I have set up several nights way into the early morning hours watching the news regarding the latest Asian event. Every news broadcast lastnight was indicating that the United States is dragging its feet with the aid of the peoples in Asia. Don’t hold me to this, but I believe the contributions/pledges breakdown as follows:
United States: $35 Million
Japan: $30 Million
Germany: $1,350,000
France: $135,000
Russia: Unknown
United Kingdom: $29 Million
others:
Australia: $27 Million
Now these are the six most powerful nations on earth and although $35 million is not much in monetary value, this does not include moving a U.S. naval battle group in to aid the victims and the amount of food, water, blankets, etc. that is being shipped not by independent agencies, but by the U.S. Government.
If there is anything that needs to be said is that Germany, France, and Russia need to pitch in a little more. This is not just a U.S. interest, but a global one. The amount France is sending is pathetic, but I would expect as much and germany isn’t doing much better. So once again the leader in serving the nations of the world is the U.S. So I say one had better point the finger in another direction when thinking we are dragging our feet.
Well, you are right about the U.S., and I’m fairly certain that more will be given, eventually.
Personally, my take on it is each country makes its own decision on what to give, based upon many factors. What type of aide a particular country provided is no business of any other country.
Agreed, Tom. The last thing the world needs now is to start arguing about who is donating what and who SHOULD be donating what. Let’s all do as much as we can in any way we can, and proceed together.
I think that the president said that our contribution was only the beginning…but really, I would tend to think that they could use it more now.
I thought that France had given over 1 million at this point?
I think what has happened is that, even with 24 TV coverage, the enormity of what had happened just didn’t sink in. The world started gearing up for a normal disaster (if there can be such a thing) and it took time for the scale of of what had happened to sink in. I guess people in Government are just as capable of being numb with shock as the rest of us.
Considering that the world has no obligation to give ANYTHING, every single dollar people give should be welcomed as a gift and be free of criticism. The problem is that the purity of charity doesn’t exist anymore, and people DO think that the world has an obligation to give people money. You might think we have a moral obligation, but since it’s not fair to push your morals on someone else, you shouldn’t criticize someone’s charitable policy based on your morals.
For the record, I do support the U.S. giving money, but it must be remembered that ANY charitable contribution, big or little, is above and beyond the call of duty.
I think it does not help to compare who donated what, compared to other spendings of these countries, the donations anyway look more than sad. When I saw the numbers though, I wondered where they were taken from as at least the German number is totally wrong, so I presume the French one which is more than ashamingly low as well, same as the British. German government had instantly released 20 Million Euros “Soforthilfe” which usually is the start and there will be more aid later. Englands government has released 15 Million GBP whereas British citizens have donated in the last four days 25 Million GBP, British government has given less than one day Iraq maintenance costs them which they got blamed for a lot today in public. I have not found any numbers of how many money citizens of Europe have donated already but from what I hear on the news it must be tremendous what normal people have done so far. While typing this, British government has increased its donation to 50 Million Pounds.
I just hope that lots more money gets released, every person can do good and donate to their favorite organisation to help the people hit there and elsewhere. Many people I met in the last days have donated or will donate, we all can help.
France: 15.000.000 Euro “Soforthilfe” + 5.600.000 Euro through the EU (according to “Der Spiegel”). In relation to the total population, that means that France has already given 3.5 x more than USA.
Thanks for your sarcasm and your lies, KDMartinky. You are certainly a good american patriot.
And don’t forget that a huge part of the donations sent to any disaster come from the private sector. From what I’ve seen on the intarweb there is a larger effort to obtain the help of the private citizen then any other disaster I’ve seen, including the WTC. Millions of people are giving a few dollars here and there which will total more then all the government contributions.
This squabbling over who gives more reminds me of kids squabbling over who “loved Mom” more after she dies. It seems like nothing can be done without bickering. If France decides to send $10.00 then they have the right to do so without being criticized. Same for any other country, including the US. The same goes on the individual level as well. Do you have ten dollars? Give a dollar. Do you have a million dollars? Give a dollar. Who cares? Just something. We’ve got around 180 million people over 15 here. That’s 180 million dollars. That’s my point.
And why all this talk about the death toll? Sure it’s terribly sad but what about the people who are trying to survive? They’re what counts at this point. We shouldn’t base the amount of giving on the number of dead but on the number who need help. If there were a million dead and three survivors then you wouldn’t really need as much aid as if there were 3 dead and a million survivors.
