Blade is a good Republican, by the way.

sheikah:

Omega Ohm: Get off your ass, get on a plane, and go shovel some dirt. You can cry about how I need to do more when you're on site getting your own hands dirty.

that's all any of us are doing...

Actually trying to find if some local charity/volunteer organisation is sending over people to help. In Asia they seem to require previous experience on volunteer work, though.

i saw a telling statistic the other day - the contribution by the US for tsunami/earthquake relief (what is it, $25 million at this point?) is about what the US spends ** every two hours ** in Iraq.

Hearts and minds indeed.

/not trying to troll - just sharing some interesting info

I believe what he did was make a pledge of a donation in somebody elses name, and had the bill sent to this other person.

He didn't actually donate money, all he did was begin to waste UNICEF's resources as they try to track this bogus donation down.

Pretty FARKED thing to do, considering how those UNICEF resourses should be focused on collecting actual donations and helping the victims.

I'm glad I donated money last night, back when it didn't feel quite so shockingly like pissing into an empty swimming pool to try and fill it.

Submitter deserves a speechwriting job =[

FlameDuck:

I donated 100 Euros, but now it seems pretty insignificant, but hopefully many of you will/have done the same.

Whatever, man... with exchange rates going the way they are, 100 Euros is what, $170,000?

2004-12-30 12:16:42 PM underdog

See, this is where many people like yourself are mislead. You're equating governments with people, and that's completely unfair. Even in a democracy (like America) it is still highly probable that the majority of the population does not support their government's actions.

It is highly probable that a majority disagree with Bush. But if they didn't vote, then they lose the right to complain, and the policies they don't like go into place. They are part of the problem, with their inaction. Same goes with people in other countries. If they disagree with their country's policies, work to change them. You don't work to change them, and it's tacit approval of them--regardless of what you actually think.

Why would you want to punish innocent people? That punitive thinking what leads to large scale turmoil, more death, and more hatred.

I don't want to punish anyone. But I have priorities. We have millions of Americans who can barely read, are without jobs, and have kids who go to bed hungry every night. Help us first, and them second. After all, they don't want our help usually, and when they do they expect us to forget that their government has been opposed to ours, and that Americans are sometimes not welcome in those areas. In places like Malaysia, they're even singled out for political gain by minority groups that their government does almost nothing to stop.

"I believe what he did was make a pledge of a donation in somebody elses name, and had the bill sent to this other person."

If thats the case, it's kinda low, y'know?

Balder333:

irst, the US simply handed EVERYTHING in its foreign disaster aid fund. All of it, there is nothing left to give. To give more will take an act of congress to approve the spending. This is how our system works - congress having the power of the purse strings and such.

Hey, if we can spend money to the tune of $87 billion for a stupid war and not care about actually paying for it, what would be so hard about a billion tossed their way?

Get off yer asses, Congress.

Balder, you might want to:

1. Reread the post.
2. unclinch your butt cheeks.

"He says, on an American owned website.
Run by an American. With the majority
of subscribers being American. If you
don't like it, find something comparable
to fark in your nation, post there,
and quit bothering us."


When you say "us" do you mean all Americans or just the assholes in this thread?...

Couple quick comments.

Interesting to hear atheist Farkers dragging out God's name when looking for someone (thing) to blame for this disaster. Make up your mind. He doesn't exist for your convenience.

Consider this, that the true nature and face of God is being seen all over the world right now by the outpouring of compassion and help for strangers in need. Even on the Fark board.

Balder333-

I gladly paid up front $10 USD for the relief effort. It's not a pledge, it's a gift.

Let him press charges, if he thinks that's wrong somehow. I still used my own name, address, and credit card number for billing, I'm sure UNICEF would supply that to the authorities if need be.

Consider this, that the true nature and face of God is being seen all over the world right now by the outpouring of compassion and help for strangers in need. Even on the Fark board.

god giveth and god taketh away.

/but he mostly taketh away, these days.

Balder333

Its pissing me off to hear everyone biatching and moaning about what the USA isn't doing for the victims in this disaster.


Unbunch your panties son, it's not just your nations government that is contributing a pisspoor drop in the ocean of money that will be needed to stop the next followup headline on Fark surpassing the 200,000 body count. It took only a matter of hours for private donations in the UK to make our goverment's aid pledge of £ 15million look shamefully inadequate. Meanwhile, of course, our righteous prime minister is still holidaying, no doubt sunning himself on a beach safely sheltered from such catastrophic occurences.

This surpasses the Darfur toll, I think;

but forget about Darfur. The people are browner there, and it involves guns, and really, that's so played out and trite. You'd think they could be a bit more dramatic and creative in their humitarian catastrophe.

/don't cross my goddamn path today

according to iwon.com.....120,000....omg...

It's difficult to say I like this world......

Depressing.

Drudge just headlined "400,000!?!"

/He wins.

"Drudge just headlined "400,000!?!""

