Actually, Mr. Secretary-General, the real problem is not a “technology gap,” but a governance gap. The horrors that bedevil Haiti, and account for the lack of decent earthquake-proof construction, are not a simple matter of lack of technology (or lack of yet more billions for the UN to collect, cream off a hefty overhead, and pour into horribly misgoverned countries in the name of more “development aid”), but of years and years of horrendous misrule, which does not allow for the kind of political and economic climate in which people can help themselves, and put technology to good use.
But at the UN, it is bad etiquette to mention gross misrule as a cause of poverty and death. This is the same UN that blames starvation in Kim Jong Il’s North Korea on weather and floods. This is the same UN that despite a series of record-breaking budgets involving big money and plans to cope with emergencies like this is now fumbling to catch up. This is the same Ban Ki-moon who has opined that “climate change” has been the chief cause of genocide in Sudan. This is the same Secretary-General who has spent the past three years whipping up global alarm over global warming “climate change,” clamoring for more of your tax dollars to bankroll UN plans for massive wealth transfers in the name of (corrupted) science, and encouraging the kind of mindset that has just produced Danny Glover’s fruitcake statement blaming the Haitian earthquake on “climate change.” Imagine if the resources poured into the UN’s Bali-Rio-Geneva-NY confabs that culminated with that climate cult carnival in Copenhagen last month had instead gone into UN preparations to deal with genuine emergencies, like this in Haiti.
As it is, the record suggests that instead of flying to Haiti to try to insert the UN logo smack into the center of relief efforts in which the U.S. is doing the real heavy lifting, Ban could probably contribute more by strapping sacks of rice into those comfortable seats on his special UN plane, and sending those instead.
Haiti as well as the rest of the world would probably be much better off if the UN were to just quit trying to “help”. Someone suggested that the UN relocate to that new high rise in Dubai. That’s a great idea and moving there should keep them occupied for a couple of years, long enough for Haiti at least to attempt to recover from the earthquake and get on with their lives without any UN “assistance”. I don’t know of a more useless organization.
“Climate cult carnival” is pure brilliance. You should get a job as a speechwriter.
As for this situation, I hope that people will continue to send money directly to aid organizations, and not to herds of parasitic bureaucrats who claim to know how to spend money better than the rest of us. That is the way people will actually get help, and it has the added benefit of making the UN look as useless as it actually is.
Haiti: Twits and Nitwits
Disasters bring out the best in some people, the worst in others. Unfortunately, there are usually far more worsts than bests. The reaction to the catastrophic earthquake on the benighted Haitian end of the island of Hispaniola is a prime example of how any number of twits and nitwits have betrayed themselves as ignoramusi.
“Twit” and “nitwit” are pretty much the same by definition although I’ve drawn a slight distinction between them. Both words describe simpletons, doofuses, contemptible fools but twits are generally more benignly stupid whereas nitwits are beyond contempt.
Two exceptional twits, tweedle-dum and tweedle-dummer, have emerged in the days since the 7.0 Richter scale earthquake all but leveled Port-au-Prince, twits at opposite ends of the political spectrum with totally opposite outlooks on what “caused” the quake.
First came words of wisdom from the conservative activist and founder of various conservative-Christian organizations including the Christian Coalition and the Christian Broadcasting Network, Pat Robertson.
His contribution . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1427)
A dollar to the U.N. is a dollar down the toilet. The U.N. is about as beneficial as having intestinal parasites (no slur intended to intestinal parasites).
Whew. That statement on the Haiti Disaster “Technology Gap” from Ban Ki Moon was really, really, genuinely weird.
The only things united about the United Nations are their hatred of successful societies and their shameless greed.
Simple solution to Hati.
Ask them if they want to be the 51st State.
Within 2 generations, Hait would be a paradise and tourist Mecca.
One of the latest inanities to roll from Ban’s lips is that the colossal toll in Haiti shows the need to close the “technology gap” for developing nations.
Wait, wait, under/un developed Haiti got designated #1 as least polluting country in the world. Ban Ki (“we’ve got only 4 months to save the planet”) should be thrilled !
Imagine if the resources poured into the UN’s Bali-Rio-Geneva-NY confabs that culminated with that climate cult carnival in Copenhagen last month had instead gone into UN preparations to deal with genuine emergencies, like this in Haiti.
Imagine. Those UN fat cats nearly sink whatever place they’re holding their confabs, what with the jets, limos, food, entertainment et al and etc.
Ban could probably contribute more by strapping sacks of rice into those comfortable seats on his special UN plane, and sending those instead.
Ban feels compelled to take the jet to Haiti ? Hillary’s going over ?
