OK I know it's not a competition but you'd have thought Saudi Arabia, the US and others would have contributrd far more.

KEY AID PLEDGES

World Bank $250m
UK $96m
EU $44m
US: $35m
Canada: $33m
Japan: $30m
Australia: $27m
France: $20.4m
Denmark: $15.6m
Saudi Arabia: $10m

Source: Reuters, United Nations

[ January 03, 2005, 14:55: Message edited by: Beren ]

:toofar: I'd have thought the US would have donated more but I guess they have their priorities right.

While I'm sure that the U.S. will increase it's contribution, I'm a bit surprised that they seem to be a bit slow out of the gate.

And just to pick a nit - combing all of the EU nations into one is a bit misleading. It would be like combining the U.S. and Canada under one heading of North America. Or combining Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England under the heading UK (...oops!)

Splunge as you can probably see they do not mean the EU as a nation or as a coalition of nations. The EU there represents EU as an institution and the institution has donated that sum of money. Why else did you think that they had UK, France and Denmark all of them separately on the list?

This really shouldn't be a multinational pissing contest.

Check the news people!

CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/01/japan.relief.pledge/index.html)

Puts the english to shame doesn't it?

Oh and we dutch donated more than the french but you didn't inlude us.

Did China donate anything?

Apeman - :lol:

Although I think Slith is right on this one; how much a country donates and who puts who to shame isn't a big deal; the countries and their peole that need help are what matters.

@ Morgoroth - well, thanks for re-affirming that I'm a moron. :heh:

@Slith:
This really shouldn't be a multinational pissing contest. Without a doubt, that is the most intelligent thing said thus far in this thread.

[ January 02, 2005, 23:20: Message edited by: Splunge ]

I'm sure I said exactly the same thing in the first sentence of my post...

I was just making a point. Thing's like this are all relative. Surely the worlds richest countries should be contributing the most? No?

I don't care who donates the largest sum of money, what bugs me is that some nations refused the aid of Israel, which to me seems like they hate the Jews more than they care about their own people. Sickening.

I'd like to echo Slith's opinion on this matter. Every country should donate what it can afford to donate, not try to simply 'out-do' the other nations. No country is more generous by the more it can afford to donate to the cause.

Money is nice but what the countries really need is simple aid and the establishment of roadways and communication. Personell would be far more useful than just throwing money at the problem.

Norway gave 50 million kroners. Not sure what that is in pounds but our whole country has a population of 5 milions so , per citizen its more than most others.

And we are going to give alot more , the foreign minister said so on TV today.

Just for the record

I don't have much to give. All I can give right now is to ask this question.

Are there anybody here in Sorcerer's Forum who had lost somebody in the "SE Asia Tsunami Tragedy"?

My condolences and may the Lord grant you comfort.

I am extremely proud to announce that Belfast alone has raised £500,000 with their annual 'Black Santa' charity:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/4140043.stm

My home town of Lisburn has raised £250,000 which is great considering how small my town is.

Please note Splunge that N.Ireland is part of the UK while Eire is not.

From a purely real politik point of view, it'd be in America's interest to up its donation to oh, say, a billion.

Winning the hearts and minds and all that.

[/cynicism]

Its supposed to be about helping the victims not trying to look good.

I think Bush has no budget for this kind of thing because he spends it all on the war-effort...

For you who didn't get it: this was cynical.

On-topic: I couldn't agree more with Slith. WTF does it matter who donates the most money? It's about those people who lost everything in there lives, including the people they loved. Just stand a moment and think about this, losing EVERYTHING and EVERYONE...

I was gonna say, imagine how much help and donations could have been given if Britain and America weren't spending so much on killing people in Iraq.

And you have completely missed the point there Drugar, with that second comment.

Barmy Army: could you elaborate that? I'm missing that point for certain..

Stand and think about the people who have died. Yep, I think we've all done that one already. Offer money and other aid to try and restore some kind of normality to the place and try to help in rebuilding their shattered lifes and homes; we're onto that bit now.

What argument are you actually using?

