan. Please click on the YouTube link to help the views actually count - for some reason views on embeds don't get added. Also, if you have any suggestions for a better title and/or tags for the YouTube video which will help it get more attention please let me know. Thanks in advance...

I've posted the transcript for this section below, the full transcript can be found http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1008/28/hcsg.01.html">here.

The full 1/2 hour documentary can be watched here: http://cnn.com/video/?/video/podcasts/gupta/site/2010/08/30/paging.dr.gupta.08.30.cnn

He's also Tweeting (sp?) from Pakistan: http://twitter.com/sanjayguptacnn

Huffington Post article about his visit there: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/29/dr-sanjay-gupta-in-pakist_n_698343.html">Dr. Sanjay Gupta In Pakistan: 'Living On The Edge'

GUPTA: Here's how it works. You see police vehicles like this actually coming through the streets telling people to leave. They say that this particular area, this town of Bala will be under water in the next several hours, certainly by tomorrow.

People are listening. This town would normally be bustling. Thousands of people milling around, shops open. None of this is happening now.

Most people actually are leaving like this, by foot in the hot sun walking for kilometers with no real idea of exactly where they're going or what they're going to find there.

It is easy to see why they are leaving. We are literally surrounded by water and they are worried that that water is just going to get higher and higher. So, they're fleeing the floods with the thing, the priority they value the most, their livestock and just starting to walk.

This is where so many of them ended up. They were just walking for kilometers and kilometers down that hot road looking for high land -- anything that could protect them from the flood waters.

And look at what their lives are like now. I mean, thousands of people literally, they have this little barrier here. It is so hot outside, anything to try to keep themselves cool. But this is the new normal life for lots of folks over here.

This family, for example --

(SPEAKING LOCAL LANGUAGE)

GUPTA: He says about 15 miles, 15 kilometers. And look, small children. They walked here, again, in this very hot weather. Very, very difficult. He's telling me they really haven't received any kind of help at all.

(SPEAKING LOCAL LANGUAGE)

GUPTA: They are saying they really have no food at all. All they have is this bag of sugar here which they use to make tea.

This is how it is. This is what's happening here in the middle of this evacuation. There's also been no water here they tell me for three days. In fact, a woman died in this area from dehydration just last night. There's no question that relief is slow coming here. Even as we're filming today at the camp, this Pakistani army helicopter comes over and drops parcels of food.

But this is just one camp. There are thousands of camps like this. There are more than 20 million people displaced, a fifth of this country is underwater.

Also, for more details/photos/videos of what's been going on in Pakistan since this gigantic disaster began please check my Journal (there is so many new articles/videos etc that the archives are actually recent additions): http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Turborama

[OhioChick]

1. Thanks for posting.

:kick:

[starroute]

2. Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink?

Dying of dehydration as the result of a flood has got to be one of the most ironic fates possible.

[sabrina 1]

3. 'A woman died here last night from dehydration'

I wonder what the real death toll is since this covers such a large area and in many cases no one has been reporting deaths eg.

I am really glad Sanjay Gupta is there. He may help to get more attention for those poor people. To not have water for three days, or food and no one helping them.

It really is a nightmare.

[Turborama]

4. Nothing about it whatsoever on AC360, they did have time for a man dancing with a dog at the end

:wtf:

And a measly 56 views on YouTube in 24+ hours.

I wonder about the real death toll, too. They say that the number of victims of the initial flooding will rise dramatically when the carcases/skeletons are revealed (sorry to be so graphic but them's the facts) and, as you say, there are people dying all over the place from the after effects of dehydration/starvation/disease etc.

[Rhiannon12866]

5. This has to be the most dire humanitarian crisis of a generation...

Glad to see that Sanjay Gupta is there, finally bringing the facts of this desperate story to the rest of the world... ;(

Thanks so much for posting this! :hi: :kick:

[Poll_Blind]

6. Wow, that was NOT the puff piece I thought it was going to be. What a terrible situation.

:cry:

PB