Free Republic

Sri Lanka charges Oxfam £500,000 to allow in jeeps (Filed: 17/06/2005) Oxfam has had to pay £550,000 in customs duty to the Sri Lankan government for importing 25 four-wheel-drive vehicles to help victims of the tsunami, The Daily Telegraph has learned. The sum was levied by customs in Colombo which have refused to grant tax exemptions to non-governmental organisations working to repair damage caused by the giant Boxing Day wave. The Indian-made Mahindra vehicles, essential to negotiate damaged roads and rough tracks, remained stuck in port at Colombo for almost a month as officials completed the small mountain of paperwork...

Oxfam pays $1m tsunami aid duty Oxfam says it abides by the laws of the countries it works in British charity Oxfam has had to pay the Sri Lankan government $1m in import duty for vehicles used in tsunami reconstruction work. Paperwork had kept the 25 four-wheel drive vehicles idle in the capital, Colombo, for a month. The Sri Lankan government told the BBC News website the aid had been duty-free until the end of April but was now needed to prevent "market distortions". Nearly 31,000 people died in Sri Lanka when the tsunami struck on 26 December. Half a...

The Tsunami in South Asia is a truly catastrophic event. The human carnage is overwhelming and my Christian heart can’t help but respond to the human tragedy. However… As the events were unfolding on our TV screens, I found myself feeling uneasy about something, internally conflicted, a feeling I just couldn’t shake. As someone who follows politics and world views, (views towards America and Americans that is), I was keenly aware of the views in that part of the world, even before the Tsunami struck. It has become a popular international pastime to bash America at every opportunity, and news...

A corner entry from Rod Dreher to make you want to nuke France-- A French friend of mine just e-mailed: It's 09:02 pm in Paris, 10 minutes ago I was at a friend's house for dinner. During drinks, someone turned the TV on, French news cable net LCI was broadcasting those horrible images of US POWs. Believe it or not, but my friends made jokes about those fine soldiers! So, I grabbed my coat, said goodbye in German, as French collaborateurs should be addressed, and left. I guess it's about time to apply for a US immigrant visa... Come on...

FRANCE: FROM GREAT TO INGRATE By Dick Morris (On Friday, March 7, I addressed the French Council on Foreign Relations. Here is a partial text of my remarks) France is suffering from a collective, national amnesia. You have allied yourselves with a nation that invaded you twice and another that threatened you for half a century against the two countries that saved you. What are we asking of you? Not your troops, not your children, not your money, not your bases, not even for overflight of your territory. We are asking only for you to get out of the way...

A MILLION housewives every day may well pick up a can of baked beans, as the advert used to boast, but few if any of them appear to be asylum-seekers. So loathsome do refugees find the staple of British cuisine that the Diocese of Gloucester has asked worshippers at 400 churches not to donate beans at their harvest festivals. Canon Adrian Slade said he made the request because in the past the churches were inundated with tinned beans. “Although baked beans are our national dish and we enjoy them with fervour at least three times a week, to most people...

Listen to the Kuwaitis What can we learn from the baffling stance of the Kuwaitis? By Victor Davis Hanson, author most recently of Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power. March 11, 2002 8:40 a.m. Kuwait has become a metaphor for the growing divide between the United States and the Islamic world #151; one that is fundamental and cannot be so easily resolved by shaking hands, holding conferences, and promising to quot;just to get along.quot; A recent 60 Minutes report by Mike Wallace of grassroots popular expression there brought a flood of official disavowals from the...