bam ii

bargeboo: my shy-illusive-mysterious but obviously loyal and dear visitors,

i am not sure who you are. i am not even sure why you keep coming back (thank you though!) but i feel i can not be true to my goal for this web log if i don’t appeal to your conscious and ask for your help for the people of bam.

by now, you have heard the shocking news, you have seen the heart breaking photos (1, 2, 3). many of you i am sure have already donated and helped generously and should do again if you are able. this is for those who have not yet grasped the magnitude of the crisis. the eyeranian has been writing quite a lot on this subject with details on how to donate depending on where you are in the world.

i would like to echo his pleas and ask you to please do what you can. any little amount helps. thousands and thousands of people’s lives have been changed forever. they need all the help they can get to survive and start living their lives. we, north americans and europeans live in very privileged societies where we plan for our future as if its our god-given right. we often take it for granted. so many in the world are not as lucky. please help.

for those who would prefer to reach out to children you can also look into donating through unicef. they have been active in iran for years and they have been collecting donations and distributing it via unicef’s arm in iran and not through the government. I have spoken to them, the toronto branch, the main office and the british columbia branch to double and triple check this. donation information as well as phone numners are on their website.

faramin has collected some notes left by recent non-iranian visitors to the city. he has also been has been writing a seemingly endless series of posts. tons of interesting info.

morteza parizi has written two posts about his experience with the earthquake. he lives in kerman (a city about 150 km away from bam). he has been involved with the city and other humanitarian efforts long before this tragedy and has felt it in a very personal way. i highly recommend you read them. it’s in farsi so for the benefit of my non-farsi-reading friends, i have translated excerpts, which i hope, will appeal to your heart if nothing else will:

[…] it’s the fourth day of the tragedy and still many of the cadavers have not been found […] mostly because no one of their family is left to come and dig them out or arrange for loaders and fork lifts […] there are old areas that so hard to reach, the ruins are basically untouched […] the most loved creatures in the city these days are the sniffing-dogs that are stumbling around with paws and noses bloody red, pointing out cadavers or possible survivors […] in the cemetery i heard one said i wish the so and so organization would spend some money training some sniffing dogs instead of  training so many […] every day the wounds run deeper and deeper. people are just beginning to realize what has truly happened to them. slowly the shock is wearing off […] i go to the school board, and i see a number of teachers have put their arms around each other and are crying. don’t have accurate estimates but apparently from thousands of teachers in bam, only these few are left […] i try to drive away from my mind some of the images i have seen in the last couple days […] like the old useless clothes that have been left abandoned on the side of the street, as if earthquake has given the donors the chance to get rid of their old junk […] the most important thing other than all this efforts is planning for the continuation of the donations. ways to inject hope in the future in the broken hearts of those who neither have televisions to watch the news on the humanitarian efforts of those inside and abroad nor they care about the hoopla of some who raise a lot of noise …

for those who can still breath, continuation of their children’s education, finding a roof over their heads and obtaining the simplest life amenities is an impossible dream […] we still have not forgotten the 300,000 tomans (equivalent to about $300 usd) loan that was paid to the survivors of the last earth quack and only to those who had lost their loved ones […]

(crude translations, hardly do the justice to his lovely writing style. sorry, little time these days)

khorshid khanoom has announced a website recently set up by the “coordination committee by the women n.g.o.’s”. (not sure what the n.g.o. stands for). the literal translation for the farsi version is: “committee for coordination of non-government women organizations”. she asks for anyone who can offer english translations of the farsi content to email it to them. i will try to lend a hand and encourage anyone who is interested to do the same. even one translated story can help to touch someone. 

so check back every once in a while for some of the latest news on the rescue efforts as well as important and interesting tid bits on survivors lives and other things we don’t always read about in the mainstream media. here is a sample:

-         an invitation to visit the injured children in various hospitals in tehran with toys and books.

-         what nobel peace prize winner, shirin ebadi plans to do with the money she is collecting

-         chilling reports of crimes in the wake of the quake: the escaped convicts from the destroyed prison in bam, increase in the number of women raped in the city, bandits emptying supplies from the donations trucks ...

-         fear for safety of the orphaned children – they might be sold away by opportunist criminals

-         reports on various organizations who are doing relief efforts in iran independent of the government

that’s it for now folks. thank you so very much for all your donations. i hope you don’t forget the survivors in the coming months.

peace

bargeboo