130,000+ people die due to tidal wave in Asia... (1 Viewer)

[Steve Christou]

Corrected by someone who can't spell 'immediately', damn!

Yes the Bush administration initially offered $35m in aid, it's the greatest disaster of our time, and in contrast smaller poorer countries were offering more, criticism was valid.

 

[MarkHastings]

Steve, I don't think the issue should be wether the criticism is valid or not, it's that the rest of the world feels the needs to magnify any 'fault' by the US, like we've NEVER done anything of good in the past.

It's the old "Quick to criticize and slow to thank" attitude that a lot of people have these days.

It's like you can do 10,000 good deeds in a row and they all get wiped out by one "not so generous" act. :frowning:

The rest of the world bullied the US into spending more. Isn't this the same "bullying" that they claim the US does to them (which is why they hate us)? If the rest of the world thinks they're better than us, then why does it matter what we do?

 

[Glenn Overholt]

The US is up to $500 million now. (Probably to match Japan). I am sure that if we donated 500 Billion someone would still complain. This should have been reported on the news as a joke, and the reporter should have gone back to the source and found out exactly how much he/she had donated.

...and what? No benefit concert? With today's technology, one could have been set up that would have made 'Live Aid' look like a grammar school choir.

Glenn

 

[Chris]

Gosh, I'm going to say something here I seldom say: France has it right. Their government, thus far, has committed $200,000. Not $200M, Two-Hundred-Thousand. And they've got it right.

Right now, donating money is just a dick measuring contest, it proves nothing solves no problem. On the ground assistance, which right now is being provided 90% by those out of Japan and US military bases, is what is the requirement. Body cleanup, damage assessment, etc. None of this money will be spent for weeks. Just announcing figures in a lot of ways gets us away from the real point, all the people on the ground over there doing some of the work that is almost unimaginable in it's nature.

But, it's nice that people will play one upmanship with money. In a few years, the people there will be grateful. Right now, they are most grateful for the water purifiers which arrived last night from US bases in Sri Lanka and the distribution of healthy water, as well as the food supports that Japan airflighted in in the last two days.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Seems to me the people most pissed off about this are from the U.S. Oh well...

 

[RobertR]

How sad that this tragedy is being used by some people to grind their political axes.

 

[MarkHastings]

It sucks that people in the US contribute so much money to help out and still get bashed. :frowning:

 

[Patrick_S]

I read a Reuters story dated Dec 29 that stated France pledged 15 million euros.

15 million euros is only worth 200k?

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Mark, I don't see anyone bashing the 'American people'. Hell, I don't see anyone bashing America as a country right now, at least not over this issue.

The U.S. was (I believe) the first country not-directly-affected to send in ships and crew for support purposes. This costs money - big money - and noboody except a complete idiot is going to think otherwise.

The $35m quoted a few days ago was clearly stated by your President to be an interim amount while the situation was being assessed. The same for the initial money stumped up by Blair. Personally I didn't see any issue with that at all, in fact it seemed quite prudent.

Again, I don't see any bashing going on, nor do I see any political agendas being hung out to dry here. If that's how it's being interpreted then well... sorry, but that's not my problem.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

At today's exchange rate, 15m Euro = $20,386,916

 

[Brandon_T]

You know what Rob, its not even worth it, I am sick of having to have to defend any amount of generosity, but over here, you can turn on the news and see people saying that it isn't enough, and for early on bashing, when the devestation wasn't believed to be this bad, you can refer to post 40 and 48 of this thread. I am quite surprised that this thread has remained open, and disappointed that this is what it has come to.

I feel terrible for the victims and pray for them. I am done with this thread...

 

[Chris]

Ah, I should have used someone else, at one point, their donation was small.

The idea wasn't to call out anyone for their donation, just to say that all of the sizing of who donated what right now doesn't matter a great deal.. none of it will be spent for a fair while until tons of actual man work, assessment, etc. arrive.

 

[todd s]

Rob,

It's not bashing here on the forum. But, you turn on the news and early on I saw reports of people, governments and Intl.organizations critize the US. Like I said earlier. When a reported went to a remote area of Indonesia that no relief crews had gotten to. One of the people started yelling where is the help...where are the Americans. Not where is the Indonesian or French or British or Japanese. But, the Americans. I know this guy is traumatized..who wouldn't be. But, it shows how engrained it is to condemn the US and then ask or even in some cases demand help from America.

 

[Adam Barratt]

Somehow this thread has veered far, far from its original subject into bickering about the who gave what, and how much, to whom; and who is responsible for what political point scoring. These aren't subjects for this thread nor for this forum.

I would be deeply disappointed if I were forced to close this thread of any, but if this thread continues in the direction it's heading, I will.

Adam Barratt
HTF Administrator

 

[MarkHastings]

agreed

 

[Chris]

First, I agree that we should not veer far, and that we should get back to the point, thus a lot of information below. I would like to add that for those that have read this thread, and are aware, from those who are there, they have estimated and the state department began planning for a multi-billion dollar relief effort days ago, (as I noted in this thread)

Ok, back to the news at hand:

We heard from our sister today on how things are going. In Phuket, it's almost back to normal in a strange sense; many vacationers have returned to the beaches and some of the hotels have resumed operation. While asked to pitch in help, they do not have to and many (most) have refused.

Water purification is going full blast and bottles of water in what are basically milk jugs are being distributed as fast as they can get them out to people.

Pictures are being taken of the bodies in order to help identify them later, and the ground is being treated. All locals are being tested and provided vaccinations in order to prevent the spread of disease. Foreign aid in the form of doctors, have been providing basic care.

On the other end, the smaller islands are still being mapped as observation points; while they fly over them with helicopters, most areas are still off-limits and no one has been able to get in to evaluate the damages or check on loss of life. This is largely because the destruction of roadways and canals and the fact that most of these provide poor area to land a helicopter or small craft. They hope to make boat enterance to many places over the weekend.

While they purify water, not all of the water news is good.. most of the sewage treatment capability is seriously mangled, and so contaminated water is flowing too freely and septic problems are galore over the island. Portable, treatable facilities are in the works to help eleviate some of the problems while they work on the other.

In more cute news, etc. there is a demand for condoms like crazy *laugh* mostly tourists, but there is a joke that 'hey, you face the end of your life and you decide to get busy' or something to that effect

 

[todd s]

Does anyone know what the estimated death toll for American citizens yet?

 

[SteveLa]

What a heartbreaking photo.

 

[Philip_G]

OH MY GOD! A typo on the internet. http://forums.miataturbo.net/images/smilies/ohnoes.gif

Now where is that pesky ignore button....

 

[BrianB]

They're hardly going to show the people praising the US & its citizens for their contribution - that doesn't make for a headline grabbing story or get people bitching over the metaphorical water cooler.