My question for the day....

[SUBMAN1]

Looking at all the devastation from this hurricane, where is our foreign aid? Something bad happens anywhere in this world, we are quick to respond, but when it happens to us, what then?

-S

[UnderseaLcpl]

Looking at all the devastation from this hurricane, where is our foreign aid? Something bad happens anywhere in this world, we are quick to respond, but when it happens to us, what then?

-S

We borrow money or print it. Just like everyone else. And we slowly destroy our economy in doing so. :down:

[nikimcbee]

You mean you want the UN here?:oops: I'll let the smurfs live at your house.

[baggygreen]

I had a tiredness-induced epiphany last night when reading a couple of articles criticising australias involvement in providing aid etc through oceania and SE asia, apparently its us trying to push our influence everywhere else.

Why dont we leave em all be. Bugger em. No, we won't support fledgling democracy in Timor Leste. No, we won't prop up PNG or Fiji or the Solomons. Why do we bother sinking billions of dollars into ungrateful nations who do nothing but complain anyway.

Lets do what they want for once, leave them to sort out their own problems, and then listen to them complain when their free aid and support stops leaving them up the creek.

And frankly, i sometimes wonder if the US shouldn't do the same.

[mrbeast]

Considering that the USA is the richest country on the planet one would think that it wouldn't need much aid.

Then again the USA has been offered aid from other countries IIRC Cuba offered 100 doctors after Hurricane Katrina and after 9/11 several countries offered help.

[Skybird]

Considering that the USA is the richest country on the planet one would think that it wouldn't need much aid.

Then again the USA has been offered aid from other countries IIRC Cuba offered 100 doctors after Hurricane Katrina and after 9/11 several countries offered help.
What he said.

[SUBMAN1]

So thats how you guys see it? It is OK to take and not to give? Sounds very lopsided, regardless how rich one is. You help a friend in need. And, at least you can offer!

Sorry, don't buy it.

-S

[Tchocky]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4216370.stm

[Biggles]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4216370.stm

The next question would be why the U.S can't send enough to them themselves:hmm:

"The US may not really need baby food from Italy or divers from Belgium, but its call for European and international help shows that, after the divisions over Iraq, it has now realised that even superpowers need friends."

Maybe so, but will they pay back? When they can that is? Or is this a "gift" from the outer world to the U.S?

[Rockin Robbins]

Who cares? Fairness is a fallacy*. The people of the US (even independently of their government) are disposed to render aid when they feel they can afford it and where the need is. Intended recipients have the perfect right to refuse. It's what we and they do. It is not done as "fair trade" with intent to receive when disaster hits here.

And aid which is required of others to the US would not be aid at all, but tribute. Do we want to be in that position? As soon as aid is not voluntary it is meaningless. So long as it is voluntary, complaining when it is not rendered, or complaining when it is refused is ridiculous.


*Rockin Robbinism #2

[Safe-Keeper]

Looking at all the devastation from this hurricane, where is our foreign aid?The US gets foreign aid just like any other country. Funny how you phrase your OP like a question when you're really in no hurry for facts and would rather just sit back and condemn.

Cough. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina#International_response)

Oh, and... you're welcome:roll:.

[kiwi_2005]

Well im sure if America asked New Zealand for aid we would be happy to give it, our banks usually start it off where they open an account and anyone who wishs to help donates money into that account, then after a month or so it gets sent, one country we helped we sent over $600,000 thats just from the banks not bad for only a population of 4 million ppl and 40 million sheep :) I know we offered Aid to the disaster in New Orleans. Im sure if Texas asked for some aid we would give it. And if money is not needed then we got heaps of milk products and 40 million sheep to spare...:)

[Platapus]

Another good question would be of the foreign aid that is offered the US, how many times have we accepted it?

[Kapt Z]

Who cares? Fairness is a fallacy*. The people of the US (even independently of their government) are disposed to render aid when they feel they can afford it and where the need is. Intended recipients have the perfect right to refuse. It's what we and they do. It is not done as "fair trade" with intent to receive when disaster hits here.

