Natural Disasters Relief Funds

[Yellow Rose]

When the tsunami hit Asia, millions of dollars of foreign aid was pledged to the affected nations. Hollywood movie stars offered money from their own bank accounts. If I recall, Michael Schumacher donated something like $10M (?) from his own pocket. We saw ex-presidents Bush / Clinton urge people of America to help the tsunami victims.

Hmm, wonder how much (if any ?) foreign aid will come to New Orleans? And if it does come, will it be in financial proportion - dollars vs victims - to the tsunami relief?

Side note - to nip this in the bud, gasoline prices are rising along the East Coast and the Midwest, because two major products pipelines that originate along the Gulf Coast have pumping station power outages. This does not mean they are out of service, it means that their delivery capacity is hindered until electricity in the areas is restored.

 

[queenlives]

similar thoughts to what i raised in my earlier post... we'll see, eh?

 

[Yellow Rose]

$1000

queen - sorry, I missed your post on this.

all - tomorrow I am dropping off a check for the above amount at my local Red Cross.....dare anyone care to match this vs your FI or BB or WB project?

 

[0ctan3]

Tsunami totals

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanitarian_response_to_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake

there's some nice charts on wikipedia totaling the aid contributions.
"Over 280,000 people were killed, tens of thousands more were injured and over one million were made homeless."

is it even possible to compare these two events? They just seem quite disproportionate to me. Then again, I witnessed neither one, and shouldn't really comment.

 

[Yellow Rose]

Disproportionate ?

.....and over one million were made homeless.

1 MM homeless in Asia and a projected 1 MM homeless in New Orleans.....how is that disproportionate? However, when you consider the population concentration, New Orleans is of much worse calamity per square mile. Thinking outloud and not wishing flames, when you say that you shouldn't comment but still do, what does that mean?

 

[DutchBlackNsx]

My guess,

We all see the US as a well developed country, where we see them country's in Asia being undeveloped.


Just a thought.

Btw, i' can't believe the destruction in New Orleans i see on the news.... holy crap!

 

[queenlives]

My guess,

We all see the US as a well developed country, where we see them country's in Asia being undeveloped. Just a thought.

Btw, i' can't believe the destruction in New Orleans i see on the news.... holy crap!

i hear what you're saying, but to me, it falls into the "hey, it's the US - they can handle *anything* that comes their - or *our* way".

a very convenient position for some to take.

me? i think it's wrong: when the chips are down, even a big brother or wealthy relative is entitled to support from others when it is faced with unexpected challenges such as nature has brought at this point.

sadly, at some point, the US population may finally reach a "what's in it for me?" attitude and respond in kind when the next nature-hammered hotspot flares up in another part of the world.

 

[queenlives]

Re: $1000

queen - sorry, I missed your post on this.

all - tomorrow I am dropping off a check for the above amount at my local Red Cross.....dare anyone care to match this vs your FI or BB or WB project?

de nada re missed post. i phoned in my matching amount, thanks for the reminder.

for others who are not personally impacted by this disaster and dont' quite feel "touched" by it, keep in mind that next time - no matter where you live or how comfy your life is today - the next disaster could be in your house, hometown or country and you/your loved ones who are deserving of support.

i'm not suggesting we should all gather hands and sing kumbayah (sp?), just that sometimes there are things more important than our next meal/drinks out with friends.

regardless of where you are or what you choose to do, be well.
hal

 

[DutchBlackNsx]

i hear what you're saying, but to me, it falls into the "hey, it's the US - they can handle *anything* that comes their - or *our* way".

Probably true.

Just some other thoughts:
Is there a international relief fund for the exceptional floodings in Austria and Switserland from last week?
Was there a reliefund for the huge floodings in Holland a few years back?

 

[queenlives]

Re: Tsunami totals

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanitarian_response_to_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake

there's some nice charts on wikipedia totaling the aid contributions.
"Over 280,000 people were killed, tens of thousands more were injured and over one million were made homeless."

is it even possible to compare these two events? They just seem quite disproportionate to me. Then again, I witnessed neither one, and shouldn't really comment.

octan,

i think it's fair to compare these two situations, though i agree wrt killed # comparisons. my sense is if an earthquake leveled our peninsula (i'm in campbell) and <1,000 were lost, you'd feel a comparison was ok.

as for commenting - heck, it's the internet - anybody who can activate a browser gets to share their opinion

 

[kittie]

A dollar will go much further in Sri Lanka than it will in Louisiana or California. Even if we don't see monetary pledges from developed nations around the world for New Orleans, these nations may be sending manpower and specific expertise in the rescue, recovery and rebuilding phases. Not all assistance from the international community are publicized.

