Tsunami

some facts from this website :

some numbers

Hats off for the American people :

( from the same website : cut and paste )

However, even though the charts above do show U.S. aid to be poor (in percentage terms) compared to the rest, the generosity of the people of America is far more impressive than their government. As discussed further below, the government spending has tied agendas that has often been detrimental to the recipient. Private aid/donation in contrast has been through charity on individual people and organizations though this of course can be weighted to certain interests and areas. Nonetheless, it is interesting to note for example, per latest estimates, Americans privately give at least $34 billion overseas -- more than three times U.S. official foreign aid of $10 billion:

International giving by U.S. foundations totals $1.5 billion per year
Charitable giving by U.S. businesses now comes to at least $2.8 billion annually
American NGOs gave over $6.6 billion in grants, goods and volunteers.
Religious overseas ministries contribute $3.4 billion, including health care, literacy training, relief and development.
$1.3 billion by U.S. colleges are given in scholarships to foreign students
Personal remittances from the U.S. to developing countries came to $18 billion in 2000
Source: Dr. Carol Aderman, Aid and Comfort, Tech Central

I agree with Raka. I think US should stop funding the Pakistani gov`t and basically the economy, which is being cannibalized by the generalissmos for new planes and missiles and instead divert the $3B or so earmarked over the next few years towards the relief effort. That will be the right thing to do indeed.

Interesting affect on world markets:

``Booming markets shed few tears
By James Arnold
BBC News business reporter

Clearing up after disasters can help stimulate an economy
The market, former British government minister Michael Heseltine once said, has no morality.

And indeed, stock exchange traders around Asia have wasted little time regretting the victims of this week`s disaster.

Stock markets in Indonesia and India have hit all-time highs this week; even in Sri Lanka, more comprehensively affected, the main index has lost only 5% since the waves hit.

Bigger markets further afield have barely twitched. The MSCI World share index, a measure of global stock market performance, hit its highest level this week since early 2001; the BBC Global 30 has risen by 3% in the past week.

And this at a time when - all sentiment aside - insurance costs are already estimated in the tens of billions of dollars, and countries around the region are looking at trimming their growth forecasts.

Miscounting the cost

In fact, the markets are being perfectly rational.

For a start, the notional insurance cost of the disaster will have little bearing on corporate bottom lines.

The overwhelming majority of the victims will have had no insurance: according to estimates from India, only one-quarter of those affected there were wealthy enough to afford insurance, and only one-quarter of that group at most will have taken out policies. Indonesia is likely to have even lower take-up rates.

And where insurance certainly is in place - in, for example, the many tourist complexes affected - the costs will be borne in far-away corners of the global reinsurance market, rather than landing locally.

Different strokes

Second, stock markets do not trade the sort of companies likely to have been damaged.

Most of the biggest companies traded on the soaring Jakarta Stock Exchange are in oil, technology and financial services - none of which have been hit by the flooding. Tourist businesses, the most likely sufferers, are either foreign-owned or too small to have their shares listed.

Those that are listed have suffered: Confifi Hotel Holdings, a small Sri Lankan tourism firm, has halved in value this week.`` (www.bbc.co.uk)

< a href=http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Debt/USAid.asp> some numbers here

........ and the American President is on vacation till the 3rd Jan 2005....


Maybe he is collecting peanuts.....to distribute....

As the last waters of the tsunami recede, uncovering the violent deaths of tens of thousands, the time has begun for questions to reverbrate with the reasons for the unpreparedness for the tragedy.

Who was that brillaint scientist who dint know who to alert after knowing of the coming tragedy?
In the olden times, God took all the credits and blame for an act of nature. In this day and age, can even a ferocious act of nature not match the numbers maimed and killed by a religious fanatic called Bush, in one country?

In the good old days, there was a moral to every tragedy. What moral is there to this one?

I also noticed the minimal coverage given to Tsunami while the other channels were right on the spot here. That has always been the problem with local channels in USA and I thought it may have been due to majority of the anchormen on christmas vacation ( if you notice wolf lou dobb and the rest are still off )..ofcourse that is no excuse for big news channels..

Countries like Thailand and others with great tourist income could have eaisly afforded the warning mechanism and even India. Few less missiles and few less planes and more on safety of its citizens. Yes I would blame the respective countries first.

Now coming the measely US aid. Thats a joke. Bush was on vacation while all that happened and never even made one comment. His spokesman said the President is vacationing. When someobody from UN called them stingy...only then he comes out to defend himself.
Dont forget that the amount of that million or billion of aid sent has a major component going to the governments for political reasons and military and antiterrorist funding and also Isreal is the major recipient of that aid instead of Sudan or Somalia. Let`s not even bring up that aid for crying out loud.

