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Originally Posted by 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
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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/Interna...ricane_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:
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"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]
Additionally, a large portion of the $854 million in aid offered went uncollected, including over $400 million in oil (almost 50%).[43]
The report "Transforming the Aid Environment" 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.
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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 $.