 

[ncdogdoc]

Just added my $1g here http://www.umcor.org/ . They have been there since two days before the storm hit, and will stay as long as it takes.

I am sure that there will be millions donated to the Red Cross from all over the world due to the international nature of this organization.

 

[ss_md]

sadly, at some point, the US population may finally reach a "what's in it for me?" attitude and respond in kind when the next nature-hammered hotspot flares up in another part of the world.

That would never happen. The US has always helped other nations in their time of need and will probably continue to do so; whether from the government and/or private citizen donations. Other countries should reciprocate when the chips are down. JMHO

 

[Yellow Rose]

Thank You .....

..... all that have helped.

Perhaps "in the background" rich oil countries with today's commodity prices might offer up a few coins.

 

[queenlives]

Probably true.

Just some other thoughts:
Is there a international relief fund for the exceptional floodings in Austria and Switserland from last week?
Was there a reliefund for the huge floodings in Holland a few years back?

those are excellent questions - how about you research them and tell us what you find?

 

[queenlives]

A dollar will go much further in Sri Lanka than it will in Louisiana or California. Even if we don't see monetary pledges from developed nations around the world for New Orleans, these nations may be sending manpower and specific expertise in the rescue, recovery and rebuilding phases. Not all assistance from the international community are publicized.

no argument on either of your points, kittie. over the next few days/weeks, i'm sure we'll see listings of the countries who stepped forward when we needed a bit of assistance.

iirc, earlier today (at least) germany had offered support.

no doubt, more to come... according to wikipedia wrt the tsunami, international assistance became a "competitive compassion" scenario. compassion is a good thing, competitive or no.

 

[queenlives]

That would never happen. The US has always helped other nations in their time of need and will probably continue to do so; whether from the government and/or private citizen donations. Other countries should reciprocate when the chips are down. JMHO

i was thinking this very thing a few minutes ago - it's just not in the american culture/mindset to say "sorry, we've got our own problems, we can't help."

 

[queenlives]

Probably true.

Just some other thoughts:
Is there a international relief fund for the exceptional floodings in Austria and Switserland from last week?
Was there a reliefund for the huge floodings in Holland a few years back?

i see what you're saying: nobody outside of the US should offer support because we haven't taken care of all of the rest of the world's problems.

any chance you know what shinola is?

 

[zahntech]

The US spends Billions in aid to all over the world, that's a fact, and yet persons from all over the world hate the US, Its just a fact that humans are capable of hatred and jealousy at the same time, Its almost a certainty that far more aid will be offered in the south asian disaster from foreign sources, than to those in southeast USA....Im still going to send support to try and slow the spread of AIDS in Africa because its the right thing to do.

today at work,a guy I work with that makes 10$ per hour, gave me 10$ to send to the Red Cross because he has no bank acct....people can bad mouth the USA all they want but we take care of people all over the world and at home,even those of us that make a touch over minimum wage.

 

[Malibu Rapper]

Re: Disproportionate ?

1 MM homeless in Asia and a projected 1 MM homeless in New Orleans.....how is that disproportionate?

I actually have to agree with 0ctan3. Homeless is one thing but 230,000 people dead in a single country is a staggering number and the total toll is close to 300,000 dead. I'd rather have members of my family homeless than dead. The death toll from the hurricane probably won't even come close to any of the top 4 affected tsunami countries. You probably aren't going to see people being buried in mass graves, never to be identified either.

Does anyone remember the earthquake in Iran that killed 25,000? I don't remember a public outpouring of support for them and I think that was unfortunate. So it's not just us either.

I was in Thailand at the time of the tsunami and you'd run into people all the time that were affected in one way or another. Everywhere you went, there were centers set up for donation and I saw several people donate a month's salary or more to UNICEF and other charities, not just to their own native country. Thailand actually refused monetary aid. The other countries were just so poor.

My heart goes out to all of the victims. I do understand your point about the rest of the world being selfish when it comes to the US though. But the tsunami was more on a global scale. A lot of the victims were tourists and their home countries probably donated more because of that.

Katrina hit closer to home but I'm not ashamed to say that I donated 10 times more to the victims of the tsunami. They are both terribly tragic events and all the victims need our help.

 

[DutchBlackNsx]

those are excellent questions - how about you research them and tell us what you find?

