Sri Lanka said refusing IDF aid team

haaretz ^ | 28 dec 04 | Yoav Stern and Amos Harel

[white trash redneck]

A 150-member Israeli aid delegation canceled its mission to Sri Lanka on Tuesday, after the country - one of the hardest hit in the Asian tsunami disaster - refused to accept the Israeli team, Israel Defense Forces officials said.

However, Israel is sending supplies at Sri Lanka's request, including 10,000 blankets contributed by the IDF, tents, nylon sheeting and water containers. The IDF Home Front Command is organizing aid preparations.

The Israeli humanitarian organization Latet ("To give") is sending a separate aid package Tuesday. It is filling a jumbo jet with 18 tons of supplies worth $50,000, at Sri Lanka's request. The group is considering sending additional aid shortly.

Sri Lanka said on Tuesday the death toll from the tsunami had risen to about 15,000 people, including at least 200 foreign tourists. Sri Lankan military spokesman Daya Ratnayake said more than 1.5 million people had been displaced from their homes - around 7.5 percent of Sri Lanka's population.

About 26,000 people were confirmed dead Tuesday in the wake of the tsunami that slammed into coasts from India to Indonesia two days before, with some estimates nearly doubling that toll.

The aid delegation that had been set to depart for Sri Lanka on Tuesday included medical teams and representatives of the IDF and Defense Ministry, who were planning to provide humanitarian assistance and participate in search-and-rescue operations.

The delegation was planning to assemble a medical facility comprised of specialist doctors, and set up emergency, internal medicine and pediatric departments, as well as laboratory and X-ray facilities in the southern part of Sri Lanka.

A far smaller team landed in Sri Lanka on Monday night, headed by four doctors from Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem in Jerusalem. The team was carrying medicine and baby food.

The doctors - who specialize in rescue operations, trauma and pediatrics - were also checking the viability of setting up a field hospital in the area, and advised Israel to send a larger team, such as the one Sri Lanka rejected.

"We will advise Israel and the Foreign Ministry... to send something more massive," said Dr. Avi Rivkind, director of Hadassah's trauma unit. "We will try to use our... broad experience in dealing with terror attacks and rescuing masses to help in this disaster as well."

Israel is weighing the option of sending similar delegations to Thailand, where more than 1,000 people have died, and India, where more than 4,000 people have died, but has yet to make a final decision on the matter.

Health Min. team leaves for Thailand A Health Ministry contingent left for Thailand on Monday night to aid in the rescue efforts there after around 1,000 people, including tourists, were killed on the islands of Phuket and Phi Phi. The contingent includes doctors, nurses and four members of the IDF, Israel Radio reported.

Israel has also offered its assistance to India. Mofaz passed on the offer to Indian authorities through Israel's military attache Colonel Moshe Krawitz.

Mofaz offered aid of two kinds - a search-and-rescue team from the Home Front Command, as well as consignments of food and medicine.

A ZAKA rescue-and-recovery team left for the disaster areas Monday night armed with its equipment, including materials and tools for identifying bodies, as well as body bags.

"We are waiting for any instruction," Yehuda Meshi Zahav, the director of the organization, said Monday.

[Jet Jaguar]

see 340

[Jet Jaguar]

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=affleck+missing&ie=UTF-8


Not Affleck but a former companion to Beckinsale

[Gengis Khan]

India for one is not asking for aid FROM ANYBODY and that includes friends and foes.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1310020/posts?page=6

India is a friend to both America and Isreal, just dont make the mistake of assuming that we offer u our friendship to suck in more finalcial aid. And also dont make the mistake of assuming that "India is sucking up to the US" because u guys are superpowers and we are afraid of u. Remember we are not Pakistan or Saudi Arabia.

[DainBramage]

Yeah no on has helped you at all have they.

CATO INSTITUTE

Foreign Aid and India:
Financing the Leviathan State
by Shyam J. Kamath

Shyam J. Kamath is an associate professor of economics in the School of Business and Economics, California State University at Hayward.