Is going to devastated Haiti the style statement du jour for bureaucrats to be seen ?
What will they accomplish, except drive about in their private cars on the roads that aren’t blocked by corpses ?
Israel, the evil apartheid nation, has sent two airplanes which brought over 100 doctors, nurses, search and rescue personnel, plus a field hospital (already in operation).
Can’t waste a crisis.
Actually instead of sending money to the UN. I am thinking we should be sending them a bill for our costs and services.
I have been saying it for years – US out of the UN. We need to stop enabling such incompetence wrapped in feel good liberalism. In related news the WHO wants the power to tax the internet – we should immediately stop funding any international organization that even asks for the right/power to impose any tax.
The list of countries already helping out is long. Who needs the UN to come in and worsen the disaster by their incompetence and greed? I also might add the aid pouring in doesn’t include any Islamic country.
What else is new? We need to get out of the corrupt United Nations so it will collapse upon itself.
The more money that the UN gets the more corrupt they become. It’s hard to fathom how they could get more corrupt than they are right now, but they do.The UN has been in Haiti for years and have done absolutely nothing for that country.
It looks like the incompetence is in trickle down mode. The local Francophone UN mgt elements in Haiti are trying to run the whole Haiti show. At the very least they will bully physicians (See CNN/Gupta incident) and try to keep the US confined to the airport and off shore. Looks like protection of the Haiti fiefdom is important to them and they will run around and snap at ankles in an attempt to be top dog.
The UN seems to be part of the problem right down on the ground. Look for them to try to limit food/water distribution to approved sites and methods.
I have never understood the true duty of the UN…I know what it says…but, that means little.
The US usually takes the brunt of helping other nations, not the UN.
I understand helping Haiti…but, it has to be done differently than just sening billions of $$ as we have over the past few years..our money has made little difference. also, there is only one reason Obama is so front and center about Haiti.
We’ll give millions for Haiti relief, but not a cent for UN tribute.
Send no money to the UN, it’s way too corrupt. If you do you’ll be lucky if by some accident 25 cents of your dollar ever got there. Even the American Red Cross is so huge it too syphons too much off the top. Find an NGO that has been helping the Haitians all along that is honest and give to them. Stay away from large governmental programs. Remember the 911 events/organizations that had a hard time getting the millions in donations to their intended destination. Some are still trying to figure out where the money went. Lets be more carefull this time.
the more the UN and the enablers (socialists/marxists voters of democrats) call for ending poverty the more poverty we get.
they reap what the sow and never realize that they are the problem. and the PTOUS is applying the same UN strategy to governing the USA
UN out of the US. US out of the UN.
I am a UN aid worker responsible for mapping the presence of organizations on the ground, I am not in Haiti but know many who are. It should be noted that Jan Egeland was right when he accused the US of being stingy with $10 million in Indonesia and don’t forget Bush’s initial $1 million pledge for Mynamar after the typhoon. Obama has one-upped that with $100 million, but still, in this age of multibillion dollar GM bailouts, this is tiny.
In any case, you are right to say that there is waste in the UN, there is also waste in the USG and the US Military. The response capacity we have was severely damaged by the quake, we have been too slow I think to connect to a number of organizations, but the US military has been open with us on information and logistics, and it is important to work in a cooperative manner. The UN on these types of relief operations has an important role to play, regardless of what other issues such as climate change it gets into, I don’t think it helps to connect the dots too much. In many countries, be it North Korea or Myanmar, we have to worry about the common people affected by the tragedy, and frequently the US military is just not an appropriate actor to deliver aid….
33. JR:
Are you UN guys aren’t gonna do another sex for food deal like you did in Congo are you?
That would be very uncool.
Stuff your UN, JR. Why don’t you get a job with an honorable NGO?
Terry #5 comment, that was gold!
I was at the Library of Congress today. Both the research building for work. Though I finally visited the tourist Library of Congress behind the Capitol as well.
I happened upon a piece regarding Yasser Arafat having the floor during a U.N. assembly in 1975, 1976. The PLO given special treatment and ‘permanent representative status’.
To give ‘money’ to these myopic, self serving turds or our own politicians.. you’ve got to be kidding.
I recall a telethon with proceeds going to the victims and associated agencies assisting involved with Hurricane Katrina. Much of that money is unaccounted for. And this was for American victims..
The UN is little more than a bottomless money pit and slush fund for tyrants, bureaucrats, and dewy-eyed one-world trustafarians. Why on God’s green earth the US would allow ANY of its dirty capitalist money or logistical tail to be diverted through the UN apparatus I’ll never know.
“and frequently the US military is just not an appropriate actor to deliver aid….”
