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^^ That is in addition to the $35 million. For my part, I think the US approach to this has been quite good.
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I have to agree, the US has done well regarding aid. But no matter how much money is gathered, there is never enough, esp. with crisis of such large scale. But like Yao said, I am surprised by the amount some of the European countries have contributed, esp. France.We shall boldly dance, where no man has danced before..."Comment
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Almost 5,000,000 in aid through Amazon.com only.
Unbelievable. The money is funnelling in from all areas.
Update:
International contributions up to date.Comment
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France will pledge all they want, but I wonder how much they will actually send. I don't trust Chriac and his administration all that much.
If they really send that much, I commend them on their donations.
Chirac is a crook. It's a PR move for now if you ask me.Comment
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More than half of the $35 million the US is "giving" is a line of credit.
Plus I know where they can get a hold of $40 million. Just cancel the corona....inaugaration.Cat formerly known as Cheshire
*cue imperial death march"Comment
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and Canada is giving $40 milionComment
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Originally posted by HoneyBearKelly
Do you think the US is the only one doing this?
The majority of France's donations are loans.Comment
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France should lose the colonial attitude it still has and move on in the new political order. The way it's acting now it's losing credit at a fast rate...
?100,000, that's nothing. And if they really are giving loans now, they are crooks. You don't go giving loans in this situation, they'll never be able to pay it back, and it would be a cheap way of economically binding those countries to France: that is called neo-colonialism. Though I haven't heard of that happening yet...(I mean the loans in this particular case).
Something else: today I read some the reader's letters in the paper, and a few of them argued that the Netherlands' news sources should concentrate a little less on the few Dutch casualties in Asia. I couldn't agree more: without wanting to discard the emotions of the families of the deceased, we have only 9 confirmed deaths on a stunning number of 120,000 and still counting. 30 missing. Mentioning it, ok. treating it as a national disaster: No Way. It gives me, and many others, the feeling that we consider our lives more than those of the people that lived there.
And when the survivors return home (which they still have for crying out loud!), there's a shrink waiting for every single one of them, their family waiting for them, and the comfort of their own good old home waiting for them.
Those people out there have nothing, just nothing left...Blowkick visual & graphic design - No Civilization. Now With Broadband.
There are but three true sports -- bullfighting, mountain climbing, and motor-racing. The rest are merely games. -HemingwayComment
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I second that, although I do not see that happening any time soon.France should lose the colonial attitude it still has and move on in the new political order. The way it's acting now it's losing credit at a fast rate...
I agree.?100,000, that's nothing. And if they really are giving loans now, they are crooks. You don't go giving loans in this situation, they'll never be able to pay it back, and it would be a cheap way of economically binding those countries to France: that is called neo-colonialism. Though I haven't heard of that happening yet...(I mean the loans in this particular case).
I agree. We Americans are missing 100 with 15 confirmed, if I'm not mistaken. I COULDN'T IMAGINE what it's like to have 20 family members missing, such as what the Sri Lankan familes are going through right now. Watching your family members float off into the ocean.Something else: today I read some the reader's letters in the paper, and a few of them argued that the Netherlands' news sources should concentrate a little less on the few Dutch casualties in Asia. I couldn't agree more: without wanting to discard the emotions of the families of the deceased, we have only 9 confirmed deaths on a stunning number of 120,000 and still counting. 30 missing. Mentioning it, ok. treating it as a national disaster: No Way. It gives me, and many others, the feeling that we consider our lives more than those of the people that lived there.
And when the survivors return home (which they still have for crying out loud!), there's a shrink waiting for every single one of them, their family waiting for them, and the comfort of their own good old home waiting for them.
Those people out there have nothing, just nothing left...
Incredible. Horrific.Comment
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Re: US Role in Tsunami Relief Efforts
Posted on Thu, Dec. 30, 2004
France Doubles Aid for Asian Disaster
JOHN LEICESTER
Associated Press
PARIS - One-upping the United States, France nearly doubled its aid pledge for tsunami victims to $57 million Thursday and briefly claimed the role as leading donor nation, following barbs from Washington about French generosity.
But Britain quickly topped France by more than tripling its donation to $95 million and Sweden promised $75.5 million. Spain's Cabinet, meanwhile, approved a $68 million package, although about a fifth was in loans rather than outright grants.
Since Sunday's huge earthquake off Indonesia and ensuing giant waves around the Indian Ocean, the United States has announced an initial $35 million aid package. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday that was "just a beginning."
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's boast that France vaulted to "the head of all the contributors" appeared to be a response to comments from Andrew Natsios, chief of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which distributes American government aid.
In a Fox News interview this week, Natsios said France tends not to be a world leader in foreign aid and often packages its help as loans, which he suggested are inappropriate in emergencies.
"The aid program in France is not that big," he said. "They do not tend to be dominant figures in the aid. The British are, the European Union is, the Japanese are, we are, the Canadians are."
At France's Foreign Ministry, spokesman Herve Ladsous shot back that French aid for the tsunami victims "is clearly donations and not loans."
Ladsous also said France gives more development aid than the United States and all other members of the Group of Eight industrial nations when measured as a proportion of a country's economic output.
"The figures speak for themselves," he said.
France allotted .41 percent of its gross national income to development aid in 2003, nearly triple the .15 percent from the United States, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The United States, which has a far bigger economy, led in dollar terms, donating $16.2 billion to France's $7.2 billion, which ranked third among the G-8 nations, OECD figures show. Japan was second.
After Sunday's disaster, in which 22 French citizens are known dead and 560 are missing, France first announced it would donate $30 million - but Raffarin said Thursday it would give an additional $27.2 million for preventing epidemics.
President Jacques Chirac, echoing calls from Germany and Italy, said France would press the Paris Club of creditor nations for a moratorium on debt repayments by countries hit by the disaster. He also called for the creation of a worldwide alert system for earthquakes and tsunami and for a European Union reconstruction fund for the affected areas.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, back from a tour of the destruction in Thailand and Sri Lanka, recommended that nations go beyond the relief and reconstruction coalition formed by the United States, India, Australia and Japan and laid out by President Bush on Wednesday.
"Of course there needs to be a humanitarian action coalition - as President Bush just proposed," Barnier said. "But there also needs to be another international coalition against poverty, for development."Cat formerly known as Cheshire
*cue imperial death march"Comment
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How much are these countries worth?? that is a lot of money now..
i don't want to sound ignorant but do we have to re-build the areas for them or give them food for a chance to re-grow??Comment
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^^france is funnyDon't post anything you wouldn't want yo mamma or the 'feds' to read.Comment
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Seems I have to swallow some remarks here, thoug for once I'm glad I have to. This is good news for the suffering people out there...Blowkick visual & graphic design - No Civilization. Now With Broadband.
There are but three true sports -- bullfighting, mountain climbing, and motor-racing. The rest are merely games. -HemingwayComment
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The overwhelming amount of donations coming from the US will come 'privately'. There are multiple organizations here in America that are nearing 10+Million already.
Amazon is at 8M
The Catholic Church is at 21M
American Red Cross 18M
Those are the ones off the top of my head I've read about today.Comment
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Originally posted by Yao
Indeed. I'm amazed at how much has already been donated.Comment
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