I was just thinking about how much money Australia has raised, both in government donations and public donations and it is an ENORMOUS amount of money. If every country is doing the same thing, then the amount that has been raised must be STUPENDOUS.
But they're still plastering ads all over the TV and radio asking us to give more, more, more, they had collectors at the fireworks for Australia Day last night, it's never ending.
The world must've raised a gazzillion dollars already, is it enough? I admit I don't know anything about cleaning up and rebuilding contries that have been desimated by natural dissasters, but it seems like the world has raised enough money to do it five times over.
Also, what happens if they have raised too much money? Do the Red Cross just redirect funds to feeding starving orphans in Ethiopia or whever?
Schmiggens, the real issue is, after all this publicizing, do the countries ever get all the promised aid? I remember watching The News Hour with Jim Lehrer and Jim himself commented that the actual amount is hardly ever transferred by the donating countries. For example, most of the aid promised to Iran after the Kerman earthquake never reached.
I am not saying that what the countries are doing right now in terms of manpower and emergency supplies is not helpful, but such exaggeration of donations is all that it is: exaggeration.
M.
"Every positive integer is one of Ramanujan's personal friends."—J. E. Littlewood.
I don't know how much is enough but what I do know is that rebuilding all those countries is going to cost billions and billions. Those people involved in the relief have to clean up the mess that has been left, bury the dead, build some kind of shelter, get food and clean water, get medicine and doctors and surgeons, rebuild cities and towns and get those people who lost their means of support back on their feet. Doing all that once costs a massive amount of money but that cost is multiplied by the amount of countries hit by the disaster.
I think in the case of where the money goes that the DEC has guaranteed that the money goes to the right place but again it is a case of tryinig to work out who needs it most. Indonesia has been hit the hardest, but Thailand's need for money is just as great.
01-27-2005 04:11 AM
