Powell: U.S. is not 'stingy' when it comes to aid

[umtalal]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell responded to criticism from a U.N. official Tuesday, saying the United States is "not stingy" when it comes to providing aid to countries in distress.

On Monday, Jan Egeland, under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief for the U.N., criticized the United States and other countries, saying the amount of foreign aid they gave was "stingy."

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/28/powell.aid/

[byronm]

1. 15 million is stingy

when the livliehood of 4.5 million people as risk thats only 2-3 dollars a head

pathetic we will spend more on weapons - especially when our help could be put to use in ending the civil war they have had going on for a while..

[diamond14]

6. it's $15 Million divided between ELEVEN different Nations....

while bush* decadently feast on a $ 40 MILLION dollars coronation event here in DC....and 20 giant greedly White House parties for bush* campaign contributors recently.....


42 x-mas trees decorate the White House, only for bush* and his reTHUGlican supporters, NO VISITORS ALLOWED....in this photo, a black musician entertaining them, reminding bush* of the good old days in Texas, like when bush* refused to meet with the James Byrd family, and when bush* enjoyed mocking those being executed.....

OUR WHITE HOUSE, where bush* lives....this is the 'entry hall'

[xultar]

2. Ummmm YES THE HELL YOU ARE...and you WELCH on your promises

to aid as well.

[diamond14]

3. bastards....I've been on the phone HUMILIATING some congressional

reps yesterday and today...while bush* enjoys his continuous vacation....


everyone should GET ON THE PHONE, send email to Congress reps....push bush* to send MORE aid...make bush* send the whole ARMY CORP OF ENGINEERS to build water treatment plants, and housing.....the Corps isn't building anything in Iraq....and OUR taxes pay for them to sit there...get them busy....

[FarLeftRage]

4. Well, I beg to differ

If the U.S. wanted to, we could give a hell of a lot more...

Since this nation is more interested in the welfare of the rich, then damn the rest of the world.

[edbermac]

5. GW will probably send them 15 million dollars worth of Bibles...

After all this disaster was God's will; this should help those surviving non-believers repent...

[DBoon]

14. Exactly - aren't these people all Muslims and Hindus?

Don't these heathen peoples deserve God's wrath?

[LynnTheDem]

7. $15 million for aid...$40 million for bush coronation.

Kinda says it all.

[Divernan]

8. US will demand Halliburton et al be hired to do rebuilding.

I read elsewhere on DU that Powell announced the US would do studies to determine where the promised $15 million should go.
(The no-bid, unsupervised contracts to perform such studies have probably already been given to private corporations and will be generously paid for out of the $15million)

Translated: the US will carefully set conditions upon the aid, such as:
(1) The recipient countries will back US on various UN votes;
(2) The recipient countries will send token forces to Iraq or future planned US invasions of other countries;
(3) the recipient countries will hire private contractors designated by the US to perform the work to be paid for by the $15 million.

The Bush thugs view every disaster in how it can be used to further benefit their corporate campaign contributors.

[diamond14]

11. bush* will mandate that those countries send TROOPS TO IRAQ

if they want any more money from the USA....extortion is the way the entire 'coalition of the un-willing' is cobbled together....

[diamond14]

9. bush* considers all his WARS to be generous FOREIGN AID relief

"The United States is not stingy. We are the greatest contributor to international relief efforts in the world," Powell said.

[global1]

10. Let's See Just How Compassionate *Is, Let's Start A Movement To.....

get * to donate the $40 million from his inauguration to this relief effort. He can have just a quiet inaugural ceremony. Then maybe I just might consider his "Person of the Year" deserving. But I really don't think he would do it.

"Inaugurate This George"

[Divernan]

12. Hell would have no fury like a Repub. wife denied her splashy party.

I mean, Betty Bower would tell you - Thousands of sit-on-their- ass at the country club, Republican wives of big donors have EACH bought a week's worth of designer outfits (ssshhhh - don't ask the country of origin, but it begins with the letter FRANCE, or maybe ITALY) - except for Laura, who had her Texas designer import Mexican women to cover his tasteless designs with beads & crystals). Anyhoo, they have all these VEDDY expensive clothes to wear in Washington - not to mention their new full length furs. I mean think how they've contributed to the (foreign) economies - and with terrible exchange rates for the Euro.

[DELUSIONAL]

13. Tell that to the Caribbean victims of last season Hurricanes

People in the Caribbean are not impressed with the assistance they got from the US -- something like $50,000 per island.

Grenada was especially hard hit -- and the US offered $50,000. I never heard any increase in the offer of money/aid from the US.

But since the aid money won't go directly into Halliburton's bank accounts then why bother to send any aid?

Individual Americans will probably top bush's token promise.

Also -- will the $15 million really reach the victims? Remember that bush promised money to AIDS victims in Africa -- and somehow that money was cut from the budget.

This is not a great time to be an American -- we see horrible things being done (or NOT being done) in our names and we can't do a thing about it.

[Moderator]

15. duplicate

locking - discuss here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1103756