Thousands stay in Pakistan floods to protect homes
By TIM SULLIVAN (AP)
22 August 2010 HAMDANI LEGARI, Pakistan — The old man stepped carefully through his village, dodging craters as deep as graves where they had been mining soil for embankments to hold back the floodwaters. Already, nearly half this village of tenant farmers had been destroyed. The crops wiped out. But Mohammed Ayoub and his neighbors weren’t leaving, not unless all the mud houses collapsed. It wasn’t about pride, or a farmer’s love for his village or the land he sows. It was a straightforward financial equation: They couldn’t afford to lose what little they had left. If, to an outsider, their belongings might look inconsequential — some goats, a couple buffalos, cheap metal cooking pots and transistor radios — it was everything to them. And with no way to take their possessions with them, they were not going to leave them for the looters. Across the Pakistan flood zone, thousands — perhaps hundreds of thousands — of people have decided to stay in their homes, often sleeping on rooftops because of the high water. Stranded on tiny islands a few inches above the water line and refusing offers of rescue, they are reflections of Pakistan today: its widespread poverty, the collapse of the traditional bonds between landlords and tenants, and the lack of confidence in authorities’ willingness to protect them. “The women were scared before we sent them away, and we’re scared now,” said Ayoub, a thin, courtly man with a white mustache wearing a dirt-stained shalwar kameez, the baggy shirt and pants ubiquitous across rural Pakistan. He was one of about 30 men who remained as guardians and to build up the embankments in case of more flooding. About 400 villagers have already fled. “How can we all leave?” he asked. “We have to stay here if we want to protect what we own.” Another farmer, a young man, spoke up: “We’re not scared of dying,” Ghulam Raza said loudly. “We’re scared of losing everything we have.” …
