NEWS: UN Official Calls the West “Stingy,” Backs Down

POLITICS: UN Official Calls the West “Stingy,” Backs Down

Jan Egeland, U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said Western nations are too stingy with promised aid in the wake of the horrific tsunami in Asia.

I agree that 15 million wonÂ’t be nearly enough. The U.S. can certainly give more than that. But no one has even a clue yet how bad the destruction is, how much money and manpower will be needed to repair the damage, which countries will need more help than others, etc. The promise of 15 million dollars in aid isnÂ’t the final polish on the U.S. aid package. ItÂ’s the initial off-the-cuff pledge. The dead arenÂ’t even buried yet. And besides, at least 20 million more has been ear-marked in the meantime.

Mr. Egeland took back his comments today after being smacked down by Colin Powell. And before this “Western countries are stingy meme” runs away on too many legs, here is some data from the same article.

Amazon.com (of all places) is accepting donations on behalf of the Red Cross. Just this one site alone has already collected more than 250,000 dollars. The amount is rising - fast. Please click here, donate, and help it rise faster.

When Powell pledged the aid yesterday...he clearly said the INITIAL relief would be around $15 million.

I'm not sure why people can't seem to graps that...


[Edited on Dec 28, 2004 6:01PM]

That's a good point of comparison. The final amount had better be higher than that. But it almost certainly will be, so it's best to hold off on this sort of thing for now.

$15 million towards the disaster relief is fucking chump change for the US.

We better step it up or else we will indeed be stingy (i know the US has promised more).




Note: Florida hurricanes - The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was swamped by 1.18 million applications for emergency aid and has approved payments of $3.17 billion to date. source

I knew it was only a matter of time until someone started up with the America bashing or Bush-bashing using this disaster as a pretext. So fucking predictable.

[Edited on Dec 28, 2004 by stockula]

Oh blah blah whine whine. Only as predictable as your perpetual whining. You may want to remove that pickle- it'll make your backside feel much better, or so I hear.
And yes, $15 mil (even plus the $20 mil mentioned as follow up) is pocket change for a country as wealthy as the U.S.

get off the high horse stock. the US is/was being stingy. the US is/was getting called out on it.

nobody is "bashing america". figure it out.


-luckyride


ps. cry me a river (anything but a tidal wave of tears).

[Edited on Dec 28, 2004 by luckyride]

More's on the way, and that is just government largesse. Not included is the use of military personnel and equipment to deliver and distribute aid. Private American donations will dwarf whatever the actual government donates. Not bad, but understandable considering the avalanche of international aid the US received after Florida was hit by 4 hurricanes in a month, and 9/11.

Oh, wait a minute....we didn't get shit from the rest of the world.


[Edited on Dec 28, 2004 by stockula]

how many people died in florida?

Raise taxes..HA! Kinda ballsy of him to suggest they raise taxes on us.

15 million, take it or leave it, mook..

Why don't they go whine to the E.U. , since the euro seems to be faring pretty well.

The fucking audacity.

Bullshit. America forks over $35m and is called a cheapskate. I wonder how much the EU, or China, or any other G7 country has individually pledged. But it doesn't make good copy to denounce, say, Italy for being stingy. No no no......the UN tools reserve their contempt for the US, and then have the fucking gall to say we should raise our taxes so we can better take care of the rest of the world, like it's our duty or responsibility and not Norway's. Why dont they suggest a rich country with relatively low taxes like, say, JAPAN do such a thing? Because they're taking cheap shots at America, and anti-Americanism is rampant, unthinking, and knee-jerk.

well when you consider we've spent oner 100 BILLION on an unjustified war killing millions of Iraqi's , 15 million seems justified for 50,000 people i guess

I am all for relief aid but I think its fucked up when a member of the UN says we should raise our taxes so that we can help out more. Fuck him!

SO are you saying we should pay because of how many people died? Will our money bring them back? Money is used for clean up ect... not $5,000 for every dead body.

Well said.

hey.."you are either with us or against us"...i didn't vote for the "idiot son of an asshole"

Not ever thread needs to be turned into a Iraq thread.
The two are not connected and dont need to be by your comment.

i was being facetious and that is not my point...the point is that we can donate large sums of money (at the taxpayers expense) for something that is not legitimate and yet a natural disaster yields not much money , or even a public statement by the sic ..prez

government is not connected to government???

so Mike , you believe it is okay to kill iraqi's and pay for it , but not help out an impoverished nation who can't???

by the way..we have killed millions of iraqi's with sanctions over the last 10 years and now this war...it does tie in..why won't congress just ask for 20 billion to help out???..the answer is ....because it is not in their best interests

Kill Iraqi's to pay for what? Sorry, but you are not amking any sense to me.

How about we get back to the topic (you know the one we were talking about before razorbladesonata hijacked it)?

[Edited on Dec 28, 2004 by Mike]

the U.N. is located in which country???...................