Drudge = National Inquirer

To the person/people comparing this to the Florida hurricane season, and whining about why the world didn't aid us...quit being pussies. I was IN Florida for Francis...and wasn't impressed with all the folks calling the radio station 3 hours after the storm passed biatching about having no air conditioning. Comparing it to this earthquake/tsunami is like comparing a bb-gun to a nuke.

Balder-

Thank you for your online contribution to the United States Fund for UNICEF. By the simple act of giving, you have joined UNICEFs global effort to advance humanity with health, education, equality and protection for every child.



No goods or services were provided in exchange for your gift, making it tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Print and retain this message as a record of your contribution.



Please tell a friend (or five) about unicefusa.org!


The following summarizes your contribution:

Your Gift Will Help: South Asia Tsunami Relief Efforts
Total Contribution Amount: $50.00

That was the one I made in my name.

While channel surfing last night, I came across several of the news channels. They were showing some of the actual footage of the wave going through towns with people in the water, and all of the devastation, leaving people with no homes and no families.

After watching for a while, I went one channel farther, and it was one of the shopping channels, with two women showing how awesome the glitzy purses they were selling were, because the underside of the flap was covered in the same leather as the rest of the bag. Limited offer, great deal, buy now...etc.

Extraneous junk.

Sigh...

life goes on.

Tinian: Starbucks has donated $1,000,000.

The New York Times hasn't donated one cent.

I just checked my work email and found out that our company is sending a sizable donation, and that the founder of AmeriCares also founded one of our factories, and served as one of our board of directors.

I'm often angry at my job, but today I feel quite pleased with them.

You know, totalbanilation, I don't think anyone's forgotten Darfur. It's much harder to help in those internally-caused conflicts, where aid workers and doctors get shot up by kids with guns on both sides, and where food is used as a chip by the local warlords.

Donating to aid in the case of a natural disaster -- and seeing that the aid is delivered -- is a lot easier. It's very clear that no one at all is to blame (unlike the Pacific, it is very rare for tidal waves to occur in the Indian Ocean, so there was no way to use previous data to develop a warning in this case) and that the impediments to recovery will be physical and psychological more than political. While it will certainly be interesting to see what happens with the Sri Lankan civil conflict, there's no indication thus far that the cease-fire won't hold.

This site has some amazing videos of the tsunamis amazing force.
http://believeinmagic91.blogspot.com/

or use your bit torrent

Walker:

"We are here on holiday, not to be sad," she said. "I know bad things have happened, but it's nothing to do with us."

Thanks for your sympathy!


Actually, it's the best thing they can do for the region: Keep coming over to spend money, keep the economy rolling.
The locals are devastated, if the tourists stopped coming on top if it all, during the height of their economic contribution, it would just make things worse.

Life goes on, as they say : (

Man, I gotta remember to drop by the pharmacy and pick up my Zoloft. As depressing as this is, I doubt I should skip a dose.

MonkeyRodeo:

Saudi Arabia:$10M

GDP $287.8 billion
.003% of GDP donated

Finland: $3.4m

GDP $142.2 billion
.002% of GDP donated

Kuwait: $2.1m

GDP $41.46 billion
.005% of GDP donated

Netherlands: $2.6m

GDP $461.4 billion
.0005% of GDP donated

UAE: $2m

GDP $57.7 billion
.003% of GDP donated

Ireland $1.3m

GDP $116.2 billion
.001% of GDP donated

Singapore: $1.2m

GDP $109.4 billion
.001% of GDP donated

Oil rich Arab nations collectively
contributing $14.1M? Oil sheiks who are some
of the wealthiest people on the planet,
and they can't come up with more than $14M?
Denmark alone came up with $15.6M initially.

GDP $167.2 billion
.009% of GDP donated

Am I missing something here?
Please let me know.

Yes, you are. The rich Arab nations gave more of their share than Singapore, Ireland, the Netherlands, or Finland. Denmark is apparently a generous exception to the fact that the Arab nations gave more of their share than many rich European countries.

Interestingly, the U.S. gave about $35 million.
GDP: $10.99 trillion
.0003% of GDP donated

Relatively, we're even stingier than the Dutch. Maybe the "stingy" remark wasn't so far off.

Shut up and donate, morans.

Does anyone know if Surfrider Foundation is taking donations for the aid of these countries?

For the gambling dorks.. what's the over/under?

batcar01, it's a constant subconcious awareness of that sort of shallowness of the average human being that makes me the eternal ray of sunshine that I am. I remember right after 9/11 going through the same thing...seeing all the destruction on one channel, then flipping over QVC where some twit was hawking Dale Earnhardt commemorative plates or something. I then realized someone out there would choose buying that rather than offer money to the 9/11 relief effort.

Farking hell.

