Smoothing ruffled U.S. feathers after 'stingy' remark
Smoothing ruffled U.S. feathers after 'stingy' remark
Agence France-Presse, Washington
The United Nations' top emergency relief official praised on Sunday wealthy nations' donations to tsunami-ravaged South Asia, after ruffling feathers in Washington last week by describing the developed world's aid spending as "stingy."
Jan Egeland, the UN's Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, appeared on Sunday to try to placate Washington over his comments last week criticizing rich nations' aid spending.
"I did not want this kind of a debate," he told the Fox News Sunday television program in an interview.
"I have never ever, in my more than 20 years of international relief work, seen a compassion and generosity like the one we've seen in these last six days," he said.
"I was confident, I was sure that the United States and the other of our partners would be very generous in the wake of such an enormous natural disaster. And, as we have seen, I was right in that," he said.
Last week, Egeland stung many in the U.S. when he noted that "the foreign assistance of many countries now is 0.1 or 0.2 percent of their gross national income. I think that is stingy really. I don't think that is very generous."
Although he did not refer to a particular country, the comments unleashed a backlash of criticism against the UN by some Americans stung by the criticism of their generosity, including U.S. President George W. Bush.
Asked about Egeland's assessment, Bush told reporters on Wednesday: "I felt like the person who made that statement was very misguided and ill-informed."
Egeland insisted on Sunday that he had not meant to single out the U.S. with his remarks.
"I have never commented on any country. I said, 'The rich world is not able to give enough assistance to those most in need'," he told Fox.
He did not entirely back away from last week's rebuke of the developed world, however.
"I will always be of the view that, as the rich world is getting richer -- Europe, North America, Japan, Asia, the Gulf countries -- it should be possible to feed all the world's children, and we are not at the moment," he said.
Washington initially pledged US$35 million in disaster relief to South Asia immediately after the disaster, but has since increased that sum tenfold, now promising to send US$350 million in aid.
Leading members of Congress weighed in on the controversy on Sunday, with some saying that the initial reaction by the U.S. was wanting in the first few days after the tsunami struck.
"I think now we appear to be on the right track," said U.S. Senator Carl Levin, a Democrat.
"But the first few days were disappointing, and not in keeping with the great American tradition and generosity, either in the size of that first announcement, or the speed with which it was given. I thought the first few days of silence from the president was not in keeping with that tradition," he said.
Speaking on U.S. television on Sunday, Secretary of State Colin Powell said the American private and governmental response has been all it should be.
"I want the American people to understand that their government and our society has responded appropriately," he told NBC television's Meet the Press program.
"I will tell you who is not churlish or disappointed in our response, and that's the nations who are receiving aid. They have been very thankful and very appreciative of what we have done. And we will do more," he said.
US-quake-tsunami-aid-UN AFP
GetAFP 2.10 -- JAN 3, 2005 03:14:53