Word: reliefer
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With nearly $4 billion pledged in tsunami relief so far, the governments of the world's wealthiest countries have sought to lay to rest doubts about the largeness of their largesse. But the sobering backdrop to that rush of official sympathy is a sorry history of half-finished aid efforts. The Iranian city of Bam, for example, where an earthquake killed some 30,000 people in December 2003, has so far seen only $17 million of the $1.1 billion in aid pledged by foreign governments at the time of the disaster, Iran's leaders say. To do better this time...
...overwhelm a country's bureaucracy or feed corruption, so in the name of accountability, they give very carefully. The pledges of aid made by governments are just that--pledges to help, not outlays of cash. Rather than write the U.N. a $4 billion check, governments pick and choose which relief and reconstruction efforts they want to fund. "It makes no sense just to give money," says German Chancellor Gerhard Schr??der. "Our people don't want that." At the donors conference in Jakarta last week, the U.N. launched an appeal for $977 million in short-term help over the next...
...given few clues as to which projects it will support. So far, it has spent $66 million on immediate relief, like bags of rice and medical supplies, as well as $50 million in military aid, covering helicopters, cargo planes and help from troops on the ground. (Most of the Department of Defense's costs won't count against the $350 million pledge, according to State Department officials.) In Jakarta last week, Secretary of State Colin Powell said that "we will continue responding to legitimate demands until $350 [million] is reached." The $350 million offered by the White House will...
...George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton to lead an effort to drum up private-sector support. "The greatest source of America's generosity is not our government," he said. "It's the good heart of the American people." To sweeten the deal, Congress is allowing taxpayers to claim tsunami-relief donations on their 2004 returns if the contributions are made by the end of this month...
...have to give them more ... they built Kuwait, and they raised our children." WALEED AL-NUSIF, editor in chief of the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Qabas, on the need for Gulf states to donate more to tsunami relief efforts in South and Southeast Asia...