Tell us, how much airlift capacity does the UN have to show for all the billions The Americans have shoveled their way?
Where are all the UN Hospital ships?
Helicopter carriers?
Supply ships?
Mobile Field Hospitals?
Desal units?
Wheat?
Nowhere to be seen! But they sure as Sam hell have a lock on the shovel-ready climate priesthood of global doom and their pie-in-the-sky alternatives to actual energy production though. There’s that.
Anyway, what have those thousands of blue helmetheads -who were already on the ground in Haiti- done except hunker down and wait for the ‘inappropriate’ American armed forces to materialize out of thin air to save their bacon and give them the credit for it?
Hell! What have the ‘UNpeacekeepers’ done anywhere on earth besides coddle genocideers, enable terrorist organizations, screw/rape African minors, crap on anything Israeli, skim oil for food, bail when the going gets wobbly, enrich corrupt officials, spit in our eyes, and support Marxist totalitarian movements worldwide?
…All the while taking their 35% off the top from every stingy evil capitalist dollar given to them for good measure evan as they try to figure some way to tax the whole damn western world for existing. Not even the God of Abraham asked for that much.
Which brings us to; what have ‘UN NGO mappers’ done except bi*ch and moan that Uncle Sugar isn’t financing their rank incompetence to their satisfaction?
Brats!
8. John “birther” Samford:
Simple solution to Hati.. Ask them if they want to be the 51st State.. Within 2 generations, Hait would be a paradise and tourist Mecca.
That’s actually not a bad idea.
just a small point but it was the US military, with the help of the Aussie and Kiwi military, who provided the excellent initial response to the tsunami.
They were in there preventing secondary disasters such as disease, famine, thirst, etc, while Jan Egeland was whingeing about getting more money for the UN.
I guess the situation was too desperate for anyone to care whether the military types of three western countries were an appropriate actor to deliver aid.
Good article; several helpful posts.
Can anyone tell me how much Europe, China, and Japan have done ?
And, I note, that the only aid organization you send money to (6 grand yesterday) that has a negative overhead is the US goverment (if everyone sent the government 100 mil in aid, they could probably agree to actually provide 110 million in action in Haiti).
Annie:
“The US usually takes the brunt of helping other nations, not the UN.”
The UN runs relief efforts continually in all areas of the world, most of which you never hear of:
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/dbc.nsf/doc100?OpenForm
The US does not “take the brunt” of helping other nations. They are one of the most stingy nations in the world:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/24424956/Tsunami-Aid
Lynn B:
“I also might add the aid pouring in doesn’t include any Islamic country.”
First of all, if you read my scribd article above, you will see that Islamic countries are far more generous than the US. With respect to the Haiti catastrophe, Islamic countries have indeed begun to help, although you might not know it if you get you news from CNN or Fox:
“Qatar yesterday sent a C-17 strategic transport aircraft carrying 50 tons of aid to Haiti as troops and planeloads of food and medicine streamed into a traumatised nation still rattled by aftershocks from the earthquake that flattened homes and government buildings and buried countless people.The head of the Qatari rescue team, Captain Mubarak Sherida Al Kaabi, said the team included 26 members from the Qatari armed forces, the internal security force (Lekhwiya), police forces, and the Hamad Medical Corporation.The team will provide its services in the devastated capital, Port-au-Prince, and other affected areas. It will establish a field hospital to provide medical assistance to the quake victims.”
Right Vision News
January 16, 2010 Saturday
Qatar: Qatar joins international aid effort for Haiti
When the plane from Qatar got to Haiti, they didn’t get any help from the US:
“A commercial-sized jet landed with rescue and medical teams from Qatar, only to find problems offloading food aid. They asked the U.S. military for help, surgeon Dr. Mootaz Aly said, and were told: ‘We’re busy.’”
The Associated Press, January 17, 2010 Sunday 06:22 AM GMT
Hunger and hope, thirst and frenzy grip Haiti
BYLINE: By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU and MIKE MELIA
“The King of Morocco Mohammed VI has ordered the dispatch of immediate humanitarian aid to Haiti to lessen the impacts of the catastrophic earthquake that hit the country on Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation said on Thursday. It added that the aid is valued at USD one million. The ministry conveyed the condolences of the Moroccan people to the people of Haiti.”
Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)
January 14, 2010 Thursday
Morocco sends urgent humanitarian aid to Haiti
“Kuwaiti cabinet had ordered relief aid to be immediately sent to the Republic of Haiti which suffered a devastating earthquake which left thousands either dead or injured. Kuwaiti Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Roudhan Al-Roudhan said here Thursday that upon orders from the Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, it has been decided to send the aid, Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported Thursday.”
