Tsunami Videos... :(

[lasto]

stop whining about who`s giving what - remember the uk and the USA give handouts to countries all the time so when a disaster like this happens money aint always the solution.it helps but there is other stuff to be done first.As for vigra giving more than anyone else just goes to show theres loads of ****** in the world dont it
Everyone is jumping on this disaster but as terrible as it is - we have a lot more people in the world wanting feeding and watering (look at africa) and this has been going on for yrs.But because this disaster is fresh in the news everyones on the bandwagon.
Disasters like this happen regular,ok this one had a lot more deaths but to me 1 death is a disaster and if u lose someone in one of these then arguing about money aint gonna help.The place out there is a wreck - our aim should be to help the people with clean water and food only.Let them rebuild their homes themselfs.Most of the islands hit where tourists attractions - do we recieve tax off these people nope so let their own country sort that problem out.

[Wayne Luke]

It should be noted that the owner of the forum those videos are linked from is having severe bandwidth problems at this time. He used over 220 GB of bandwidth in a single day. Archive.org also has these videos on their site and they have better bandwidth allotments.

[Wayne Luke]

Originally Posted by pseudo class

I am an American, and as citizen I feel the US isn't given it's best to support the crisis. As AN-NET said, the entire funds provided by the US were surpassed by the makers of Viagra, which is absurd IMO. And I'm not one of those Bush haters who blame everything on him, I feel the US as a whole isn't up to par in helping with the crisis.

As an American you should also know that the President only has so many funds alloted for discretionary spending and it is against the law for him to pledge more than what is allotted to him. After his discretionary fund is gone, Congress has to allocate more if they think it is worthy. And imagine, his discretionary fund only had $35 million left after his spending on the Florida Hurricanes. The President also has sent 20,000 military personnel and almost 40 Navy ships to the region to help with this tragedy. Seven of the ships have the specific purpose of creating drinkable water through desalinization. Of course the critics of his every move overlook these facts. Each of these Navy ships are packed to the hilt with in-kind donations (food, water, medicine, housing, manpower, and equipment which isn't tallied in monetary donations) and this amounts to further millions of dollars as well as heavy equipment and engineers to help rebuild infrastructure and Marine landing vehicles which can drive right up onto the beach in areas inaccessible by land or air. Of course, we won't look at that because the President doesn't have the authority to spend billions automatically and we would rather criticize this instead of realize it is a matter of law that prevents this.

Now, I am not trying to defend the President here but only pointing out how the system works. He could have requested an emergency meeting of Congress (not that they have to listen to him) and he could have had a press conference at his ranch on Sunday to speak about the tragedy instead of waiting three days to be briefed. Doesn't take a briefing to offer condolences.

Personally, the focus shouldn't be who gives what and how much right now. It should be getting help to the victims regardless of who pays for it. The larger donations to rebuild, re-educate, and place the thousands of orphans in homes will come after the immediate crisis is resolved.

If the US isn't up to helping in the crisis then why has over $150 Million (not counting the $35 million from the government) already been raised to help in the crisis? This includes private donations to aid organizations ($28 million to the Red Cross and $25 Million from the Christian Relief Center are the largest) as well as over $75 million in corporate donations. Plus the thousands of people headed to that region to provide manpower.

[Rose]

The US just upped their pledge to $350 million. (cnn.com) But I hate it that everyone assumes the US to be the backbone of everything. If ++++ goes down, we're supposed to help. If disaster strikes. We're supposed to help. And when we help it isn't enough. It's never enough.

The tragedy sucks. No one can deny that. But being pissed that the US government hasn't pleged a huge number of funds yet (though again, it has been upped) is just silly. I've actually read one member's post on another forum suggesting the whole thing was the fault of the US. Geeze.

[Wayne Luke]

A pledge is a lot different from a hard contribution though. The additional funds have to be approved by Congress before they go anywhere. I have no doubt that it will be approved though.

[lasto]

im british and i agree that everyone looks to america for support.But when america needs support where is everyone then ?.End of day people want to remember this aint none of our doing and as wayne luke suggested above - the main aim now is to help those who are in desperate need and helping them get clean/clothed and have fresh water and food (the basic essentials of life).Politics in any form should not hinder the progress to help these people but somewhere down the line its gonna play a big part.
How long or how much can a country be expected to give without nothing in return ? - This aint a short term problem,help is gonna be needed out there for months to come but by then a lot of the people will of moved onto something fresh or got bored with the whole situation.
If i was america i would make my donation along the line as all the other countries because america has nothing to prove to anyone and should NOT always be expected to stump up millions of pounds when america has internal problems itself.

Originally Posted by Rose

The US just upped their pledge to $350 million. (cnn.com) But I hate it that everyone assumes the US to be the backbone of everything. If ++++ goes down, we're supposed to help. If disaster strikes. We're supposed to help. And when we help it isn't enough. It's never enough.

The tragedy sucks. No one can deny that. But being pissed that the US government hasn't pleged a huge number of funds yet (though again, it has been upped) is just silly. I've actually read one member's post on another forum suggesting the whole thing was the fault of the US. Geeze.

Well we act so high and mighty as Global Police when we feel like, and I'm not putting that down if it's for people's safety. But there's another side to being so powerful and that's helping everyone out that needs it. If the US got hit by a Tsunami with the death toll up too 100,000 I'm sure everyone would want as much aid as they could possibly get.

[Beermonster]

I'm not going to make a politcal statement and ask what any other country is going to do, this is the force of nature and maybe not at it's most powerfull but it certinatly is very disctructive, may their god go with the victims and let's hope there are no after shocks.

[Bison]

Originally Posted by pseudo class

It's really a terrible thing, they also expect the death toll to rise dramatically due to waterborne diseases. =' ( . I'm pretty upset at the fact that the US isn't doing it's best to help out.

the sad thing about all of this is that we are always expected to help when there's hundreds of countries that can help. What is your country trying to do? I get sick of hearing how bad our country is and people like you expectiong us to do what your country neglects to do.

[Wayne Luke]

Pseudo-Class is from the US according to his location. He just wants to ignore the fact that the initial response was just that, an initial response. No one knew the magnitude and we still don't today. I suspect that the total aid pledge from the US will continue to grow.