* ponying up a big 100k

[yankeedem]

for INDIA tsunami victims

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041227/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_quake_11

"U.S. officials immediately sent $100,000 each to India, Indonesia, the Maldives and Sri Lanka, and planned to donate $4 million later Monday to help Red Cross disaster efforts, Powell said."

Boy, that's some compassionate conservatism for you. Halliburton probably steals that much every hour.

[Squatch]

1. USA has pledged $15 Million

The first $4 is just an immediate relief amount.

[yankeedem]

2. Still not much

How much are we spending to kill brown people today in Iraq?

[Squatch]

3. The entire EU has pledged $5 million...

so what do you mean "not much"?

[DenverDem]

4. Not much in relation to what is needed.

And not much relative to other daily expenditures we make collectively.

[yankeedem]

5. Not enough

Western Countries need to start contributing their part. These victims are going to need assistance for years. This pittance of aid to already impoverished regions will just guarantee that they are begging for scraps for many years to come.

[Bouncy Ball]

6. Just look at our defense budget and compare it to

what we give for disaster relief, what we spend on education and social programs, etc and you will clearly see our priorities.

It's not pretty.

[Turn CO Blue]

7. So far, I have to agree, it sounds like chump change...

or "chimp" change as the case may be! }(

[TheWebHead]

8. it's a pathetic amount

for the US or the EU... surprised Colin Powell didn't hang his head in shame announcing it. It would be like Bill Gates calling a press conference to announce he's donating $2,000 to the relief aid. You'd think that with *'s desire to repair relationships, he'd offer something more sizable for what appears to amount to the largest natural disaster in modern world history.


A massive appeal for aid is to be launched in the next few days. Mr. Egeland expressed concern, however, that several rich donor countries are becoming less generous, even as needs continue to grow.

"We were more generous when we were less rich -- many of the rich countries. It is beyond me why we are so stingy. Actually foreign assistance for many countries now is 0.1 or 0.2 percent of gross national income, that is stingy."
http://www.politinfo.com/articles/article_2004_12_27_4704.html

[antigone382]

9. 10% of total global defense spending would solve so much

If the entire world cut just 10% of its military spending (in particular the U.S., which significantly outspends the rest of the world) and devoted it to humanitarian aid, every single country would have adequate food, healthcare, and education. It wouldn't answer all the world's problems, and it might not have prevented the horrible loss of life that resulted from this tsunami, but it certainly wouldn't hurt.

And to those who say that famine, disease, and disaster are necessary to keep the population from exploding: the population is exploding anyway, while billions of people are living--and dying--in misery. The best way to stabilize global population growth is to provide funding for education and birth control, which you can see by comparing the birth rate of societies that have these two features, like the U.S. and most European countries, with third world countries that don't. In the former, the population is stabilized; people are happy; it's a win-win situation.

[hatrack]

10. It's three hours' occupation costs for Iraq

Which, I think, helps put things in perspective.

A very conservative estimate of Iraq War costs is about $4 billion a month. Divide 4B/30 and divide that by 24, and you end up with
$5,555,555.

So, it's about 2 hours and 40 minutes' worth of Freedom Marching/Fighting Terra In Iraq So We Don't Have To At Home/Liberatin' or whatever you want to call it.

Another way of looking at it - it's a touch more than 1/3 of Bush's big Inaguration Party bill.

[Bluebear]

11. Wonder how much Dell will cough up

After all, their tech support, financial services etc. are all outsourced to India. Will he help the nations that take US jobs at least? Or would that eat up the money they're saving?

[donheld]

12. If the US lets its money speak for it

this is like the US saying tough titties.