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December 31, 2004
From the 12/31 Boston Globe:
The US government is contributing $35 million of the half-billion dollars that the world's developed nations are donating to the tsunami relief effort, and many Americans believe -- as President Bush put it earlier this week -- that their country is being its typical ''generous, kindhearted" self.
But both on a per capita basis and as a percentage of the nation's wealth, America's emergency relief in Asia and development aid to poor countries actually ranks at the bottom of the list of developed nations, some of the world's top economists and analysts of international development aid said yesterday.
And from the 12/31 Chicago Tribune:
The United States upped its tsunami relief aid tenfold to $350 million Friday as the world's ships and planes converged on devastated shores. . . . . Washington, stung by criticism that its aid pledges were small and slow to materialize, scrambled to take the lead. Secretary of State Colin Powell was to visit the region and assess what more is needed.
France has promised $57 million, Britain $95 million, Sweden $75.5 million. The United States had pledged $35 million, but on Friday President Bush set the new figure of $350 million and said: "Our contributions will continue to be revised as the full effects of this terrible tragedy become clearer."
But will the U.S. actually deliver what it has promised?
Incidentally, Atrios points out what Bush hopes everyone will soon forget: that his "initial offer" was $15 million.
Posted by senioritis at December 31, 2004 05:07 PM