And aid which is required of others to the US would not be aid at all, but tribute. Do we want to be in that position? As soon as aid is not voluntary it is meaningless. So long as it is voluntary, complaining when it is not rendered, or complaining when it is refused is ridiculous.


*Rockin Robbinism #2

Agreed. I like the idea I heard of in Proceedings of using our hospital ships to 'show the flag' instead of just warships. Like a new version of Roosevelt's 'White Fleet'. We need all the PR boost we can get.

[Letum]

With the US's wealth it should be a matter of coals to Newcastle.

[Platapus]

With the US's wealth it should be a matter of coals to Newcastle.


With our current disgraceful national disaster response capability, I would gratefully accept any and all help.

National pride be damned, there are people who need help. That "should" be important to the federal/state/and local governments. :yep:

[SUBMAN1]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4216370.stmI know it happened way back when with Katrina, but that's the only time I can recall in recent history! Something happens to any European country, no matter how small, and the US has got Europe's back in a heartbeat.

I just see it not being a two way street very much anymore. We haven't changed. Europe has I think.

-S

[Letum]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4216370.stmI know it happened way back when with Katrina, but that's the only time I can recall in recent history! Something happens to any European country, no matter how small, and the US has got Europe's back in a heartbeat.

I just see it not being a two way street very much anymore. We haven't changed. Europe has I think.

-S


If such opinions and attitudes are the norm in the US then you can all stuff your aid
should any disaster befall me. :nope:

[SUBMAN1]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4216370.stmI know it happened way back when with Katrina, but that's the only time I can recall in recent history! Something happens to any European country, no matter how small, and the US has got Europe's back in a heartbeat.

I just see it not being a two way street very much anymore. We haven't changed. Europe has I think.

-S

If such opinions and attitudes are the norm in the US then you can all stuff your aid
should any disaster befall me. :nope:Fine by my me since you don't acknowledge it.

Typical racists attitude, just applied to aid here.

-S

[clive bradbury]

So strange, Subman. You launch one post, which I notice is now closed, boasting about US wealth in relation to Europe, then start this one whinging about why you don't get foreign aid? Have you ever considered that the international community, just like most other societies, tends to to distribute wealth downwards, i.e. from those who need it least to those who need it the most. Make your mind up.

[mrbeast]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4216370.stmI know it happened way back when with Katrina, but that's the only time I can recall in recent history! Something happens to any European country, no matter how small, and the US has got Europe's back in a heartbeat.

I just see it not being a two way street very much anymore. We haven't changed. Europe has I think.

-S

If such opinions and attitudes are the norm in the US then you can all stuff your aid
should any disaster befall me. :nope:Fine by my me since you don't acknowledge it.

Typical racists attitude, just applied to aid here.

-S

What on earth are you talking about about Subman? :roll:

[Morts]

So strange, Subman. You launch one post, which I notice is now closed, boasting about US wealth in relation to Europe, then start this one whinging about why you don't get foreign aid? Have you ever considered that the international community, just like most other societies, tends to to distribute wealth downwards, i.e. from those who need it least to those who need it the most. Make your mind up.

:up: :up:

[UnderseaLcpl]

Have you ever considered that the international community, just like most other societies, tends to to distribute wealth downwards, i.e. from those who need it least to those who need it the most. Make your mind up.

They do? I was under the impression that every society that has ever existed has been moaning about how the few and the wealthy lord over their poorer bretheren since the dawn of mankind.

The international community, and the governments that comprise it, do distribute wealth. That much is true. But in doing so, and in virtually all other aspects of their nature, they destroy wealth for all but themselves.

Governments do not make money, they take money.

The nations of the world that have the highest standards of living are the ones that are, economically, the most free (with the exception of nations that are floating on oil and the U.S. since 1930 because of other advantages. Which I would like to expound upon, but won't, for the sake of brevity)

So really, foreign aid doesn't actually help. It just transfers the burden of national crisis. It isn't an immediate transfer, but the harmful effects of inflation and public debt are killers of nations. Then the lenders become the borrowers, and the cycle continues. The only ones laughing all the way to the bank are the people that control the governments.

