Wow. If $15 million is pathetic, what is 100,000 euros?

Not to open this can of worms again, but I'm not so sure about that. This is worst world tragedy I can remember, and we haven't heard a peep from him. Would it have killed him to make a short public statement?

No, I'm not blaming him. No, I'm not bashing the U.S. But is it really too much to ask for the face of our nation to get on television and express our sympathies and desire to help when thousands of people die in a natural disaster?

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/29/bush.quake/index.html

:up:

:up:

Well, the US has forked out major aid to tragic incidents around the globe for years. And every damn year, it gets written off because it won't get paid. It's the same here. Yes, we should help, but goddamn, let's have India and Asia contribute 75% of what's needed. How much foreign help did we get when we had the hurricanes in Florida this year, or the massive flooding in California a year or so back. None. Not even a gester. Not only does the US have to take care of itself, but the US is also apparently responsible for the rest of the world? If this is the case, then we should have territorial rights to the world as well. Hah, fat chance.

If we were paid back the money, hek, let's give'em $500 million, but you darn well we will never see the money we give to them again. A few years from now Asia will be condeming the US and its terrorism tactics and so forth, easily forgetting the help we gave them. So, while I think we should help, we should not have a deep pocket.

The US is like a grandparent who has several co-dependent grandchildren, where, if anything happens, "Let's call grandma and grandpa because they have the money!"

The US is involved with dozens of crisis situations around the world, UNLIKE any of these countries and organizations who accuse us of being a scrooge. The UN needs to STFU, as well as France and a few other countries.

To be fair, I think the French sent a jester.

http://www.caribbeanluck.com/Images/...ras/jester.jpg

:lol:

You made me spill my double-shot hot cocao. :mad:

rotfl

Sri Lanka, India and Indonesia have the biggest number of death (in order). But the order could change to Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India, since in the local tv news tonight, it's been reported 32,000+ death in Aceh and North Sumatera, and it is still raising. No news can give accurate numbers so far.

The tsunami hit only in seconds after the earthquake in Aceh, sweeping thousand of unaware villagers who were still in shock because of the quake.

I've heard an on-line report from one of the female TV reporter who came to Aceh yesterday morning. She reported everything she saw .. and she was crying. She almost couldn't get in to the affected area, cause the situation over there was so chaotic. Bodies were everywhere. Marines arrived by trucks, brought nothing but themselves, just to help evacuating the bodies as fast as it could be. She raised a desperate call (almost in panic) to the TV station, asking for help. And I felt depressed only by hearing her voice :(.

There is a photo of a child died in a bucket, stranded on the street. My god.

There is a heartbreaking footage of a mother who did not want to let go of her child's dead body from her arms, histerically rejecting all the people who wanted to comfort her. It is playing over and over again on TV.

After the hit, transportation and communication line in Aceh and North Sumatera was totally cut off. So the news about the disaster was spread very-very late. Practically, Aceh and North Sumatera were facing this disaster alone for around two days. Even some areas in Aceh are still isolated up to now. Volunteers or helpers are having difficulties in reaching them. Not to mention the lack of fuel for the machinery that could help evacuating.

The smell of the dead bodies by now is getting worse. Helpers are tired of evacuating since the last four days, day and night. They give their hands out while they are facing they're own family losses. They are racing with time. After they evacuate the bodies, they have to disinfect the area as it is already been contaminated by the rotten corpses.

Since today's afternoon, the television has been broadcasting a 30-minute amateur video recording the situation in Banda Aceh a day before the hit (it was Christmas holiday, for goodness sake!). The video was taken by a girl, whose father is missing until now. The beach was calm, the sea water was blue .. children were swimming .. a man was recorded singing on the beach, illustrating the beautiful day. And then it jumped to the seconds before the tidal waves hit on Sunday morning. The girl and her family stayed and recorded it from the second floor of their house. It was a terrifying moment. They prayed and continuously called God's name, they cried, they hugged each other while seeing the waves swept everything off underneath and around them. They were worried about the head of the family whose right at that moment had just left, and possibly was trapped in his car right on the street in front of the house. When the tides went low, the video camera captures some people were sitting on the roof of houses. When they tried to go downstairs, they saw the first floor was completely damaged. A cry for help was heard and they found a man was trapped under the junks, but they didn't dare to go further. They just asked the man to hang on for a little bit longer as the waves were heading back to the sea. The family finally had courage to get out of the house at around 12noon. Have no idea how was the man under the junks. Dead? Alive?

