Yeah!

[Sergeant Bob]

I don't really give a flying crap if the E-E-E-YEW's Government gave more of their(?) money or not. Governments do not have any money to give. They only have what they forcibly take from their citizens, so arguing about which government is most generous is useless.

It's easy to be generous when you're using other peoples money.

 

[alarmguy]

Who cares what amount the US pledges? What counts is what are we doing. While the UN is having meetings and isuuing press releases our military is there with the Australians delivering food, water and emergency supplies. For a better idea of what is actually happening go here:

www.diplomadic.blogspot.com

This blog is posted by our foreign service officers in the area.

 

[Jmurman]

Well said! Thanks!

 

[Sparks]

For a better idea of what is actually happening go here:
www.diplomadic.blogspot.com

Well that was a soberly written and carefully considered site...

It looks at the figures donated for the tsunami and says that the US has donated more; but it doesn't add up the contributions from the member states to get the EU's total figure (which exceeds that of the US), and it doesn't use up-to-date figures (Ireland's listed as donating $4.4 million, in fact the correct figure is €10 million, for example).

It says only US and Australian troops are on the ground and working. Not to belittle their efforts, which are desperately needed and more than laudable, not to mention highly effective, but it is a bit of an insult to the military workers from Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, India, Japan and the UK, not to mention the civilan ones from all over the place, including Ireland.

It says the UN's doing no work - which is somewhat correct since it's the UN agencies that do the work, and technically they are seperate bodies. It's a bit disingenous though. It's somewhat silly to say the UN's doing nothing when UNICEF is sorting out water supplies and purification, the FAO's monitoring fisheries (the main food source for many in that area), the WHO is already working on preventing outbreaks of diseases from cholera to measles with vaccinations and other preventative measures, UNHCR is shipping in shelter and other necessities for the refugees, and so on. From here:

The following is a country-by-country snapshot of some of the latest items in the UN's multifaceted response to the disaster:

# India: With contaminated water presenting the greatest threat of deadly diseases in the tsunami's aftermath, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has begun moving nearly 2,500 500-litre water storage tanks to relief camps and distributing 3 million water purification chlorine tablets. The UN World Health Organization (WHO) is planning disease prevention at district level, guarding against potential measles outbreaks and providing vitamin A and oral rehydration salts (ORS). The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is monitoring fisheries.

# Indonesia: The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is starting an airlift on Sunday of 400 tons of shelter and other emergency supplies for an initial 100,000 people in Aceh province, among the worst and most inaccessible disaster zones. A UN joint logistics centre will be set up at the central level and in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital and a FAO emergency coordinator and a fishery expert have been sent in.

# Maldives: The UN country team is focusing primarily on the provision of water, food, ORS and transport. The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) is procuring safe delivery kits for the 4,000 expectant mothers while UNICEF is providing food, shelter and non-food items.

# Sri Lanka: UNFPA is carrying out reproductive health assessments. UNICEF continues to help ferry the wounded and dead to area hospitals while providing 10,000 bed sheets, towels, drinking water bottles, cooking utensils sets and mats to assist the displaced and stranded. UNHCR has been distributing non-food items.

# Thailand: UNFPA has deployed mobile clinics while UNICEF has begun assessing the needs of children. FAO is assisting the worst affected sectors of fisheries and agriculture. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) is sending 1,000 body bags and 2,000 kilos of formalin to the devastated holiday island of Phuket. The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is focusing on education and their World Heritage Committee will assess damage to relevant areas. The UN International Labour Office (ILO) will focus on longer-term rehabilitation and employment.

# Somalia: FAO assessment teams have already been mobilized for a food security assessment in the field and the WFP has stockpiled 83 tons of food supplies for the worst affected areas.

It's also propagating this myth that the UN said the US was being stingy. That's already been shown to have been a bit of "journalistic licence" by the Washington Times. From this blog entry, which summarises it rather well:

But that's just what Bill Sammon did in today's edition.

His headline reads: 'U.N. official slams U.S. as 'stingy' over aid.' But if you think somewhere in the piece there'd be a comment criticizing the U.S. for being, I dunno, 'stingy over aid,' you'd be wrong. Sammon couldn't pull a quote because the 'slam' simply never occured.

Here's the jist of the Times story:

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.

"It is beyond me why are we so stingy, really," the Norwegian-born U.N. official told reporters. "Christmastime should remind many Western countries at least, [of] how rich we have become."

Note how 'stingy' is in quotes in the first graph and 'the United States and other Western nations' is not. That's because Egeland referred to 'wealthy states' and 'donor states,' but at no time did he single out the United States. In fact, when a reporter asked Egeland to name the countries he believed to be "stingy," he pointedly declined to do so (you can stream the 48-minute press conference with RealPlayer and see for yourself).

As for Egeland's talk of taxes, that too was generic. He referred broadly to 'politicians,' specifying only a few sentences later that he had in mind leaders "in the United States, in Western Europe and even in Norway." That was the only time he mentioned the U.S.

Sammon finishes his fabrication by quoting White House spokesman Trent Duffy saying that the U.S. leads the world in humanitarian assistance, a statement which Sammon characterizes as a "response to Mr. Egeland's comments."

So how do you get from a Norwegian asking "why are we so stingy?" to a UN official 'slamming' the U.S.? You work for the Washington Times, the leading UN-basher and a publication that's not unduly burdened by those pesky facts.

So basicly, everyone's working hard at helping others, the whole thing is one of the more positive things I've seen from the human race in the last few years, and no-one said anyone specific wasn't pulling their weight, but someone had to throw a rock anyway

 

[Strings]

Ummm... while y'all are yelling and debating who's sending more money, I had an interesting talk with my old man...

See... he's living near Pattaya. And was a medic in Korea. So he thought he'd look into volunteering his help. Know what he was told? "No... we don't need more people, or supplies. We need TRANSPORTATION! We can't get people and stuff where it needs to go!"...

So... wouldn't a carrier or two be the best aid possible? Or did I miss something?