Qatar News Agency
January 14, 2010 Thursday 3:20 PM EST
Kuwait’s KRCS to Send Aid to Haiti
“As per directives from President HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Khalifa Bin Zayed Charity Foundation has dispatched 50 tonnes of emergency supplies to Haiti to help victims of the devastating earthquake that hit that country on Tuesday.”
Emirates News Agency (WAM)
January 14, 2010 Thursday
Khalifa Charity Foundation rushes aid to earthquake victims in Haiti
“The first plane of an air bridge ordered by President H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan for delivering urgent humanitarian assistance to Haiti’s earthquake victims will fly to the Dominican Republic in the next couple of day. A UAE Red Crescent Authority (RCA) team will leave to the Dominican Republic to coordinate and oversee field relief operations to ensure their prompt delivery to the affected population. In another development, the RCA is coordinating efforts with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to carry out humanitarian programmes that cater for the need of the Haitian front where the international aid agencies are facing logistic challenges in delivery of assistance.”
Emirates News Agency
January 16, 2010 Saturday 3:30 PM EST
UAE to operate air bridge to Haiti
“Islamic preacher Amr Khalid has called for helping the Haitians, including women, children and the elderly, who have been stricken by the earthquake. In an interview with Al-Jazeera, Khalid said that Muslims, be they individuals, communities or governments, have a humanitarian duty to extend help to Haiti’s stricken people.[Khalid - recording] We have an international responsibility so as to deserve to be the best ummah that was ever introduced to humankind. I think Muslims, be they Islamic charity organizations all over the world or individual Muslims, should interact and look for organizations that can extend aid to this stricken nation. We also call for assisting those children for the sake of humanity.”
BBC Monitoring Middle East – Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring
January 17, 2010 Sunday
Egyptian cleric urges Muslims to help “quake-stricken” Haitians
Great commentary Claudia and good posts. Wish we heard more enthusiasm for our military from BHO and HRC — she barely mentioned the US during her photo op.
In response to the angry responses to my posts as a UN aid worker, no sweat, I have worked with conservatives in the past, and there is some justified anger against the UN, but I won’t take the rapist/thief insults personally.
First it might be useful to review the US record in Haiti, military occupation, supporting and then bailing on Aristide, and then leaving totally. The UN troops in Haiti include troops from India, Brazil, Uruguay, and Colombia (where I work and am providing support), among others. I won’t defend everything they have done, but as the General Assembly voted to support elections and not building infrastructure, it doesn’t surprise me that the work was aimed in that direction.
You have to recognize that the UN is nothing but an amalgam of all of its member states. The UN has no hospital ships, but it does organize the arrival of hospital ships, it also organizes field hospitals which are currently in place with teams from throughout Europe, and as far as wheat, the World Food Programme (http://www.wfp.org/) has distributed more food throughout the world then any other organization, and in Haiti as in other locations runs the Humanitarian Air Service. Much of that food is sent from the US. Just sending food is controversial in many locations, as it can depress local grain prices. These are not simple solutions to simple problems, but you asked what aid has been sent, so look at http://ochaonline.un.org/Default.aspx?alias=ochaonline.un.org/cerf. You can also find out how much Europe, China and Japan have done there. China did send aid to Haiti rather quickly.
If you want to see what map work has been done, take a look at http://www.reliefweb.int. We are a small team, and we work with a number of NGOs. The work is worthwhile and it saves lives.
Again, the UN has worked on a huge number of initiatives. I don’t support climate change carbon emissions taxes and cap and trade, and I don’t like the human rights commission, because of its membership, but those campaigns were launched based on a decision of all member states, so stop directing your ire towards the UN and complain about the presidents who promote the campaigns, they asked for them…. On the other hand, Jan Egeland, if you actually were to meet him, is one of the greatest humanitarians I have ever met. Great guy, and he was right to call the US government stingy, it was.
Speaking of Congo and Central African Republic, where I have served, where is the US there? I am a US citizen and went to the US Embassy in Bangui, the only guy around was a telephone repairman from Johannesburg, the Ambassador had bailed in 2005 with an uprising and they hadn’t bothered to replace him.
not sure if this has been mentioned yet but… just watch the colbert report and he was interviewing secretary sebilius about the haiti crisis.
she main a major blunder when she claimed haiti was the poorest country in the southern hemisphere… of course haiti is in the northern hemisphere.
imagine if palin had made that booboo and the media ridicule that would follow.
> (UN “reform” since then has consisted of a lot of talk about reform, a lot more bureaucracy, a lot more money for the UN, and, if possible, even less transparency.)
