Katrina Monday morning quarterbacking

[HTRegz]

Originally posted here by devpon
Yea our per capita number is low, but I bet the people who were affected by the Tsunami sure appreciated $350 from our govrnment, plus the number of people helping out.


Now I am sure the people affected appreciate the $66 million given by your government more so than any per capita figures thrown around.
So what does this all mean. Uhm, I guess there are governments and people around the world willing to help people in need.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/...ot_aid_pac_cap

Sorry to hijack this thread, but we have seen figures thrown around that can be used by both sides of a debate(discussion).

Hey Hey,

Well if we want to keep this up, let's look at the totlal aid package per country..

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/dis_tsu_tot_aid_pac
1. Germany $1,071,000,000
2. United States $1,003,000,000
3. Australia $963,370,000
4. Canada $500,450,000
5. Japan $500,000,000

Yeah... you doubled our numbers... but you have 10x our numbers.... That just seems kinda sad to me... You should have 10x the donations.... You're always going to exceed our number because you have more people... but since people like to discuss the generosity of the American citiizen.... you just aren't quite as generous as the average Canadian citizen.

Peace,
HT

[Kthln01]

Yeah... you doubled our numbers... but you have 10x our numbers.... That just seems kinda sad to me... You should have 10x the donations.... You're always going to exceed our number because you have more people... but since people like to discuss the generosity of the American citiizen.... you just aren't quite as generous as the average Canadian citizen.

Since when are things exactly proportional? That's like saying I make twice as much money as you so I should always have twice as much money in my pocket. That's not realistic.

The point is: your statement: "Canada has done more for the world than the US" is wrong.

Last time I checked, countries didn't get together and compete as to who could send the most aid money.

[debwalin]

Aspman, that food sounds nasty! However, I didn't have power for almost 3 weeks altogether last year. After awhile, that makes it hard to think of things to cook, and something people rarely mention but is a huge problem...when you have children who are used to TV, to video games, to watching movies when they want to, to coming inside to a nice cool air conditioned house after they've played outside in 100 degree weather...that's where the real problem comes in. They get bored, and they're tired of canned food, and you're tired of dealing with them...I can't imagine anything that would break the monotony more than a whole box of "weird" food and it's own little stove to cook it with! It would have been fun for us to have, and in a stressful time like that, if you can give your kids a little bit of fun, you've given them a lot. The food almost becomes secondary to the emotional needs these kids are going to have, and I think that rations from the British Army could go a long way toward filling several of those needs. It will take their mind off what they're going thru, and ... what better way to find out someone cares about you than to find food from another country! waiting for you at your shelter!

The best article I've read was one on CNN yesterday (I can't find it today!)...our customs agents are finally doing something smart....all the "knock-off" items that they confiscate coming in at the border...Tommy Hilfiger clothes and Nikey shoes, etc, are being donated to shelters! I was so proud of someone finally coming up with a good use for that stuff instead of just wasting it in warehouses til it rots.

[The Texan]

I just heard on the radio today that private citizens/businesses in America have donated 500 million dollars to hurricane relief since it started and the Red Cross has gotten more money in the last week than it has in the past 4-5 years! but, not to say America is the only one donating... Panama ( the country) they didnt donate any money to use but, they did give us 120,000 lbs of banannas to feed people which is just as good. thanx world

[VictorKaum]

Little thoughts by all this, in no way to 'attack' but something to think about.

Why did "Katrina" was so powerfull? Part of it due to coincidence, but also a big part due to the global warming. Hurricanes get more powerfull when ocean water temperature increases. Exactly what happens now. So it's not unreasonable to assume the possibility of a new and even more powerfull 'katrina'. Several scientists say that there is a 15 to 45% chance. Keeping in mind that those same scientists also said months, even years before, that 70% of New Orleans is below sealevel and that the levees could only upstand against a level 3 storm, but a little 2 billion $ had made then resistant to level 5 (katrina was level 4) while the war in Iraq already costed the US 200 billion $.

This is not about local politics and choices, or not about who's the most generous comparing to others. Besides, someone in the above posts compares the amount/head, perhaps it's not a bad idea to look at the wage/head or amount of poor people in the named countries. I'm pretty sure that the average income in Luxembourg or Switserland is a lot higher then the average in the US. Specially when you count the European social security level as a part of the European average incomes. The European wages may be a lot lower, being the money to spend less, but the Europeans get a good social security in turn. So let's not compare apples and oranges. (this being only a sidenote in my reply).

This is about larger political / ideological choices:
- When you see that Katrina and the last hurricanes in Florida are influenced by the global warming, it seems almost not understandable why the US does not want to step in the Kyoto agreement against global warming. One answer? The oil industry?

- Next, if you come to the conclusion that those big ecological choices have such an enormous effect on the Mississippi area, why not spend money to counter that bad effect due to perhaps a reasonable political / economical choice?

- Knowing the above you can seriously ask questions about the sort of democracy the US is. It seems that distributors say what you are going to eat, what you are going to see on television, hear on the radio, buy at the shopping mall (be it weapons to kill your neighbour in order to rape his woman and eat his cat? putting it very black). Is a scenario like 'waterworld' impossible? New Orleans and Katrina have proved it's not.