I think you answered the question yourself....

i see what you're saying: nobody outside of the US should offer support because we haven't taken care of all of the rest of the world's problems.

I did not say that, all i asked was a question about two instances in Europe, in which case, there wasn't an internationel relief fund either.
Well, at least not to the extention as we have seen for the tsunami victims, as being the subject here, because as mentioned above, you never heard of any funds for those either.

The reason i put it down there was because of this remark: "hey, it's the US - they can handle *anything* that comes their - or *our* way"
Now, i'm not trying to bash the US, i'm just with you trying to understand WHY there is not such a big international relief fund setup for this disaster as there was for the tsunami victims, just as there was no huge relief fund for the instances in Europe.....So, maybe, just maybe, it has nothing to do with the 'US', but has a different reason, which is allready being discussed in this thread.

any chance you know what shinola is?

Yes, i do , you know wat 'Goede manieren' is ?

 

[queenlives]

I think you answered the question yourself....

I did not say that, all i asked was a question about two instances in Europe, in which case, there wasn't an internationel relief fund either. Well, at least not to the extention as we have seen for the tsunami victims, as being the subject here, because as mentioned above, you never heard of any funds for those either.

The reason i put it down there was because of this remark: "hey, it's the US - they can handle *anything* that comes their - or *our* way"
Now, i'm not trying to bash the US, i'm just with you trying to understand WHY there is not such a big international relief fund setup for this disaster as there was for the tsunami victims, just as there was no huge relief fund for the instances in Europe.....So, maybe, just maybe, it has nothing to do with the 'US', but has a different reason, which is allready being discussed in this thread.

Yes, i do , you know wat 'Goede manieren' is ?

while i don't find any *current* listings of american relief offers, it's clear that back in 2002 when this happened to that region, americans offered support: http://www.austria.org/press/266.html.

i believe your posting was as clear on your position as was my question about shinola. as for good manners, my feeling is that good neighbors help one another when help is obviously needed.

 

[queenlives]

Re: Disproportionate ?

I actually have to agree with 0ctan3. Homeless is one thing but 230,000 people dead in a single country is a staggering number and the total toll is close to 300,000 dead. I'd rather have members of my family homeless than dead. The death toll from the hurricane probably won't even come close to any of the top 4 affected tsunami countries. You probably aren't going to see people being buried in mass graves, never to be identified either.

Does anyone remember the earthquake in Iran that killed 25,000? I don't remember a public outpouring of support for them and I think that was unfortunate. So it's not just us either.

I was in Thailand at the time of the tsunami and you'd run into people all the time that were affected in one way or another. Everywhere you went, there were centers set up for donation and I saw several people donate a month's salary or more to UNICEF and other charities, not just to their own native country. Thailand actually refused monetary aid. The other countries were just so poor.

My heart goes out to all of the victims. I do understand your point about the rest of the world being selfish when it comes to the US though. But the tsunami was more on a global scale. A lot of the victims were tourists and their home countries probably donated more because of that.

Katrina hit closer to home but I'm not ashamed to say that I donated 10 times more to the victims of the tsunami. They are both terribly tragic events and all the victims need our help.

good points, malibu.

my sense wrt iran earthquake is that at a minimum, the amercian red cross and u.n. (with substantial contributions from the US) would have contributed - or offered - to contribute to rescue/rebuild efforts. given iran US relationship history, can't speculate on the outcome of those gestures.

hal

 

[gheba_nsx]

Re: Disproportionate ?

In Switzerland we had 1 billion $ of damages last week... not bad for a country with 6mio people in total.

But I did not feel obligated to give money (I did for Asia) to the Swiss victims.

I may do it, as I may do it for the US, but the three catastrophes are not in the same league problem-wise: in Asia people did not have insurances. They did not have a strong & rich country to help. No places to stay, no roofs, no food.

Here and in the US we, luckily, have all of this.

 

[queenlives]

Re: Disproportionate ?

In Switzerland we had 1 billion $ of damages last week... not bad for a country with 6mio people in total.

But I did not feel obligated to give money (I did for Asia) to the Swiss victims.

I may do it, as I may do it for the US, but the three catastrophes are not in the same league problem-wise: in Asia people did not have insurances. They did not have a strong & rich country to help. No places to stay, no roofs, no food.

Here and in the US we, luckily, have all of this.

wow, $1B USD in damages is significant...

i hear what you're saying and appreciate your viewpoint, thanks for the comments.