So, what you’re saying is, is that Obama, instead of being a reform leader, has merely been bringing the USA up to UN standards?
#38 just a small point but it was the US military, with the help of the Aussie and Kiwi military, who provided the excellent initial response to the tsunami.
They were in there preventing secondary disasters such as disease, famine, thirst, etc, while Jan Egeland was whingeing about getting more money for the UN.
Yes. We (Aust) had virtually every helicopter we own and half our navy there within a couple of days. The immediate problem was ferrying in fresh water, engineers to repair roads, providing temporary housing, fix water infrastructure, etc. Donating money to be spent weeks or months down the track wouldn’t have helped with any of that, and it saved thousands of lives. Later aid was valuable in its own way, but I was monumentally pissed off at the time by Jan Egeland’s comment – he refused to recognise the cost of military contributions when he made his “stingy” claim – while his organisation took weeks to even establish a presence. The US contribution was huge and much appreciated, we and NZ just wouldn’t have had the capacity on our own. Don’t forget India either, they were there in the very early stages too, despite having been hit pretty hard by the tsunami themselves.
#42 JR – I don’t have any doubt about your good intentions or those of Jan Egeland for that matter, but you can’t blame all the problems with slow response, ineffective efforts, etc on the member states. The UN bureaucracy is hopeless at dealing with emergency relief. And Egeland was definitely wrong to call the US stingy. How much of the cost of a carrier battle group would you like charged to the UN? You can say they had it anyway for other reasons, but what matters in this sort of emergency is – do you have the asset available or not? Only 4 countries were able to respond in time (all democracies), then the UN parachuted in a few weeks later and tried to take over the operation from the top. Sorry, no – we were doing fine without an extra layer of management to “coordinate the relief effort”.
You can’t have it both ways JR – either military contributions count (and operating costs are significant, it’s not zero-cost to deploy them), or we could say “We would prefer not to risk our expensive military assets on relief efforts for national security reasons, we’ll give you some money instead. Good luck.”
Of course we don’t do that because people are in need – but it’s galling to get called stingy when you’re providing equipment that is, in the context of the situation, priceless – no amount of money can make a helicopter appear out of thin air. I’m sure a lot of Americans feel the same given they do a lot of the heavy lifting round the world.
JR, maybe Jan Egeland is a top bloke, but he was well out of order calling the US stingy at a time when it was by their efforts, with a few friends, that a major secondary disaster was being averted.
He would have been much better advised to say thanks for the carrier group, the desal, the choopers, hospital, doctors, engineers, etc, or to have done something to get some UN people closer than a five-star hotel in Jakarta before bagging out the people who were doing the job.
Good post, Claudia. I’ve felt that’s pretty much the case for every world disaster.
I live in Fairfax County, Virginia. My county government operates a group called Virginia Task Force 1 – International Urban Search and Rescue, and they do it with a slightly smaller budget than the UN .
See http://www.vatf1.org/
First notice here of the earthquake was about 5:20pm on the 12th. A Task Force team of 72 people with 6 dogs and 48 tons of equipment left for Dulles at 8:15 the next morning. A second team left the next day.
I know they get a mention here on the local news, but I wish they could get as much recognition from the press as the worthless UN bloviators. Then again, that might impede them from actually dealing with the task at hand.
The last thing the UN needs is more money. They are the non-state version of your ‘gross misrule’.
Mike
Dave742;
The US does not “take the brunt” of helping other nations. They are one of the most stingy nations in the world
Your proclamation is bogus.
Your statistics do not address the amount of private aid donated by Americans, which is considerable, and when combined with American government aid far outdoes the aid of other nations.
http://www.america.gov/st/foraid-english/2007/May/20070524165115zjsredna0.2997553.html
http://www.truthout.org/article/us-private-giving-far-outpaces-government-aid
Sorry to rain on everyone’s parade, but we are borrowing money from China to pay for this so-called relief. The US government shouldn’t be doing charity from a position of debt. I’d be very happy to let the UN take care of Haiti, after we get our people out, that is. It would be too bad for the UN to lose an opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities again ([see Oil-for-Food, pedophilia in the Congo, bribery in procurement reaching the Office of the Secty. Genl., etc.]), even if (sadly) we here in the US couldn’t afford to contribute money for their efforts.
Go ahead UN, show us how to “fix” Haiti. Just do it without us, thank you.
So… Haiti has mostly black population (ok ok, Afro-american population)… so, what if… just, what if afro-american organization IN the United States just start moving to help, show a real concern for their race?
Just saying…
Toady:
“Your proclamation is bogus. Your statistics do not address the amount of private aid donated by Americans, which is considerable, and when combined with American government aid far outdoes the aid of other nations.”
