Before many more of you become to critical of my initial comment. let me try to clarify a little if I can.
First and foremost I do agree that every dollar amount regardless of the amount is critical to helping those poor souls in Asia. What I meant with my initial piost was the criticism that the US is receiving worldwide for not stepping in sooner then it did and most of the critism is coming from US citizens.
Secondly the figures posted by each country listed was to give a comparison to the US amount to other countries (not including private agencies) but from the governmenrt states only. Primarily it was meant to down paly the critisim the US is receiving explained above.
Thirdly, lets face it. The US provided 40% of the worlds relief last year alone. I strongly believe that no country in the world gives more than we do.. heck we even force funds on countries who have publicly stated they don’t need nor want it.
Unlike many events that have happened in my short 41 years…this event will take not weeks or months to fix, but multiple years just to get the living conditions right again. They are predicting that this has ended tourism in the region as it once was not for the short future, but for ever. Now that is a bleak outlook. Whether it is 54 million euros or 35 million US. It will take more than I think anyone at this point could even imagine.
You know I had a math instructor tell me when I was in college that if I was given a billion dollars when I was born…I couldn’t spend it all in my life time. Now if you take that amount which I can’t even imagine and multiply it by close to 12 then you will have a clue of how much it will take just for clean up and rebuilding those nations hurt by the event and we all can agree that no amount is going to replace mom and dad of those children. It is totally heart breaking for me.
Finally those who know me, know that I post controversial issues all the time mostly to see what the other parts of the world other than whats being said or thought about in my acre of the world.
I was basing my comments on this quote (from CNN):
“Unfortunately, we have no equipment here that can warn about tsunamis,” said Budi Waluyo, an official with Indonesia’s Meteorology and Geophysics Agency. “The instruments are very expensive and we don’t have money to buy them.”
In a little further reading on CNN.com, the cost of a warning system would be about $27 million. Perhaps Major League Baseball could just send over the Yankees’ tax.
Money doesn’t fix every problem, but the lack of it can certainly exacerbate terrible situations.
Oh - and I was able to find this quote from the New York Times about the amount the U.S. gives in aid:
" According to the Congressional Research Service, an independent agency, the United States is the largest aid donor in terms of dollars, but its record of donating two-tenths of 1 percent of its national economy for foreign aid makes it among the smallest donors as a proportion of what it could afford."
Susan
First, I agree with Margaurite. Less bickering more help.
However …
Having read parts of the initial speech regarding being “stingy”, the UN official was using a scale that US doesn’t agree with.
Why? That scale says we are aren’t doing our “fair share” Yet, world wide, 40% of all charitable contributions come from the US. A large part of that is through non-federal government sources. Comparing government contribution and Gross National Product doesn’t adequately evaluate the style of giving Americans prefer; namely, less goverment, more individual and/or group giving. Also, our GNP is a product of social, political, and economic systems, our systems are very productive. Any nation is welcome to adopt our systems; however, many nations choose other systems that are less productive. We have religious institutions, corporate institutions, municipal institutions all formed for charitable purposes. Other nations may chose social, political, and economic systems that prevent that type of giving. Comparing them based on percentage of GNP is not reasonable. Just as compairing it only a per-capita basis is also not reasonable because not all nations have our resources. On a per capita basis, with around 5% of world’s population, the U.S. is making 40% of the charitable contributions.
So…
Should we in America give more? YES!
Were most of us planning on giving more? YES!
Do we expect our government to give more? YES!
Is moving an Aircraft Carrier group to aid in logistics something that only we can do quickly? YES Are We doing that? YES!
Have we sent a large number of cargo planes and mid-air refueling planes to the area to aid in the logistics? YES! Is establishing a working mobil airport close to effected area’s going to save lives? YES!
Are we sending our military airborn comunications planes (AWAC’s, etc.) to the area? YES! Is that going to aid in the imediate re-establishment of communication for folks that were cut off by catastrophy? YES! Is it going to enable improved logistics that will keep supplies flowing to where they are needed? YES!
