Tsunami aid teaches us all.... (528 hits)
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Submitted by Donne Fan (View user info) at 2005-01-04 13:17:31 EST
I have learned a great deal from the response to the disaster in Southeast Asia. I will try to state what I have learned succintly because I want to hear what you feel you have learned if anything from this.
The U.N. is even more worthless than I could have imagined...The oil for food scandal is not over, and it has shown that many of the top officials at the U.N. are corrupt money grubbing whores, selling themselves and abusing measures designed to ease the suffering of people.
Scant time after a top U.N. official Jan Egeland called the U.S. "stingy" he backed away from the statement, which could be because he got a memo from an underling that we bankroll the U.N. in large measure and always have, that we paid more than any other nation for the reconstruction and recovery of Europe under the Marshall plan, that we also rebuilt Japan which was decimated by its own aggression and which attacked us, and that we give more aid than any other country in the world.
Jan is Norwegian and the fact remains that by many measures his country is one of the most generous in the world and he said this, "There are several donors who are less generous than before in a growing world economy," he said, adding that politicians in the United States and Europe "believe that they are really burdening the taxpayers too much, and the taxpayers want to give less. It's not true. They want to give more." http://washingtontimes.com/national/20041228-122330-7268r.htm I guess what he is saying is that he does not think people are able to give money unless the goverment takes it from them and gives it for them. That is a dim view of humanity. Our private giving currently is almost 10 times the amount of governmental aid initially announced. This is before the planned telethons etc. which I am confident will demonstrate the generosity of America and will establish us as the biggest donors in this disaster.
The fact that Kofi Annan was in Jackson Hole, Wyoming skiing with his family and did not leave his vacation until 3 days after the tsunami would make a much more scathing piece of attack than Bush reading to the children on 9/11, but it will probably be ignored.
The other thing that this disaster has made clear is that the much of the Muslim world cannot be bothered to help anyone through charitable giving unless that giving is to the family of murdering terrorists or to set up schools that spread hatred of jews. The excuse currently being offered for why the nations of the middle east which have many more resources per capita than the U.S. are not doing much at all to help is that their charities are closed because of possible ties to terrorists. This is a bold lie, given that Red Crescent has never come under suspicion and remains the largest Muslim relief organization. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/04/international/worldspecial4/
04arab.html?ei=5006&en=5ee3e8783fb13da3&ex=1105419600&partner=ALTAVISTA1&pagewanted=print&position=
This link is too long to paste whole, but if you put up both parts you should get an interesting story from the NYT about the lack of aid in the middle east.
Why should Kuwait be giving much more than the U.S.? Those reasons were stated brilliantly by Waleed al-Nusif, the editor in chief of Al Qabas, who said in a telephone interview in the aformentioned story. "The price of oil doubled, so we have no excuse."
The story continued:
"After the paper's editorial appeared, the Kuwaiti cabinet raised its announced donation on Sunday to $10 million, from $2 million, having previously doubled it.
"Kuwait is expected to run a budget surplus this year of roughly $10 billion, and Mr. Nusif noted that the government had just distributed an estimated $700 million to the Kuwaiti people themselves, the public share of the unanticipated revenue.
He said Kuwait should give a minimum of $100 million, not least because many of the country's 1.29 million foreigners of a total population of 2.25 million come from the devastated regions."
America has very little connection the region, but then again America also had very little connection to the Muslims who were being killed in the former country of Yugoslavia, yet we were the nation that stopped the genocide there. In fact America has done more for the Muslim world than any nation in the last twenty years, ending the Taliban in Afghanistan and freeing those people, liberating Iraq from a brutal genocidal dictator, and continuing to provide relief.
If you disagree with me please explain why America should bear the brunt of rebuilding after the worlds natural disasters (which cannot be blamed on us unlike most other things that go wrong) especially in areas where we have little or no connection and less to give than the rich Muslim nations which do nothing to help their stricken brothers and sisters in submission to Allah.
In summary I have learned that America is the most generous nation on earth, which will be obvious after the money for relief is counted, even without taking into account that we are sending an amazing number of military personnel who continue to do the great work they are consistently engaged in which do not involve waging war, but helping people. I have also learned that the U.N. is incapable of helping as much as 1 nation, much less to marshalling the resources of many, and that this could be in large part due to the failure of the current leadership which is implicated in massive scandal and who ignored the problem until media attention demanded action. I have also learned that the Muslim world is not interested in using its vast wealth to help other Muslims, to rebuild Muslim nations.
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User Reviews
Submitted by Jeanneee (user info) at 2005-01-04 13:41:20 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
It's a harsh lesson, kids, but it's one we all eventually learn: The UN, like all other government and para-government organizations, exists solely to maintain the economic status quo. Love it, hate it, try as you might to fight it, that's how it is and how it will always be. That is, until the anarchists take over (the sooner the better as far as I'm concerned).
It's like that line from "Vanilla Sky":
- What's the answer to 99 out of 100 questions? Money.
Submitted by riggyrow (user info) at 2005-01-04 13:41:09 EST (#)
Ranking: -1
"In fact America has done more for the Muslim world than any nation in the last twenty years, ending the Taliban in Afghanistan and freeing those people, liberating Iraq from a brutal genocidal dictator, and continuing to provide relief."
Considering America's role in the Taliban's coming into control of Afghanistan and America's propping up and supporting Hussein in Iraq for 20 years... don't break your arm patting yourself on the back there buddy.
And I think American business interests were clamoring for aid to Southeast Asia, since that's where a ton of jobs have been relocated. All those dead Asians = work stoppage for a lot of American companies.
Submitted by jgreening (user info) at 2005-01-04 13:39:27 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
what the hell man if they are comin at you , means they want somthin ,more better you look after them and care for them ,than they get on the street uh?
Submitted by GodChicken (user info) at 2005-01-04 13:38:52 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
My roommate is on Abraham Lincoln, running the relief operations in Indonesia right now.
Submitted by Teephphah (user info) at 2005-01-04 13:32:13 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!
Submitted by TheSpook (user info) at 2005-01-04 13:31:02 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
+2 for the post
-1 for being an ignorant republican fuck
-1 for shitty confusing grammar
Submitted by wookie (user info) at 2005-01-04 13:30:24 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Little or no connection to Southeast Asia? Start checking clothing labels on brands like Gap/Banana Republic and Ralph Lauren. An overwhelming amount will read "Made in Sri Lanka", or India, or Indonesia.
Southeast Asia is where we're outsourcing all our labor to, and all the aid we send and rebuilding we do there ultimately serves to secure our new labor force.
Submitted by WhatTheHell (user info) at 2005-01-04 13:28:32 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
I'd rather have a cheese sandwich.
Submitted by Yes (user info) at 2005-01-04 13:25:57 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
See, guy? We're not so bad.
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2005-01-04 13:25:41 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
"The other thing that this disaster has made clear is that the much of the Muslim world cannot be bothered to help anyone through charitable giving unless that giving is to the family of murdering terrorists or to set up schools that spread hatred of jews."
____
Tighten up on the grammar, but good post otherwise.
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2005-01-04 13:24:46 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
The aid relief for the tsunami disaster from the US is going to primarily be from charities, not government, similar to the way we handled the Ethiopian famine in the mid-1980s. Throwing money at a problem isn't going to make it go away - that just opens up more opportunity for the funds to be mishandled.