In cases like almost the entire continent of Africa, the results of foreign aid are even worse. People starve, die of disease, and kill each other, despite hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of international(government) aid. Most of that money never gets to the people, and there isn't one Head of State in the world that has ever starved to death.

So, in the case of Hurricane Ike or Katrina or whatever, I would reject foreign aid to the U.S. unless it was through private charity. I would rather see the economies of your nations benefit from lesser government debt and investment in the private sector. That way, you can help us prop-up our economy when it fails by providing private foreign investment, and we can do the same for you when your governments fail financially.

Don't trade the fiscal elite for the political elite, as humanity has often done in the past. The results are always the same.

The U.S. would be better served by abstaining from any form of governmental disaster relief, and rejecting any foreign-state aid. Private charity will invest more efficiently in disaster recovery, and the costs are borne only by those who choose to invest, unlike state intervention, where we all pay, whether we can afford it or not.

To have the money to assist in disaster-relief a society must have wealth. To do that, it must have economic freedom. That means not letting the government appropriate and redistribute wealth as the politically elite see fit.

[GlobalExplorer]

Looking at all the devastation from this hurricane, where is our foreign aid? Something bad happens anywhere in this world, we are quick to respond, but when it happens to us, what then?

-S

If the foreign aid after Katrina is anything to go by, theres is going to be a lot of help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_response_to_Hurricane_Katrina

Just a couple of days ago it was in the news that Germany wants to send the THW with specialists and cars again, and I am sure there is a lot of help from other countries, too.

More unverified quotes from Wikipedia but still interesting: "An article in the April 29, 2007 Washington Post claimed that of the $854 million offered by foreign countries, whom the article dubs "allies," to the US Government, only $40 million of the funds had been spent "for disaster victims or reconstruction" as of the date of publication (less than 5%).[42] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_response_to_Hurricane_Katrina#cite_n ote-41)
Additionally, a large portion of the $854 million in aid offered went uncollected, including over $400 million in oil (almost 50%).[43] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_response_to_Hurricane_Katrina#cite_n ote-42)
The report "Transforming the Aid Environment" (http://aidmarket.info/AidMarket2007.pdf) argues that the "way in which the United States perceives foreign aid is perhaps best understood in the way in which the country acts when they are the recipient nation. When other countries offered the United States $854 million in cash and oil as foreign aid to help the areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina, they merely accepted 4.7% of the total aid offered, the rest went uncollected. There is no reason for not accepting the available resources, other than that aid is a political tool. The United States wanted to avoid the political influence aid has on the policies of the recipient nation.

The policicy actually makes kind of sense to me. If I were the US I would certainly not want to create the impression the country of Absurdistan could bribe me with a meagre 500.000 $.

[SUBMAN1]

Katrina is one time in all of this. And though this country may be rich, it isn't unlimited in its capability. The offer of help is the part of the equation that is missing from outsiders here. All take and no give. One way street. Some of the posts above prove this without a doubt.

You foreigners can spin it any way you want, but it shows how you feel about us. You simply do not care unless it might possibly hurt your own interests. No other way to spin that now is there? Eat it since there is no argument there.

-S

[GlobalExplorer]

As you are obviously not interested in facts, play with yourself then. I only took you off the ignore list because you post interesting stuff outside the GF.

[Morts]

As you are obviously not interested in facts, play with yourself then.
:up: :up:

[Jimbuna]

With our current disgraceful national disaster response capability, I would gratefully accept any and all help.

National pride be damned, there are people who need help. That "should" be important to the federal/state/and local governments. :yep:

Agreed....always help a friend in need, if your able to :yep:

Reminds me of FDR in the early years of WWII.

There should be no barriers put up to stifle compassion or humanitarian assistance.