Does Sandra Bullock count as a nation? (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=762&e=1&u=/ap/20050103/ap_en_mo/people_sandra_bullock) :p

No she doesn't - a nation needs huuuuge...tracts of land. ;)

Seriously, with any luck, other celebs will jump on this bandwagon.

I am sure that more celebraties have given donations without making a big deal out of it. Don't get me wrong - its great that she has made a large donation but it hardly needs to make the news headlines.

Cesard - normally I would agree with you, but in this case, it might "encourage" other publicity-hungry celebs to donate if they wouldn't have otherwise done so. I generally hate people who try to grab the spotlight, but I think right now it's more important to focus on the results rather than the motivation.

Yes you are correct, the most important thing is to get as much help as soon as possible.

I don't doubt that Paris Hilton or Anna Nicole Smith, with their lust for media coverage, shall donate enough to put multiple celebrities to shame. And, probably, Oprah.

I heard Michael Schumacer gave $10M, any confirmation?

yes, 'twas on the Radio this morning.

3 minute silence (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4146153.stm)

I don't care that much for rich and famous people giving millions or thousands of bukazoids to help. It's nice money flows in, but it are the poor families willing to share their small fortune who are touching my heart.

Still, even with the money needed, there is bureaucracy and a bad infrastructure delaying the help people want to give.

Germany pledges 500 million euros (http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/01/05/tsunami.germany.ap/index.html)

We have a new leader on the list, but the brits are promising another several hundred million pounds. Will we have a different leader tomorrow?

It actually IS becoming a contest :(

Billions and billions to this disaster and not a dime for all the other disasters around the world. It wouldnt surprise me if the stricken countries end up with more aid money than they can spend.

If that is the case, hopefully some of the money will be re-directed to Sudan (amongst others)

Well looks like it has turned into a political pissing contest. At least the money ends up somewhere nice - in the pockets of New Zealand's major trading partners :D

Well, the World Bank itself is funded by the wealthiest coutries, so its share should be mentioned along with member nations according to their participation.

Either way - Japan is doing a mighty fine job with those donations. It is really refreshing to see that at least some countries are not abandoning their sphere of influence* in its time of need. Seems they've turned the direction of the flow of funds to rather than fro - at least for a while.

*) Most (if not all) Japanese corporations have moved an incredible majority of their manufacturing to SE Asia, China, and some to India.

What a major input from Michael Schumacher and his brother Ralph. They are indeed good for 10.000.000 € together. Kudos to them both.

"I think Bush has no budget for this kind of thing because he spends it all on the war-effort.."

Yes, he does. He gave a staggering 10.000$ from his own pocket. Wowie! I bet he's a lot richer than that. He probably doesn't even care and just donates something to pretend to.

Bah...what I find really sickening is the bureaucrats and politicians are trying to gain political mileage out of this, instead of devoting their attentions to helping the people in need.

For instance, in India itself, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu (the state which was hardest hit in India) is demanding RS. 4800 crore which is approximately $ 100 Million. Now the papers are covering the legal tussle between the state and central governments, rather than the poor people suffering in Tamil Nadu. :flaming: :flaming:

On the other hand, I really am amazed by the worldwide response in light of this tragedy... :)

Its times like these you see all the good come out of people. :)

The dumbest idea I heard in years was the blue armring, in Holland you can now buy blue armbands(based on Armstrongs yellow armbands, for the fight against cancer)
For 2 euros you can buy one and most of the money gets donated to SE Asia, great idea huh?

NO, if people really cared for SE Asia, they didn't buy some dumb armband, they donated the money directly to an integer fund, stop trying to show off how much 'better' you are!

@Faraaz, might it be possible that the central government wants to spend the money in other good investments, or are they sticking the money in their own pockets?

Morgoth - I think either way is bad. More or less, but bad. If it is a relief fund, it should go to help the victims. Time for investments will come later. There is simply too much to do right now.

