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I generally stay away from any political topics, because I do not feel knowledgeable enough to comment. However I can have basic feelings regarding political issues. Im sticking my neck out and taking a chance here........... I cannot believe that I turn on the news and hear.." US criticized for not coming through FAST ENOUGH with funds for Asian Tradegy.... What if we didnt comr through at all? I am proud to be a citizen of a compassionate and benevolent country. I have to wonder though... Do we do it only to be popular with the rest of the world? Where does all that money come from? How about giving someone else a chance ? I don think the world knows.... Here in the US we have...

Homeless... starving on the streets

Huge numbers of people who cannott afford medical coverage

Young people who are denied money for college because their parents made 100.00$ too much last year.

A minimum wage that makes living impossibe.

When do you think we will start to help our own?

Isnt there enough glory in it ? Or wouldnt there be enough media coverage?

what.. you mean you missed where we are supposed to bail out the rest of the world and not expect anything in return.. silly person.. It is expected of the US. Our problems are minor compared to the rest of the worlds.. right.. right...?? I mean who cares if we have out of control health care expenses.. crappy wages.. homeless people.. starving kids... oops.. hey.. wait a minute.. that almost sounds like the rest of the world ... gasp... okay.. rant over..

willow wrote: Same here in the UK. We are one of the first to offer help, but criticised cos it wasn't quick enough. How fast do people want it?!


In this case, immediately there was a problem.... you can see that, surely? It's interesting to see where the criticism came from, and what was actually said, and what was read into it. Taking this aside from any bruised National Egos, perhaps the criticism will actually have helped!

My dad says that we are printing money, that has nothing to back it up. He says that if we continue..we are going to collapse. If this is true... The concept reminds me of buying your kids 75.00 sneakers when the rent isnt paid. Or using a credit card to put in a swimming pool to keep up with the Jonses. Believe me as I said.. I am proud to belong to a compassionate and benevolent country. But you have to give what you HAVE to give. Not manufacture resources to uphold an image. Maybe its the word billions that is boggling my mind. Again I dont understand. Many of the school districts in various states here do not have enough BOOKS for the students. Teachers dip into their own pockets to provide needed supplies.

OOO I just thought of something. This is what I mean. Stick to the budget. If youve got 6 billion and needs here...... send three. because needing it here is a valid reason. make up the difference with hands. Volunteer medical personell, carpenters to rebuild etc...... Is there shame in that?

Two young girls work for me. This Christmas their dad said " I have to give you an IOU for Christmas. I donated everything to the needy ( IN their little town) There wasnt even money for Christmas dinner. To whose glory? This man isnt in a position to give everything he had. Are We?

willow wrote: My point is that instead of thanking us for helping, others who have not made the same effort have criticised and said it was not within 0.888888 seconds of the disaster happening.


Who was that, then? I was thinking of whatsisname, Annan? the U.N. Sec. Gen.

It does seem a shame that something was not done sooner - I don't know whether this might have been possible, but suspect that there have been missed opportunities. Aid is only even beginning to arrive now.

Note also how perverse is the attitude of the weak toward their benefactors. They feel generosity as oppression; they want to retaliate. They say to their benefactors: "May the day come when you shall be weak and we will send bundles to America."

You do not win the weak by sharing your wealth with them; it will but infect them with greed and resentment. You can win the weak only by sharing your pride, hope, or hatred with them.



--Eric Hoffer, 1954

willow wrote: It is like our aid has been thrown back in our faces.


Who? Who has done this?

The criticism is absurd. The scale of this is unprecenented and it takes a few days to work out what is needed. arguing about who gives the most is pathetic. The disaster is on the other side of the world you just can't move lots of stuff that quickly

anastrophe wrote: Note also how perverse is the attitude of the weak toward their benefactors. They feel generosity as oppression; they want to retaliate. They say to their benefactors: "May the day come when you shall be weak and we will send bundles to America."

You do not win the weak by sharing your wealth with them; it will but infect them with greed and resentment. You can win the weak only by sharing your pride, hope, or hatred with them.



--Eric Hoffer, 1954


That is exactly correct. Ever hear the saying " You cant give money away?"

