Posted on 12/27/2004 2:04:39 PM PST by ejdrapes
I was watching CNN's Inside Politics today (no transcript up yet) and they had a panel on - someone from the Washington Post, LA Times (Ron Brownstein) and Time magazine (Karen Tumulty). They were discussing our response to the disaster and the host of the program mentioned that the UN called our response "stingy". Then the panel went on to talk about how we "fumbled" this and were basically AWOL for one day. This just really made my blood boil. What have other countries done? The Brits say over 10,000 of their citizens were on holiday in that area. It's a large tourist area for Europeans. Where's the criticism of the EU and its member nations? And do we really have to play politics at a time like this?
This makes my blood boil too. Why doesn't Annan (sp?) give some of the millions he got from Saddam? He has a lot of nerve saying ANY free money is stingy. Get that idiot and the UN OUT of the US and the US out of it.
That ought to give spanking the monkey a whole new meaning. 8^o
"I travel to Phuket, Thailand several times a year."
I went to Phuket and Phi Phi in late 1999....Nice place !
I gather the swank resort bungalows on Phi Phi were washed out to sea, along with some of the guest... Quite sad
A massive appeal for aid is to be launched in the next few days. Mr. Egeland expressed concern, however, that several rich donor countries are becoming less generous, even as needs continue to grow.
"We were more generous when we were less rich -- many of the rich countries. It is beyond me why we are so stingy. Actually foreign assistance for many countries now is 0.1 or 0.2 percent of gross national income, that is stingy."
By this, do they mean they haven't figured out a way to siphon off the aid for their own personal enrichment?
Actually, CNN screwed it up if they said that. UN guy blamed several countries.
http://www.politinfo.com/articles/article_2004_12_27_4704.html
A massive appeal for aid is to be launched in the next few days. Mr. Egeland expressed concern, however, that several rich donor countries are becoming less generous, even as needs continue to grow.
"We were more generous when we were less rich -- many of the rich countries. It is beyond me why we are so stingy. Actually foreign assistance for many countries now is 0.1 or 0.2 percent of gross national income, that is stingy."
Any foreigner that sits in the US and says such a thing should be put in the Hudson River in a rowboat someone is tossing and told to row due east.
They’ll land in New York.
What good will that do?
Well, I have my days...
UN Says `Enormous' Aid Effort Follows Deadly Quake (Update2)
Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations said 24 countries have joined ``an enormous relief effort'' following a 9.0 magnitude earthquake off Indonesia's coast that killed more than 19,000 and destroyed towns from Thailand to India. Aftershocks may cause further tsunamis and flooding, officials said.
Damages from the earthquake, the world's biggest in four decades, ``will probably be many billions of dollars,'' said Jan Egeland, the UN's head of humanitarian affairs. Insurers' losses may be less than $5 billion because so little property in the region is insured, according to Robert Hartwig, an Insurance Information Institute economist in New York.
``This is not the biggest earthquake in recorded history, but the effects may be the biggest because many more people live in exposed areas than ever before,'' Egeland told reporters in New York. ``Hundreds of thousands of people have lost everything and millions have only polluted water to drink, no sanitation or health services.''
Egeland said more than 2,000 UN workers and hundreds of airplanes will arrive within 48 hours in the eight nations most severely affected by the earthquake off Sumatra. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies asked for $6.6 million in emergency aid and the World Food Program appealed for $1.5 million.
Australia has sent two military planes to Malaysia to ferry emergency supplies such as bottled water and tarpaulins to the affected countries, Prime Minister John Howard told a press briefing.
Aid Donations
The U.S. plans to give $15 million, Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters in Washington. The European Commission said it will donate up to $30 million to aid people in the affected areas, on top of the $3 million it allocated to the Red Cross yesterday. Australia's government said the nation will give A$10 million ($7.7 million) to the quake zone.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=ak2vJsFl4Ls4&refer=asia
I still haven't seen how much Muslim nations are providing?
**** the U.N. and the horse they rode in on!
Stingy? AMERICA STINGY? What, the U.N. doesn't have any of that "Oil for Kofi" money left over? How about they dig deep in their own ****ing pockets and grab hold of something beside their own ****s for a moment, and let the U.N. PAY FOR SOMETHING BESIDES ****ing PROSTITUTES FOR ONCE?
Yeah, some days I wish Jim would let us use profanity. But then, think of the children...
rotflol Would make a great tagline!
I love it!
How many freaking UN volunteers came to Florida's rescue from the devastating (((:::4:::))) hurricanes in '04?
How many freaking Saudi planes unloaded building materials? Food? Temporary loans? Ditto France, Germany, Russia and the other muslim hellholes? Canada? Sweeden? Anyone else? Anywhere? Ever?
Funny, I can't count even one.
*Stingy*, UN lowlife, criminal scumbags?
Absolutely outstanding!
Give that man a medal!
That one little sentence says what I've been trying to say for a long time, but I've been using a lot more words.
The rest of the world calls us greedy capitalistic war-mongering bastards, except when something like this happens.
Then they simply love us, but only as long as the dollars keeps coming.
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