USA, Why dont you care?

[rustedtight]

Why do you not now give a damn?
Is your memory so short?
When you cried out after 911 for support extracting vengeance/seeking to destroy terrorists we, Australia stood beside you with equality.
We ask now that you now respond.

Now that there is a true disaster of major proportions it seems your hands remain in your shallow pockets.
This natural disaster, a tsunami is non selective in whom it harms.
Dont you care?
Australia (population 20 mil) promises first $10 million (50cents per person)
USA (population 200 mil plus) promises first $19million (less than 1 cent per person)
Dont you care?
Australia ups its contribution to $25 million ( $1.25 per head of population)
USA ups its contribution to $30 million (1.5 cents per head of population)
Dont you care?

What message are you sending to the world? Your trying desperately to catch up with a poorer nation like Australia?, You considered the percentage of Muslims affected in the disaster and measured your contribution accordingly?, You just dont care? Christianity is dead in the USA?
Dont you care?
Write to your congressmen and demand they pull their hands out of the collective purse long enough to show compassion equal to the status you seek in the world and contribute to helping poorer people recover just for a short time.
Does 100 thousand dead mean nothing to you? so many more than within the twin towers.... remember them???

By your actions you will be judged.

Dee...
I expect also to be condemned for posting this tho my conscience damanded that I did... ... so be it.

Just because an initial amount was given doesn't mean more won't be on its way. From what I've read in the news the same U.N. Official Jan Egeland who made the comment about being stingy, took back his own words as the US donated more money and will continue to do so.

"It has nothing to do with any particular country or the response to this emergency," Egeland said. "We are in early days and the response has so far been overwhelmingly positive."
He noted that the American contribution "is one of the most generous pledges so far".

I don't know what you're saying. If you're in some type of contest because Australia (as you seemed to fail to mention other countries that also have been donating millions) initially donated more than the US then you're missing the point. I think these aweful times in South Asia is what we should care about more than seeing which country is better than the other.

[Tigerblade]

i understand what you mean, but I have to agree with MiamiGuy on this one... its not supposed to be a contest. just because that's all the US has given so far, it doesnt mean that's all we're giving. yes we still remember the support showed us by other nations after 9/11, and we intend to reciprocate that now.

its just a matter of when, not how much. I dont want to sound like the stereotypical cocky american, but i'm sure america will end up contributing the most money of any country towards the disaster relief. who else are they going to look to? france? bah. any which way, its not a contest.

[Oreo]

As a matter of fact they put some initial money forward and the countries have to go to their embassies to apply for the money so it is used properly and does not go into the hands of some one who might use it only for a few people and say screw the rest. Over time, since the government is often expected to give and give and give, they TRY to make sure the money they give is given to the right people and is used properly so it will do the most good. Have you SEEN the number of US aid groups that are headed to Asia and plan on going and/or sending money? Also, what does Christianity have to do with giving money? Many Jewish and Muslim charities give money too...and I'll bet you'll see them donating. Seeing as Indonesia has the highest population of Muslims in the world...Are you joking that we will not give as much because they are Muslim? If that's the case...I find that deplorable that anyone would suggest such a thing. Suffering is suffering and we DO care about it here in the USA. All religion aside...we do care...we are human despite what others might think. Have you thought perchance that the media in other countries do not favour us so well at the moment because of the war? I do not have as much time as I would like to put into this post....these are just my first reaction thoughts... Perhaps you should look more deeply into what is actually going on in our country before saying that the USA is not doing anything. I am SURE that you can get Public Radio on the Internet... listen to that and hear the American perspective and what is going on...maybe then others will take your words with less protest. You already knew your words would inflame people... when I believe you wanted your words to empower people and get them to stand to action...and do something. If you want people here to do something...getting them angry at some one from another country does not work very well. Just some food for thought. MiamiGuy, you did a great job of supporting your ideas and what's going on...I couldn't add anything to it really.

It is NOT a contest...these are people's LIVES...instead of arguing about who gave what...USE what is given and do something for those people. If you want to nit pick about who did what...wait until AFTER the people are helped.