---

Executive Summary

With a debate now raging over whether further foreign aid programs financed by U.S. taxpayers are justified in the post-Cold War era, a review of the development experience of the recipient of the largest amount of foreign aid is instructive. India has received more foreign aid than any other developing nation since the end of World War II--estimated at almost $55 billion since the beginning of its First Five-Year Plan in 1951.(1) It has long been an article of faith among development economists and policymakers that foreign aid is a necessary and central component of economic development, yet the record of Indian economic development since 1947 belies that view.

India has had one of the lowest rates of growth of all developing countries and remains one of the poorest countries in the world after almost 45 years of aid-financed, centrally planned development. Foreign aid has directly financed and sustained India's centralized planning and control framework and thereby financed the growth of one of the noncommunist world's largest and most inefficient public sectors. In 1988-89, 101 of the country's 222 largest public-sector companies recorded losses and contributed to a federal deficit five times as large, in relative terms, as the U.S. budget deficit.(2)

Today, after nearly 45 years of planned economic development, India's annual per capita income remains around $300. Almost 40 percent of Indians live below the official poverty line, and the absolute number of Indians in that category increased sharply between the late 1950s and the mid-1980s. In short, India is a paradigmatic case of the failure of government-sponsored aid; it stands as a dramatic testimonial to why such aid should go the way of the socialist development model it has bankrolled for decades.

[Gengis Khan]

Have u read anything at all about India's recent economic growth? Try to get some more recent updates.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1300936/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1304012/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/1303113/posts

1988-89's was a long time ago. And whatever aid we may have excepted in the past, we have learnt a lesson: "Aid comes with strings attached" be it the US or the USSR. Starting somewhere in 2000 we have made a policy of not accepting any aid comming from foreign government. As far as this diaster is concerned (i gave u the link) we are not accepting any foreign aid.

[Gengis Khan]

Oh and one more thing.
Do read the posts in this link:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1310020/posts?page=6

Some knowledgable people from ur country have been to India
and seen things for themselves first hand. Find out what they have to say.
That would be better than posting old reports.

[DainBramage]

Haji...that report was 1992. The aid continued on at that level for years into the Clinton administration.

If you think trillions of dollars of aid are not the reason for your "economic growth" you are naive or at least very ungrateful.

Don't come on this site lambasting America, Americans, American food, and American tourists.

You owe us more repect than that.

[DainBramage]

Oh....and knock that little red dot off your wife's head..its irritating.

[Twinkie]

Just plain lacking in wisdom. Guess the god of that 7% isn't giving wisdom even if they're asking him for it.

[Gengis Khan]

DainBramage......U seem to confuse friendly bantering with "lambasting America, Americans, American food, and American tourists". I crack this kind of jokes with my other American buddies and they enjoy it. In fact these jokes arn't mine its their's. It requires wit to answer humour with humour. I see u have none, hence I can understand u answering back with racist slurs like the "red dot" ...Haji...and so on. Cracking a few jokes isnt disrespecting, try to get the difference. Well if u cant take a few jokes or ur unable to answer the jokes in the same vein probably U should not be comming here.

As far as aid is concerned we are grateful to any and everybody who have helped us in the past. That includes not just America but also a lot of other countries like Japan, Russia and Europe. To attribute a country's (as large as India) economic growth to only one single country "America" is too much of a statement to make. Get some knowledge of economics. Aid helps u survive for the day, it is never the reason for a country's economic growth. This is not to say that we are ungrateful to American aid, (come to India and see for urself how warmly the American are treated here) but then America has poured more aid into Africa and elsewhere why arnt they having an economic growth as yet?

I knew that report was of 1992 and India has changed quit a lot since then. Its been quit some time since we have kicked our begging bowls. Anything wrong with that?

