squinney wrote:Um, so what's the purpose of planning to form a coalition?
Woke up, and realized there is some political mileage to be made using that
term to give away dough to suffering Muslims? Damn good thinking if you ask me. Next I'd like to see him get the ball rolling for real by kicking in the first
Billion Dollars. I just heard the toll is up to 80,000 dead and still rising.
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,11810352%255E1702,00.html
The complete list.
Remember, not just this time, but in past emergencies around the globe, the US sending ships and troops (water treatment plants aboard) is not inexpensive, yet it's not counted as part of our "aid".
OCCOM BILL wrote:squinney wrote:Um, so what's the purpose of planning to form a coalition?
Woke up, and realized there is some political mileage to be made using that
term to give away dough to suffering Muslims? Damn good thinking if you ask me. Next I'd like to see him get the ball rolling for real by kicking in the first
Billion Dollars. I just heard the toll is up to 80,000 dead and still rising.
Spot on. It's a rehabilitation of the term after the tug-o-war the term went through with the war.
That Egelund guy must have really ticked some people off LOL.
LOOK:
http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/my-pay-page/PX3BEL97U9A4I/104-2326617-1358340
(When I checked this morning, it was just over $2M)!!!!!!
JustWonders wrote:Remember, not just this time, but in past emergencies around the globe, the US sending ships and troops (water treatment plants aboard) is not inexpensive, yet it's not counted as part of our "aid".
The watermakers on aircraft carriers aren't no joke either. A Nimitz-Class like the USS Abraham Lincoln can make 400,000 gallons of fresh water from seawater daily... (and won't run out of fuel doing it... and operates for the bargain price of only 20 million dollars a month). Hope she, her fleet and the other fleet we're sending are right nearby. This may be one of our Navy's finest moments. We're basically sending over a small city's worth of working infrastructure.
Source
Oh crap, there may be another one on the way. I just heard there's been an aftershock off the coast of India... I sure hope they have some way of getting the word out.
Lash wrote:D'artagnan wrote:I wasn't demeaning Gates, just challenging your logic. Which still mystifies me...
I know. I've been a little verbal tonight.
Gates is my metaphor for the US in the post you're referring to. (Although O'Bill brings up a valid point. I'd like to do a search of private donations, and see how THOSE stack up.)
This is what's bothering me.
Norway gives the highest % of their GDP, and let's hear it for Norway.
<woo hoooo> That's impressive. They give 92% of 1% of their income. That amounts to
$2,043 million. Not so impressive, but their heart seems to be in the right place.
We give 14% of 1% of our GDP. Seems stingy when you look at it that way--but when you think about the reality of how much more that is that the highest % donor, AND the next six or seven high percentage donors, I think it is fair to say the US donates an incredible percentage of total donations. It shocks me that people carp about the percentage of what we give.
Last year, we donated
$15,791 million.
The amount really must be considered.
$15,791 million.. This figure is probably just the money that we donate. I doubt that it includes the value of the food, medicine, relief work, and other resources that the U.S. donates.
Obviously, one list tops the other:
Richest nations pledge more than US$250m tsunami victims
(This seems more correct re Germany, since that 20 million amount is known for one day long by now.)
re Egeland:
Quote:"I have been misinterpreted when I yesterday said that my belief that rich countries in general can be more generous," Mr Egeland said.
"This has nothing to do with any particular country or the response to this emergency. We're in early days and the response has so far been overwhelmingly positive."
Source
IronLionZion and I went on about this idea of percentage vs. actual amount for a bit some time back.
It's a difference of perception, McG. Realistic Vs. Idealistic. Percentage is most important to the idealistic thinkers as it demonstrates the greater thought. Actual amount is more important to the realistic thinkers as it demonstrates the greater deed. In an emergency, people don't need kind thoughts, so much as they need kind deeds, and there is no country measurably kinder than the United States, in reality. That's a tough FACT for the Blame America First types to swallow.
That being said, I repeat that I do wish we'd lead the pack in percentage as well. Not only would we cure a lot more suffering; we'd increase National Pride and International Credibility at the same time. There's no slide-rule for kind-deeds to less volunteer-opposition in the Muslim communities of the ME, but surely some would realize that a super-generous United States couldn't be as bad as they've been told and choose not to join the fight against us... or even choose to stand with us. What percentage R.O.I. (return on investment) could we expect? When one considers the truly awesome amount of money we're spending in the ME right now, it is conceivable that every dollar spent helping strangers in this disaster could save us more than a dollar fighting would-be enemies down the road.
I see this as an opportunity to literally buy credibility, without paying a terrorist's ransom, or rewarding bad behavior in any way, shape or form. Dig deep folks. (Must be the idealist in me)
now it's up to $4,072,378.00 as of 9:30 Eastern Time. That's some pretty serious progress!
OCCOM BILL wrote:
now it's up to $4,072,378.00 as of 9:30 Eastern Time. That's some pretty serious progress!
Wow! I looked again first thing when I got up and it was $3.9 !! I figured it would take until this afternoon to get over the $4M mark!!!
Yay, us!!!!!!!!!!!!
5 hours later, it's up to $5,263,653.00!
Quote:CRAWFORD, Texas, Dec 30 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush will send a delegation headed by Secretary of State Colin Powell and the president's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, to the tsunami-affected region on Sunday to assess the need for assistance, the White House said.
You don't know how many of those 'welfare nations in designer stations' could just be
pretending to get their hands on the benefits......
Quote:European-hosted international conference designed to accelerate pledges of assistance to victims of the Asian and African tsumani and added the United Nations to a four-nation coalition organizing humanitarian relief.
A conference - wheeeeeeeee! First order of business, 4 or 5 star service at the hotel? The pate is distinctly gritty and 1956 was a lousy year for champagne, send it back!! What a
disaster!
Sending Jeb is a good idea, he is a good man. He interceded in a case I had that was not being handled properly by local authorities and he had the head of FDLE investigate the case and the problem was resolved.
Mr Stillwater wrote:Quote:CRAWFORD, Texas, Dec 30 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush will send a delegation headed by Secretary of State Colin Powell and the president's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, to the tsunami-affected region on Sunday to assess the need for assistance, the White House said.
You don't know how many of those 'welfare nations in designer stations' could just be
pretending to get their hands on the benefits......
The last time those brothers got together to tour a disaster area, a check for $2,000,000,000 soon followed. Jeb Bush is probably the perfect person to advise George on this, even though he is his brother.
Florida is a 'disaster area' four times in the last six weeks? There is no good news lately......
The aid isn't the only thing going up. When I went to work this morning--the death toll was around 84 K. Riding home, it was 117K.
I STILL don't think we have grasped the enormity of what has happened. I can't get my head around the land area affected--and how there can be one hundred and seventeen thousand dead people. I can't even imagine one thousand dead people. To me, it seems if the ocean came in and swamped a huge area of land, fewer people would be found, than would be lost in the sea.
It makes me think the death toll should be about a third or less of those lost.
