<p>"I'm not being insensitive about the ACTUAL conditions. I'm being insensitive about the exaggerated conditions that you are talking about. Anyways, I could care less about their regular living conditions right now, it has nothing to do with the argument. Sure they are not very good, I agree with that; however, we're talking about the disaster.</p>
<p>I'm saying they shouldn't be complaining about how much money are getting. Be grateful that you ARE getting money."</p>
<p>The whole point is that their regular living conditions suck to begin with, 'not very good' doesn't even cover the half of it. The regular living conditions that you say you could care less about has everything to do with the diseastor and this arguement. If Beverly Hills got hit with the same wave, it would be very different situation because those people got more back up money,money in the bank, better technology and they can get faster aid. Besides, the countries aren't 'complaining', it was the UN that said the US was stingy.
You make it sound like its somehow these countries' fault that the worst tsunami in recorded history decided to hit them.
THere are people starving and dying right now and you are over here telling them to be grateful they are even getting anything.</p>
<p>I'm not saying they shouldn't be getting anything. In fact, I hope they get A LOT more aid. But the fact that they would actually come out to the media and say that the US is being stingy is downright ungrateful. </p>
<p>Just because a lot of countries aren't helping supply us with troops in Iraq we aren't coming out and bashing those countries for not helping us more (well I guess John "Liberal" Kerry did that, but he doesn't matter anymore so who cares). We realize that countries have obligations to their OWN countries before any other country in the world. And if they don't want to supply troops, that's fine; however, if the countries are going to complain that we aren't spending enough money on the aid, then maybe we should take back the money we already gave them and see how they feel. Would they rather gracefully accept the money they ARE getting or have no money at all? It seems like an obvious choice to me. Anyways, the US is sending more money so they just have to be patient.</p>
<p>"Usually only about 10 percent of the final aid tally is given in the initial response to a natural disaster, with the bulk of aid provided after an assessment of long-term needs, according to the State Department."</p>
<p>Calm down, folks. The U.S. is helping the countries, and in the end it will be far more than any of the other countries helping (I'm not saying this crossly, it's just that we have more money, so we will be giving more). It's too early to get worked up over how much aid we are sending. Also, you must take into account the individual people donating. With all of the individuals donating from the U.S., the actual number will be far greater. I get really angry when I see people on this forum or others put down Americans because of how stingy they are. Truly, most of the Americans in my area are very upset about this disaster and are doing everything they can to help. Some people are very stereotypical. This is a horrible disaster and everything needs to be done to help these people. Arguing over how much money is or will be sent and bringing politics into it doesn't help at all. We need to unite as a worldwide community, not argue among individual countries. My prayers go out to all of the victims and their families. May God be with them through this horrible time.</p>
<p>It is sometimes useful to translate dollar figures into more concrete measures. In San Diego the median price for a single family home (resale) is a bit above the half million mark. So the US government initially pledged relief at the equivalent value of about 70 mid-range San Diego homes.</p>
<p>"In the recently completed fiscal year, auditing discloses that each $100 in cash contributions enabled AmeriCares to deliver more than $3,000 in emergency relief, including medicines, medical supplies, clothing, footwear, blankets and nutritional supplements."</p>
<p>Basically, for each buck you give, they deliver 30 bucks worth of stuff.</p>
<p>because of the tsunami, the earth was thrown off of its axis and days will now be 1/4 of a second shorter. just think, when we (as teenagers) are in our 80's, thats about 17 minutes off of our lives.</p>
<p>Its increasing at such a rapid rate as they discover and make more contact with the islands off India. Reports said an island with a population 13,000 has almost no one left.</p>
<p>I also saw that some countries are upping thier initial aid, Britain being one up from £15 million to £50 million, I'm sure others will now follow suit.</p>
<p>The British governemnt raised thier aid after seeing the British public pledge £22 million and still rising. </p>
<p>Glad to see India are going to make the investment with the Tsunami warning system, if only they had got it a year earlier when they were given a chance.</p>
<p>natoar, please don't, i don't think anyone needs crap about how what should have happened and what could have happened and all the "what ifs", there are a million "what ifs", this ass from the U.S Geological center was saying "this will be a lesson learned to the countries affected" (speaking about how they didn't have a warning system for the tsunami that may come once every two hundred years), there was 50 comments to his statement within a day on Cnet, I could never have imagined the cruelty and impudence one needs to say such a thing...</p>
<p>second off, flipchick i totally agree with you, no one should be saying Americans (western countries) are stingy and arguing about this stuff as i said before, also in my earlier post i had said it was our responsibility, but i did not want anyone to take that as an "America doesn't do anything" type of statement, it was just in reference to uc_benz comments and other things that i mention in that post..</p>
<p>after reading my last comment back I realise it wasn't right to say that now. Just a little upset at the Indian governments handling of the diaster like refusing some aid agencies offers of help.</p>
<p>Bill Gates just donated a lot to the relief efforts which makes me pretty happy. Now I think Jobs and the rest of the crew in California should do the same...</p>
<p>Well though the epicenter of the earthquake was in Indonesia, the tremors were felt in Srilanka and India too. </p>
<p>I think its wrong for us to judge the amount of amount of money the US should give or not. People have the wrong perception about the amount of wealth the government has. So people, lets reserve our judgements until you come here or look at the budget policy of the US government. US is several trillion dollars in debt and unemployment is in at a all time high( discounting 1927-34). ( this is not the only reason)</p>
