Pakistani poor hit by decision to spurn US aid

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/international/2011/October/international_October797.xml§ion=international

Pakistani poor hit by decision to spurn US aid (AP)

20 October 2011

LAHORE, Pakistan — US aid could have transformed Pakistan’s largest maternity hospital, where rats run through the halls, patients sleep three to a bed, women who require C-sections aren’t getting them because only one operating room is functioning, and newborns risk death because of a shortage of incubators.

But the government of Pakistan’s most populous province, Punjab, turned down an American offer of $127 million for health care, education and municipal services following the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Sixteen million dollars was earmarked for Lady Willingdon Hospital in the provincial capital of Lahore. snip

The US may be unpopular in Pakistani neighborhoods like Shamaspura, but residents said it was crazy for the government to turn down aid that could have improved their lives.

“This is rich people denying aid meant for the poor,” said Batool Akhtar, a feisty old lady wearing a dirty yellow shalwar kameez covered in white flowers. “The government should have taken the money.”

[laylah]

1. Reminds me of *dumbass refusing

all sorts of foreign aid and assistance after Katrina...didn't hurt HIM.