J.G. Longbotham

Of course I don't expect him to go there just to be a useless drain on already overstretched resources. I just want him to at least pretend to be interested and give a lot more aid money.

i think it's so sad how everyone blames God or Jesus for the catastrophe's around the world...how dare you people

it was a NATURAL disaster, if you don't understand how God cannot interfere with the world's problems, then you should not even be discussing it...

ignorance is bliss
stupidity is acquired

Bush has pledged roughly $291 for every person killed in the tsunami. In contrast, the "Great War to Liberate Iraq's Oil" has cost the equivalent of $6,505 for every man, woman and child in Iraq. And the total continues to rise at an astronomical rate.

What we have committed to the relief efforts is roughly what we spend every 3 1/2 hours in Iraq.

One other thing... while we do lead the World in terms of foreign aid, it still amounts roughly .15% of our GNP (Norway, in contrast, gives up .92% of its GNP in foreign aid).

I'm not sure what motivates some of the trolls here. I mean, even the most hardened xenophobes, racists, conservatives and corporatists would admit that, even though they hate the brownskinned non-christian people, it makes sense to help them out in a disaster like this. Theoretically, generosity would be a foreign relations/PR boon (striking directly at the roots of anti-US terrorism by building goodwill), and a way to expand markets in Asia (after all, those aren't people, they're customers!)

binnster

I think he and Bush are pretending to be interested...

That being said, I don't think any one country owes any other country anything, unless there are treaties between them.

"Casualties are just as heavy in one war as in another...because death comes just one to the customer."

-Robert Heinlein

adrosal:

I'm not sure what motivates some of the trolls here. I mean, even the most hardened xenophobes, racists, conservatives and corporatists would admit that, even though they hate the brownskinned non-christian people, it makes sense to help them out in a disaster like this. Theoretically, generosity would be a foreign relations/PR boon (striking directly at the roots of anti-US terrorism by building goodwill), and a way to expand markets in Asia (after all, those aren't people, they're customers!)

Whatever, man. The only way to fight terrorism is to piss off the world by spending hundreds of billions on a near-universally-despised war, killing tens of thousands of civilians, acting like arrogant asses, and giving pennies (relatively) in foreign aid.

Well, all these numbers being thrown out about which government is giving what is interesting, but only goes so far. I bet donations from individuals in these countries would show different patterns entirely. What I'd like to see are "participation" figures, like alumni organizations keep. What percentage of Dutch people dug into their own pockets? What percentage of Americans, etc.?

While I agree we owe nothing to no one, it is without doubt that we (the U.S.) will be there with financial and physical support, as is the way of Americans.

Here is the problem (and where I agree with CheeseNRice): When we send aid, it is never enough. When we fail to act in any capacity we are villans. When we are asked, unquestionably, to assist we are oversteeping our bounds. When we take charge of a situtation to solve a problem we are the devil incarnate.

No way we can win here, folks. But keep one thing in mind: if you charge someone with the responsibility to carry out a task you must give them the authority. And the U.S. has historically followed the responsibility and authority with accountability.

Bottom line: If you want our help, we'll give it, our way. The rest can put up or at the very least stop critisizing. I'm sick of being the bad guys.

Of course we could be like other countries and either wave a white flag of flatly refuse to help... but that's not our way.

/pissed the world but has compassion for victims

IISJunkie aside from your boorishness, you should check your maths. In under a week, more people have died (and I suspect we don't know the full toll by a long way) than in Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. Mother nature has indeed 'beaten that'. Give some money to a charity that helps, and maybe there will be some karma to make up for you being a total prick.

Lots of complaints about fingers pointed at US Govt. stinginess, as reported by your favorite "news" stations. Feelin' angry & betrayed? Change the channel, stupid. Snippet news has an equivalency in the Fark realm: it's called a troll. They're feeding you heavily processed bullshiat all the way to the water cooler.

There's a large number of advanced thinkers with us today! Enjoy your immaturity & lack of compassion. Your own children will thank you with their inherited stupidity.

As far as humor goes, I believe I'll wait for The Onion to weigh in. None of us seem delicate enough to dispense humor tempered with grace so far.

flatspin:

First off, this is NOT God's wrath. The world is a gigantic and complex system where things happen, both good and bad. Can't have one without the other. Just seems more slanted towards the bad recently...


And "gOD" could have stopped it right since he's omniscient...right?

THANKS GOD!

Drudge is reporting that 400,000 souls may be lost. Entire towns are gone. They are still looking for some islands.

J.G. Longbotham:

That being said, I don't think any one country owes any other country anything, unless there are treaties between them.

The US doesn't OWE anything to other countries. Still, you claim that your President is the just and fair Leader of the Free World, and a good Christian at that.

Should you not be setting an example for the rest of us inferior, subordinate nations? Shouldn't his "Love thy neighbour" beliefs be compelling him to help?

This isn't about you or your country. It is about helping those in need. If you MUST make it about you, well, 4 out of 9 of the affected countries are predominately Muslim. Helping them might engender goodwill. If you must think this way though, I pity you.

Sometimes you do things because they are the right things to do... not for what you can gain from it.