HURRICANE KATRINA! Flying for a cause.

[Plane Nuts]

It's nearly impossible for threads to always stay on topic, especially when someone drops in to a thread where people are attempting to
think of ways to help out disaster victims and says think along the lines of 'let the Americans take care of it themselves'. It would be nice if
political views could stay off of non-political forums, but it will never happen. We are all human beings who are typically very passionate
about our convictions and loyal to our way of doing things. If you found my post unpleasant, I won't apologize for that. I took serious
offense to Ruaim's general attitude in his post and felt the need to vent my feelings. I'm not one who will typically take something like that
lying down and I will express my feelings in whatever way I feel appropriate at the time.

[James]

Plane Nuts wrote:

Ruaim wrote:
Maybe our friends in the American government could help out.

They run the world with an iron fist as it is - surely they have money without the rest of us having to cough up - they are richest nation in
the world as it is and usually look after their own interests!

This typical type of response is getting really old. The United States gives and gives and gives to the rest of the world constantly. When
other nations face disaster such as the Indonesian Tsunami, our government and citizens alike send money, food, clothing, etc. as well
as man power to help in whatever ways they can. When ANYONE needs help, the USA is usually the first to step up and lend a hand. But
when something horrible happens here, the general world wide attitude seems to be "Ah, let the those rich arrogant Americans take care
of themselves. They don't need our help or sympathy."

I'm just sick and F*cking tired of it.

Really? Well where was the US during the crisis of Niger eh? I remember a couple of weeks ago that there was only €4M raised for this, and of that
Ireland had paid €1M so we had paid the most at that time. Now that doesn't say much about the US's willingness to give and give does it?! And also
back when the tsunami happened, Ireland was one of the first countries to offer a donation, at that time the US hadn't. Now the only reason why your
government gave so much was because there were a lot of American tourists involved in the disaster. I'm sure it would've been a different story
altogether had there been no American casualties. I'm not trying to start a tit for tat arguement that Ireland pays more than you but Ireland is just
an example that other countries pay well more than the US does in a lot of international disasters.
My point is basically that what you've stated above is complete crap and is unfactual and very inaccurate. IMO you don't know what your're talking
about. Your president is an ejit and if I ever had to describe Bush I would say he's a modern Hitler.
Anyway your point about the rest of the world thinking "let the those rich arrogant Americans take care of themselves. They don't need our help or
sympathy." , well thats not true. I was gobsmacked by the images I saw of the devastation in New Orleans and Mississippi, if I could donate to any
charity I would because conditions are just aweful and help IMO should have been given long before now and I'm very surprised by the way its being
dealt with. But you see the reason the world isn't donating is because we shouldn't have to, the United States of America is one of the if not THE
world's rishest nation and this kind of situation really should have been dealt with very professionally and help provided very swiftly but this
surprisingly isn't the case. But I assure there are loads of people accross the pond here that are shocked by whats happening right now in the
aftermath of Katrina.

[Plane Nuts]

Exactly how thin is the US supposed to spread itself? We may well be the wealthiest country in the world, but there is not a limitless
supply of money here.

By the way:

"Only $28 million has been received towards a $57.6 million appeal by the World Food Programme (WFP) for the West African country,
where drought and locusts ruined last year's harvest.
"We are quite worried. For two weeks we had almost no new donations," WFP spokesman Simon Pluess told a briefing.
"We are less than 50 percent funded and we really need urgent donations now if we want to be able to respond properly to this present
crisis."
Canada tops the WFP's list of donors with $3.2 million, followed by Britain and the United States. Notably absent from the list of
European donors is France, the former colonial power in Niger."


"To date, WFP has received US$28 million of its $57.6 million appeal for Niger. Donors include -
Canada ($3.2 million);
UK ($2.7 million);
United States ($2.6 million); ................
....................
Ireland ($1.2 million); .................."


Everyone is helping for the most part in Niger, and your number of $4 million is just a tad bit off.

[James]

Plane Nuts wrote:
Exactly how thin is the US supposed to spread itself? We may well be the wealthiest country in the world, but there is not a limitless
supply of money here.

By the way:

"Only $28 million has been received towards a $57.6 million appeal by the World Food Programme (WFP) for the West African country,
where drought and locusts ruined last year's harvest.
"We are quite worried. For two weeks we had almost no new donations," WFP spokesman Simon Pluess told a briefing.
"We are less than 50 percent funded and we really need urgent donations now if we want to be able to respond properly to this present
crisis."
Canada tops the WFP's list of donors with $3.2 million, followed by Britain and the United States. Notably absent from the list of
European donors is France, the former colonial power in Niger."


"To date, WFP has received US$28 million of its $57.6 million appeal for Niger. Donors include -
Canada ($3.2 million);
UK ($2.7 million);
United States ($2.6 million); ................
....................
Ireland ($1.2 million); .................."


Everyone is helping for the most part in Niger, and your number of $4 million is just a tad bit off.

Here mate, read what I said. I said that the amount Ireland had donated A COUPLE of weeks ago was the most. Its obviously changed by now but my point is the US were far from being the most donaters a couple of weeks ago.



Post Edited ( 09-01-05 20:05 )

[Plane Nuts]

And that's very honorable of Ireland. I for one am not going to downplay ANY donation or help made by any country to another country
anywhere in the world. If every single country that could would put in whatever they could to help out whenever a disaster happens, that
would be great and it would take some of the burden off of the countries that are always at the top of the donation list.

As far as your comment that the US only helped in the Indonesian Tsunami because there were Americans there to save, I take exception
to that as a load of BS.

[James]

Plane Nuts wrote:
And that's very honorable of Ireland. I for one am not going to downplay ANY donation or help made by any country to another country
anywhere in the world. If every single country that could would put in whatever they could to help out whenever a disaster happens, that
would be great and it would take some of the burden off of the countries that are always at the top of the donation list.

As far as your comment that the US only helped in the Indonesian Tsunami because there were Americans there to save, I take exception
to that as a load of BS.

As I said before in the post which you haven't seem to have read properly, I'm not trying to start tit for tat crap here that Ireland pays more than
the US or that the UK or Germany pay more than the US. It was only example, and come to think of it I shouldn't have used Ireland as an example
because our economy is incomparible to that of the US. Meaning that if we give say 0.08% of the annual GNP to the Niger crisis, and the US gives the same then ithe US's donation would be a lot more than that of ours.

As for the tsunami comment, well you think whatever you wana think but I'd bet all my savings that Bush wouldn't have given anywhere near as much as he did if there were no Americans involved, likewise with the UK, Sweden, Switzerland etc. .



Post Edited ( 09-01-05 20:25 )

[DanSteph]

Sorry people I close this thread , it was first an honorable cause to help victims
and that is nice witchever country they come from.

Anyway I'm affraid it turn now in a political and country bashing thread and
I cannot let that happen.

My opinion is that I don't care about country, there are nice, honorable or idiots people in every
country and I don't think a flag, skin color or anything make a victim look different.

Dan