Is america stingy?

[SAW]

Whatever we do, however many millions of dollars we donate to these damaged nations, it will never be "enough" in most nations' eyes.

From the other thread...Man, I hate it when I'm right.

[drg]

Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble?

When there was a little thing called, oh, 9/11? I know it's hard to remember, with how the world hates our guts now, but right after 9/11 the world (that includes France) was right there with us, doing what it could to help us. It wasn't that long ago.

How did things get so bad so fast? Rhetorical question, I know.

[SSMercury]

Measured another way, as a percentage of gross national product, the OECD's figures on development aid show that as of April, none of the world's richest countries donated even 1 percent of its gross national product. Norway was highest, at 0.92 percent; the United States was last, at 0.14 percent.

Again, yes, we give a lot of foreign aid, but the percentage of what we give is very small to what our country produces and consumes in a year.

[SSMercury]

How did things get so bad so fast? Rhetorical question, I know.

We elected Bush.

[SAW]

We elected Bush.

Hey, hey. Bush was in office BEFORE 9/11...

[Albinonewt]

When there was a little thing called, oh, 9/11? I know it's hard to remember, with how the world hates our guts now, but right after 9/11 the world (that includes France) was right there with us, doing what it could to help us. It wasn't that long ago.

How did things get so bad so fast? Rhetorical question, I know.

And they did what exactly?

Besides feel bad for us and say they were with us?

[Albinonewt]

We elected Bush.

Yup, we sure did.

Which is a good thing too.

[wimag]

stingy !!!!???? talk about getting crapped on. you offer money they say it is not enough, fine take it all back and use some of it to get another teacher in my kids school so they are not packed in 30 per room.
even when you try to do good someone turns it on ya.

[HoppysMag]

When there was a little thing called, oh, 9/11? I know it's hard to remember, with how the world hates our guts now, but right after 9/11 the world (that includes France) was right there with us, doing what it could to help us. It wasn't that long ago.

How did things get so bad so fast? Rhetorical question, I know.

was written before 911. and condolences and "promises" to help and to fight terror isnt help.

[drg]

Well just because YOU don't know what was done, doesn't mean nothing was done. I'll give you a hint, condolences and promises were not all.

[Albinonewt]

Well just because YOU don't know what was done, doesn't mean nothing was done. I'll give you a hint, condolences and promises were not all.

I'll give you a hint.

People that can't cite examples, don't have any worth citing.

[GT]

I think our government gives more than any other country, however, look at OUR companies. I think pfizer just matched the 35mill bush did. Its our comapines and our people that give way more than all other nations combined.

[drg]

Story AP's, emphases mine:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/628777.asp

LONDON, [/B], AKUT, assembled a 12-member team to assist the relief efforts, its chairman Nasuh Mahruki said Thursday.
The United States donated millions of dollars to Turkey in 1999, after earthquakes killed at least 18,000 people. AKUT played a key role in efforts to rescue people from collapsed buildings.
The Dalai Lama donated $30,000 to the relief effort on behalf of the Tibetan peoplethe European Commission - the head office of the European Union - offered help from its civil protection unit. A Belgian team, including burn specialists and experts in victim identification, was flown to Iceland to await instructions from the United States, the commission said in a statement.
Teams from France, Sweden, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Finland and the Netherlands also were ready to help.Britain, which fears hundreds of its citizens are buried in the rubble of the World Trade Center, said Friday it was sending a police team to help identify British victims. National branches of the Red Cross and Salvation Army were accepting donations for the relief effort.
Germany has offered medical evacuation planes. Other nations, including Norway and Japan, also have expressed a desire to help.
In the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat

http://usinfo.state.gov/is/Archive_Index/Terrorist_Attack_in_America_Met_With_Outpouring_of_Overseas_Help.html

Washington -- The terrorist attacks on Washington and New York September 11, which may in the end result in thousands of deaths, have been met with an outpouring of concern and offers of aid from countries ranging from France to Turkey and from organizations like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU).

Millions worldwide witnessed over cable television the total destruction of the two World Trade Center towers in New York and the damaging attack on the Pentagon building in Arlington, Virginia, by passenger aircraft that had been hijacked and used as missiles.

In Washington, where fires were still raging in the Pentagon building 24 hours after the attack, the federal government organized a blood drive among its employees for the victims. Meanwhile, county rescue teams that specialize in pulling people from buildings collapsed in earthquakes were speeding to New York. Travel was difficult because all commercial air flights over U.S. skies were cancelled immediately after the attacks.