Not to those with pride anyway. I have been involved with people who are willing to take anything your willing to give them. Most times you dont even realize your hurting their pride. When they turn viscious, you are dumbfounded. Not understanding at all. I still would appreciate an answer from someone more knowledgable than myself.......... Where do the billions come from?

willow wrote: Just some eejits on another board I was talking on. I am not saying that everyone has the same opinion as them, just that the general opinion of the group I was chatting with was that our aid was appreciated but we could have got there quicker. I was outraged. You try to help people out...and others that have not helped mock us for not doing it faster.
Ever since Tony Blair showed his support for decisions our country was making....

He made his country a target for criticism right along with us. Thats OK with me.

In a twisted kind of way we are sort of joined together again. The way it was a very long time ago. Make any sence????

I wonder how much any other Asian countries, or middle eastern countries has donated? Why is it alway's the West?

tmbsgrl wrote: I understand where you are coming from. I think we need to take care of our problems before we go help someone elses country. Just like the whole Iraq thing we blew stuff up over there and Bush was going to pay for it to get fixed. I don't like politics. I don't listen to anything bush has to say. I do not like him.
I dont like him either... But it doesnt matter what we like or dont like. There are a handful of people running world affairs. They actually try to get us to hate each other.. Nobody hates anybody.. People just want to live and be happy. Too much to ask? I hate politics too. no sence in getting into heated argument discussing them, because they are completely out of everyones controll.

capt_buzzard wrote: I wonder how much any other Asian countries, or middle eastern countries has donated? Why is it alway's the West?
Japan has donated the most money.

A part of me is sickened by the quote which Anastrophe has provided but that is the young idealistic part of me. The aging, wiser part says, sadly, this is true.

weeder wrote: I still would appreciate an answer from someone more knowledgable than myself.......... Where do the billions come from?I don't think I am more knowledgeable than you, but the billions come from us, the taxpayers. It also comes from repayments of loans we've made to other countries.



An interesting note: the government does not record how much it has promised - it only records what it actually spends. Governmental accounting is a specialty, and I'm not overly familiar with it, although I do work with the State of Oregon, so I have that little bit of knowledge that's dangerous. LOL.



Let me know if you're interested in more information on this.



Meanwhile, in addition to the government sending funds, almost everyone seems to sending further personal donations. My company is matching every dollar given in donations for doctors, medicines, and other necessary health supplies. I know that several companies are doing the same thing.

capt_buzzard wrote: I wonder how much any other Asian countries, or middle eastern countries has donated? Why is it alway's the West?


China? Japan? Kuwait? Quatar? Saudi Arabia? Singapore? South Korea? Taiwan? United Arab Emirates? North Korea, even? If you Google, or similar, you ill find out.

I heard only this morning that China is doing the DNA testing. hmmm

I cannot believe that I turn on the news and hear.." US criticized for not coming through FAST ENOUGH with funds for Asian Tradegy....

Good god what an idiotic comment by whomever made it. What of those people in Asia when they eventually hear, "oh we had warning about the weather but could not get it to many communities quick enough" Bloody hell I think the world needs a good head shaking. The US, Canada, UK, Australia etc are doing what they can as fast as they can and aid can only penetrate those countries so fast.

Takes me back to Haiti when the aid was sent there and people were complaining it didn't get where it was intended fast enough. After further investigation they found gangs were scooping the supplies first and the average jo villager was being ripped off.

All in all I agree with weeder what if we didn't contribute at all. Some help is better than no help at all and I think nations are pulling together well in aid of asia.

Dam pity to see middle east news of human devistation (human bombs etc) and how it pales in comparison to the natural phenom of mother nature.

sorry I kinda wandered all over the board there.

Was on the web with a bunchof whacko European leftists who on the day that the news broke started to brag about how much they naturally give to charity to help their fellow man.

They started of with fictitious facts and figures that showed that they were more charitable than the war like Americans. I translated the figures and they were aghast that someone would have the gall to call them on their falseness.

The battle raged for days and on new Years Day it was settled. They didn't want to talk about it anymore because all of a sudden the vastly superior, more charitable, anti-Americans were shown to be the scrooges that they were trying to hide from the world.

What probably miffed them more than the money that was given was the fact that the Americans had the gall to send the Navy in with the helicopters and aid supplies. The doctors. The hospitals. Everything including the kitchen sink.

But like liars they carried on with new assaults about how it wasn't quick enough. They could've given more.

Haven't bothered going back because they are a big waste of time and effort. They wouldn't believe the truth if it smacked them in the head. I know that because I watched it happen so often that I was getting dizzy from the rapid ping pong pounding they were taking from a few irate Allies.

They give a whole new meaning to the concept of bone heads.