Saudi triples aid for victims of Asian tsunamis

yahoo.com ^ | Jan. 05, 2004 | AFP

[crushelits]

RIYADH (AFP) - Saudi Arabia announced that it was increasing its aid to victims of the Asian tsunami disaster to 30 million dollars and would organize a telethon to raise more funds.

Given that the scale of the disaster and damage "has surpassed all expectations, royal orders have been issued to increase Saudi Arabia's aid to the victims from 10 million dollars to 30 million dollars," the official SPA news agency reported.

SPA reported earlier that King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, whose oil-rich country initially pledged 10 million dollars in emergency funds for the victims, had ordered a telethon to be staged by state television on Thursday.

The death toll from the massive December 26 earthquake and resulting tidal waves around the Indian Ocean neared 146,000 Tuesday, more than 94,000 of them in Muslim-majority Indonesia.

[Texas Eagle]

I still haven't seen how much Indonesia is donating for the Indonesia tsunami relief effort.

[Mears]

They'll play the pitiful third world country act for a while. It can be very profitable.

The Saudis aren't exactly poor------why aren't they really stepping up to the plate? Oh yeah,the good ole USA will take care of it.Nevermind!

[mitchbert]

I still haven't seen how much Indonesia is donating for the Indonesia tsunami relief effort

Callous. We wouldn't have to donate if they could handle it themselves. If they choose to refuse because donations came from Jews, Christians, Americans "Infidels" well that's their problem. We do what's right. Should they scr*w their own people because of their psychotic xenophobia, not our problem. We tried. And hopefully, refuse, if they get stupid on us.

Cheers, eh! Canada won the World Junior's!

[Texas Eagle]

Should they scr*w their own people because of their psychotic xenophobia, not our problem.

Did I hear someone say, "callous"?

Eh?

[mitchbert]

Yeah, you've got a point there I suppose. I just get angered when nations refuse aid in times of extreme crisis when in fact it would be the prefect time to try and break down old barriers and suspicions. Hey, who am I to talk? I'll be somewhat reluctantly making a donation via the Canuck Red Cross through my work as that's how they've set up the give at my office. I'll probably do something with my shul as well just because I've got more faith (no pun intended) that more of it will make it through. Whatever. Any part we can do will probably help someway. This is personal BTW; a close ex-girlfriend lives in Phuket and made it through the tsunami. A close friend of her's didn't. Walking her dogs along the beach at the time apparently. Sad.

[Shortstop7]

Whew! Bet that hurt the old Saudi wallet. Not! The Royal Family probably spends that in a day....

Pitiful.

[First_Salute]

"telethon"

ROTHFLMAO

Call Mrs. Arafat and Barbara Streisand.