At the beginning of August, Pakistan was hit by one of the worst floods ever in its history. Lives of around 14 million people were affected by floodwaters and mudslides destroying houses, crops and whole villages. Furthermore, the situation may still get worse as it is only the middle of monsoon season and further downpours are predicted.

This is the formal part of news to be found on BBC website and other news agencies.
But when I heard this news for the first time in Polish radio what struck me the most was a comment, or rather further part of information given. Lady with a nice emotionless voice informed listeners that some help to destroyed provinces of Punjab and Sindh may come from foreign donors but aid was already offered to devastated lands by islamist groups and that Western countries and state administration are afraid that such actions could bring more power and support to these groups accused of terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

This made me wonder. On the one hand we have a group banned in Pakistan for its links with attacks in Mumbai. On the other hand, these same people are able to bring help quickly and respond effectively to desperate needs of millions who lost with floods almost everything. Which side matters more? And why are we only afraid of growing influence of such islamist groups if they get their support through aid and bringing relief? Why instead cannot we, meaning states and countries so 'afraid', cannot mobilize ourselves to do our aid job better? Why don't we spend more money on this instead of guns and weapons? Why are we so inconsistent in our words and actions??

Even though this conclusion may sound trivial I was struck how many examples of our 'misbehaviour' we can find in our daily lives. And how good it would be if we finally saw development as means to achieve also 'our' goals.