Australia became the largest donor to the tsunami relief effort Wednesday, committing $810 million in loans and grants to help Indonesia and other tsunami-stricken countries recover from the disaster.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard committed $764 million to the relief effort, becoming the largest relief donor hours after Germany increased its aid to $674 million as the second-biggest contributor.
The pledge by Australia, most of it earmarked for Indonesia, came on top of its previously announced donation of $46 million, making the country's total $810 million.
"This is a historic step in Indonesian-Australian relations in the wake of this terrible natural disaster," Howard said.
Today's news, via Sea-Eat blog.
Two comments.
First, the people at Sea-Eat blog have done, and continue to do a very workmanlike job of keeping up with all the latest information. That is the first place I look when I sit down at the keyboard, even before I check the usual suspects.
Second, it is a bleeding shame that the chart listing contributions from all over the world has such a sorry showing from countries routinely maligning the United States.
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Australia leads in aid to Indonesia
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2 comments:
Hello Hoots, Good article. But you left out this nugget:
Well, what a difference a week makes. After the initial charge that the United States of America was being stingy with its response to the tsunami disaster, the glare of scrutiny has been focused elsewhere: Arab countries.
First up, Kuwait. Kuwait has pledged $10 million, up from an earlier pledge of $2 million. Some are pointing out that's not much, when you consider how wealthy that country is. The price of oil has roughly doubled, and Kuwait now has a $10 billion budget surplus. They've got the cash. So how's come the figure is so low? More on that in a minute.
Other wealthy Muslim countries have contributed as follows: Qatar - $10 million, Saudi Arabia - $10 million and The United Arab Emirates, $20 million. So what's the problem? Well, there really isn't one, since money apparently isn't the problem right now anyway.
What's interesting to note here is that these wealthy Muslim countries are not jumping at the change to help their fellow worshipers of Islam. Indonesia, the most affected country, is the most populous Muslim nation. Yet, countries with enormous sums of money aren't really putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to helping their people.
Some believe that the earthquake and tsunami were the work of Allah, punishing Thailand, for example, for prostitution. These Muslim nations sure can whine about the way Muslims are treated around the world, but when it comes time for them to step forward and show how much they really care, they're out to lunch somewhere.
That's okay, though....as always, the United States, who has freed more Muslims from tyranny than any other power, will be there to pick up the slack.
From Boortz-the high priest of the painful truth.Circa 1-04-2005
Selah
Yep. Here's the link:
http://boortz.com/nuze/200501/01042005.html#stingy
A few years ago Boortz was just a bunch of noise, but in the last few years he has become a bunch of noise with the internet to back him up. I listen to him almost daily and am amazed how he can spin anything to land how he wants. He's on the mark this time.
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