Is the U.S. stingy? Yes<\/p>\n
President Bush finally roused himself from his vacation in
\nCrawford, Texas, to telephone his sympathy to the leaders of
\nIndia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia, and to speak publicly
\nabout the devastation of the tsunamis in Asia...and he took issue
\nwith an earlier statement by UN emergency relief coordinator, Jan
\nEgeland, who had called the overall aid efforts by rich Western
\nnations \"stingy.\"<\/p>\n
We beg to differ. Egeland was right on target. We hope
\nSecretary of State Colin Powell was privately embarrassed when,
\ntwo days into a catastrophic disaster that hit 12 of the world's
\npoorer countries and will cost billions of dollars to meliorate,
\nhe held a press conference to say that America, the world's
\nrichest nation, would contribute US$15 million. That's less than
\nhalf of what Republicans plan to spend on the Bush inaugural
\nfestivities.<\/p>\n
The American aid figure for the current disaster is now $35
\nmillion, and we applaud Bush's turnaround. But $35 million
\nremains a miserly drop in the bucket, and is in keeping with the
\npitiful amount of the United States budget that we allocate for
\nnonmilitary foreign aid.<\/p>\n
Making things worse, we often pledge more money than we
\nactually deliver. Victims of the earthquake in Bam, Iran, a year
\nago are still living in tents because aid, including ours, has
\nnot materialized in the amounts pledged. And back in 2002, Bush
\nannounced his Millennium Challenge account to give African
\ncountries development assistance of up to $5 billion a year, but
\nthe account has yet to disburse a single dollar.<\/p>\n
-- The New York Times<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/is-the-us-stingy-yes-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }