Posted on 12/29/2004 6:06:13 AM PST by Brilliant
WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 - Rejecting a United Nations official's suggestion that it had been a "stingy" aid donor, the Bush administration on Tuesday announced another $20 million in relief for victims of the Asian earthquake and tsunamis and dispatched an aircraft carrier and other ships to the region for possible relief operations.
The announcement brought the United States' total aid package to $35 million so far, and Bush administration officials said much more would be sent.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, displaying irritation with the suggestion of American stinginess, said the United States had been the most generous of aid donors in recent years and that, in any case, the sums announced so far were "just a start" of a larger sustained effort.
"We will do more," Mr. Powell said on ABC's "Good Morning America," one of a series of television appearances apparently intended to rebut the comment on Monday by Jan Egeland, the emergency relief coordinator for the United Nations, that the West had generally been "stingy" in its aid to poor countries.
Mr. Powell said the United States "has given more aid in the last four years than any other nation or combination of nations in the world."
The United States Agency for International Development spent $2.4 billion in the last year for emergency disaster relief.
Mr. Egeland responded to Mr. Powell's criticism by saying that he had been misunderstood and that he had not been referring to aid for the quake and tsunami victims but to the overall trend in recent years by Western countries in aiding the poor. He said pledges for the current crisis had been "most generous."
"I have been misinterpreted when I yesterday said that my belief that rich countries in general can be more generous," Mr. Egeland added. "This has nothing to do with any particular country or the response to this emergency."
Trent Duffy, a spokesman for President Bush in Crawford, Tex., where Mr. Bush is on vacation, said the president had accepted Mr. Egeland's clarification and would make a public statement on the disaster Wednesday. Mr. Duffy said Mr. Bush had sent his condolences to the victims through statements by his spokesmen, written statements and letters to seven world leaders, but not through public pronouncements on television. "The president is doing what is needed most, which is to authorize the U.S. government to play a leading role in the relief and recovery effort," Mr. Duffy said.
Mr. Egeland's comments are the latest in a line of long-running complaints from international aid officials about general trends in aid from Western nations. These critics often cite a figure once put forward at the United Nations that wealthy countries should try to reach a target of spending seven-tenths of 1 percent of their national economy for aid to poor countries.
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 theoretically afford.
Countering that argument, the State Department acknowledges on an official Web site that its direct economic aid is "the smallest among government foreign assistance programs" but that the "true measure" of American generosity should include private money.
In an interview, Mr. Egeland said that private and government money was appreciated but that relief for disaster victims in recent years had fallen far short of what was needed and what was pledged.
Victims of the earthquake in Bam, Iran, a year ago are still living in tents because permanent aid, as opposed to emergency provisions, has not materialized in the amounts pledged, aid officials said.
"Over all, there is too little money for foreign assistance, for development and for humanitarian relief, especially in Africa," Mr. Egeland said. "We get one-third of what we ask for in our humanitarian appeals to poor African countries, and the number is going down. I see too many hungry children in the world, too many uncared for refugees, and too many unmet needs."
The Pentagon sent the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and several other ships to the Indian Ocean, though military officials said the vessels and crews had not yet been assigned specific missions. About 15,000 Americans are on board. Only a small portion of them would be expected to fly missions or go ashore.
American forces are going from Japan to a Thai air base in U Tapao, on the southeastern shore of the Gulf of Thailand, near Phuket, which was especially hard hit. The military has already sent nine P-3 aircraft for use in surveillance and search and rescue operations.
Reporting for this article was contributed by Warren Hoge at the United Nations, Matthew L. Wald and Eric Schmitt in Washington, and David E. Sanger in Crawford, Tex.
Bump.
The US, UK, Australian and Japanese governments have already committed close to $150,000,000 combined. That does not include the costs associated with their immediate military assistance (Japanese Navy are helping out, Abraham Lincoln carrier group is on the way, Australian Air Force has been doing around the clock airlifts of supplies etc etc) or emergency supplies they are shipping over. This is just their initial, immediate, cold hard cash being sent to those agencies on the ground right now.
The US, UK, Australian, Japanese and Indian governments are already setting up the plans to coordinate the economic recovery in these countries effected. And when it comes to economic recovery, you know which country will be the main source of support, and the cost of that may well be the largest of them all.
I know here in Australia that the people are opening their hearts and wallets in an amazing way. Millions have been raised by a population of only 20 million. In the business arena, the two largest Australian commercial airliners have donated jets and all the associated flight costs to airlift several plane loads of supplies and medical staff over. The two largest phone companies have said they will not charge the Australian offices of any of the aid agencies involved in the emergency. They will not receive a phone bill for some time. The phone companies have also offered and sent as much equipment and expertise as they can to help communication during the emergency, and help these countries get their long term communication recovery. The list goes on. I am sure there are very similar things happening within the US.
The initial emergency cash & supplies costs are - rightfully so - the whole worlds problem. The long term recovery - as it always does - will come down to only a few.
Sorry, what were the UN and EU up to? $160,000 from France?
Me too.
I would have cut the 15 to 10 for a few days and give them time to reflect..
Well, you got it right anyway; far as I'm concerned the Unitarians can STFU too!
Exactly right. Now that we've caved, you can expect to hear a lot more criticism of US largess in the future. If it were me, I would have at least subtracted the extra relief funds from our UN budget.
Why couldn't we just take the money - even HALF of the money - we give to support the delegates (for lack of a better word) and the UN and give THAT amount to the aid the victims. Surely no one would call us stingy then, would they?
It upsets me, though, that we ended up giving MORE after this jerk's comments. We should have come out with the amounts given by the other countries and stood by our original amount.
I just sent letters to my Senator and Representative informing them that I was refusing to pay any federal income tax until the US withdraws from the UN and expels them from this country. I am sick of this b.s.
As far as I know the 15 million was a starting point. The president just said this will be one of the greatest disasters in history. We will be giving aid to these countries for a long time. We always reach deep, but I resent being told what we need to give.
So a country that has enough money to spend on developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles cannot afford to provide emergency housing for it's own victims of natural disasters. And the US is supposed to make up the deficit? Any country that has it's own nuclear weapons doesn't deserve a dime of US aid. If they can't provide for basic relief in their own country they have no business spending any money on nuclear weapons.
I'm not trying to blame the victims here, but a the major cause for underdevelopment and "unmet needs" is corrupt governments, war, badly managed economies, and folks having more kids than they can feed.
If we don't give enough as this clown thinks we should that's because we have expenses too and obligations to our own citizens. We are not bottomless pits of money.
Maybe President Bush should announce he is taking the US portion of the UN membership dues to donate for the relief effort...
Maybe President Bush should announce he is taking the US portion of the UN membership dues to donate for the relief effort...
Maybe President Bush should announce he is taking the US portion of the UN membership dues to donate for the relief effort...
A large part of it is that there are just too many people in the world.
I am upset that we gave more also. I think we should do a GNP analysis of ALL countries in the world and take their donations (both private and government)amounts and list that too. Then we should send each country a statement ( a bill) for their percentage share of their contribution that is due! Can't wait for France, Saudi Arabia, Arafats bankroll, the UN's oil for food monies, China etc. to get their public bill.ha.
If we're going to start shaming countries, let's put the shame where it belongs
The IRS will just take everything you own and give it to the general welfare ( the operative word being "welfare">)
But I think we need to start a movement to allow re-apportioning our tax dollars to allow for NOT contributing to the UN. Not that it would work, but it sure would highlight our under-representation on taxes vis a vis the UN and maybe end up with our cutting back on their support here.
Are we taxing the monies that UN delegates make forthe US treasury?
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