Bad Brand/Pakistan

Once again the world sees Pakistan facing another catastrophic flood. The country that chose to build their own nuclear infrastructure and produce fissionable material to become the only Muslim nation to have nuclear bombs because of its incendiary hatred of India, has also chosen to leave their vulnerable flood-prone populations to their own devices.

Work might have been advanced on ameliorative defences against flood potential, but the plight of millions of Pakistanis came in a distant third to the imperative seen by the administration of President Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who was voted into power on the strength of his food aid promises to the indigent of Pakistan. Nonetheless, Pakistanis take great pride in their nuclear 'strength'.

And now, once again, another flooding disaster, under the watch of Bhutto's son-in-law, even as those who were impacted by last year's floods still have not been assisted by their government busy with so many other vital matters, like strengthening their military, buying up new arms with U.S. funding; effectively diverting funding that should be going to safety infrastructure, instead to Islamist militants.

Last year the international community responded generously to the plight of Pakistan's flood refugees. this year, the monsoon rains have killed 430 people and impacted on the lives of nine million people, left to camp out in the open, desperate for food, water and shelter. This year the international community has not been responding to open appeals by the International Red Cross and the United Nations for direly-needed assistance.

Pakistan's unenviable reputation as a haven for terrorists, its training camps and madrassas that turn out jihadis versed in the chapters of the Koran that inspire to violent jihad, has won it few friends. Its hosting of the Afghan Taliban and their great good friends, al-Qaeda, its ongoing squabbles with allies with whom it insists it struggles to contain terror, has diminished its reputation to the point of no return.

The September 13 attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul, conducted by the Haqqani network, supported by Pakistan's military and the ISI, have finally, on top of the covert and successful raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad put the nail in the coffin of trust - which was, in any event, misplaced - between Pakistan and western donors.

That the poor people of Pakistan are left to fend helplessly for themselves, with little international aid forthcoming and the government of Pakistan itself doing little-to-nothing, is simply the ill fortune of the disadvantaged in an unfair world.