You are correct, and I only consider government aid in my paper. I am currently working on another paper which addresses private aid. It is true that Americans donate much private aid, but so do other countries. The key, then, is to make a fair comparison of private aid giving. Your America.gov link says that “according to the index, the United States is the top donor in absolute amounts and the seventh of 22 in terms of GNI percentage.”
The index they refer to is here:
http://gpr.hudson.org/files/publications/IndexGlobalPhilanthropy2007.pdf
The chart that they are referring to is chart 5 on page 16. The source they give for this chart (endnote 23), is this:
“OECD 2007; World Bank, “Global Economic Prospects: Economic Implications of Remittancesand Migration,” 2006; Hudson 2007; Centre of Social Investments University of Heidelberg, “PrivateGiving to the Developing World in Europe Special Focus: Germany,” 2007; Charities Aid Foundation, “Results of the 2005/06 Survey of Individual Charitable Giving in the U.K.,” 2007; Charities Aid Foundation, “Charity Trends 2006,” 2006; U.S. Department of Commerce, BEA, 2007; Banco de España 2006; Banque de France 2005; U.K. Remittance Working Group 2006; International Monetary Fund, Luxembourg Group, 2006; European Commission 2004; International Peace Research Institute 2005; Croatian National Bank 2006; National Bank of Romania 2006; Central Bank of Serbia 2006; National Bank of Montenegro 2006; Central Bank of Morocco 2006; Central Bank of Algeria 2006; Central Bank of Tunisia 2006; Russian Central Bank 2006; Central Bank of Egypt 2006; Inter-American Development Bank, Multilateral Investment Fund, 2005; Asian Development Bank 2005; Bank of Japan 2006; Confederation of Indian Industry 2003; Dilip Ratha, “Bilateral Conceptual Model,” 2006; Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas 2003; International Organization on Migration 2006; Center for Contemporary Conflict 2006.”
What in God’s name is that? Where are they getting their values? It is unknowable, and the chart is a black box, meaningless hodgepodge of crap. According to the chart, Norway, Spain, France, Greece and Portugal all give no private donations. Zero. This is insane. If you look at the Reuters data for private giving for the tsunami(Go here: http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/aidtracker/fulldonors.htm and then click on “government vs. private aid” tab), you will find that those 5 countries’ private giving totalled 532 billion. For one catastrophe, these countries gave 532 billion combined private aid, but the Hudson report claims they give nothing. BS.
Most of what the Hudson report claims as being private donations is remittances. This is ridiculous. When I talk about a nation donating money to poor nations, I am talking about humanitarian aid, especially in response to catastrophes. I am not talking about immigrants sending their families money.
You will find out more about the Hudson data by reading thier methodology. For the US, they dig into every hole they can find to find every penny they can. For the UK, their number “likely underestimates total U.K. private giving to poor countries by
leaving out non-tsunami giving from corporations and private giving from charities, educational institutions, and religious organizations. While disaggregated data were available for some of these other categories, we were not able to control for doublecounting where individuals gave to charities and religious groups.”
For the rest of the OECD countries, they say, “while we believe that the private giving numbers submitted to the OECD for most of the other donor countries are underestimates, the data sources and methodologies are not yet available to arrive at alternative private giving numbers.”
This is ridiculous. They are not making a fair comparison. Other countries do not go through these type of insane studies to count every penny of private aid, because they are not cheap countries like the US. Only cheap countries have to make these apologetic reports. The Hudson paper takes every penny of private aid in the US, and compares it to some unknown, underestimated number that they don’t bother to reveal the source of in any meaningful way. The funny thing is that even after going through a completely biased, innacurate comparison, the US still only comes out seventh! Once you know the details, this report shows even further how cheap the US is.
This is simple propaganda to make up for the US being cheap.
We can make a real, quantitative comparison of private giving in relation to one event, the tsunami. If you look at the Reuters data I referenced above, and look at private donations, and compare them relative to gdp as I did in the paper, these are the results (same units as in paper):
Switzerland 575.29
Ireland 516.40
Netherlands 458.50
Sweden 396.99
Australia 354.22
Norway 346.36
UK 296.51
Luxembourg 293.89
Kuwait 267.56
Canada 237.91
Germany 226.97
Singapore 217.57
Austria 209.84
Finland 208.25
France 189.87
Denmark 182.75
Saudi Arabia 181.04
Begium 171.45
New Zealand 154.37
Taiwan 140.11
United States 122.92
Greece 74.75
Czech Republic 47.81
South Korea 36.62
Italy 34.02
Japan 28.53
Portugal 21.07
Turkey 20.62
Hong Kong 13.83
China 9.22
Mexico 3.83
As with government aid, when making a fair comparison of private aid, the US comes out in approximately the same position. In response to the tsunami, private giving by Norway was 2.8 times more than what the US gave. But the Hudson report says that Norway gives nothing as far as private donations. Funny.
