Will you take a cheque?
Last week the CBC ran a story "UN promises audit to ensure tsunami pledges are paid" (of which I was informed by mBlog)
In the story, it was said that "Jan Egeland, the UN emergency relief co-ordinator, vowed on Thursday to have a full accounting of funds - now at $3.6 billion - promised after the Dec. 26 tsunami in the Indian Ocean."
Apparently this is required because of past events such as when "a total of $1 billion US was pledged after the earthquake in Bam, Iran killed up to 40,000 people, but only $17.5 million [had] actually been sent."
This shocked me. Governments actually state they will help people in catastrophic situations, but then never actually do!?!?! That's worse than not pledging any money in the first place!
I understand that the bureaucracy and administrational complexity of national governments and international groups must be vast, but that is no excuse for lackadaisical transferring of paper which undoubtedly would have helped make lives bearable, if not ensure their existence. Of course, that assumes it was accidental. Sadly, the likely reality is all the more heart-breaking.
In the story, it was said that "Jan Egeland, the UN emergency relief co-ordinator, vowed on Thursday to have a full accounting of funds - now at $3.6 billion - promised after the Dec. 26 tsunami in the Indian Ocean."
Apparently this is required because of past events such as when "a total of $1 billion US was pledged after the earthquake in Bam, Iran killed up to 40,000 people, but only $17.5 million [had] actually been sent."
This shocked me. Governments actually state they will help people in catastrophic situations, but then never actually do!?!?! That's worse than not pledging any money in the first place!
I understand that the bureaucracy and administrational complexity of national governments and international groups must be vast, but that is no excuse for lackadaisical transferring of paper which undoubtedly would have helped make lives bearable, if not ensure their existence. Of course, that assumes it was accidental. Sadly, the likely reality is all the more heart-breaking.
posted by That which is called Darren at 1:26 PM
1 Comments:
I thought Big D and other readers might like this Robert Park comment on the tsunamis in Asia:
EARTHQUACKS: THE DEEPER MEANING OF THE TSUNAMI IS EXAMINED.
Religions are busy explaining how we should view a disaster that claimed more than 150,000 innocent lives. "Innocent"? Buddhists explained that seemingly innocent victims could be paying for some really bad stuff they did in previous lives. A leading Moslem
cleric in Southern California says it was, "a test from God to see how human beings respond." Columnist and pretentious theologian William Safire also saw the tsunami as a test, and compared it to God's test of Job. Sure Job is faithful, Satan had scoffed, God
made him rich and powerful. Wagering that Job would remain faithful, God lets Satan take it all away: Job's sheep are stolen, his servants slain and a great wind kills his children. Whereupon Job falls to the ground and worships God, "the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away." So Job passes the test. Never mind his
sons and daughters who died, or his servants who were murdered, it's all about Job. Well, thank God for physics. The tsunami was caused by the release of elastic energy in a tectonic earthquake.
E.
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