Tsunami aid, Canada and the World re-act

[Wizard of OZ]

This topic may be a little late but somethings about this crisis have stuck out in my mind and i wanted to see if the rest of you see it this way or not.

OTTAWA (CP) - Canada has become the fifth-largest international aid contributor to countries devastated by the Asian tsunami, boosting its aid package to $425 million.  The announcement came as the number of Canadians listed as dead in the tsunami that hit south Asian countries reached six, while the number listed as missing dropped to 37 from 146.

Last weekend, the prime minister committed Canada to $80 million in tsunami aid, promising that more would be coming.

Now at nearly $348 million US, the new aid package is the fifth richest of any nation, behind Australia, Germany, Japan and the United States.

The total includes immediate relief and money for reconstruction projects.

More than 150,000 people in 11 countries perished, at least 30,000 of them in Sri Lanka. end quote

  It seems that Canada and the rest of the the Western world are working to solve this situation to resolve this crisis.  But what about the other Muslim nations especially those in the Middle East.  I do not want this to turn into a religious battle as it is not called for.  My concern is that all of these nations (especially those in the middle east) are well suited to donate more money.  Saudi Arabia one of if not the richest country donated a total of 16 million dollars.  And they are a Muslim state.  Is there something wrong with this picture?  I don't know, but it seems funny to me that when ever the World sees a crisis the Western world is very quick to re-act but, they never gain any points with those that they are trying to help.  Or those that hold a grudge cause they do not help out enough.

THAT IS MY MOO

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Once things have settled, this would be good points to bring up on the world stage for those who question the way the "western world"
doesn't care about Muslims and/or the third world.

 

[Pieman]

$348 million US, the new aid package is the fifth richest of any nation, behind Australia, Germany, Japan and the United States.

Bugger! When you add it all up, that is a LOT of money. Do they really need all that? Or are the governments shelling out more than they should because of media and public pressure? (I really don't know)...I mean helping is good, and it is great to see countries willing to step up, but let's not go overboard.

There is a listing here of contributions by country. The only significant Muslim state, United Arab Emirates contributed $24 million....don't those guys have a lot of oil? This list is not really exhaustive though.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/asia_earthquake/numbers.html

 

[FredDaHead]

One thing I haven't heard mentionned (in the news, at least) is who is getting the 400+million$? The only country I've heard mentionned so far is Sri Lanka, except for debt reduction for India and a few others. Say just 200million are actually going to people... Unless they're giving money to some countries without talking about them, people in Sri Lanka will be getting about 10million$ apiece.

But seriously, 425million$ is a LOT, especially considering how much other, more populous countries are giving. (To equal this per capita, the US would give, what, a few billion$?) And I definately agree that muslim nations are being cheap and I think they're hypocritical through all this. I hope that someday our governments (in the west) will put on their pants and say "screw you" when something bad happens and the rest of the world expects us to pay.

Am I the only one to think that if the same thing had happened off the coast of California, nobody would be giving a cent to the US? They (meaning, most of the world) probably would barely say the diplomatic version of "this sucks, dude!"

Anyways, rant off.

 

[Wizard of OZ]

Frederik

I could not agree with you more.  It is funny how the West always comes to help but it is never good enough.  If we did nothing we would be blammed for not carring, if we do something we get blamed.  I would like to see Osma make a donation these are partly his people.  But no he is to busy plotting or hidding.

:threat:

 

[Armymedic]

before I start....900 posts.

I have read, but not sure where(could have well been here), that most Middle Eastern Muslim countries feel that Allah is punishing the infidels by destroying the areas of sinful pleasures. Muslims who were killed deserved their fate as they were supporting the infidels going against the teachings of Allah.

Given this explanation, I can see their point of view, no matter how skewed it may be....

 

[Wizard of OZ]

See that is not in the KORAN, Armymedic

There are so many modifications made to the teachings that it truly is sad.  They are supposed to care for all especially the homeless the starving and the children.  All of that seems to apply to the area struck by the Tsunami.  Religion is not supposed to matter according to the KORAN.  People do. 


By the way congrats 900

But this was not supposed to turn into a religous rant.  So i stop there.

 

[Jarnhamar]

I'm a little put off over people seeming to brag how much their countries are donating. (Not people from this thread, just in general I've seen)

It;s like oooohhh ahhhhh So and so country donated 200 million. YA, well, SO and so donated 300 million. Yes but that doesn't beat SO AND SO who donated 500 million.  Like what the hell, does everything have to turn into a pissing contest or who's better?  Jackie Chan is comming under fire because he "only" donated 50'000 or something like that.  (Has anyone seen his movies? thats probably why heh).  Anyways now hollywood is all about who donated more? Thats sad.

I've heard/read some stuff that out of the total amount of money donated by Canada,  90%has to be spent on Canadian food bought here and then shipped over. 10% can be used to buy food closer to the disaster area. Is that true?

As for "the reasons for the flood" theres always going to be nutbars. people are going to believe it's Allah punishing sinners. Theres some Church's that are going to say it's because of the prostitution over there. Some are going to say it's aliens testing our planets method of reacting to a large scale disaster.  I'm going to go with the whole earthquake because those things just happen theory.

 

[Baloo]

Ghost,

For your comments about the 90% Canadian, yes it is true. It is an old federal law, designed to ensure that Canadian farms and farmers are supplying the needed grain. Many charities want to override this, so that the grain would get there months earlier, but the opposition maintains that this is necessary to make sure that the agriculture here is bought as well.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Our DART team needed to rent plans to get over.

How are we going to get the food over? I would imagine we'd have to rent a jet or boat to bring it over. Will the cost of transport for this canadian bought food come out of the diaster relief money or will it be an additional cost?