People must help one another; it is nature's law.
Jean de La Fontaine (1621 - 1695), writer and poet
China has not done nearly enough to help in the tsunami relief efforts in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, and Somalia. President Bush is going too far. According to an article in the International Herald Tribune, China is expected to donate approximately $62 million, one of its largest ever pledges of international relief aid.
China is sowing the seeds for financial power. Unfortunately, they have not yet learned or just don’t want to know how to also be a benevolent power for good. Possibly the Olympic Committee should have pushed China to the forefront. This disaster is in China’s global backyard and many Chinese people are saying China should be helping its own first. There is validity to that argument, but China has the capability to help both.
If the U.S. had a good relationship with China, it would have been nice to create a large coalition of the willing for disaster relief. Because President Bush was slow to react and embarrassed the country, he has now gone to the extreme by recruiting former presidents Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush to help raise funds. He also sent Secretary of State Colin Powell and his brother Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to the disaster zones. Now, he has asked U.S. citizens and corporations to donate, basically privatizing donations to help bailout the government from going even deeper in debt
The United States’ ability to help and to even be altruistic (which is impossible for most people or countries) makes it special in the history of the world. But, how much is too much? How much can people be expected to donate?
Maybe there is no excess when it comes to charity, but please also remember our charities, too. There are myriad charities here at home that are operating on a shoestring budget because the economy has not been as robust the past four years and people have curtailed their donations. If we wait for a disaster it will be too late.
2 comments:
I understand entirely. I belong to an organization that was in the midst of raising funds for people just as poor as those hit by the Tsunami. But we've understood this is going to be hard right now, and we're bowing out for a bit, to come back with a vengeance later on once the relief efforts are underway and things are back online in those areas. Frustrating and upsetting, but we're hoping that people will start thinking about how much they really have and that spending $20 going to a bad movie is ridiculous when it could feed a family of four for a month.
Here's to hoping.
Alektra at http://alektra.diaryland.com
Great post. And you are SO right on every point, in my opinion.
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