People are at the point of despair in searching for the missing relatives .. they assume all the missing ones are dead, they won't look for them any longer. The ones that still have a little hope, walking down the street and turning over every single dead body they found just to look for familiar faces.

Some said, 50% of Aceh and North Sumatera residents had gone missing or dead. I hope the information is not true, please ..

The most needed: water, ready-to-eat food .. plastic bags for the dead bodies and the volunteers to evacuate them .. and lots, lots of prayer as Aceh is still experiencing quakes tonight.

These are bits and pieces from Indonesia's TV and newspapers. And I believe it's still far from how it actually is in the doomed areas.

Indonesia is crying. Asia is crying. May the deads be rested properly, and may the survivors be given strength to go through this catastrophe.

Salvation Army South Asia Relief
 

Haven't caught up in this thread, but I just saw on CNN that the death toll is now up to 80,000.

I just read here: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=13771 , in a particular Sri Lanka area, that we now have local communities preventing relief trucks from going through their areas, and instead, are taking all the food and supplies for themselves.

Btw, a few reports are already at 100,000...and rising. We may top 200,000+ dead in two-weeks to a month due to disease-related deaths. It appears as if chaos and help are now turning into mobs and violent attempts to get food for their own families or communities.

After reading other articles on this site, I count over 25,000 still missing in parts of Sri Lanka alone.

What percentage of my donation would actually go to help the victims?

I would also like to know.

There's no guarantee of any percentage from ANY organization. If you want 100% certainty, you will have to fly to the affected areas, and personally give the victims the money/aid.

Here is something interesting, looks like animals have a sixth sense and made their way to safety before the waves struck

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...ls_1&printer=1

My god man chill out. America is doing something and no doubt as the cry...bitching and moaning if you ask me but no one did, goes out from people like you and others who seem to think America can do nothing right the financial commitment will grow eventhough America is going through tough financial times of its own depending on who you talk too. Every time, I mean every fuckin' time some other nations gets its "dick knocked in" all eyes turn to the U.S. and suddenly we're the "World's Saviour".

But I know one thing, unlike the rest of the World on 9/11 and many other tragedies that nailed the U.S., you will NOT SEE any American cheering about the tragedy in those countries. Because inspite of what people like you think America IS a GIVING country full of people who DO give a fuck what happens around the world.

You're NOT the only one who gives a shit ok?

I know, but I vaguely remember stories some time ago that one of the major relief organizations (Red Cross, or Salvation Army, or something similar) kept a large percentage (over 20%) for "administrative" costs. I would like to give to an organization that keeps this to a minimum. I'm just not informed enough to know which one.

The freaky thing is the night before this happened I had this really scary dream that my husband, baby, and I were being flooded out of our home. We had to quickly seek higher ground and it was a terrifying dream. It was only the next day I heard about this and eerily made the connection.

I'd like to know where the fuck was Indonesia or their half-brain fuck prime minister at the time during 9/11? I'll bet some of them were dancing on the streets.

donations through Amazon.com as of 10:00AM PST
Total Collected: $1,872,668.00

I have no idea what you're trying to say, but the fact that I would have liked my President to make a few remarks noting the tragedy and promising aid a little sooner than he did does not mean I need to chill out or I think America can do nothing right. We do plenty of things right.

When something of this magnitude occurs, and the President says nothing while on vacation, it just seems rude to me. All he had to do was call the press, tell him to meet him in Texas, give 5 minutes of remarks, and be done with it. This is not challenging, nor is it time consuming. Hell, he could have done it by phone, if need be. I'm very glad he did it today, although I wish it had been sooner.

People love to read things into posts here - they're just waiting for something to jump on. No where did I say anyone was cheering this disaster, nor did I imply that America was not providing appropriate aid. All of my comments have been that I think our government has been far too slow to publically address the seriousness of this tragedy.

Americans care. That's obvious just by taking a look at how many people have donated to Amazon. But the fact that our government's response (until today) has been somewhat muted makes it look like the people of this nation care more than our President does. I don't like that.

And I would appreciate it if you would save the profanity-laced and borderline incomprehensible tirades for someone else.

I would appreciate it if you would stop your moaning about "we could've done more". It's silly. More WILL be done in time. When more info comes in more will be done. That's how it usually works.

Did I stutter? You did understand that right?

You know, I remember how much money was diverted for personal gain during 9/11 and sure hope we don't see this again.

Bandoman,

http://www.mercycorps.org/home/

They say 91% and more go to the actual people.