Donation for flood relief is not charity

Pakistan, South China and Niger are all suffering from unprecedented flooding. Russian peat soils are burning due to unprecedented heat waves. People are losing their lives, drinking water is being contaminated, air is being polluted, diseases like Cholera are starting to flourish, and the world’s charities are calling for donations. Mr Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, has visited some parts of Pakistan and has described the damage that he has seen as greater than anything he had seen before. The flooding will almost certainly kill more people than any other recent “natural” disaster. When disaster strikes the rich world puts its hands in its pockets and coughs up some money to alleviate the suffering, and calls it charity.