[extropy-chat] sri lanka tsunami

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Max M <maxm at mail.tele.dk> wrote:
> 
> 
> What is this about? Do you know for a fact that the french (and the
> EU) isn't helping?

The EU is a larger economy now than the US, yet has pledged only $4
million up front to the US' $15 million, and a Norwegian UN official
had the gall to say that the US was stingy and needed to 'raise taxes'
to be more generous:

U.N. official slams U.S. as 'stingy' over aid
By Bill Sammon
THE WASHINGTON TIMES


The Bush administration yesterday pledged $15 million to Asian nations
hit by a tsunami that has killed more than 22,500 people, although the
United Nations' humanitarian-aid chief called the donation "stingy." 
    "The United States, at the president's direction, will be a leading
partner in one of the most significant relief, rescue and recovery
challenges that the world has ever known," said White House deputy
press secretary Trent Duffy. 
    But U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan
Egeland suggested that the United States and other Western nations were
being "stingy" with relief funds, saying there would be more available
if taxes were raised. 
    "It is beyond me why are we so stingy, really," the Norwegian-born
U.N. official told reporters. "Christmastime should remind many Western
countries at least, [of] how rich we have become." 

[MSL - But this isn't Christmastime, according to the pro-UN PC
lefties, these are merely 'the Holidays', which are a time of
commercial self indulgence rather than a season of generosity and
giving....]

    "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." 
    In response to Mr. Egeland's comments, Mr. Duffy pointed out that
the United States is "the largest contributor to international relief
and aid efforts, not only through the government, but through
charitable organizations. The American people are very giving." 
    Offers of aid have poured in from around the world in the past two
days, with the European Union's executive arm releasing $4 million in
emergency aid and pledging an additional $27 million. Canada and
several European nations — including Spain, Germany, Ireland and
Belgium — each pledged about $1 million yesterday. 
    Secretary of State Colin L. Powell hinted that the $15 million U.S.
offer was only the first installment of a larger aid package to those
countries devastated by 30-foot waves triggered by a massive underwater
earthquake. 
    "We also have to see this not just as a one-time thing," he said.
"Some 20-plus thousand lives have been lost in a few moments, but the
lingering effects will be there for years. 
    "The damage that was caused, the rebuilding of schools and other
facilities will take time," he added. "So you need a quick infusion to
stabilize the situation, take care of those who have been injured, get
immediate relief supplies in, and then you begin planning for the
longer haul." 
    If that planning calls for significant food aid, the United States
might have to scramble. 
    "Even before the crisis in the Asia-Pacific region and the Indian
Ocean, the demands for food aid were stretching capacity: demands in
Sudan, demands in West Africa, demands in other areas hit by drought
and fighting," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said. 
    "So even though we're giving a lot, the demand is very high," he
added. "We're going to have to look at, as we move forward, what we can
do to meet that demand." 
    Money and food are not the only types of aid being sent by the Bush
administration. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
also is sending a 21-member disaster-relief team to the region. 
    Also, the Pentagon has dispatched military patrol planes from the
Pacific Fleet. President Bush has written letters of condolence to
seven of the affected nations — Bangladesh, Thailand, Sri Lanka,
Indonesia, India, the Maldives and Malaysia. 
    Besides the United States, the largest single national donor was
neighboring Australia, which offered $10 million and transportation
aid. 
    "Australia will and should give more," Prime Minister John Howard
said. 
    The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies made an initial appeal of $6.7 million, which the federation
says it will probably increase. 
    Officials from relief agencies, including the Red Cross and other
nongovernmental organizations, met yesterday in Geneva to coordinate
their efforts. In New York, diplomats from six of the affected nations
met with U.N. officials. 
    The United Nations and other aid organizations have deployed
hundreds of disaster-recovery and humanitarian-response teams to the
region, and officials warn that the cost of the disaster could quickly
reach "many billions of dollars." 
    "We may only know the full effect of this emergency weeks from
now," Mr. Egeland told reporters yesterday at the United Nations in New
York. "The disaster affecting Southeast Asia is not the biggest in
recorded history, but the effects could be the biggest because more
people live in exposed areas than ever before." 
    The tsunami-ravaged nations are particularly susceptible to
epidemics as authorities struggle with thousands of corpses in
unsanitary conditions. International organizations and nations
including France, Japan, Israel, Kuwait, Hungary and others are sending
medical personnel to some or all of the affected countries. 
    "The principal danger is that of diseases transmitted through
water, especially malaria and diarrhea, and infections caught through
respiration," said Hakan Sandbladh, a Red Cross official in Geneva. 
    Groups such as Doctors Without Borders warned that catastrophes
tend to help localized illnesses turn into full-blown epidemics. 
    The destruction of water and sewage pipes, the disruption of
vaccination programs and the lack of attention to disease-carrying
pests such as rats and mosquitoes exacerbated the risk, they said. 
    In this situation, the stagnant pools of water created by the
tsunami could boost the numbers of mosquitoes and other insects that
transmit tropical maladies such as malaria and dengue fever. 
    "The risk of epidemics is also linked to concentrations of people
whose houses have been destroyed," said Pauline Horrill of Doctors
Without Borders. 
    Meanwhile, Agence France-Presse reported that a tsunami alert
system in Hawaii that warns Pacific countries about devastating tidal
waves detected the earthquake that led to the destruction across Indian
Ocean nations. 
    But the absence of an alert system in Asia meant the information
could not be sent out fast enough. 
    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA)
Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, established in 1949 after a huge wave
killed more than 150 people in Hawaii, issued a bulletin at 3:14 p.m.
local time or 8:14 a.m. in the affected area, when it detected an
earthquake off Indonesia. 
    The NOAA's information bulletin said there was a possibility of a
tsunami near the earthquake's epicenter, but that no destructive threat
existed in the Pacific. The huge tidal waves instead swept across the
Indian Ocean, killing people in 10 countries from Indonesia to Somalia.




=====
Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                      -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=Sadomikeyism


		
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