There are millions of people that are going to need food, emergency shelter, and medical supplies in a few days. The world is gearing up to help provide those things, the US is and will be a major contributor to that aid, both in terms of money and services. A graduated incremental approach to aid may prove best for the region so that resource are not waisted, resources that might be applied to regional infrastructual needs that will impact the area and help prevent loses of life and livelyhoods in both the the near future and over the long run.
Judging from US performance in simular catastrophies, I would expect our contributions over time will run in the Billions, for our nation with 150 million adults, I see that as reasonable. I also expect we will subsidize technological improvements in the area to improve their early warning and rapid response systems. We will probably expect those improvements to be implemented in ways that will be congruent some of our social, political, and economic values; but, even that is reasonable. We are usually flexible in the amount of compliance we require due to our respect for self-determination. We have offered aid in the past to countries only to find governments in those countries use that aid to meet their own political or economic agenda’s instead of applying it to the humanitarian concerns that were the reason we gave the aid.
I think the only thing I regret is I wish that Mr. Bush had taken a break from his holiday sooner. He should have taken 20 minutes to form and provide a 5 minute statement reflecting our concern and re-iterating our commitment to help those in need.
I’ve taught in both India and Sri Lanka. There are scientists
in both countries that monitor earthquakes, and no
shortage of intelligent people. The issue of delegating
somebody to call the radio stations, calls that would probably
have saved countless lives, as you suggest, is interestsing,
but the real
problem isn’t a lack of infrastructure to deal with
catastrophes or the absence of delgating somebody
to do the job. In America somebody would
have picked up the phone and called the
radio stations, whether or not she had
been ‘delegated.’
Stories:
In India, trying to buy a first class bus ticket, I fought
my way in through the pack of people flattened against
the kiosk–no lines or queues. Finally I said to the
vendor: ‘I want to go to Bombay!’
‘Where is your application?’ he demanded.
I must go elsewhere, he told me, to get one.
So I fought my way out of the mass of people
flattened against the stall, went elsewhere,
fought my way in again and received my
application. It included questions like:
'What is your father’s name?
What is your age? etc."
Back I went to fight my way into
the first vendor.
So one moral is this–it isn’t that there is no
infrastructure, though often there isn’t,
but that when it’s there it fights getting
things done.
Another occasion I was looking for a train station
in Calcutta. I was in a train station, but the wrong
train station. There was a line in front of
an information desk (an actual line).
However an actual line in India that would
be processed in five minutes here takes an hour
there. Anyhow I got to the front and asked for
the location of the train station.
"You are in the wrong line! ’ the official
berated me. ‘You must go to such and such an
address and inquire there’
So I left and, on the way out of the station,
asked a fellow if he happened to know
where the station I was looking for was. ‘Next door,’ he
answered. It was.
In a library in Calcutta the librarian was gone for
some reason, leaving a junior librarian alone.
I asked if I might look at the philosophy books.
‘Sir, I have no authority!’ the junior librarian said.
‘Is it such a terrible thing that a man should look
at a book?’ I asked.
‘It is impossilbe! I will lose my job!’
"Please send somebody with me to be sure that I
don’t eat the philosophy books,’ I suggested.
So a guard accompanied me among the shelves.
In the library at Jadavpur University in Calcutta there
were few philosophy books on the shelves. I read
the account of the Fubrighter who preceded me
from a year before. He said that there were 50 books
on the librarian’s desk that she had never placed
on the shelves. Indeed, she seldom came to
work. So I went to her desk. There were the
50 books.
It’s the product of colonialism and contemporary
socialism, IMO. Doing something out of the ordinary
is uppity and punished, and nobody has to do much
of anything to keep their job. The absence of
market forces means that irrational systems
(as in the public bus company, which perhaps are meant
to make jobs) stay in place.
We take a lot for granted here. I would not be
surprised if these factors had a good deal to
do with the death toll in Asia.
