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GENEVA - U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said Friday the anger on all sides in the Middle East is the greatest he has seen in two decades of trying to help the troubled region make peace. "I've never seen nations as polarized as during this recent visit," said Egeland, who was in Lebanon, Israel and the Gaza Strip at the end of July. "People were enraged collectively in Lebanon, everybody against the Israeli indiscriminate onslaught," he said in an interview with The Associated Press. "In Israel, they were a united front to support the strong military measures. In the Palestinian...

When the U.N.'s Jan Egeland called the U.S. "stingy" with foreign aid a couple of years back, he was playing to a stereotype promoted by those who want governments to redistribute global incomes. He was also wrong, and now we have the data to prove it. The Hudson Institute recently released the 2006 Index of Global Philanthropy, the first comprehensive report on international aid by private institutions and individuals in the U.S. The index shows that millions of Americans give to the world's poor at a rate that is anything but "stingy." Voluntary giving by Americans dwarfs government aid the...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- A year of disasters around the world sparked an unprecedented outpouring of aid, but richer nations still are not giving enough money to tackle lingering humanitarian crises, the U.N. humanitarian chief said. Jan Egeland said, for example, that as many people die in Congo every eight months as in last year's Indian Ocean tsunami. He also criticized political leaders for failing to take action to end the wars that create humanitarian crises or invest in disaster prevention to mitigate the impact of earthquakes, hurricanes and floods. The work of U.N. and other relief workers in conflict-wracked...

The United Nations attacked international donors today for a shortfall in funding for victims of the South Asian earthquake that has left relief agencies struggling with a logistical nightmare worse than the Boxing Day tsunami. As a 12-year-old boy was confirmed as the first British fatality from the quake, Jan Egeland, the UN's disaster relief chief, gave warning that the death toll in the earthquake could rise above 100,000 because of a lack of aid. Mr Egeland told a news conference in Geneva: "We have never had this kind of logistical nightmare, ever. We thought the tsunami was bad -...

The UN's disaster chief has outlined a 10-year plan of investment to avert a natural disaster that could be 100 times worse than the Asian tsunami. Jan Egeland proposed diverting 10% of what is currently spent on emergency relief to tackle disaster prevention.

THE United Nations today appealed to Indonesia to lift its March deadline on foreign military relief operations in Aceh province but said a second wave of deaths from disease in tsunami-hit nations had probably been averted. More than 100,000 of the estimated 163,000 killed by last month's tsunami were in Aceh. Half a million people in the province are homeless and some 2000 to 3000 bodies wash ashore each day, Jan Egeland, the UN emergency relief co-ordinator, told a news conference. The Indonesian government is edgy about a foreign presence in areas where separatists have fought the army for three...

Jan Egeland, the United Nations' undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, sure did get clobbered over his use of the word "stingy" in reference to the initial outpouring of millions of dollars in US and Western aid for those countries affected by the tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia. But statements like his aren't formed in a vacuum, not even when emanating from the vacuous UN. Seems it was former President Jimmy Carter who, back in 1999 at a lecture at Principia College, said, "We are the stingiest nation of all." The good news is that, regardless of who gets to claim first...

Tsunami? Blame America - By MARK STEYN Humanitarian honchos and Euro-libs denounce Washington's response to the Asia disaster A week ago, people kept asking me for my opinion of the tsunami, and to be honest I didn't have one. It didn't seem the kind of thing to have an "opinion" on, even for an opinion columnist - not like who should win the election or whether we should have toppled Saddam. It was obviously a catastrophe, and it was certain the death toll would rise and keep rising, and other than that there didn't seem a lot to opine about....

The United Nations fritters away money while the American military steps in to help the hopeless in southeast Asia.IF YOU'RE GETTING OVER being steamed at Norwegian U.N. apparatchik Jan Egeland, who a week ago thought the U.S. response to the tsunami "stingy," then you need to check in at The Diplomad, a tremendous blog run by a State Department careerist serving abroad and which has done more for the reputation of State among conservatives in the past few months than 20 years of Council of Foreign Relations meets and greets. Short summary: Your worst fears about the United Nations are...

WHEN ASKED Monday if climate change -- global warming -- was behind the deadly Asian tsunami, the United Nation's Jan Egeland -- he of "stingy" aid fame -- said no, the tsunami was a "geologically caused" disaster. "A tsunami like this is caused by an earthquake that has nothing to do with climate change, " he explained. Minutes later, however, Egeland did suggest a possible connection between global warming and the disaster. He had heard that one-third of the Maldives islands disappeared momentarily underwater, he said, adding that "actually climate change means oceans (are) growing, (so) certainly tsunamis will have...

