By MARC MCDONALD
Scores of nations around the world have generously pitched in to offer aid to Sichuan province in China, which suffered a horrific earthquake on May 12 that has claimed at least 20,000 lives.
India offered $5 million in aid. Japan offered $4.8 million. Norway has pledged $3.92 million for disaster relief. And Taiwan has promised $66 million in relief aid.
Meanwhile, George W. Bush has announced that the U.S. government is contributing a mere $500,000 in earthquake relief.
To put this into perspective, the U.S. spends around $500,000 every two minutes in the Iraq War.
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6 comments:
What is your point? China, like the US, is a superpower. As such, they are entirely capable of handling this situation internally. Aid sent in these situations is simply protocol, and all parties understand it is unnecessary. For instance, China's contribution to the Katrina recovery was $5 million and a planeload of sheets, tents and 600 Chinese made generators.
China has already mobilized 100,000 regular army troops to the disaster area. They do not need people or expertise. International rescue workers cannot arrive in time to offer any meaningful help for the buried victims. They will rebuild their own structures. Labor is practically free there. There are bigger issues than this. As tragic as the earthquake is, China can absorb the losses and will fully recover without George Bush.
Now if HALLIBURTON was to show up, something might get done...
Hi, WageslaveZ, thanks for stopping by.
Frankly, your tone in this post sounds like something out of HateWing radio: full of xenophobia and jingoism.
Frankly, I really don't blame China in connection with America's titanic deficits. The latter are the result of our own corrupt, rotten-to-the-core political and economic systems.
In any case, as an American in the era of George W. Bush, I always feel uneasy about criticizing any other nation.
America today is a nation that has so much wrong with it that we could spend a lifetime dealing with our own problems before we ever got around to looking at other nations.
China just suffered from a horrifying natural disaster that is far worse than anything America has ever experienced in our nation's history. This is a time to be extending a helping hand to the victims of that quake. It's not a time to be using Michael Savage/Rush Limbaugh-like bigoted language to be insulting that nation.
In response to Anonymous: thanks for your post.
You asked what the point of my piece was. Well, China just suffered from a horrifying natural disaster (that is vastly bigger than anything America has ever faced in its history). America's offer of aid was insultingly low. I just felt that we could have offered more. My piece was about pointing out that America's stingy offer to aid to China amounted to what we spend in the Iraq fiasco in a mere two-minute period. As Americans, I just felt we could have done better. If tiny Norway could offer almost $4 million, I can't understand why America couldn't offer more.
Oh, and China is not a superpower yet. They are still a developing nation. True, they have experienced fantastic growth in recent years. But they have a ways to go before they're a superpower.
Don't get me wrong, I'm as far from Rush Limbaugh's fat, drug-popping, right-wing hypocrite ass as I am from Barack Obama on the far left. Yes I was out of line with that comment and I'll probably be eating seven years of shit thinking like that. I'm just in a terrible place right now. I live in the One State Depression (Looks like a Mitten), I've been unemployed the better part of a year, I'm almost flat broke but for the grace of Ebay; Thanks to people that will pay money for crap, and I most likely should be medicated for my manic depression, except I couldn't even afford all the over-priced drugs and therapy even with insurance, which I haven't had since I quit my godforsaken poison factory job. That's my apology, take it for what it is. As for China, yes it's terrible that an earthquake that wouldn't kill 100 people here killed 10^3 that number there, mostly because their best infrastructure makes our worst look good still. I'll give them credit because their military does what our national guard can't do stuck in Iraq, help their nation rebuild after a natural disaster in their home nation. Yes I find it insulting that we couldn't send a few million in antibiotics, tents, and food, etc. while we piss money away on corporate welfare and Iraq like cheap vodka. It's just that I have a hard time trusting any nation that depends on our whoreish consumption of cheap junk that boasts that they'll send us into the dark age with our debt. I'm just a cynical son of a bitch that needs to change before the world leaves me behind or smears me into a bloody stain. God knows I wish I could speak fluent Mandarin to get to know the situation in China, and maybe work there a few years, make a butt-load of money off FAIR trade, and get some business going in my lifetime to maybe make some poor Chinese womens' lives a little better by providing jobs that pay well without working to death for chump change. I guess I have my moments of weakness and the little cracker-ass Glenn Beck inside my head opens his fat, bigotted mouth while the Lou Dobbs watches with horror on the sideline. I'll promise you this much, the next time the elephant-rider DNA tries to move the independent mouth, I'll do it elsewhere, not on your blog. Keep writing, you're doing what I wanted to years ago, but never had the guts to do
Hi Wageslavez, thanks for your comment. I'm sorry to hear that you're depressed. I've definitely been there (jobless and depressed). And I share your rage on a lot of issues. (I also like the Dead Kennedys---it was music like that, along with The Clash, The Jam, The Pop Group, Billy Bragg, Black Flag, The Skids, The MC5, The Stranglers, The Ruts, Crass, The Damned, etc. that helped keep me sane back in the day). You mentioned learning Mandarin---actually, if you're jobless and have the time to do it, that'd be a great move. Speaking Mandarin these days could open a lot of career doors. The very fact that this language is so difficult to learn (along with the fact very few Americans can speak it) means that the few who do take the time to learn it will have a big career advantage in the years to come. (I'm learning Japanese myself). The Web has a treasure trove of free language learning resources. Oh, and also, since you've already opened a Blogger account, you ought to go ahead and start blogging yourself---it's a great way to release the pent-up feelings of rage that can come from living in the era of George W. Bush.
Hang in there!
wageslavez: "while they manipulate their currency to make ours worhtless"
God, I hate ignorant fucks like this. China along with Japan are the only ones keeping the USD afloat. If China stopped "manipulating" its currency, like you say, and let it appreciate, the USD will be dead. Have you noticed the Treasury Secretary has stopped calling for China to appreciate its currency? Hmm... wonder why with the dollar dropping like a rock. I love you too, fucktard.
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