- Perhaps a good part of the chaos and anarchy is not only due to very bad governance in times of crisis, but also very bad governance in good days. For instance what about the very sharp duality between poor and rich? Where's America's mid-class? And you can ask serious questions by the racial link between poor and rich. I hope I'am not even capable to believe that race or votes had something to do with the slow reaction of the federal US government, if it does, you can not longer consider the US a decent society. You can even wonder if a country with such a level of unequality can be called decent or civilized. We all saw people saying the were ashamed to be American. Not only now but also at 9/11 and during the Iraq war. A proud nation that is willing to destruct itself?

The Texan said we better focus on the rebuild, yes very true, but if you see that the disaster is going to cost several times more than the means needed to prevent it, then such kind of short term thinking is perhaps also part of the reason why this hurricane had such an impact?

[gore]

Move HERE

No big storms that I've heard of.

[Cybr1d]

Yeah... you doubled our numbers... but you have 10x our numbers.... That just seems kinda sad to me... You should have 10x the donations.... You're always going to exceed our number because you have more people... but since people like to discuss the generosity of the American citiizen.... you just aren't quite as generous as the average Canadian citizen.

How much did you donate to the tsunami funds? I'm sure you wouldn't miss a visit to McDonalds or Burger King if your life depended on it, instead of sending that $5 you'd spend there to the tsunami fund...

Soooo acording to you, if China and India decided to donate $1 per person, then we're looking at about 2.3 billion dollars. [sarcasm]Those cheap bastards only donated 1 dollar per person...pfft, what a discrace[/sarcasm]....HT, you really need to learn when to STFU.

[devpon]

but since people like to discuss the generosity of the American citiizen.... you just aren't quite as generous as the average Canadian citizen.

Did you really just graduate from college? You should get your money back if that is the best you can do. You should go into politics, for you seem to turn something good into ****.

US private contributions = around $200 million

$350m in government donations, plus military assistance involving 12,600 personnel, 21 ships, 14 cargo planes and more than 90 helicopters. Around $200m of private donations are also pouring in, with $120m donated to the US branches of the Red Cross, Oxfam and Save the Children, and to Catholic Relief Services.

Canadian private contribution = at least $29 million

Given $66m in government donations, plus at least $29m raised in private donations with a government commitment to match every dollar donated by the public. Ottawa has already placed a moratorium on debt from the affected countries. It is also deploying its highly-specialised Disaster Assistance Response Team to Sri Lanka.

I think any donation of time or money is a great thing.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/dis_tsu_tot_aid_pac

[HTRegz]

Originally posted here by Cybr1d
How much did you donate to the tsunami funds? I'm sure you wouldn't miss a visit to McDonalds or Burger King if your life depended on it, instead of sending that $5 you'd spend there to the tsunami fund...

Soooo acording to you, if China and India decided to donate $1 per person, then we're looking at about 2.3 billion dollars. [sarcasm]Those cheap bastards only donated 1 dollar per person...pfft, what a discrace[/sarcasm]....HT, you really need to learn when to STFU.

You can tell me I need to learn to STFU.. tell you what.. as soon as I hear it from a non American I will... but as far as I'm concerned your opinion means as much to me as mine does to you... As far as McDonalds and Burger King.. it's the average American that can't live without fast food... The only time I eat Fast Food is when subway has closed and burger king is the only place still open at work. As far as donations to the tsunami... I put 20 bucks in one of the donation boxes and every time I was in walmart I'd give a dollar. How much did you give if you're going to question me.... I'm not saying it's being cheap... I'm just putting that out there for the person that said the US was overly generous... and demonstrating that they really aren't... They just have enough people to make it seem like it... Yes it's definately more of a help than the donations from Canada.. but it doesn't make them more generous.. not by a long shot..

devpon, as for you I'm not sure I follow... a half billion from a population of roughly 30Million and a billion from a population of 300 Million.. As i already mentioned... This was for the benefit of the person who stated that the US was quite generous... just demonstrating how other countries are more generous... Yes the donations were greater... but the generosity necessarily wasn't.

Have you never heard the saying which is more generous, Bill Gates giving 100 million dollars to charity or You giving 1000 dollars to charity.. You are being more generous... it hurts you to give that amount but you do it out of kindness.. donating that amount doesn't even phase on someone like Bill Gates.... it's not always about the final amount... If you want to say who gave the most.. then yes it is about final amount.. but if you throw around terms like generous... that value doesn't matter... Hopefully someone with common sense understands this....

Peace,
HT

[!mitationRust]

Cybr1d,

How can you take someone who's trivialized the Holocaust seriously? The intentional systematic targeting of thousands of children through a barbaresque logic. The systematic ruination through experimental testing on children robbed from their parents purposefully.

Morally repulsive and sleazy hmmmm? Yeah.

Those were our HH-60H, SH-60B SEAHAWK and MH-60S KNIGHTHAWK helicopters flying from our infrastructure (aircraft carriers) helping those people. Those were our BILLIONS in tax dollars at work and nobody from the US has to feel any kind of guilt for anything during the tsunami relief effort. .............because our helicopters led the way in that relief effort! Anyone dispute that (excluding bubble boys)? Those choppers didn't have red maple leaves painted on the side, they had American flags. Sending someone with a check in hand to their ground zero is one thing....................flying over it searching for survivor hotspots to deliver water, first aid and MRE's is another.