I actually heard on the news last night or the night before that PM John Howard has pledged $1bn in aid now. WTF does he think he's doing? Granted, this is a serious situation where aid is necessary but with every other nation helping as well, you'd think there'd be a modicum of sensibility in this rather than turning it into the pissing contest it certainly seems to have become. I also heard that our entrepreneur Dick Smith has pledged $13 million alone.

Dont worry Aldazar. These are just pledges. The money will never actually be given.

In case people think I'm being cynical both the US and the UK alone have an impressive track record of not giving money they have previously pledged. Until the money actually goes to these charity groups and countries, it is nothing more than a promise.

As such this pissing contest is exactly that. Who can pledge the most money.

In that case...hereby i pledge to donate 2.5 billion out of my own pocket. :D

3 Billion!
Hear that Bush, Blair, assorted bureaucrats; wouldn't want to fall behind would you!?

On a serious note - after leafing this all through, I come to the same conclusion as Splunge - however questionable the motivations might be, if there's a general positive effect, one shouldn't complain.
I just hope that not in an effort to be the hardest pissers, they nuke their own balances beyond what they can handle...
:borg:

[ January 07, 2005, 13:55: Message edited by: Hugo ]

Just heard on the news that Thailand in India claimed they can go without the donations.
Thailand found it even insulting that we thought they needed money, teehee.

That's why we pledge money instead of giving it, "You don't want the money? Oh, then we never mentioned it"

@Morgoth: Well no...thing is, the Central government isn't against giving the money for relief...in fact, almost all their free funds are being allocated for relief. But the Tamil Nadu CM has a history of ... appropriating funds which are meant for public benefits, which is why the Central Government isn't keen to let her have all that money unchecked. It's the politicians representing the worst hit people trying to make money out of this which is sickening.

China has said that they are donating another 500 million kronor over the already donated 40 million.

One dollar is around 7 kronor.

This whole Apres-Tsunami matter is driving me nuts.

Why is it that people/countries donate millions to these countries and Africa is burning, starving and battling for decennia? Are they afraid of the global shift?

Exactly, there are 200 people dying of aids EVERY SINGLE DAY in Zambia, just to give one example, but apparently that's not interresting anymore.

I feel ashamed that the U.S. upped its offer of charity. I always thought that charity should come from the heart and not from shame. Since when do victims/beggars turn down money. If I was in charge I wouldn't have increased the government donation by a cent. I would have helped in other ways that you don't get credit for. Heck, I'm sure a nuclear aircraft carrier could probably power the entire region. The sheer amount of air and sealift capabilities the Navy and Air Force could offer is probably worth a hell of a lot more than a couple of dollars sitting in the Red Cross's bank accounts.

Then again, I may just be mean and ornery tonight.

I can't believe what a trendy cause this has become. I bet the next country to be hit by a natural disaster gets peeved off with the relatively small amount of aid they're going to get compared to what's being dished out here.

Exactly, there are 200 people dying of aids EVERY SINGLE DAY in Zambia, just to give one example, but apparently that's not interresting anymore.Yet to stop that type of problem costs far more than solving the tsunami problem. The only real way to stop AIDS is for the carriers to all die out (sad but true). The tsunami victims can be saved NOW with money to help them rebuild what they had then they can take care of themselves again.

I'm still disgusted how this has turned into a political pissing contest. These countries will soon have more money than they know what to do with.

I just wonder what would happen if by some chance, all the money pledged actually gets used to help in this situation, and then in a few months (or even a year or 2) something similar happens. What's the world going to do then?

And the one thing that's really pissing me off about this is that, granted it's a huge tragedy, but what about other events going on in the world? The news here has been almost nothing but Tsunami footage and we're only just beginning to see on the news about a nightclub fire in Argentina (or something along those lines, it WAS just a soundbite after all). Makes me wonder what else has been happening that I've not heard about.

Huge bushfire in Australia at the moment. I wonder how much aid will go that way. Actually I remember that many years ago there was a charity cricket match played at the MCG to raise money for bushfire victims. No talk of that this year.

Does Michael Schumacher (http://edition.cnn.com/2005/SPORT/01/04/tsunami.relief/) count as a nation?

Copyright goes to ArtEChoke :)