The comment was aimed at a lot of nations, not just the US. I'm not saying the US won't give aid - it will. But it's not given without a price being paid. Even our Prime Minister has said that we should want to give aid to Indonesia (especially) because Indonesia is our ally and a major trading partner (although not phrased <i>quite</i> so crudely).

I know (as I posted). That was the initial amount. And, no - I am not counting donations by the public (of any nation). JUST the governments. If you can only afford to give $5, and do then great. If you can only give $1, then that's also great. Even if we all gave $1, it would be billions. :)

I see some people say it's better to originally say we're donating $1 trillion dollars but we'll scale it down as the real extent of the catastrophe becomes clear rather than the other way around. Sure, why not? It sounds good.

Exactly. All these nations are "pledging" ?? million in support. Will they really give it? Who knows, but they sure look good now. The fact of the matter is that the countries will be rebuilt and no amount of money will ever make these peoples lives the same again.

What price is being paid? We haven't put any strings on this money. Is there a hope that they will view us in a better light for helping them? Sure, but we aren't going to go and take it all away when they don't, and I guess I am jaded, but I am sure that many will continue to hate us anyway. I think it is only natural that you are more likely and willing to help a friend than an enemy.

I know where you're coming from, X. This is just the biggest catastrophy I've seen (I was too young in 76 to fully appreciate the horror of the China earthquakes). It's affected millions of people in over 10 countries.

If I'm critical of the governments of the world (and yes, I'm including my own), I'm certainly not of her peoples. Over half a billion dollars was raised post September 11 - and there were only 3000 dead.

Imagine what we can do - as a planet - for this.

Wonder if Bill Gates will be donating any money.

As much as I detest his business practices, the man really does give alot to charities.

When I think of all the Movies stars and rock stars that made -MILLIONS- over the last year for this crappy movie or that half assed cd or tour.... I mean if just 20 or 30 of them pledged just 1 million each to add to the money already given by Washington....

http://www.forbes.com/2004/12/30/123...acescan05.html

Gates: Foundation Gives $3M To Tsunami Victims; Topped By Pfizer's $35M Donation
Greg Levine, 12.30.04, 6:17 PM ET

He has been quoted several times as saying that he will donate about 98% of his net worth by the time he dies.

I'm willing to bet that a lot of them will be very vocal in critizing the Bush administration's efforts to the disaster, but won't give a dime themselves.

I wonder if George Soros will be donating any money.

true
hell.. dude made a 5 billion dollar charitable donation all at once, a year or so back.
i remember reading somewhere the total amount of money he has donated to charities.. and if I remember correctly, that amount alone was enough to put someone up near the top of the forbes wealth list (22+ billion maybe?)
thats just insane... although, so is his personal wealth..

and really.. how much money does it take, to insure that your kids, grandkids, great grandkids, etc... never have to work a day in their lives?

Well there ya have it. I wondered about it, and it already happened.

Hmmm... I wonder if I'll win the lottery. (Wanna bet that it doesn't work this time?).

i dont think im going to call bill "stingy" for only giving $3M ;)

Charity is better than any other means of helping the genuinely disadvantaged.

I think this was the question from politicalcompass.org.

i answered with a strongly agree.

Hmmm...Hong Kong's richest man gave US$3.1M, so surely Bill could afford more? And it's not like one has more stake than the other, because that's not the case here.

But in any case, I'm surely not going to complain about a donation of $3M! Every bit helps right now.

Better change the title again. :(

134,000 dead

You know, it's never enough. How much did you donate? Why didn't you donate more? We all donate based on what we feel comfortable with.

Bill Gates already donates a lot of money (a recent BusinessWeek cover story put him in the top 3 philantropers in the US, he might be the #1, but I'm not going to quote that right now), and I'm willing to bet that a lot of money already goes to the regions that have been hit hard.

AP is still reporting 119,000 dead. I wonder where the news organizations get their numbers from. Seems like they are all off from one another.

My understanding is that Bill Gates is leaving his daughter(s) $10 mil, which is a tiny fraction of his wealth, and leaving ALL the rest to charity. Prett impressive. Remember, in one day last year he gave more to African AIDS programs than all the nations of the worlf combined for that whole year. The previous day he had given $50 to start NYC public charter schools. Can't criticize him on his giving.

Some are actually getting their info from Sri Lanka and Indonesian websites. Most of the info I post here is from there. The numbers are very much in parallel with that these websites are reporting. So many missing, and yesterday I mentioned 25,000 were still missing in Sri Lanka alone, so it makes sense.

I don't know if it was mentioned already in this thread, if it has I'm sorry, but on the radio last night they were reporting that India may be downplaying the actual deaths in their country. In other words it may be far worse than they're reporting. They said that India, which is trying to distance itself from the "Third World" status of many surrounding nations, may be taking a "we can handle our own problems" mindset inspite of the urgent need. They brought up how when that killer quake happened 3 years ago Indian officials resisted using foreign search and rescue teams until finally after many many weeks they gave in. It was also mentioned that India refused help from the U.S. when Bush offered it over the phone a few days ago.

I can understand where they're coming from. It's just sad that this political nonsense could cause more deaths.

Good for them. That money will be much more useful aiding the victims than paying for some new furniture or some extra bonuses.

-pedagogue

He also makes anonymous contributions. I can't fault the man, he really has given back more than anyone else. (Look at the numbers, they are staggering) He has pledged 99% of his estate to charity when he dies.

-pedagogue

I'm glad you mentioned this!
 

Yes, I want to ask the same question: where are the folks in the entertainment industry in regards to what they can do for fundraising to help the appropriate relief agencies in this time of dire need? http://webpages.charter.net/connectingzone/think/3.gif You'd think they would have quickly reacted by now and made major announcements to do a major fundraiser concert that could bring in many millions of US dollars to donate to the Red Cross and other appropriate agencies. I haven't heard a peep from Bono of the rock band U2, who is known to lead relief effort fundraisers in the past.

I do know that tennis superstar Maria Sharapova--who was in Thailand for a tennis tournament--has publicly donated US$10,000 for relief efforts already.