You also realize that many of those killed were not inhabitants but tourists.
You also realize that the news corps that ran with the original stingy story took the words out of context and that the person speaking did not specifically mention the US.
You do realize you are saying they hit the lottery when innocent children were killed.
YOu do realize that we spent more money in Iraq this week than what we are sending in aid to these countries.

'India and many other countries just hit the lottery.' - an interesting way of looking at the biggest natural disaster in a century, I'm not sure if the 70,000 dead or the orphaned would see it that way. Frankly this is a disgusting interpretation of what happened.

'In addition to being able to conveniently rid themselves of many of their homeless, they are getting a bonus check from the US government this year for the tsunami disaste' - Wow, this is an even more disgusting interpretation. Seeing your parents or loved ones getting washed out to sea, yeah that's a real convenient way to solve homelessness. Only the truly sickest mind would describe badly needed disaster funds as a 'bonus cheque'.

The UN did not criticize the contribution as stingy. Some guy who worked for the UN said this ABOUT FOREIGN AID IN GENERAL:

'"We were more generous when we were less rich, many of the rich countries," Mr Egeland said, at a press conference in New York. "It is beyond me why we are so stingy, really." His comments were in response to a question about aid donations generally, and he was not referring directly to the disaster in South Asia.

Loose cannons like you totally lied about what the guy actually said in order to make political hay out of it. For the record, foreign aid as a % of GDP has dropped among many first world countries, and America spends less per capita on foreign than any other OECD country, despite being the richest country in the world.

'Apparently, they won't be happy until the standard of the US poor is equal to or greater than that of poor countries such as India.' - Weak, untrue strawman argument that deserves to be ridiculed. Nobody other than you is saying this.

'And yet, our contribution is mocked as "stingy"' No, it is not. That is a large lie that you are helping to spread. I hope you will take greater care to check the facts before writing next time. I see a lot of nasty stuff on the net but to suggest that India and the rest just 'hit the lottery' and solved it's homelessness problem via mass death raises the bar of evil to a new level. I am disappointed and disgusted to see this.

D.

We also donate over half the worlds humanitarian food aid. (not calculated in, because it is not hard cash)

I also hear all the time how the US keeps sticking our nose into other countries with that aid and it does more harm then good.

That's My Two Cents

PS: As a side note, the UN required Iraq to purchase all of its food aid during sanctions. All of which was bought from non-US companies. Can anyone say $6.00 a litter French olive oil and $8.00 a lb. Rice from China. (I wonder why China didn’t send this to starving North Korea?)

Pipe down. Lee1776, you are politicizing and obfuscating a tragedy. Not the time to be whinging about how much the world hates America, it's not all about you. Pretty sick of you to deflect legitimate criticism of a very questionable article by twisting it into justification for the Iraq invasion and whatever the hell you are going on about. You can keep your two cents next time.

This thread starter is probably the most offensive post I have ever seen on this board, or maybe on any board.

Yeah, this has to be the stupidest, sickest, most horrific thing I have seen anyone say in a long time. 80,000+ and counting deaths and you say they hit the lottery? How would you like to be one of those "lucky winners"?

Giddy, this has got to be the most selfish and demoralizing post I've seen in a long time. Upwards of 100,000 or more are going to be dead from this tragedy. Millions are homeless. The devastation is apocalyptic. And, you're belly aching about sending tax revenues? You really are a sicko.

And, one more thing.....................

If this post is just about trolling, seeing how many people you can get a rise out of (including me), then you still qualify as a sicko. You need to get your head shrunk.

If you don't like how I pipe, then don't read. I have to repeatedly read dabe's, whoman69's, your and other's political rants that have nothing to do with the subject.

In case you hadn't noticed, the subject of this thread has to do with how lucky these countries are that they have taken part in one of the worst natural disasters of the last century. The one off topic is you. You want to defend how these countries "won the lottery" using the abhorrent term used by this thread's author, go ahead.

Reply #2 By: whoman69 - 12/29/2004 2:47:09 PM You also realize that many of those killed were not inhabitants but tourists.

BS!!!!

In Thailand, hundreds of tourists are now reported missing, and the beaches in the coastal resorts of Phuket and Krabi are evacuated. The images from the region show cars that have been tossed about by the waters and hundreds of destroyed homes

Notice it says "hundreds" NOT thousands!!! Link

Dr. Miller, countries other than Thailand were hit by the tsunami. Additionally, at no time did anyone other than you state that 'thousands' of tourists died, though it is likely - and not disproven by your article. In essence, you are arguing with yourself. To recap: you called BS that 'many' were tourists, made up some strawman shit about 'thousands', and posted an article that disproved nothing. Hundreds = many, OK? If anything is BS in this thread, it is Gideon's contention that the victims of the worst disaster in memory have 'won the jackpot'. Unfortunately, you don't get that. Out of respect for the dead I hope you and others will choose your comments more carefully.

Reply #10 By: GrooveDygger - 12/29/2004 11:55:59 PM Dr. Miller, countries other than Thailand were hit by the tsunami. Additionally, at no time did anyone other than you state that 'thousands' of tourists died, though it is likely - and not disproven by your article

Your math is flawed.

*whoman69* said, and I quote.

You also realize that many of those killed were not inhabitants but tourists.

That to me says he means more tourists than inhabitants! And just for the record..... I never once said nor advocated that Gideon's respose was appropriate! Get real!

Pipe down. Lee1776,

You can keep your two cents next time

If you don't like how I pipe, then don't read. I have to repeatedly read dabe's, whoman69's, your and other's political rants that have nothing to do with the subject.

Not the time to be whinging about how much the world hates America, it's not all about you.

I'm responding to the original post here, by saying that the UN employee stated that the richest nations are being "stingy". This places the US in his crosshair for two reasons:

1) We are the richest nation.
2) Our Government pays less then .8% of the GDP in cash to relief agencies.

That make it about me and how much GDP I'm willing to push my politicians to give from my taxes. If that make me selfish for not wanting to hand out to every country that the UN wants on a regular schedule, then yes I'm being stingy. But that does not mean that I will not (though I personally already have) give money to help disasters like this one.

We also donate over half the worlds humanitarian food aid. (not calculated in, because it is not hard cash)

This comment was made in response to D's comment about the % of GDP, by informing him and other readers, that not all forms of aid comes in Cash and the UN Employee was not calculating this into his statement.

As for my statement about other countries criticizing the US about what we do give, it just shows that we are damned if we do and damned if we don't give aid (usually by the same people).

As for the China and France "Side Note" comment, I simply pointing out that while we have donated the vast majority of the Food Aid to North Korea (China's Allie), these countries are so willing to sell at an inflated price to Iraq (in the name of Charity). When we offer, through the UN food aid program, to donate and lower priced contracts (rejected for French and Chinese contracts).

justification for the Iraq invasion and whatever the hell you are going on about.

When was I justifying invasion of Iraq?

I have also noted that lately many radicals are screaming shut up and don't say anything. This is usually a good sign that the radicals are starting to try and squash any other voice then theirs own (and they always preach about objectivity). Too bad, just suck it up, that rest of us have to listen to your obnoxious rants all the time. Now listen to the rest of us for once.

Gideon MacLeish, don't worry about these guys. I know your only debating about your tax dollars being donated by the Government verses personal donations and not trying to belittle the disaster. Though I don't agree with you on every point that you made.

That's an extra two cents for you groovedygger

And mine too! For what it's worth.

This thread starter is probably the most offensive post I have ever seen on this board, or maybe on any board.

I second this. There are many countries that are victimized, not just India. The blog is insensitive to the enormity of this tragedy.