I think the best person to answer you and John D. would be the Diplomad. I
invite you to read today's posting, which is extremely a propos.
http://www.diplomadic.blogspot.com/
I would also invite you to read this bit of news about Jan "The US is
stingy" Egeland's latest "threat^H^H^H^H^H^H^Happeal".
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/050111/1/3psae.html
The issue here is not with gloating about how much one country is giving Vs
another, it's about realizing how the world really works out there. Rushing
out to send money to the UN for tsunami disaster relief is about the worst
mistake one can make and yet it will be done by a lot of people who do not
understand what the UN is and how it works.
BTW, I read where Michael Dell (here in Texas) has pledged $3billion to the
relief. And your figures below do not take into consideration the private
money (beyond Dell's pledge) that has been raised in the US, and it has
outstripped what the government gave. Your figures below also do not
reflect a carrier group, a helicopter carrier group and the dozens of USAF
and USN cargo planes flying around in the area delivering goods. There are
over 14,400 US military personnel using $20 billion in military assets on
site. They have delivered 6 million pounds of relief supplies. There are
25 ships, 37 cargo aircraft, 8 patrol aircraft and 51 helicopters, all from
the US military, on site.
I do not have the figures for Australia, but I am sure their commitment is
very substantial.
My point in my original posting was to illustrate how the MSM can take the
noblest effort of our military and either denigrate it, ignore it or best
yet, attribute it to someone else. I think the way the UN is conducting
itself is shameful in the extreme and that organization should be disbanded
forthwith. It is correct, the US (once again) is paying the biggest part of
the bill and yet it has no control at the UN. We can't even find out the
extent of the corruption in the Oil-for-food program, arguably the biggest
corruption case in the history of the world.
Denys
-----Original Message-----
From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Richard Barker
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2005 7:51 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT: Tsunami and Diego Garcia
I don't particularly want to get into this debate, but the reason the UN may
have called the US financial contribution stingy was that it's a lot lower
than what Europe is pledging. I would also point out the US is the one of
the main players in the UN, so criticising the UN, reflects equal criticism
on all the countries involved.
This might be a bit out of date, but this is a list of financial
contributions by country. As you will notice Europe is contributing (at
least has pledged) 1336.5 Million, the US only 350.
All figures in U.S. dollars:
AUSTRALIA - $810 million (grants and loans)
GERMANY - $674 million
JAPAN - $500 million
UNITED STATES - $350 million
NORWAY - $183 million
FRANCE - $103 million
BRITAIN - $95 million
SWEDEN - $75.5 million
DENMARK - $75 million
SPAIN - $68 million
CANADA - $67 million
CHINA - US$60 million
SOUTH KOREA - $50 million
TAIWAN - US$50 million
NETHERLANDS - $32 million
EUROPEAN COMMISSION - $31 million
SWITZERLAND - $23.5 million
INDIA - $23 million
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - $20 million
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