If we didn't have to spend so much on bailing out countries being invaded
(Kuwait) or liberating oppressed people from ruthless dictators (Kosovo
...take your pick) we'd have plenty of money to spend on humanitarian
efforts.  Hopefully we can rid the world of these thugs and get back to
helping solve the worlds medical problems.

<Snip>
It doesn't look pretty: The United States ranks last among the world's 28
top
foreign aid donor countries, and its foreign assistance levels have dropped
dramatically over the past 10 years, according to a United Nations report
released this week.

Let's see, who was president for 8 of those last ten years?  I think it was
that "I feel your pain" Democrat who is supposed to be looking out for all
the sick, poor children.  I didn't hear anyone complaining about him not
supporting AIDS research.  Or about him not sending money to Africa.



-----Original Message-----
From: Wirt Atmar [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2003 5:25 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT : US uses Indian 'threat' to force Pak support on
Iraq

John writes:

> At 04:52 PM 3/10/03 EST, Wirt Atmar wrote:
>  >
>  >I suspect that Tim's comment was that the money came out of his pocket
to
>  >provide whatever aid the US is providing, however meager. That was
> certainly
>  >John's complaint. But in either case, Tim and John are spending far less
of
>  >their money on aiding the rest of the world than is either the average
>  >Belgian, Japanese or Saudi Arabian.
>  >
>
>  Capital B and capital S.

The only saving grace of my statement is that it has the unfortunate quality
of being true. From the Miami Herald half a year ago:

=======================================

Posted on Thu, Jul. 25, 2002

Small donors show up U.S. aid
U.N. report highlights efforts relative to national economies

It doesn't look pretty: The United States ranks last among the world's 28
top
foreign aid donor countries, and its foreign assistance levels have dropped
dramatically over the past 10 years, according to a United Nations report
released this week.

The United Nations Human Development Report 2002, a wide-ranging report that
includes both fascinating country statistics and a questionable development
ranking of 137 nations, puts the United States well below Denmark, the
Netherlands, Japan and even Spain and Portugal on the list of the biggest
foreign aid donor countries relative to the size of their economies.

Granted, if you look at the actual dollar figures, the $9.9 billion annual
U.S. foreign assistance ranks only second after Japan's $13.5 billion.

But when you look at countries' foreign aid relative to the size of their
economies, the United States is devoting 0.1 per cent of its gross national
product (GNP) to help the world's poorest countries, less than any other
industrialized nation.

By comparison, Denmark spends 1.06 percent of its GNP on foreign aid, the
Netherlands 0.84 percent, Norway 0.80 percent, Germany 0.27 percent, Japan
0.28 percent, Portugal 0.26 percent, and Spain 0.22 percent. What's worse,
U.S. foreign aid has by this measure been cut in half over the past 10
years.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/andres_oppenheimer/3729
41

8.htm

========================================

Wirt Atmar

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *