- Oct 24, 2000
- 29,767
- 33
- 81
There are over six billion people living on our planet. Of that six
billion, almost two billion are Muslims. That's roughly a third of the
total population of the earth.
The earthquake that triggered the killer tsunami was centered just off the
coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Indonesia is the world's most
populous Muslim country. It was also the most severely devastated by the
wave. Nearly 100,000 of the victims of the December 26 catastrophe were
Indonesian Muslims.
The vast majority of the victims were either Muslims, Buddhists or Hindu.
Got all that? Good.
Now, to the United Nations. The United Nations consists of 186 countries.
The most powerful voting bloc is the fifty-seven Islamic countries that
generally vote with one voice, especially when the United States or Israel
are voting the other way.
The United Nations' head of humanitarian relief, Jan Egeland, criticized
the West for being stingy. He didn't specifically mention America, but he
cited the exact percentage of the US GDP that is budgeted for foreign aid,
so there is little doubt of who the 'stingy West' was, at least in
Egeland's mind.
Egeland slammed the United States for not raising taxes so that America
could give a greater percentage of its GDP to the UN to distribute as part
of the UN's foreign aid package.
Editorials in the Washington Post, the New York Times and other liberal
newspapers echoed Egeland's charge, with the New York Times calling
America's $350 million in direct government aid 'miserly'.
The United States makes up some six percent of the world's total
population, but we pay a quarter of the United Nation's total budget. The
United States pays forty percent of the world's total disaster relief aid,
and sixty percent of the world's total food donations.
The $2.4 billion (that's BILLION) dollars Washington spent in emergency aid
in 2003 represented 40 percent of the total amount of emergency assistance
from all bilateral donors provided that year. Evidently, that isn't enough.
It didn't take long for these same liberal elitists to turn Mother Nature
into an American right-wing hater of Islam.
Not only had America's imperialistic self-enrichment policies created the
natural disaster, but also cold-hearted Muslim hating President Bush
wouldn't leave his ranch in Texas... which by the way, is his home -- not a
vacation destination -- and only offered a 'stingy' initial monetary donation.
While these elitist journalist were assailing President Bush and expounding
the mantra that America should be giving more money to the devastated
region in a token gesture that would 'show Islam that America didn't hate
Muslims', UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was still on his vacation skiing
in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He returned to New York four days later.
The wave struck on Sunday, and it took only until Monday before the US
announced its $350 million in initial aid, sent the USS Abraham Lincoln
into the region, including helicopters, and C-130 transport planes, sent
hundreds of tons of pre-packaged emergency aid supplies, and deployed some
14,000 American troops to help with the recovery and cleanup.
In Indonesia, U.S. helicopters flew at least 30 sorties, delivering 60,000
pounds of water and supplies, from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln
along a 120-mile stretch of Sumatra island's ravaged coastline.
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, the richest nations in the Islamic world, donated
a paltry $10 million each. The United Arab Emirates donated some $20
million to relieve the suffering of their Islamic 'brothers'.
Egypt's contribution at the time of this writing is $104,000.00. (Note:
Egypt gets $2 BILLION in US foreign aid annually)
And did anybody notice that the majority of the private donations came from
those evil corporate types the left so loves to loathe?
Pfizer donated $10 million in cash and $25 million in drugs. (That is more
than oil-rich Saudi Arabia and Kuwait combined). General Motors pledged $2
million in cash, agreed to match employee donations dollar for dollar, and
is sending vehicles to transport food and medical supplies to the region.
Other corporate donors include Nike Inc., American Express, General
Electric, First Data Corp., Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Exxon-Mobil, Citigroup,
Marriott International and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
On the other hand, where are all the Hollywood liberals? Activist actors
such as Ben Affleck, Susan Sarandon, Al Franken, Tim Robbins, Martin Sheen,
and Barbra Streisand have not been heard from.
And where is George Soros, the world richest left wing liberal?
Actress Sandra Bullock donated one million dollars, but Bullock is neither
an activist nor a liberal. (She also donated one million following
September 11.) Super-rich liberals like Bono and Bruce Springsteen are
promising to hold another 'aid concert' to collect money (not theirs) for
the victims.
America, as noted at the outset, represents six percent of the global
population. But in any catastrophe, it gets one hundred percent of the
blame. The UN's nose is out of joint because the Bush administration
refuses to funnel its aid through the UN's various aid agencies.
Kofi Annan wants to use the catastrophe to shore up the UN's sagging image
in the wake of the Oil-For-Food thefts from Iraq. The United States wants
to ensure the aid doesn't end up lining the pockets of UN officials. So the
US is 'too stingy' and gets another black eye.
Where is the rest of the Islamic world? There are fifty-seven Islamic
nations, and the world's biggest Islamic nation is the one that took the
hardest hit. But it is the United States -- the world's largest donor
nation -- that is grabbing all the headlines for being 'stingy'.
To put things in perspective, I saw a news photo yesterday of one of the
Indonesian victims.
He was wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the face of Osama bin Laden.
Text
billion, almost two billion are Muslims. That's roughly a third of the
total population of the earth.
The earthquake that triggered the killer tsunami was centered just off the
coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Indonesia is the world's most
populous Muslim country. It was also the most severely devastated by the
wave. Nearly 100,000 of the victims of the December 26 catastrophe were
Indonesian Muslims.
The vast majority of the victims were either Muslims, Buddhists or Hindu.
Got all that? Good.
Now, to the United Nations. The United Nations consists of 186 countries.
The most powerful voting bloc is the fifty-seven Islamic countries that
generally vote with one voice, especially when the United States or Israel
are voting the other way.
The United Nations' head of humanitarian relief, Jan Egeland, criticized
the West for being stingy. He didn't specifically mention America, but he
cited the exact percentage of the US GDP that is budgeted for foreign aid,
so there is little doubt of who the 'stingy West' was, at least in
Egeland's mind.
Egeland slammed the United States for not raising taxes so that America
could give a greater percentage of its GDP to the UN to distribute as part
of the UN's foreign aid package.
Editorials in the Washington Post, the New York Times and other liberal
newspapers echoed Egeland's charge, with the New York Times calling
America's $350 million in direct government aid 'miserly'.
The United States makes up some six percent of the world's total
population, but we pay a quarter of the United Nation's total budget. The
United States pays forty percent of the world's total disaster relief aid,
and sixty percent of the world's total food donations.
The $2.4 billion (that's BILLION) dollars Washington spent in emergency aid
in 2003 represented 40 percent of the total amount of emergency assistance
from all bilateral donors provided that year. Evidently, that isn't enough.
It didn't take long for these same liberal elitists to turn Mother Nature
into an American right-wing hater of Islam.
Not only had America's imperialistic self-enrichment policies created the
natural disaster, but also cold-hearted Muslim hating President Bush
wouldn't leave his ranch in Texas... which by the way, is his home -- not a
vacation destination -- and only offered a 'stingy' initial monetary donation.
While these elitist journalist were assailing President Bush and expounding
the mantra that America should be giving more money to the devastated
region in a token gesture that would 'show Islam that America didn't hate
Muslims', UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was still on his vacation skiing
in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He returned to New York four days later.
The wave struck on Sunday, and it took only until Monday before the US
announced its $350 million in initial aid, sent the USS Abraham Lincoln
into the region, including helicopters, and C-130 transport planes, sent
hundreds of tons of pre-packaged emergency aid supplies, and deployed some
14,000 American troops to help with the recovery and cleanup.
In Indonesia, U.S. helicopters flew at least 30 sorties, delivering 60,000
pounds of water and supplies, from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln
along a 120-mile stretch of Sumatra island's ravaged coastline.
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, the richest nations in the Islamic world, donated
a paltry $10 million each. The United Arab Emirates donated some $20
million to relieve the suffering of their Islamic 'brothers'.
Egypt's contribution at the time of this writing is $104,000.00. (Note:
Egypt gets $2 BILLION in US foreign aid annually)
And did anybody notice that the majority of the private donations came from
those evil corporate types the left so loves to loathe?
Pfizer donated $10 million in cash and $25 million in drugs. (That is more
than oil-rich Saudi Arabia and Kuwait combined). General Motors pledged $2
million in cash, agreed to match employee donations dollar for dollar, and
is sending vehicles to transport food and medical supplies to the region.
Other corporate donors include Nike Inc., American Express, General
Electric, First Data Corp., Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Exxon-Mobil, Citigroup,
Marriott International and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
On the other hand, where are all the Hollywood liberals? Activist actors
such as Ben Affleck, Susan Sarandon, Al Franken, Tim Robbins, Martin Sheen,
and Barbra Streisand have not been heard from.
And where is George Soros, the world richest left wing liberal?
Actress Sandra Bullock donated one million dollars, but Bullock is neither
an activist nor a liberal. (She also donated one million following
September 11.) Super-rich liberals like Bono and Bruce Springsteen are
promising to hold another 'aid concert' to collect money (not theirs) for
the victims.
America, as noted at the outset, represents six percent of the global
population. But in any catastrophe, it gets one hundred percent of the
blame. The UN's nose is out of joint because the Bush administration
refuses to funnel its aid through the UN's various aid agencies.
Kofi Annan wants to use the catastrophe to shore up the UN's sagging image
in the wake of the Oil-For-Food thefts from Iraq. The United States wants
to ensure the aid doesn't end up lining the pockets of UN officials. So the
US is 'too stingy' and gets another black eye.
Where is the rest of the Islamic world? There are fifty-seven Islamic
nations, and the world's biggest Islamic nation is the one that took the
hardest hit. But it is the United States -- the world's largest donor
nation -- that is grabbing all the headlines for being 'stingy'.
To put things in perspective, I saw a news photo yesterday of one of the
Indonesian victims.
He was wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the face of Osama bin Laden.
Text
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