I think Pakistan for once should wake up and smell something and spend some serious money on warning systems. Is duffa Allah nai buchaa lia who knows next time...

re tahmed32 #63:

Would you like to venture a guess as to the percentage of US budget that goes towards foreign aid? And if you are really adventurous compare that with the EU?

later
-sac

Jang in #54
U`r talkin like the Shrub when he sez - we`r redeploying our aircraft carriers & that costs money. The measure of help is not how much u spend but what it means 2 the victims. When we can spend 200 billion dollars 2 democratize a country we surely cud spend a good fraction of that helping people & making friends?
USAid came up with a phoney figure & said we have given 30% of all aid. But that includes ``aid`` given 2 Iraq - a country we destroyed in the 1st place. Lets make friends by being good citizens.

Mine will be a POLITICALLY Incorrect comment ....
The Other day.... the Maulana of our Mosque after....`` Making a Special Dua for the tsumani victims... commented.... Had any one Noticed....these are the areas where.
Sex-Trade was an industry.....``

... I dont much about these areas.....But I wondered..........
For Me More than 100,000 Lives.... !!!.... I mean the scale is simply awesome...

..... And I have another observation.... before going to my work place....on the 27th December.... when the news broke in.... I was alternating between bbc and CNN....for the latest updates.....and during that One hour...
BBC was always on the News.... related to tsumani...
where as CNN ... it gave about 3 minutes to tsumani..... more that 10 minutes to some Sportsman who died.... I think he was some Basket Ball player.....and then they were constantly on ......How their travellers lost their baggage during this winter holiday seasons...... plus the usual... economic indexes.....

Mind you these were my observations at about 9 am to 10 am on 27 Dec 2004...
The situation does have changed after that.... especailly after Mr Bush has announced to give out some peanuts.... in the Name of relief.

nasah #20 I agree that contributions should be made to well-known large organizations like Oxfam and Care, and smaller ones only if you are personally familiar with them.

Inquirer #30 I believe the US is trying to put together a new kind of a ``coalition of the willing``, which would include India and China. It would indeed be a hopeful sign if, instead of wasting lives and resources fighting one another, the armed forces of the nations of the world were to join hands in doing something worthwhile.

As for the saying you mention, ````God, give me the courage to change what I can, the humility to accept what I can not, and the wisdom to see the difference.``, that is indeed one worth remembering. Another way this has been put is that ``things you cant change are by definition not problems - they are conditions``. You focus on problems (things you can change) rather than conditions (things you cannot).

Thus, under this philosophy, instead of trying to change the world (that being a condition), one would focus on simple things like organizing our communities, keeping neighborhoods clean and secure (that being something one can change, and therefore a problem).

Murtaza #33 On the ocean floor being raised: at this time the exact dimensions are estimates only based on the recorded magnitude of the quake and so forth. It would take time to mount an actual undersea expedition to take measurements, and in any case I am sure the place would be too unstable and therefore dangerous at this time anyway. What does seem certain is that the floor was raised - and this was the result of the segment of the earth`s crust known as the India plate being pushed under the segment known as the Burma plate. These forces are powerful enough that raising of the floor by 60 feet should not be surprising - after all, the mighty himalayas that go a mile high were at one time the bottom of an ocean. And the evidence includes fossils of ancient sea creatures in these mountains.

On the Quranic verse I mentioned, but I do recall it as referring to ALL mankind being susceptible to replacement (which can thus only be by another species), not just one tribe with another.

Glad we agree on the basic premise of the article which, as you put it, is that ``our selfishness and preoccupation with our lives can lead us to forget the bigger picture. ``

temporal #34 yeh naacheeze itny ziaadaa taareef kay kaabil nahiN. :-) The article may have prompted you to put down something on paper concerning the tsunami as well - but the inspiration that caused you to write those beautiful verses in the ilog clearly came from your heart.

malik #35 you write ``We may fight each other in ``good times`` but we all come together when tragedy occurs regardless of national, religious and political leanings.`` At last there is something you and I can agree on!!

btw, I did not drag ben laden into this. he dragged himself in by making his fatuous remarks the same day that this tragedy occurred. Just as I did not drag in the fatuous meeting on kashmir of the india-pakistan governments. That too was the only other major news item (on the regional south asian news) that occurred that day. This glimpse of the larger reality showed once and for all the petty nature of most political issues.

avenger (aka gujjubania aka shamsul aka saint): For once I will agree with you that you should be pleased that the Indian government does not feel the need for external help. You and your kind are welcome to keep viewing pakistanis as india`s enemies - that is not a problem for us pakistanis, and you can stew in your own juices (be sure to add some salt and laal mirch).