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It is the worst natural disaster in living memory to hit Pakistan, below are several ways in which we can all help, using whichever method/charity you feel comfortable with.
You can also donate to the DEC Pakistan Floods Appeal via TXT.
Text GIVE to 70707 to donate £5. You will be charged £5 + standard network rate (you can add £1.28 for free to the donation via GiftAid)
UPDATED – The PIA Flood Appeal:
http://www.piac.com.pk/Flood_Relief/index.htm
Every vice in society stems from a lack of self-control. Whether it’s violence, addiction, gambling, infidelity or pre-marital sex – they are all a result of succumbing to desires. When a person does not have the strength in their character to withstand the numerous temptations and tackle his nafs (lower self) to the ground, then he will most definitely become a slave to those desires. As a prisoner of desires, a person feels completely powerless, lacking any ability to help themselves. In the extreme cases, these individuals become depressed, suicidal, bankrupt, imprisoned or in a midst of a scandal.
Since the root of all this evil is the inability to control oneself, then it would be of paramount importance to have training sessions for a whole society in order to strengthen their will power and avoid these destructive pitfalls that adversely affect everyone. Fortunately in the Muslim world there is such a training session during the blessed month of Ramadan. Every Muslim that fasts gets intensive exercise in withstanding many different kinds of temptations. The temptation to eat, drink, have relations or even get angry is overcome every day for a month which prepares us for the many arduous tests we face in life.
Aside from gaining will power and the ability to control desires, fasting instills within us a deep feeling of gratitude along with patience. Deprivation leads to appreciation. After a long day of fasting our sense of taste and smell are heightened. Each sip of water is like releasing a gushing, cool river in a dry, barren land and each morsel of food that is consumed is like feeding a person who has been stranded on a desert island with very little to eat, the most exquisite, scrumptious meal. It is what Gestalt therapy defines as being focused upon the individual’s experience in the present moment, being mindful and being in the here and now.
In a world filled with immediate gratification, it is very healthy to learn how to delay the simple pleasures in life. Having the patience to withstand temptation and tolerating the delayed gratification are highly important elements in attaining personal maturity. We are trained patiently to wait for hundreds of things in life that take time and are delayed without a warning.
Firman and Vargiu remarked that fasting was a method of helping an individual move toward self-realization and reach for super conscious energies. In this respect, a period of fasting can trigger exceptional human performances, paranormal abilities, and altered states of consciousness. This explains how we are able to accomplish such lofty, spiritual endeavors during Ramadan although we are sleep deprived and abstaining from food with such zeal and contentment.
The euphoric state we experience while fasting can be classified as a spiritual catharsis which describes a purging that heals and restores the soul. It is the expelling, vacating and discharging of impurities within us to purify ourselves and reunite us with Allah. Fasting can be an extraordinarily transformative spiritual practice (Len Sperring). It provides the opportunity for releasing earthly ties, joining with the sacred and creating feelings of deep connectedness. Randi Fredricks stated that fasting has the innate power to change the individual, the community and ultimately the world.
When we reflect on the psychological implications of fasting (saum), then we are even more empowered to embrace the blessed month of Ramadan and soar to new heights of spirituality in hopes of strengthening, purifying and enlightening the soul.
The following letter to Tiesto — a Dutch musician scheduled to perform in Eilat, Israel next month — was issued on 18 June by the Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI):
Dear Tiesto,
Nietzsche once said that life without music would be a mistake. The greater mistake against humanity would be to deny one the ability to express themselves in music, in poetry, in dance, in literature, in pleasure and in love.
Dear Tiesto, as you must be aware, we, in Gaza, have been denied the ability to express ourselves. We are denied a voice, denied a smile, to live in safety and security, denied the right to express love, denied sleep, denied the right to express pain, denied the right to read, to write, denied to be human, and what is left? This is life under Israeli medieval siege. Even the people who feel with us are punished for their freedom of expression. They were attacked, shot at, terrorized and butchered as the world stood in horror to the acts of state terrorism that could only be compared to 1930s Germany and Italy, to the Stalinist era, and to the crimes of the rogue state of apartheid South Africa.
by Robert Fisk
It is a fact that it is ordinary people, activists, call them what you will, who now take decisions to change events.
Has Israel lost it? Can the Gaza War of 2008-09 (1,300 dead) and the Lebanon War of 2006 (1,006 dead) and all the other wars and now yesterday’s killings mean that the world will no longer accept Israel’s rule?
Don’t hold your breath.
You only have to read the gutless White House statement – that the Obama administration was “working to understand the circumstances surrounding the tragedy”. Not a single word of condemnation. And that’s it. Nine dead. Just another statistic to add to the Middle East’s toll.
But it’s not.
