I don’t believe our taxes should be raised, or that anyone else in the world has a right to demand/ask that.
Having said that, I too would like to point out that $15 million is pocket change for a country like the U.S., and it really offends me when I see how much of my money we are spending on this useless “war” in Iraq and how much that money could help India and the Southeast. :mad: :mad:
Bear in mind I’m from India.
Don’t matter if you’re from Indiana, good sense is good sense.
Even from a cynical realpolitik point of view, this is a golden opportunity.
Howzabout this! We pledge to double the contribution of our nearest “competitor”! Give our friends and allies (both of them!) something to point to other than Brittney Spears videos.
Wow. 21 people? That IS an impressive response.
Now, I admit to an apples-to-oranges comparison, but three days after 9-11, Congress appropriated $20 billion to rebuild New York. Now, a couple days after a disaster that has likely killed ten times as many people, we have only sent $15 million and 21 people? That is insulting. I’m not saying that the money we’ve given isn’t useful, nor do I think that we need give billions in aid because of this disaster. But this is really like putting one penny into the Salvation Army’s tin pot after buying a big screen TV at Walmart: Gee, thanks a lot, mister.
This country spends around $18 billion a year on foreign aid, and a third of that goes to Egypt, Israel, and Jordan in the form of economic and military subsidies that gets us… well, I don’t know what that money buys. I truly don’t understand how this prioritization.
However, the EU should be castigated ten times more than the US on this point. The EU and its member nations have a much better contribution rate for foreign aid programs than does the US, and all they’ve coughed up so far is $4 million? Shame!
And finally, the only reference to raising taxes I saw in that article was the interpretation of the shitty Washington Times “reporting” staff. That UN offical made a rather cryptic comment about taxpayers wanting to “give more,” presumably in the way of disaster aid, by my reading. I saw no quote about raising taxes. The UN official made no call to raise taxes. Add that to the fact that the official did NOT single out the US, and we can see that the lesson here, folks, is that the Washington Times is a horrible newspaper that puts its fearmongering, liberal baiting agenda as a more worthy pasttime than accurately reporting the news.
Look at it this way.
Until very recently Sri Lanka had a population of about 20 million with a per capita income of $3,700 US.
The US has a population of 293 million with a per capita income of $37,800 US.
$15 million to an American represents just under 400 times the average salary
$15 million ro a Sri Lankan represents just over 4,000 times the average salary. That’s enough dough to buy 4,000 local Sri Lankans for a full year to do nothing but clean up and maintain order–and that’s just the US contribution.
So you could say that the “wow factor” to a Sri Lankan would be similar to that of a New Yorker (assuming median income is consistent with the rest of the US) receiving a $150 million aid package
But yeah $15 million seems like peanuts when we’re talking about 40,000 (and climbing) dead people. And it’s even more nasty in light of what’s about to be frittered away on a party in DC. But we’ve always blown money like that despite world famine–hell, poverty here at home. This event says nothing new about the priorities of our elected officials–and ourselves as a nation, by virtue of the electoral process.
From this site: ABC News
The “40,000” is just the ante, the game hasn’t even started. “Water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink…” What little sewage systems they had are kaput, water-borne diarrhea hasn’t even gotten warmed up yet. Mosquitoes. Rats. The whole ghastly megilla. 40K ain’t squat, even if we do our damndest, be very, very lucky if half-a-million don’t die as a result of all this. Its not the fuse, its the bomb.
How much bottled water in Australia? Hong Kong? Tokyo? Where’s the nearest airport where a jumbo cargo jet can land? Problems? Difficulties? Nothing to us, we’re the Americans, we can do it. Every bottle of water with an American decal on it, delivered to a Muslim in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, or whereever the Hell else, is one less soldier for the Bad Guys. One more potential informant.
Shit, if we won’t do this for reasons of sheer cyncial realpolitik, we might as well pack it in, we are too stupid to play.
It’s not our country. What obligation do we have to give them one thin dime? (Understand that this is not my position, but it is a defensible one, IMHO) “The rest of the world” generally has no qualms about telling the U.S. how it should behave and why the policies that it is following are pigheaded and wrong, but when a disaster happens the cry is “Send us more money, more, more, more!” They are not entitled to jack shit. The fact that such a statement is abhorrent to a majority of Americans speaks volumes about where we actually come from as a country. I have no doubt that by the time all is said and done, the U.S. will spend/donate far more actually money, equipment and personnel than any other country, as we should. It won’t make a fig’s worth of difference in 4 months, or 6 months or a year or whenever it is that people want to castigate us as imperialistic warmongers or Zionist puppets or some other such bullshit. Honestly, we should just stop giving aid…except we don’t do it because we’re trying to buy people’s gratitude, by and large, we do it because it’s the right thing to do.
Well, of course. It happened in our back yard. Did other countries send aid to us? Did we sneer at their contributions if they did? (Although I know Guiliani turned down some contribution because it came with a backhanded compliment…my memory fails me at the moment.)
Not apples to oranges. More like apples to merino sheep.
I think that’s a bit cynical. I think we give aid because we are at heart a truly compassionate people, and since most of us can’t fly to Thailand and help dig out corpses, we open our wallets. We want to do something, anything, to help.
Another stupid conservative strawman. The countries receiving US aid have not sneered at the donation. Nor did the person who made the statement “sneer” at the US donation.
If you know anything about Egeland (which you likely don’t) he has consistently been pushing for greater aid from developed countries to help with humanitarian crises in third world countries. His statement did not single out any one country, nor did he ever call the general populace of any country stingy.
I agree with elucidator. The U.S. should leap into action over this. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it’s a hell of a way to build political capital.
However, I have my doubts about how much real gratitude there will be. Bush’s proposal to give Africa 15 billion for AIDS was met with a yawn. Clinton is still more loved over there, and he didn’t do squat.
That’s exactly what I said, and in the quoted text, too.
:smack: Yes, you did. I misread part of your quote. Carry on, then.
He turned down a donation from the Prince of Saudi Arabia. IIRC it was somthing along the lines of 10 million dollars.
Why exactly, I don’t recall but I think it had something to do with the fact that so many of the 19 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia.
Plenty of countries set rescue workers. The type of crews that work huge earthquakes and such.
You’d think the UN would just shut the fuck up for a while. Maybe they can request that a portion of the $21 billion in aid that got stolen from the Iraqis go to the tsunami victims. I just hope that the UN disaster relief officials don’t rape the victims while they “help.”
I think the 10 mil would have come with the condition that Giuliani was to publicly renounce Isreal or something. My memory isn’t always the best, but I think that’s pretty close.
Rudy told him to come take his check back.
Nope. It was just based on a speech that bin Talal made after the check-handing-over ceremony. Cite.
Alrighty then. I was way off. Got it.
here’s a page from http://www.alertnet.org listing the contributions pledged by various countries.
oops. here’s the link: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L28593949.htm