It’s great that the US is giving so much to Haiti, but everything Obama does he uses as photo op. It would be nice if he gave as much attention to domestic problems (i.e., lack of employment, the people NOT wanting him to focus on health care, etc., etc.) as he is willing to give to Haiti. My heart goes out to the people in Haiti, and like many other Americans, more funds would be given if more people had jobs, or their hours had not been cut. Even people who had to take part time work have had their hours cut. Of course, this isn’t accounted for in the unemployment figures (which are not true, anyway).
How about the Feds giving focused attention to unemployment and leave the help in Haiti to reputable organizations? I would think they would want people working since they need taxpayers to pay for their spending— or is it the plan to have JUST the wealthy pay and to keep the rest of the population poor. That is true socialism.
Toady:
In endnote 23 of the Hudson report, which supposedly gives their sources for private aid for OECD countries, they list the central banks of Tunisia, Russia, Morocco, Algeria, Japan, Phillipines, Egypt, etc.
This is very funny considering none of these countries are OECD countries.
Toady:
About remittances, the number one source of aid from the US according to the Hudson report:
“The results indicate that remittances do have a negative effect on economic growth, which indicates that the moral hazard problem in remittances is severe.”
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=16801.0
So the majority of private foreign aid given by the US (of course, I think only the US considers remittances foreign aid), actually has a negative effect on economic growth. That’s impressive.
# 51.
And so the fun begins. You will retract you statement, if not I shall do it for you. It is impossible for the blacks in haiti to be african Americans, they are not Americans. It is impossible to be something other than an American first as A PLACE IS NOT A RACE.
Kindly keep racism in the realm of reality, otherwise, I will have to keep kicking your lily white butt and frankly, it bores me when you can’t grasp a basic before going off.
dh
@ 56:
1.- Haitians are as Americans as an Chilean can be latin-American. American is a continent too.I am not referring to America your country.
2.- I’m not racist. I want to see if there is a real concern in the black people in America for their fellows. I’m denouncing hypocricy.
Why is a white guy called racist if, let’s say, he is a police asking for a document to a black guy? Why? They are 2 human beings first, and part of a race second. I just want to see if now black people will help black people too, or if they will stop calling white guys racist. I want to see how far this collectivist mentality can go.
@ 56 Dark Helmet: And just for the record, I am black, you fool.
And here we go with the “no matter what you do you can’t win”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/haiti/7020908/US-accused-of-occupying-Haiti-as-troops-flood-in.html
The fucking airfield wouldn’t even be running if it wasn’t for US troops. And Monsieur Joyandet’s “scuffle” was about a French evacuation flight – in other words, same as they did in Rwanda, go in to rescue French nationals and sympathisers then everyone else can go hang. Does anyone really think he gives a shit about incoming aid?
If this goes on the US should pull out, give $100 million or so to the UN, and leave them to it. I’m sick and tired of people who aren’t contributing bitching about their needs not being met. If you want someone to fix it, then either help or get out of the way – don’t complain about your outgoing flight being delayed.
Money to the UN is just a waste of time money and effort. In a disaster you need personnel in place that can tend to the wounded clear rubble search for the living and setting up trauma units and get seriously wounded to facilities that can actually help. Who better than military personnel to do this and in a hurry.
This is what the U.S. military is doing at this very moment. Roads are impassible and the country is a wreck. Helicopters (the U.S. has 30 of them currently) can get food and water in and maimed people out to facilities on a ship that has 1,000 beds with CAT scans a medical laboratory and about 600 medical personnel aboard the USNS Comfort. Military engineers can build temporary runways to get supplies and personnel in and out of the country.
Instead Obama sent a guy in that provided medical equipment that is useless in this situation. The military knows how to get in set up triage units stabilize patients and have the best outcome. Here are the assets the U.S. Navy Marine Corps and U.S. Coast Guard have in place:
U.S. Marine Corps support: A Marine Expeditionary Unit, embarked aboard the amphibious ship USS Bataan, comprised of more than 2,200 Marines, is scheduled to arrive in Haiti, Jan. 18, with heavy lift and earth-moving equipment, a dozen helicopters and additional medical support capabilities.
