Tsunami Donations, Brits Put Rest To Shame

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Morgoth - I think either way is bad. More or less, but bad. If it is a relief fund, it should go to help the victims. Time for investments will come later. There is simply too much to do right now.

 

I actually heard on the news last night or the night before that PM John Howard has pledged $1bn in aid now. WTF does he think he's doing? Granted, this is a serious situation where aid is necessary but with every other nation helping as well, you'd think there'd be a modicum of sensibility in this rather than turning it into the pissing contest it certainly seems to have become. I also heard that our entrepreneur Dick Smith has pledged $13 million alone.

 

Dont worry Aldazar. These are just pledges. The money will never actually be given.

In case people think I'm being cynical both the US and the UK alone have an impressive track record of not giving money they have previously pledged. Until the money actually goes to these charity groups and countries, it is nothing more than a promise.

As such this pissing contest is exactly that. Who can pledge the most money.

 

In that case...hereby i pledge to donate 2.5 billion out of my own pocket.

 

3 Billion!
Hear that Bush, Blair, assorted bureaucrats; wouldn't want to fall behind would you!?

On a serious note - after leafing this all through, I come to the same conclusion as Splunge - however questionable the motivations might be, if there's a general positive effect, one shouldn't complain.
I just hope that not in an effort to be the hardest pissers, they nuke their own balances beyond what they can handle...


[ January 07, 2005, 13:55: Message edited by: Hugo ]

 

Just heard on the news that Thailand in India claimed they can go without the donations.
Thailand found it even insulting that we thought they needed money, teehee.

That's why we pledge money instead of giving it, "You don't want the money? Oh, then we never mentioned it"

 

@Morgoth: Well no...thing is, the Central government isn't against giving the money for relief...in fact, almost all their free funds are being allocated for relief. But the Tamil Nadu CM has a history of ... appropriating funds which are meant for public benefits, which is why the Central Government isn't keen to let her have all that money unchecked. It's the politicians representing the worst hit people trying to make money out of this which is sickening.

 

China has said that they are donating another 500 million kronor over the already donated 40 million.

One dollar is around 7 kronor.

 

This whole Apres-Tsunami matter is driving me nuts.

Why is it that people/countries donate millions to these countries and Africa is burning, starving and battling for decennia? Are they afraid of the global shift?

 

Exactly, there are 200 people dying of aids EVERY SINGLE DAY in Zambia, just to give one example, but apparently that's not interresting anymore.

 

I feel ashamed that the U.S. upped its offer of charity. I always thought that charity should come from the heart and not from shame. Since when do victims/beggars turn down money. If I was in charge I wouldn't have increased the government donation by a cent. I would have helped in other ways that you don't get credit for. Heck, I'm sure a nuclear aircraft carrier could probably power the entire region. The sheer amount of air and sealift capabilities the Navy and Air Force could offer is probably worth a hell of a lot more than a couple of dollars sitting in the Red Cross's bank accounts.

Then again, I may just be mean and ornery tonight.

 

I can't believe what a trendy cause this has become. I bet the next country to be hit by a natural disaster gets peeved off with the relatively small amount of aid they're going to get compared to what's being dished out here.

 

Yet to stop that type of problem costs far more than solving the tsunami problem. The only real way to stop AIDS is for the carriers to all die out (sad but true). The tsunami victims can be saved NOW with money to help them rebuild what they had then they can take care of themselves again.

I'm still disgusted how this has turned into a political pissing contest. These countries will soon have more money than they know what to do with.

 

I just wonder what would happen if by some chance, all the money pledged actually gets used to help in this situation, and then in a few months (or even a year or 2) something similar happens. What's the world going to do then?

And the one thing that's really pissing me off about this is that, granted it's a huge tragedy, but what about other events going on in the world? The news here has been almost nothing but Tsunami footage and we're only just beginning to see on the news about a nightclub fire in Argentina (or something along those lines, it WAS just a soundbite after all). Makes me wonder what else has been happening that I've not heard about.

 

Huge bushfire in Australia at the moment. I wonder how much aid will go that way. Actually I remember that many years ago there was a charity cricket match played at the MCG to raise money for bushfire victims. No talk of that this year.

 

Does Michael Schumacher count as a nation?

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