Expressions of sympathy for the US...or lack of....
Discussion
maybe, in a way, its like how poorer relatives treat more affluent ones. The affluent ones always have to be seen to be making the biggest effort at every occasion, booking, sorting stuff out, birthdays, deaths etc,, never one get a thank you from the less well off relatives, as to their odd way of thinking, the richer relatives should. However, if the richer relative says no to something for whatever reason, the poorer relatives go mad, but,,,,, if something happens untoward to the richer lot, the poorer lot just say ;hey ho', at least they can afford to get it sorted, and give you no help or nice words whatsoever.!
(spoken from experience!! lol)
>> Edited by chris watton on Wednesday 31st August 20:31
(spoken from experience!! lol)
>> Edited by chris watton on Wednesday 31st August 20:31
In no way trying to belittle the N.O. problems but when the IMF and World Bank present relief funds to disaster struck countries it is not necessarily out of the goodness of their board meetings. There are always conditions attached.
You may also find that many officials have expressed sympathy/support but it has not been covered by the media. this may be due to the extra keenness of Blair etc to show concern for other countries with non-Christian backgrounds just now a la tsunami.
You may also find that many officials have expressed sympathy/support but it has not been covered by the media. this may be due to the extra keenness of Blair etc to show concern for other countries with non-Christian backgrounds just now a la tsunami.
It's not that I don't care what happens there, far from it, I have friends in the US. What happend there is a natural disater and I would hope the Uk would offer as much help as is needed . But lets be honest, what exactly are you going to offer ? They have ( I'm guessing )the largest military in the world and have the men and helicopters to mount a rescue missions with ease.Also , any country that has a defence budget of $447b this year, probably doesn't lack the money to help rebuild it's towns.
Actually if past experience is any indication, there will soon be a veritable flood of UK electrical workers over in the US. I know they showed up in droves last year for the trifecta of hurricanes we survived.
Sometimes the help is just not publicized enough. It is, however, greatly appreciated!
Finally, even if no aid is offered, expressions of sympathy are appreciated as well (although not very forthcoming. In fact an official in the German government just derided the US for not having enough refining capacity. He was worried that US companies might bid up the price of oil/refined product because of this disaster and it might place a hardship on Europeans. Bastard. He could have waited a week or so before politicizing this thing.)
ErnestM
>> Edited by ErnestM on Wednesday 31st August 21:38
Sometimes the help is just not publicized enough. It is, however, greatly appreciated!
Finally, even if no aid is offered, expressions of sympathy are appreciated as well (although not very forthcoming. In fact an official in the German government just derided the US for not having enough refining capacity. He was worried that US companies might bid up the price of oil/refined product because of this disaster and it might place a hardship on Europeans. Bastard. He could have waited a week or so before politicizing this thing.)
ErnestM
>> Edited by ErnestM on Wednesday 31st August 21:38
ErnestM said:
Actually if past experience is any indication, there will soon be a veritable flood of UK electrical workers over in the US. I know they showed up in droves last year for the trifecta of hurricanes we survived.
Yup, you had a load of Irish workers over there last year too (they powered our house back up apparently!). But they were'nt there that long, if I remember correctly, something went wrong here and we had to fly them home! I think the Northern elec chaps helped us out till our guys were home!
If you guys want to make a token donation or express some sympathy heres a site worthy,lets not forget if ever we were in trouble the Americans would be one of the first to be at hand. 
www.salvationarmyusa.org/
www.salvationarmyusa.org/
satch said:
good point.
the residents of new orleans have had very similar experiences to those who fell victim to the tsunami, albeit they had much much better warning, but you're right.
$26bn to fix? disease threst from unclean water etc. there doesn;t seem to be much offer of aid out there.
quite a paradox
Well they certainly don't need financial aid, they just spent 200Bn on a Middle East package tour.
11.75 Trillion GDP.
Perhaps they need tradespeople though.
ErnestM said:
Really?
My numbers show the US giving $19billion in aid last year (and that is just the government, not including all of the private charities). The next closest is Japan at about $9billion. OECD, April 11, 2005
ErnestM
It's a fair point and I don't want to get bogged down in the aid argument too much, it would belittle the massive devastation we have seen thus far, but while the US does indeed give around $19bn in aid, this still means the US comes in at around 20th place of the 21 richest countries when it comes to giving aid as a percentage of GDP. It should also be noted that much of that aid is tied: 80% is used to buy US goods and services. (Foreign Policy magazine Apr 2003)
That aside, I've just heard from one of my best mates in mississippi and he has had his entire life trashed. Forget whether America is rich or poor, we should offer all the help we can.
>> Edited by Lion-O on Thursday 1st September 00:41
KB_S1 said:
In no way trying to belittle the N.O. problems but when the IMF and World Bank present relief funds to disaster struck countries it is not necessarily out of the goodness of their board meetings. There are always conditions attached.
Yeah like "There is no a budget code in the aid package for S class Mercedes, even if you only have 6 km of metalled road in your whole country. There are also cutbacks on the ammount you can use to fly in £1000 per hour call girls in from Kensington and Chelsea" The usual response is "Of course, .... God be willing" Only One thing more corrupt than the officials recieving aid and thats the buggers giving it. They make liberal democrat councils look honest.
I heard that Venezuela offerred help, which is nice, but there was very little else reported.
This is going to take an awful lot to recover from, because whole cities are going to be needing a total rebuild, and businesses are not necessarily going to survive that, certainly not in New Orleans, probably not in Biloxi and everything in between.
I heard President Bush's speech tonight and it certainly seems that he has got all the right people doing all the right things to get the immediate needs of food, water and shelter sorted, but what do people do in the six months while they are displaced and have no job? They have lost everything.
To my mind it is about time for some payback for the considerable generosity given to other countries over the past 60 years, be it in equipment, labour, medical supplies, whatever, the level of disaster can't be underestimated.
This is going to take an awful lot to recover from, because whole cities are going to be needing a total rebuild, and businesses are not necessarily going to survive that, certainly not in New Orleans, probably not in Biloxi and everything in between.
I heard President Bush's speech tonight and it certainly seems that he has got all the right people doing all the right things to get the immediate needs of food, water and shelter sorted, but what do people do in the six months while they are displaced and have no job? They have lost everything.
To my mind it is about time for some payback for the considerable generosity given to other countries over the past 60 years, be it in equipment, labour, medical supplies, whatever, the level of disaster can't be underestimated.
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