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Wed Jan 05, 2005 7:17 am  |
I hope this post doesn't offend anyone, because it's not my intent. This is just something I need to vent about so bear with me.
Last night on one of the American national news broadcasts, there was a story about how many people in the Islamic world (fired by news reports on Muslim TV and newspapers) believe that the Tsunami was man-made. Or, more specifically, caused by secret U.S., Israeli and Indian nuclear weapons tests. I would hope that everyone in the EDS "family" can appreciate how completely ridiculous those claims are.
Also, I'm angered by the international perception that America is being too stingy in providing relief aid to those stricken. While I do agree that the initial U.S. government's pledge of $30M was pitiful, it pisses me off that while the rest of the world is constantly against American foreign policy and our habit of "butting in" where we don't belong, but they certainly have no problem taking our federal money. PLEASE NOTE: I am not begrudging the poor victims of this terrible tragedy American aid monies!!!! I'm just trying to say that when it comes to helping out the misfortunate around the world, the U.S. is often the first one ponying up to provide help and it seems that they hate us, not in spite of this, but BECAUSE of this. It just doesn't make sense to me. Especially when I hear stories about the average American opening his/her wallet and donating their own money to the tsunami relief efforts. We're giving like we've never given before, the generosity for these poor stricken people on the other-side of the world exceeds even that of what we gave to our fellow Americans after the Sept 11th attacks!!! But still, there's so many who hate us. Or even blame us for causing this catestrophe in the first place. It just makes me sad and bewildered.
On a lighter-hearted note: after the Tsumami, it was believed that descendants of an ancient native tribe living on a couple of the islands in the area (I think one of the island's was called Nicobar, but I'm not certain) were completely wiped out by the tidal waves. However, a naval helicopter from India flying a relief mission attempting to drop supplies in the area, just in case there were any survivors, discovered that at least some of these island natives did, in fact, survive the disaster. How did they find out people were still alive there? The natives fired upon the helicopter with bows and arrows!! I know that what happened in Indonesia/SE Asia, India and Sri Lanka is no laughing matter, but I have to admit that when I heard that news story, it made me smile just a bit (albeit, it was a bittersweet smile) to imagine those poor natives trying to defend themselves against that chopper with only their bows and arrows to fight with. That would be like trying to deflect an incoming Scud missile with nothing more than a flyswatter!
All right, I feel marginally better now that I've gotten that off my chest. And I really don't mean to offend or anger anyone with this post.
Carrie |
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Wed Jan 05, 2005 11:56 am |
Carrie,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I don't see anything offensive in what you wrote and mostly agree with you. I did not know that story about the natives -- I'm glad that they haven't been wiped out. Thank you for sharing! |
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Mabsy
Moderator
 
Joined: 17 Aug 2003
Posts: 9644
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Thu Jan 06, 2005 4:45 am |
I personally liked the one that said that the tsunami was caused by aliens who wanted to straighten out the earth's rotation!  Found it funny at first but it really does get to me that people can say such idiotic things about something that has caused such tragedy and devastation.
Talking about idiotic things, anyone see the news release by the Westboro Baptist Church? I guess given their domain name this is not too surprising, but they released a statement on their website thanking God for the tsunami which killed the 2000 (or more) Swedes because some of them were gay/lesbian and because the Swedes do not discriminate against gays in general. They then went further than that and thanked God for the alleged kidnapping of the little Sweedish boy (this turned out to be a case of mistaken identity) because they reckon that being kidnapped for sex was a better fate for him than being taught that being gay is "ok". I can't believe a human being would actually have the heart to say this. Whether you have issues with gays is one thing - celebrating the death of innocent people is just wrong.
Btw, personally I do think that America's initial donation was stingy - given the size of the economy and the population I think they could have donated more. However, I think people forget to consider the fact that perhaps at the time the extent of the devastation was not yet known - if that is the case then I take that back  |
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Thu Jan 06, 2005 5:07 am |
There was another news story on U.S. national news last evening that examined the international pledges to provide aid. They talked about the Earthquake in Iran last year (a year to the day, in fact), and how all these countries pledged money to help the Iranians rebuild. I don't remember the exact number, but it turned out the many of the countries that made big (public) pledges which made international headlines, then they reneged and either didn't send any money at all or only sent a tiny fraction of what they originally promised, but the U.N. doesn't have any way of "naming and shaming" these countries publicly to make them make good on their pledges.
I saw that as of yesterday, Australia upped the ante of all the nation's and pledged somewhere north of $700-800M and that Germany was second at $650M (up till now, Japan led the way with a $500M pledge). I just hope all of the countries that made public avowals of providing aid actually follow through this time and not leave the Tsunami victims high and dry (no pun!) like those poor bastards in Bam, Iran.
I hadn't heard the one about the aliens. Geez, gotta love those conspiracy theories! And I can't say I'm surprised by what the Baptists said about the Swedish tourists deserving their fate because they were gay. I have absolutely no love for those kind of extreme religious beliefs. If that is truly the will of their God, then I don't want any part of Him. You know, those same religious extremists said the same thing back during the beginning of the AIDS epidemic -- it was God's way of punishing all the queers. Nevermind the fact that thousands of non-homosexual victims were also dying from the disease (i.e.: children who received tainted blood from transplants, etc). Was that God's will too? How can you call yourself a Christian if that's what you believe God is capable of? The God I believe in is kind and just. Of course, the Islamic extremists said the same thing about Sept 11th -- it was Allah's will to slaughter all of the infidels. That's basically the biggest problem that I have with any kind of organized religion like that, those kind of frightening ideas that they try to perpetuate to the masses.
I better stop this rant before I get into more trouble! |
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Mabsy
Moderator
Joined: 17 Aug 2003
Posts: 9644
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Thu Jan 06, 2005 6:53 am |
| carekate wrote: |
I saw that as of yesterday, Australia upped the ante of all the nation's and pledged somewhere north of $700-800M and that Germany was second at $650M (up till now, Japan led the way with a $500M pledge). I just hope all of the countries that made public avowals of providing aid actually follow through this time and not leave the Tsunami victims high and dry (no pun!) like those poor bastards in Bam, Iran.
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Australian govt has promised $1 billion Au$ (so around US$800 or thereabouts) but it's equally divided between donated money and interest free loans (so US$400M each way), I'm not sure if Germany and Japan pledges also include loan amounts or if they are completely donations (which is what I thought they were). I also heard the story about many countries not paying up on the pledges for Bam - very poor form! They also didn't mention which countries they were though. I would be very surprised if Australia didn't follow through on the SE Asia pledge - our relations with Indonesia are strong plus we're wanting to build them up some more.
I must say that being an Aussie, I am quite proud of the fact that the public and organisations have (at this point in time) made more than $100M in private donations. I know that's not much in the grand scheme of things but there's only about 20M of us so that's a pretty good effort! |
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Thu Jan 06, 2005 7:09 am |
I agree with Mabsy. I am proud of the generosity of the Australian public - but all you northern hemispherians out there, just remember, our generosity has gone well beyond anything before because this has happened in our backyard.
Don't get me wrong at all, I am not saying anything bad about the US or any other nation,just that when something happens to your neighbour you tend to be even more eager to help than normal.
I have seen a lot in the news about "one upmanship" and stuff between countries, but as Australia is, after all, really part of South Asia (and just a hop skip and jump from Indonesia) it is just natural.
Had this happened to, say, Canada, I am sure the US would have been even more generous than they have been too. |
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