Now that you mention it...
Posted on 12/30/2004 2:26:06 AM PST by kattracks
UNITED NATIONS -- U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland praised rich nations Wednesday for their generosity in helping victims of the tsunami, but stood by his criticism that the rich do too little to assist the poor when there are no emergencies.
President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell took umbrage at Egeland's comment Monday: ``We were more generous when we were less rich,'' he said. ``And it is beyond me why we are so stingy, really.'' The following day Egeland told reporters that his complaint was directed at no nation in particular, and didn't refer to the outpouring of assistance for the victims of the disaster - a point he reiterated Wednesday.``The United States has consistently been among the most generous in disaster relief and humanitarian assistance,'' Egeland told reporters. ``It is by far our biggest donor worldwide for humanitarian relief, disaster relief.''
But the U.N. humanitarian chief, an undersecretary-general, said it was also his job to point out that the wealthiest countries are making too little effort to meet goals adopted by all 191 U.N. member states at the Millennium Summit in 2000 to reduce poverty and illiteracy and improve health care.
Last month, the United Nations appealed for $1.7 billion to help 26 million people in 14 crisis areas, 11 of them in Africa. Last year, it appealed for $3 billion to bring relief in 21 often forgotten crises and conflicts from Chechnya to Congo.
Egeland said that after seeing ``how we get about one-third of what we ask for in assistance to the poorest of the poor in the poorest countries,'' it was important ``to say that rich nations in general we hope should give more.''
The U.S. government is always near the top in total humanitarian aid dollars - even before private donations are counted - but it finishes near the bottom of the list of rich countries when that money is compared to gross national product.
Such figures were what prompted Egeland - who is also the U.N. emergency relief coordinator - to challenge the giving of rich nations.
The goal set by the United Nations is to have rich countries spend 0.7 percent of gross national income for aid to developing countries, especially to help meet the goals of cutting extreme poverty in half, ensuring an elementary school education, and halting and reversing the AIDS epidemic, all by 2015.
The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's figures on development aid as a percentage of GNP show Norway topped a list of 30 wealthy nations at 0.92 percent, while the United States was last at 0.14 percent.
The United States uses the most common OECD measure that shows it spent almost $15.8 billion for developing countries in 2003. Next closest was Japan, at $8.9 billion. And that doesn't include billions more the United States spends in other areas, such as AIDS and HIV programs and other U.N. assistance.
He said he understood Bush's response when asked if he was offended by the suggestion that rich nations have been stingy in providing aid in the tsunami disaster.
Referring to Egeland, Bush said, ``I felt like the person who made that statement was very misguided and ill-informed.'' The president went on to describe what the United States was doing to help the victims.
``I never said anybody had been stingy over the tsunami,'' Egeland said. ``I understand very much the president's answer'' because the United States is the biggest donor to humanitarian and disaster relief.
Egeland, who was a journalist for 10 years, said he realized ``10 seconds'' after making the ``stingy'' comment on Monday that it wasn't clear and was open to misinterpretation. ``And I immediately then started to correct it ... I was not pressured by anybody. I took the initiative myself,'' he said.
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Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
too little effort to meet goals adopted by all 191 U.N. member states at the Millennium Summit in 2000 to reduce poverty and illiteracy and improve health careIn a large majority of those 191 member states, the local federal government is the direct cause of the local "poverty, illiteracy and poor health".
Now that you mention it...
So, do you think that they have tripled what they ask for? The Socialist Society that is the UN is now asking us to tithe. Let's see the figures on who is giving. Dear UN open your books. Does the Freedom of Info. Act apply to them? If they can make rules for us we should be able to make rules for them.
Ah I see the U.N. is back to digging it's grave.
Apparently, this jerk pays no taxes to start with. He must be a ggod friend of annans.
Egeland is a idiot !
Ding ding ding ding ding! Give that man a ceegar and a few fingers of his favorite single malt.
rich do too little to assist the poor when there are no emergenciesSo we aren't giving enough to tin-horn dictators?
Typical Soviet Communist dialectic. Class warfare 101.
Can only add the Americans ought respond "We were a better
nation before we embraced the extra-Constitutional oppression of the Soviet Communist reflected glory world
empire called the U.N.
All those crooks have bills to pay, don'cha know.
BTW, anyone catch Howard Fineman on the Today show this morning? Makes me wished I still subscribed to his rag so I could cancel it.
Well, if the libs keep doing what they've been doing, the GNI will diminish so that that percentage will go up.
I heard yesterday that of all aid and relief from disasters world wide last year (not typical foreign aid, but designated relief) the US provided 40%. That's on top of what we supplied for our own country. Not shabby in my eyes.
There's an old story:
Everyday my mom made biscuits and gravy for breakfast. Getting tired of it, we complained. The next morning, we just had gravy on the table. When we asked what was going on, she said, "I thought you were tired of biscuits and gravy".
It's a game.
We aren't going to allow the Tobin Tax. Screw that.
You are 100% correct!
Typical socialist tripe - equating our government with our country. News flash commiewannabe - the United States is a people - not just a government. BTW - you're stupid comments are taking the focus off saving lives. But you UN types always miss the point, don't you.
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