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The world helps
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
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I give it two to three weeks until the shock and awe wears off.
I've been travelling and only came back yesterday so I don't know for sure, but as far as I can tell Tony Blair hasn't had much to say yet about one of the biggest natural disasters in history.
Other world leaders from the US to the EU are also nowhere to be seen. And the help promised at official level by our rich nations has been derisory...
but if it was a terrorist attack on american soil.........
they seem to have woken up, even the queen... (but I can't find a link)
but as MR says - sending emails / faxes might be useful
Who cares where our leaders are?
What do you want, a few political platitudes about how they "sympathise with the suffering" etc?
And yes, in the grand scheme of world finance, £15m isn't very much. But it's not just about giving money. It's also about giving resources, resucue services, medical supplies etc and let's face it, this is really down to you and I to support. This isn't why I pay my taxes...
WE HAVE seen possibly the world's biggest natural disaster. Thousands of people have been killed, thousands more lives have been decimated. Homes lie in ruin, people's possessions washed out to sea. It is truly a disaster on an apocolyptic scale.
So, what do our world leaders do about it? Do they rush out the aid? Do they pledge to provide the billions of pounds that will be needed to rebuild the shattered remains of so many countries? Do they at the least give out words of condolence?
Fat chance.
No, what our elite political establishment does is turn the other way. Bury their heads in the sand. Britain offers a derisory £1 million in terms of aid. This, remember, is the cost for Britain of a single day's occupation in Iraq, following that misguided war.
Is it not odd that Jack Straw, our part-time Foreign Secretary and defender of the indefensible, was out defending the government's pitifully low donation of aid in the afternoon, and yet only hours later, we hear that the donation was raised to £15m?
Make no mistake: I welcome the increase. But it is not enough. Tory leader Michael Howard has misguidedly said he welcomes the increase. Not a word of criticism for the measly amount of money that Britain is offering. So much for providing an opposition.
And where is the Prime Minister during all of this? Has he cut short his Christmas break to come back to his desk? Goodness no! Why, Tony is yet on another of his freebie holidays paid for by his cronies. There could not be a more telling sign this Prime Minister does not care for the people.
Amidst the apathy of the political elite, it is the people of Somalia, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, The Maldives, Malaysia, Somalia and Burma who suffer. And our political leaders turn the other way. What a damning indictment of politics today.
MoK, woke up with your cynical hat on did you?
I for one was expecting our leaders to do something useful for a change, and to be at the forefront of the international response. If only they would end up devoting 1% of the time they've spend on press conferences lecturing the world about "evil", "freedom" and WMDs to offer more help for this disater's victims and ask the public to do the same...
As countless letters to the editor in various newspapers have pointed out, it is nothing short of repulsive that at the same time as he's asking Congress for an extra $87bn to fund his Iraq adventures, Bush has offered a paltry $30m to the victims of the tsunami. The British government don't fare much better, and I for one find it disgusting that it's taken 3 days for our PM to interrupt his lovely holiday and give a few words of support.
Something like that
The last thing I want to see right now, is a politician calling for Govts to help. personally I think that the last thing we want is for politicians to get involved.
Leave it to the NGOs with their expertise and keep the other meddling twats out of it.
Ah, an optimist. Do you seriously think that they can do that? Maybe I am cynical, or maybe I'm a realist but if we really want this fucked up then let Govts get involved.
Did you really want to see him? Honestly?
I'd rather he kept his mournful looks and comments about "the people's disaster" to himself. I don't need him to tell me how bad this was. I defy anyone, who has seen the footage, to not be affected emotionally.
This is a time when individuals should contribute and not leave it to our Govt to do something in our name. For once I nearly agree with something which Michael Howard said when he commented that the public should contribute more than the £15m our Govt has pledged. Personally I think we should be ashamed if we don't double it. 50p per person really isn't much, is it?
Besides, I don't pay taxes to support other nations in crisis, I pay to protect mine. If I want to contribute to another nations relief then I will - and I have.
highest in the world.
Still this is one of the situations where individuals can make as greater difference as governments by personally donating. I know when I get paid I’ll make a donation and I’m sure thousands, hopefully millions will do the same who can afford it.
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,11810352%255E1702,00.html
As GWST was saying, it is not a competition Luke. Would you please stop for once trying to score cheap political points against Europe?
But since you have raised the issue, I was skimming through the papers at a newstand yesterday and saw a list of countries arranged by contributions given... An EU member from the Continent was on top (though that probably changed last night as the UK government raised its aid- if only out of embarrassment).
Do you think the US government has been generous as well do you? :rolleyes:
Yeah , theyve sent thousands of sailors and rescuers, as well as an aircraft carrier.
Oh yes, we see the invective and political point scoring flying thick and fast, but who has stopped for a moment to contemplate why it is that this disaster was allowed to achieve the widespread destruction of life, let alone property, that it has when world governments (especially we rich western nations who so commonly avail ourselves of the tropical vacation spots the affected countries offer) have watched repeated catastrophes strike these regions. After decades of successive typhoons, monsoons, quakes and other natural disasters, where is the wisdom and committment by our supposedly oh so generous nations to establishing the necessary infrastructural development that would have negated the monstrous impact of this latest Tsunami?
The shrub and indeed Blair have no trouble demanding sums into the tens of billions to pursue war of aggression and destruction (under the laughably fraudulent banner of "liberation" and "democratisation" of course), but when called upon to demonstrate the capacity of their supposedly "humanitarian" ideology to embrace constructive means of engagement and improvement to the quality of life of the planet they're suddenly scraping the bottom of the barrel.
A brow raising article I came across yesterday also addresses a number of questions that have since been buried by the corporate press...
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO412C.html
I was always led to believe Bill Gates gives billions of dollars to charity every year.
The thing about giving aid is that sometimes money isn't enough, a co-ordinated effort it worth more than the extra cash. Yes, more money means more blankets, food and water, medical supplies etc can be purchased, but if there isn't anyone to make sure help is placed where it is needed in a timely fashion then that money has gone to waste.
You don't 'have nothing' Luke.
I bow to you Sir.
If this unspeakable catastrophe doesn't merit cutting short your holidays (or at the very least pretending you give a shit and giving live regular daily TV addresses and pledging extra help personally), what does?
Incidentally, does anyone else find it bizarre that Britain is the only country in Europe that hasn't provided figures for the number of missing nationals? Everybody else has...