[Tigerblade]

i just saw this article on Yahoo news: Bush Criticizes U.N. 'Stingy' Comment.

quote:Bush noted that the United States provided $2.4 billion "in food, in cash, in humanitarian relief to cover the disasters for last year. ... That's 40 percent of all the relief aid given in the world last year.
...
Natsios was quick to point out Tuesday that foreign assistance for development and emergency relief rose from $10 billion in President Clinton (news - web sites)'s last year to $24 billion under President Bush in 2003. Powell said U.S. assistance for this week's earthquake and tsunamis alone will eventually exceed $1 billion.

the problem isnt that we dont care, its that we're not exactly in an economic boom right now, and that money has to come from somewhere. its a matter of finding where that somewhere is. the money we've already pledged completely [b]drained[b] the disaster relief fund... now the gov't has to find a way to come up with more money - and that may take some time, but it doesnt mean its not coming.

[gossipingrae]

for real, rusted tight, where was your head with this post? I don't have much to add, for everything was already mentioned.

don't worry about if there is competition. every country donates the money they can spare, or they feel is appropriate.

some money is better than no money, think of that!

[DJHyperbyte]

quote:Originally posted by gossipingrae

for real, rusted tight, where was your head with this post? I don't have much to add, for everything was already mentioned.

So you just posted to insult rustedtight? Great purpose!

Quite frankly, I don't have any problems seeing where rustedtight her point of view comes from. America doesn't have any problems spending millions of dollars and hundreds of lives on a war with another country, but when it comes to helping a country everyone keeps quiet?

Of course it's not a competition, I don't think rustedtight posted those figures to show how much better Australia is than the USA, I think she posted those figures to back her initial statement up: Why doesn't a country with such a size send amounts of money with nine digits, instead of eight?

[gossipingrae]

first of all, I also said that some money is better than none.

second of all, we have donated more than any country, as I just read in the papers a few minutes ago. EDIT: $35 million US dollars to be exact

third, we are fighting a country practically all our own.

and like tiger said, it's not like this economy is booming right now.

we ALWAYS help out where we can. don't scoff at us because we "don't help out like we should be doing"

the USA has people in a war, along with other issues at hand. not all of our money is going to a relief fund. like others said, we help along with what we can spare. let us fix our country and worry about the war in iraq.

[shifter]

It is disappointing that the US has wasted such exorbent amounts of money on Bush's needless war that they can't offer more relief funds. I'm sure the money will keep coming in from all that can help, and I'm sure the US will do what it can. I can see Dee's point of view and I can understand the views of the US citizens here as well.

I personally would like to see my government do more to help, so far we have offered only 4 million dollars in relief, which is a great start but we need to do more. Canada has a 200-person rapid-response team, designed to provide humanitarian aid at times just like now. This team could be on the ground in southern India, Sri Lanka or Thailand within 48 hours. It is time to deploy DART - the Canadian Forces' Disaster Assistance Response Team. Besides medical care, this team is able to provide up to 50,000 litres a day of clean water to the victims of this tragedy, enabling local authorities to better focus on repairing broken infrastructure.

DART isn't cheap - running at about $12 million for a 40-day deployment - but it would undoubtedly save many lives already devastated by so much loss and destruction. It's a time for action, not budget concerns. Canada needs to stop wasting time and start helping save more lives.

[DJHyperbyte]

quote:Originally posted by gossipingrae

we have donated more than any country, as I just read in the papers a few minutes ago. EDIT: $35 million US dollars to be exact

This isn't a competition. My point is that the USA has no problems spending bizarre amounts of money on security (remember 9/11?) or on a war with Iraq, yet there's...

quote:Originally posted by gossipingrae

and like tiger said, it's not like this economy is booming right now

That's right - there's money shortage when it is really needed.

quote:Originally posted by gossipingrae

the USA has people in a war

Which they shouldn't. Like you have said yourself - America isn't doing that brilliant economically... yet they cough up the money to go at war with Iraq? It doesn't make sense to me at all, Rea. Like a wise person once said: "We have money to go at war, yet we cannot feed the poor."