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world. A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in...

Are there no limits to the audacity of the corrupt, lying socialists who run the United Nations? After bungling or pilfering virtually every project the UN has ever managed, this useless organization should now be in a position of having to justify its existence before receiving another cent from the United States of America. Instead, after watching these leeches administer the now-infamous oil-for-food program - through which billions of dollars earmarked for the destitute people of Iraq were instead used to line the pockets of thieving United Nations bigwigs - Americans now have to listen to the man in charge...

With $2 Billion Donated, U.N. Now Needs Help to Deliver Aid By WARREN HOGE NITED NATIONS, Jan. 1 - Jan Egeland, the United Nations' emergency relief coordinator, said Saturday that the commitment of relief money from more than 40 nations had reached $2 billion, but he said that the scale of the response was overwhelming the capacity to deliver aid. "The compassion has never ever been like this," he said, but then added, "The military and civil defense assets that many countries are providing us are as valuable as cash or gold would be today because it makes us move...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will visit tsunami stricken Indonesia next week, as the world increased aid pledges to $2 billion for tsunami-hit areas in South Asia, U.N. officials said Saturday. Annan was invited to go to the Indonesia capital of Jakarta Thursday and the officials said he had accepted and would probably issue a world appeal for relief from there, rather than New York. More than 1 million people in Indonesia, especially in Indonesia's and Aceh province as well as 700,000 in Sri Lanka will need food aid for months as a result of the disaster,...

Tsunami Relief: The Real Story Several months ago, we linked to a new blog by a group of career Foreign Service officers, called Diplomad. Diplomad provides sharp, knowledgeable commentary. It turns out that one of the site's contributors is stationed in one of the countries hit by the tsunami (I don't think he's said which one). His regard for the U.N. disaster relief effort is, shall we say, muted: Well, we're heading into Day 7 of the Asian quake/tsunami crisis. And the UN relief effort? Nowhere to be seen except at some meetings and on CNN and BBC as talking...

Q: Can you just flesh out in a little more detail the kinds of logistical problems you're facing? Are they problems of transportation, with coordination and other things? Just describe in a little more detail how that's unfolding and what you're facing. Mr. Egeland: Our main problems now are in northern Sumatra and Aceh. We have problems all over, and I agree that it is beyond the reach of all our combined resources in these five massive parallel operations from Somalia to Indonesia. In Aceh, today 50 trucks of relief supplies are arriving. They will have arrived because it's already...

Several things in bold due to the fact that this is a LONG read. Apologies that there really isn't a proper title for this press release. I didn't see this posted. Added to "Breaking News" due to the fact that the UN has the arrogance to omit the US from its list of "page after page of countries" which have contributed. Please remove from "Breaking News" if you deem appropriate. Thank you. New York, 30 December 2004 - Secretary-General Kofi Annan and UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland at press conference on Asian Tsunami disaster SG: Let me thank you for coming. This...

No one gives more than U.S. Americans face unfair criticism over big relief contributions, Peter Worthington writes By PETER WORTHINGTON -- For the Toronto Sun December 31, 2004 The Boxing Day tsunami catastrophe may well be the worst natural disaster in human history. It probably is in terms of lives lost, although one should remember the world's population has gone from under one billion in 1800 to over six billion in 2004 (it's tripled since 1927), so death from disasters keep increasing. When Krakatoa erupted on the Indonesian island of Rakata in 1883, it sent a tidal wave circling and...

The New York Times agrees with that United Nations official who suggested the United States was stingy in the aid planned for tsunami-devastated nations. The official later backed down, but it's unlikely the liberal newspaper will do so. In fact, the newspaper, in an editorial, said the United States has not only been stingy in its response to the Asian tsunami disaster, but in giving aid in general. The editorial said the $15 million initially offered by Washington was less than the figure the Republican Party plans to spend on President Bush's inauguration in January. Mr. Bush and Secretary of...

The Stinge-O-Meter, which the United Nations uses to measure the generosity of its members, is busted. The needle is spinning wildly, out of control.     Jan Egeland, the chief bureaucrat in charge of the U.N. emergency relief, such as it is, gave the Stinge-O-Meter a mighty spin in the wake of the Asian tsunami and read the miserable verdict: The United States and the nations of the West are "stingy."     Mr. Egeland, a Norwegian who throws up at the idea that anyone should spend his own money without bureaucratic guidance, says the trouble is rooted in the fact that Americans...