<font face="COMIC Sans MS" size="3" color="#7c9bc4">The head of the UN Humanitarian Aid organization has accused the United States of being stingy in its aid to other nations..... Completely ignoring the fact that the US in the past year has given more aid to other nations than any other single Nation or any Group of nations in the history of the world.......is the whole world nothing but a bunch of losers with their hand out?...Im sorryt hats not fair to the people who receive the aid....the Problem is the UN not the recipients.....but dammit that can piss you off.</font>

I can't recall the exact details but i've read that the US while giving the highets amount of raw dollars in aid actually gives the lowest percentage related to the donating nations GDP. So while for example Australia does not donate as much raw dollars in aid as the US, of what they can give, they donate more.

<font color = lightgreen>"From each according to his ability; to each according to his need" is a horrible philosophy. Read Atlas Shrugged for an extremely in-depth discussion as to why this is so.

How many more examples do we need before we, the US, realize that the UN despises us and has become nothing more than a forum for our detractors to spit on us?</font>

I wasn't drawing any conclusions.

I've read Atlas Shrugged as well as a few other of Rands books. IMO interesting, but ultimately crap.

<font color = lightgreen>Perhaps so, I'm not a devotee of Ms. Rand. However, Objectivism is considerably better than Marxism, Communism, and/or Socialism, even if you take the best elements of all three put together.</font>

<span style="color: lightblue">You might think so, but many do not. People must see some benifit in Socialism over other ideals, else it would not exist. Just because you see more detriment than good in the left wing doesn't mean that that is what there is.

<font color = lightgreen>I couldn't agree more. Variety is the spice of life! [img]graemlins/petard.gif[/img] </font>

Makin a hole nuu sport of slaggin the UN off - dammit that can piss you off.

<font face="COMIC Sans MS" size="3" color="#7c9bc4">What they don't tell you is that when calculating those numbers they are comparing apples and oranges....the figures are weighted to make the Euro-continent look better than it really should. Were ALL factors to be taken into consideration it turns out that the numbers skew the other direction...I had looked this up once...but it basicly comes down to differences in how each nation treates it's finances. It also fails to consider intangibles and material goods. Though I did misspeak in my first post...it was in the last four years combined that the US has out donated the entire rest of the world.

I hav ealso noted some serious tones of "Entitlement" from those seeking handouts lately....definately a good way to shut off the flow of charity.</font>

[ 12-29-2004, 08:27 AM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

<font face="COMIC Sans MS" size="3" color="#7c9bc4">I didn't see a lot of aid pouring in from Europe when Florida and California Suffered their disasters this year either.


Let the world not forget we had a very populated state devastated by not one incident but 3 seperate hurricanes....very strong hurricanes this year...AND our state of California has also suffered Flooding and landslides this year....


Mr. Raffo while I acknowledge your right to have an opinion...While you consider Ms. Rands work "Crap" I would like to say that just as many people consider the philosophies you have espoused a time or two, as crap also [img]smile.gif[/img]

The US does not owe anyone anything in the way of disaster aid. We give out of charity and compassion...if you want to start bashing that...fine then let the world do without the aid from the us...lets see in just dollars alone the whole UN could only scrape up 100 million (as of this mornings news cast) of which the USA is responsible for 35 million....sounds likee the US supplies a tad over 1/3 of the dollars given...now tabulate the good and services given.....the percentage is even higher...to include food, shelter and medicine......At last report Mighty France had pledged $135,000 and Belgium $1,000,000
To me, it looks like France might be a bit on the stingy side....but thats just a preliminary report..Im sure that figure will increase.


Lennoncook, your comments re Marxism, Lenninism and Socialism are refuted by historical fact...those philosophies have never worked in the real world and every time they try, quality of life for the individual degrades.

In any event, my original post was aninspired rant at the ingratitude of the UN officials and not necessarily from the people we help.... Not included in the idiot UN Humanitarian report were the facts that within hours the US had aid on its way to the area, while the UN was still convening it's discussion panel on how to address the situation. 4 C5's from the Area I live in were in the air and on their way within 10 hours of the event. Carrying disaster relief Crews and people who will assess and evaluate from on site what is needed where. In the mean time a couple of thousand Non-governmental organizations in the US (another Factor that the UN does not credit to the US contribution) were starting drives and mobilizing their depleted stores of goods....stores that have been hard hit by our OWN local disasters....wich no one has been talking aobut on the international scene.
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