U.S. Coast Guard support: The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Forward arrived in Haiti shortly after the earthquake as the first U.S. asset on scene followed closely by three additional cutters and multiple aircraft crew, including seven C-130 fixed-wing aircraft crews, three MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crews, two MH-65 Dolphin crews and an HU-25 falcon jet crew.
Coast Guard personnel rescued injured U.S. citizens, evacuated American Embassy personnel and provided critical air-traffic control support and port assessments. Coast Guard personnel continue to play significant roles supporting the U.S. government’s assistance effort to Haiti.
The U.S. Navy has the following:
U.S. Navy support: The U.S. Navy’s aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, destroyer USS Higgins frigate USS Underwood and cruiser USS Normandy are presently supporting the operation off the Haitian coast. USS Carl Vinson delivered more than 30 pallets of relief supplies for distribution to affected areas Jan 15. Nineteen helicopters embarked on the carrier are also flying airlift missions in support of relief efforts.
The USNS Big Horn, a fleet oiler, and USNS Grasp, a salvage ship, are due to arrive today.
The amphibious ships USS Bataan, USS Carter Hall, USS Fort McHenry, as well as the cruiser USS Bunker Hill are scheduled to arrive in Haitian waters by Jan. 18.
The hospital ship USNS Comfort departed Baltimore, Md., Jan. 16 with approximately 600 medical personnel and is projected to arrive in Haitian waters Jan. 20. Comfort’s capabilities include fully-equipped operating rooms, a 1,000-bed hospital facility, digital radiological services, a medical laboratory, a pharmacy, an optometry lab, a CAT-scan and two oxygen producing plants. Each ship is equipped with a helicopter deck capable of landing large military helicopters.
The USNS Henson, an oceanographic survey ship, is also scheduled to arrive Jan. 20.
The USNS 1ST LT Jack Lummus, a container and roll-on/roll-off ship capable of offloading cargo without a port, will depart Jacksonville, Fla., Jan. 18 and will arrive at Port au Prince Jan. 21.
U.S. Southern Command Public Affairs Contributed the above information! Save your money and let the military do it’s thing and it will make for a better outcome!
Please, please move the UN to Haiti & free NY!
I have had enough of all the reports and news coming out of Haiti. This country was in crises before the earthquake, now all they want is US dollars and how many of the victims will have their houses rebuilt how many will get the medical aid they require? All the fuss and media frenzy this is not the only country that has had so much damage and lives lost due to natural disasters but it is the only one that the President of the United States has publicly supported, yet again at the taxpayers cost. Well I feel enough is enough; No more there is other news in the world and the USA I would like to see some of that too.
America is ‘stingy.’ Boy I love that one. What the globalists mean is, we use a percentage of GDP to determine what you should give to the United Nations. That’s fine, except, US GDP when we are not in a recession, would mean we would be sending the UN hundreds of millions more than any other nation on the planet, only to have UN officials condemn us for anything & everything under the sun.
“Bush” (that dreaded man who more than doubled AIDS funding in Africa over ANY other US President), initially committed one hundred million to the tsunami aid victims. Bush said then, this is but the beginning. We need to evaluate & then will adjust that amount accordingly. And, he did! Obama did the exact same thing for Haiti, so lets stop w/ the Bush hate crap that matches the America hate crap.
Americans do not want to ‘give to the UN’ for them to decide who, what, where, when, why, how & even if some nation gets aid. We want to send money as directly as possible to those in need, since when we do this, money &/or aid actually gets to the people in need.
The UN & many affiliated NGO’s always seem to skim much off the top of every dollar. Why? To subsidize their operations & the henchmen who run those globalist operations.
No thanks.
The UN has a tremendous history of corruption. One poster said, so does America. Yep! However, when we catch em in America, we prosecute the h*** out of em. UN violators of a multitude of crimes, rarely, if ever get prosecuted & worse, the US pays for the UN to defend the criminal.
America’s operations have their faults. But those at the UN are systemic & that corruption is so ingrained that no amount of oversight &/or reform will ever fix it.
The UN bites the hand that feeds it. The UN wants to develop a lucrative income stream, so they get money directly & then they will not have to answer to any member nation.
Imagine the UN with no one to answer to!
The Un does not reveal its operations or its financial dealings. What it does reveal, is so convoluted & limited, that no human on the planet could ever figure out what happened to the money!
No thanks.
The UN has outlived its usefulness. America needs to establish a new global union that is operated by democracies & those interested in allowing nations to become self governing & self sufficient. As w/ all socialist style organizations, the UN wants those they aid, to always depend on them & to accept all sorts of attached strings limiting future national events to what the UN grants permission for a nation to do.
This subject could be reviewed in hundreds of pages, so I’ll end here.
Forget the UN.