As the two towers that were the fourth tallest buildings in the world collapsed in Manhattan, trapping and killing hundreds of policemen and firemen and perhaps thousands of office workers, offers of aid began to pour in from countries around the world to counter what President Bush termed "acts of war."

France, America's oldest ally, offered its condolences for the numerous victims of the well-planned and well-orchestrated attacks, and President Jacques Chirac pledged his government's full support in hunting down the perpetrators.

Chirac said: "I want to reiterate to the American people the solidarity of all Frenchmen in this tragic test. Our thoughts go particularly to all the victims, their families and their loved ones."

France also offered a 60-person rescue team to search through the rubble of the World Trade towers, whose collapse, some observers said, created a rubble pile between 10 and 30 meters high.

The United Kingdom, through Prime Minister Tony Blair, offered any assistance needed to help survivors. Blair said: "The full horror of what has happened in the United States earlier today is now becoming clearer. We, therefore, here in Britain stand shoulder to shoulder with our American friends in this hour of tragedy, and we, like them, will not rest until this evil is driven from our world."

The German government pledged the use of a 24-member team of search and rescue (SAR) personnel consisting of rescue dogs, power saws, high-speed cutters, drilling equipment, and optical and acoustical devices to locate trapped people.

The North Atlantic Council (NAC), the executive body of the 19-nation NATO Alliance, which includes the United States, met the evening of the attack and issued a statement roundly condemning the attack, offering condolences for the victims and stating that "the mindless slaughter of so many innocent civilians is an unacceptable act of violence without precedent in the modern era."

The NATO statement went on to say: "All allies stand united in their determination to combat this [terrorist] scourge."

The European Union (EU) convened an emergency foreign ministers' meeting the day after the attack and offered assistance, including thermal cameras, blood supplies, and dog rescue teams.

Other nations that are familiar with the aftermath of earthquake damage have volunteered assistance, including Japan, which has offered to dispatch a 100-person emergency response team and 20 doctors. Greece offered to send two fire emergency teams, which helped in the 1999 Istanbul earthquake, to assist with rescue and relief operations. Turkey has placed two SAR battalions on alert that can be deployed to the United States immediately.

The attacks by aircraft filled with enough fuel to get them to California resulted in numerous burn victims, and Belgium has offered to send medical burn specialists to help deal with the casualties in the two cities affected.

The government of Switzerland announced that it can provide, on about 14 hours' notice, up to 100 rescue personnel, search dogs, and doctors, including psychiatric assistance for survivors of the attacks.

Israel offered rescue teams, field hospitals, and any other assistance needed, and its foreign minister said it could have the teams en route immediately upon request. Not expecting an immediate response, the government planned to preposition the teams in Mexico and Iceland.

Expressions of grief and concern by foreign leaders have poured in since the terrorist attacks, including a letter from the president of Benin and a phone call from the Embassy of Sudan indicating that its foreign minister, traveling in Saudi Arabia, had publicly denounced the attacks and reaffirmed his government's willingness to cooperate fully with the United States in bringing the terrorists to justice.

The Chinese government faxed a message of condolence for the victims of the attack to the State Department from President Jiang Zemin to President Bush.

President Carlo Ciampi of Italy summoned the charge d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Rome to express his solidarity with the United States and gave him a copy of a letter to President Bush and a statement he had made on Italian television calling for a "fight without quarter" against terrorism.

How quickly we forget! Now a lot of this aid was turned down by the US, but you can't say they weren't willing. 9/11 is a fleeting memory for most in the wake of Iraq, but try to remember history accurately if you're going to remember it at all. Please, quit with the Ugly American act. We may be the badass of the world, but show some humility.

[drg]

I'll give you a hint.

People that can't cite examples, don't have any worth citing.

I am not one of those people. I just don't like to do other peoples' homework.

[GT]

How quickly we forget! Now a lot of this aid was turned down by the US, but you can't say they weren't willing. 9/11 is a fleeting memory for most in the wake of Iraq, but try to remember history accurately if you're going to remember it at all. Please, quit with the Ugly American act. We may be the badass of the world, but show some humility.

Now in the intrest of being fair lets put some of those contrabutions in comparson to the hosts country's gdp, and you will see that thier efforts, althougth honorable, are little more than a geasture. America may deny aid but they would never say that someones efforts were "stingy." Bring up as much history as you like, americans have given way more aid to this world than any country, ever.

Lets not kid ourselves, the US runs the planet. I dont think it is because we are arrogant, rather, any and every econmic impact that is made effects our markets, also keep in mind that we are a country of immigrants and find it neccasary to help out at 'home.'