Political part : Biggest earthquake in 40 years hits Southeast Asia

[Dis]

Originally posted by Arrian
Really? I links I found were kinda old, and referred to the initial (2001) report, which dealt with the worst-case scenario. Has that been refined?

-Arrian

it still is a worst case scenario. It could happen, but very unlikely.

what I do hope, is it will renew interest in a worldwide tsnunami system. Including one to proetect the U.S. east coast.

[Chemical Ollie]

Swedish Governent has initially decided to give 500 Mkr ($75 M) in foreign aid, to be shared between the IRC, Unicef and other UN institutions and some Swedish civil defense organisations. Quite much per capita, but only a piss in the Nile in practice. Let's hope the International mutual efforts will add up to be enough to stop people from dieing in deceases, dehydration and starvation in the next weeks to come.

[Jaguar]

Wouldn't social security money have been better spent here?

OMFFG Social Security is pwnd! Clearly it is evil!

[Giancarlo]

Let me make a few comments:

Online polls aren't accurate indicators of anything. They are not well sampled.

Secondly, Ollie made a comment in the other thread about the US Naval contribution being a "piss in the nile". It is a hell of lot larger then anything else any other nation is doing.

That's all.

[Chemical Ollie]

US and UK have turned down a request from the Swedish Government to assist in providing air transport capacity. According to PM Göran Persson, US will not even evacuating it's own citizens (which might be because they have no clue where they are, to be fair).

Germany has given a positive response to the request. Germany and Sweden will also co-operate in the forensic identification work. This is natural, as most of the missing citizens from both countries were staying in the Khao Lak region, and are now lined up side by side in make-shift morgues. But Germany that is missing 1000 people will send 28 experts, while Sweden (missing 2-4 times more), is only sending 8.

[lord of the mark]

France apparently increased its donation in response to US claims that France was stingy, so that briefly France had the highest donation total. Shortly thereafter the higher UK pledge came out. There will of course be new pressure on the US to increase its aid.

Sounds like an old fashioned United Jewish Appeal fundraisers. (Mr. Levine - i pledge a thousand! Mr. Cohen - no way that lousy Levine is gonna look better - and richer - than me - I pledge TWO thousand)


AP:

'PARIS - One-upping the United States, France nearly doubled its aid pledge for tsunami victims to $57 million Thursday and briefly claimed the role as leading donor nation, following barbs from Washington about French generosity.

But Britain quickly topped France by more than tripling its donation to $95 million and Sweden promised $75.5 million. Spain's Cabinet, meanwhile, approved a $68 million package, although about a fifth was in loans rather than outright grants.

Since Sunday's huge earthquake off Indonesia and ensuing giant waves around the Indian Ocean, the United States has announced an initial $35 million aid package. Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said Thursday that was "just a beginning."

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's boast that France vaulted to "the head of all the contributors" appeared to be a response to comments from Andrew Natsios, chief of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which distributes American government aid.

In a Fox News interview this week, Natsios said France tends not to be a world leader in foreign aid and often packages its help as loans, which he suggested are inappropriate in emergencies.

"The aid program in France is not that big," he said. "They do not tend to be dominant figures in the aid. The British are, the European Union (news - web sites) is, the Japanese are, we are, the Canadians are."

At France's Foreign Ministry, spokesman Herve Ladsous shot back that French aid for the tsunami victims "is clearly donations and not loans."


Ladsous also said France gives more development aid than the United States and all other members of the Group of Eight industrial nations when measured as a proportion of a country's economic output.


"The figures speak for themselves," he said.

[lord of the mark]

Apparently US, Australia, Japan and India are coordinating efforts - is that just for the India-Sri Lanka area?

[lord of the mark]

And WTF is happening in Burma?

[Giancarlo]

Well since the US has the biggest navy and the most amount of money, they will eventually come out on top.

[Giancarlo]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
And WTF is happening in Burma?

The government there is far too secretive... maybe it would take a natural disaster to get those military leaders out of power.

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by Giancarlo
---

Secondly, Ollie made a comment in the other thread about the US Naval contribution being a "piss in the nile". It is a hell of lot larger then anything else any other nation is doing.

That's all.

Any country's contribution is a piss in the Nile. There are not enough global resources available to assist in the urgent rescue need spread out over 2 large continents and 1000's of remote islands.

Saying "US Navy saved the day" is simply arrogant. They might help some people, which is greatly appreciated, but anyone claiming their country is doing enough is lying.

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
And WTF is happening in Burma?

Look at the map. Think about their political system. Go figure.

[DanS]

I think criticizing home governments is a little too quick on the trigger. It's not the governments' faults that the tsunami happened and vacationers are pretty much on their own in a foreign country that is known by them to have inferior infrastructure. Besides, this is around the holidays and the fact is that most government workers are on vacations, as these unfortunate beachgoers were. Lastly, I doubt Finland has large consulates in these places, for instance.

[Giancarlo]

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie


Any country's contribution is a piss in the Nile. There are not enough global resources available to assist in the urgent rescue need spread out over 2 large continents and 1000's of remote islands.

Saying "US Navy saved the day" is simply arrogant. They might help some people, which is greatly appreciated, but anyone claiming their country is doing enough is lying.

You might as well do something rather then nothing. And what the US is doing is quite good and needed. We must help out the big population centers immediately. And we need the militaries of the nations affected totally mobilized to assist in the relief. Many of these nations will have to depend on themselves more because this is their territory. There is only so much the world can do.

Well somebody else said that... not me. And a country can be doing enough in its capacity. Some countries cannot send huge carrier fleets to provide assistance. Stop being so critical.

[GePap]

I don't think Burma has been affected significantly- bangladesh was hit slightly as well.

Its nice to see states trying to top each other- the sort of mindless pissing match that leads somewhere.