Spain has actually given the most at this point - $65 million, I believe. A remark supposedly made that the U.S. is “stingy” was a misquote. The remark was that “rich nations” don’t give what they really could (or words to that effect). In an article I read yesterday, it was pointed out that when comparing donations to gross national product, the U.S. does give less aid than many other nations.
Everything I’ve read seems to say stingy. Not saying you are wrong about the misquote, but hear is what one paper said-
U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland suggested that the United States and other Western nations were being “stingy” with relief funds, saying there would be more available if taxes were raised.
Again, personally, I don’t think any country has any business or any right to complain about what any other country gives. Support comes in many ways and each country, just like each individual, makes their own decision on what they will do, no matter what others think.
Actually, the agencies that are in at the ground floor have said that donations will be more effective when it is known EXACTLY what is needed. If a country sends all it can now, little of that will be used effectively. They need countries such as the U.S. to be able to continue to contribute as specific needs become known.
I think it’s particularly bad taste KDM to make the noises you were making above, it’s not a race to see who looks best, as Claudine said, smaller nations are making contributions (the Netherlands 25 million Euro for example) that are , when related to population size and national income are many many times the amount of what the US have pledged so far.
Well, hmmm… the title of the thread is “Is America doing enough…” and while KDMartinky may not have had accurate figures available, and may have interpreted the data he had incorrectly, and then offered OPINIONS based on that, I don’t think his post is one that will allow you to sling accusations and insults without remark.
So, let me remark: “cool it.”
What happened is a catastrophe beyond my imagining and one side of the Atlantic pointing fingers and the other side getting its collective knickers in a twist is going to do no one any good at all.
Instead, go on-line and give money. http://www.google.com has a link to a page showing aid agencies. Make your choice and do something unquestionably good.
Marguerite, I too find the tone of keith’s initial post unsavoury, uncalled for and unhelpful. I don’t think Claudine’s reaction was slinging accusation and insult but rather reacting to accusation and insult in the initial post.
This should be about the total effort made by the international community, not point scoring like ‘we give more than you did so were the leader and helper of nations’, especially when doing so is not all that justified.
As an american, and as a human being, I’m still too stunned by the details still unfolding in the wake of the tsumani. I’ve not paid too much attention to monetary amounts being pledged from governments. And without offending anyone . . . when we look at the money being spent(and will continue to be spent) on Iraq along with the view of Europe on our involvement, I’m sure that Europeans feel that if we can spend money to support war, then we can give money for this humanitarian effort.
I don’t have the exact quote at my fingertips, Tom, but I stand by it. The U.S. was never mentioned by name. However…are we giving enough? Let’s see, a day or two ago I read where the New York Yankees have been assessed a “luxury tax” of $25 million dollars for overpaying their players. This just happens to be a case where I know the numbers - I could go on a rant for pages about money we spend on idiotic luxuries in the U.S. while the nations on the Indian Ocean do without a tsunami warning system because they can’t afford it. I don’t know that we could ever give “enough.” This is a sore spot with me…I get absolutely furious at money paid to sports figures, entertainment personalities, heads of corporations, and others while people around the world live dire poverty and starve to death. It’s sickening.
As far as warning systems goes, the problem isn’t so much a lack of money, but a lack of infrastructure…and that’s not something that simply throwing money at a problem will fix. The governments of India and Sri Lanka, for example, knew two and a half hours ahead of time that the tsunamis were going to hit their coasts, yet did not even attempt to warn their people. A few well-placed phone calls to police departments and radio stations could have saved a lot of lives…and that doesn’t require a lot of money, but only the willingness to delegate someone to do so. The lack of some kind of warning system isn’t a result of poverty in those countries, but of an infrastructure that simply isn’t set up to deal with catastrophy. Survivors interviewed in Sri Lanka are stunned that the government issued no warning at all, when some avenues of warning WERE available to them. As far as Indonesia goes, no warning system, no matter how sophisticated, would have helped…they were so close to the epicenter that the waves struck within minutes of the quake.
I agree that money gets wasted in all countries, but it’s also a mistake to think that simply giving more money will fix the problems. What’s needed now is a willingness to listen to the experts on the ground there regarding what is needed NOW and giving accordingly. Perhaps in the future, sending people to help these people set up a warning system that will work for their level of technology and infrastructure will save even more lives…but simply giving them lots of money wouldn’t have changed much as far as the present situation goes, I’m afraid.