I don’t know if this has to do with my post,
but let me add that I’ve now given a good deal of money
to the International Red Cross, which, by the way,
appears to be doing well at translating money
to real aid.
But I confess this: I’m mad that people weren’t warned.
By the way, I’ve spent a good deal of time in
Thailand, too. My anger doesn’t flow from
lack of goodwill.
I think everyone has been jumping the gun a bit on this one. The Canadian government initially promised 4 Million in immediate aid and sent a Hercules within a coupld days with water purification equipment. The talking heads went ape-shit, even more so when the defense minister said that the Prime Minister would not end his vacation early to deal with the crisis. The very next day, the government had pumped the immediate aid number up to 40 Million and Paul martin is apparently on a plane right now. Another issue was the deployment of the DART team, everyone was screaming that we weren’t moving fast enough. The government has sent in an advance recon team, but still people are up in arms at the fact that the DART personel are not in the air.
Seems people should cool their jets and realize that the situation needs some examiniation before we throw everything we have at it. These things take enormous amounts of coordination. Sending boxes and boxes of food is all well and good, but maybe someone should ask “Where is this food needed?”, “Who gets it?” and “How do we make sure the rebels/criminals don’t claim it as their own?” I think that’s what Western government are doing at the moment, trying to assess what exactly the damage is and communicate with the ambassadors of the countries involved. For example, yesterday the Ambassador from Thailand gave the Canadian government a list of exactly what they needed and how the government can help, some time after the masses started screaming that we weren’t doing our fair share.
Also, in the end, private citizens from all countries will end up making an enormous difference. From EVERYWHERE.
For what it’s worth, I just heard on NPR that on-line donations are coming in at an incredible rate.
In the same item was the observation that lots of new web domains with “tsunami” in the name are popping up–they may or may not actually get aid where it needs to go.
Right on Jim. In fact, our government has just released a statement that if people want to make private donations, that’s the way they should go. No one understands local issues like the Red Cross.
KDMartinky - "The amount France is sending is pathetic, but I would expect as much and germany isn’t doing much better. " - I believe he set the ugly precident to “sling accusations and insults”
I agree with whoever said that we should just give what we can and be helpful, not judgmental.
I just read on AOL news that, as of today, the total pledged by world governments is $500,000,000.00. It didn’t say anything about total private donations, though.
I disagree with your whole premise, but let’s just take a look at some related facts:
Country Population Your estimate of Committmed Donation
Germany 82,424,609 $1.35 Million
Japan 127,333,002 $30 Million
France 60,424,213 $135 Thousand
Russia 143,782,338
UK 60,270,708 $29 Million
US 293,027,571 $35 Million
Australia 19,913,144 $27 Million
Doesn’t look so black and white to me as you are trying to paint it.
I imagine that the per capita wealth would be interesting to compare as well.
Having pride in your nation (mine as well) does not require snide commentary and judgement of others. It requires making sure your nation earns your turst and pride.
I just read this online. So much for sending any money to help India:
India Turns Its Back on Outside Help
Thursday, December 30, 2004
NEW DELHI — As the United States and other nations pour in food, money and manpower to tsunami-buffeted Asian nations, India is taking its traditional stance: Thanks, but no thanks.
“If and when we need their help, we will inform them,” Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Thursday, noting that U.S. President George W. Bush had called with the offer.
India, one of the founders of the Nonaligned Movement, typically proclaims it is capable of handling its own problems, politely telling allies and rivals alike to butt out.
Just visited the Red Cross site and it’s nice to see that they’ve received $18 million in donations for the International Response Fund in the last few days.
I donated money to the Red Cross, but I think I might do my long-term giving to Oxfam. They’ve evidently been working extensively in that area for some time and already have a substantial presence there. Or, at least, one hopes it’s still there.
CNN.com now how the toll at 118,000. I have to say in all honesty that I just can’t wrap my head around it. None of us can. The ones of us that think we can are wrong.