[Gengis Khan]

Oh and I have not even touched upon the hardships we had to face as a result of sanctions imposed upon India by America and ofcourse the huge amount of millitary aid given to our neighbour Pakistan which ultimately was put to use against India......but still we are grateful to whatever help America provided us.

[DainBramage]

When you aligned with our enemy Russia we gave aide to your enemy Pakistan...see ?

The hardships you endured are americas fault? I think not.

I see it as a direct result of religious beleifs where people starve while cows are worshipped and not eated,

of a caste system where a large portion of the population is considered underclass

and starving because they supposedly deserve it because of some past life problems,

of a political system that didn't take aid and creat agriculture to feed, but heavy industry for profit.

Im betting your just one of the fortunate ones that got an education, no?

I joke with my Amerrican friends about you too, and they laugh, you should too.

[hershey]

Well, Americans are the new Jews, so we should be used to this.

[Gengis Khan]

"The hardships you endured are americas fault? I think not."
---Never said it was. My point was we dont owe our prosperity to u. To tell u the truth it was only a temporary hardship but a boon in disguise. Cos when we were denied hi-tech stuff we built them ourselve. Would that be possible in a country where only a few are fortunate to get an education? That was for ur comment:
"Im betting your just one of the fortunate ones that got an education, no?"

"I joke with my Amerrican friends about you....."
--Keep laughing!

"I see it as a direct result of ....(blsh blah blah)...."
U know the real joke is that, u seem to have such strong opinion about a country u know nothing about. Since I AM more educated than u are (judging from ur posts) i would have to ignore ur comments as juvenile rants.

Ur post lack any clear rational arguments and except for usual harangues based on stereotypes has nothing much based on true information. I am not sure u even read through the links i gave u or u wouldnt have made the comments u just made.
I dont see much point in carrying this argument any further.

[shubi]

Any devout Judeo/Christian country will be attacked by the forces of evil and their non-existent gods (idols).

[DainBramage]

."---Never said it was. ...." I dont see much point in carrying this argument any further.

You wrote: Oh and I have not even touched upon the hardships we had to face as a result of sanctions imposed upon India by America

You write in such an intelligent style Im forced to agree with you...(/sarcasm)

I guess you went to the University of Text Messaging to get your amazing education. LOL

Whats wrong...pointing out the millions of starving underclass in your country get a little difficult for you?

[shubi]

Gengis is correct about Pakistan, recently. We should not be supporting a military dictator. We are playing a dangerous game with Pakistan right now. Many of our terrorist enemies use it as a base and the Pakistanis are just giving "lip service" to expelling them, going through the motions of military operations, but obviously warning the terrorists ahead of time.

The U.S. should never assist dictators. We should stop assisting our enemies (muslims). This is a new era. It isn't the cold war anymore. The more money muslims have to spend supporting themselves the less there is for military and terrorist funding.

[DainBramage]

I certainly agree about Pakistan, but much of his point was about our building Pakistani military strength

which began at a time India was aligning itself with Russia and testing Nuclear weapons.

Talk about a dangerous game.

IMO They have both been a danger at times, and at times a fair ally.

[Gengis Khan]

"You write in such an intelligent style Im forced to agree with you...(/sarcasm)"

U can agree with me only when u have understood what i have said! LOL!
It was a temporary hardship alright but we never held Americans at fault for that. We were rather thankful to the American for their aid and also for them indirectly making us technologically capable.

"Whats wrong...pointing out the millions of starving underclass in your country get a little difficult for you?"
---Whats wrong??? Please do go through these 3 links:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1300936/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1304012/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1310831/posts

Please do...This will eject all the biased stereotypical crap u have been fed on.

Get some education dude, u will also be able to write some better posts from next time.

[DainBramage]

look "dude", 2 years in a row don't make for a success story.

ur obviously a young man, an think ur all knowing, cool.

i read all your links already, success was described best as "better than South America".

good 4 U. hope you read this type letter better N understand cuz its how you cum across.

i sure u have education, change ur cuntry more better.