| «« | March 2010 | »» | ||||
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |||
Valleyboyabroad: Scribbles from the Edge
| |||||
|
Tsunami update - Aid, are we stingy?
Just over two weeks after the dreadful calamity in SE Asia, there has been an almost obscene scramble as countries attempt to out-pledge one another in pledges for aid. In a previous article I observed that pledges are rarely honoured, but this time we must make it so. Sometimes, countries fail to deliver because of changes on the ground; a new donor country government, a civil war in the target country, all sorts of reasons can be found for not following up on a pledge. This is why debt relief, which the G8 agreed upon last week for heavily indebted poor countries, is so important. It is difficult to rescind upon a cancelled debt, and it means that the money that would have gone to servicing debt is already in the country and ready to be used. This is no small amount, the agreed debt relief program being worth $3 billion per year for the affected countries. I want you now to imagine that the relief effort is being effective and the survivors are getting what they can of their lives back together. Then I want you to imagine a disaster on three or four times this scale happening every month, that's right, each and every month for the rest of time. Each month 165,000 will die from malaria, 240,000 will die of AIDS and 140,000 will die of diaorrhea. That's 545,000 people dying from preventable diseases each and every month. That's just over 6.5 million people each year, some put the estimate at 8 million people. It's a disturbing thought. But we're doing all we can right? Or are we? Let's take a look at some interesting figures. When looking at the Gross Domestic Product or GDP (a measure of a nations wealth) a clear picture emerges. Denmark is top of the table, giving 1.01% of GDP, while the US manages just 0.1%, placing the US at 22nd in the leaugue of developed nations. These nations agreed with the United Nations a target of 0.7% GDP for development assistance, although only four countries actually achieve this: Denmark, 1.01%; Norway, 0.91%; the Netherlands, 0.79%; Sweden, 0.7%. Let's look at this another way. Out of every $100 of national income given to poor countries Denmark gives 84 cents, the Netherlands gives 80 cents, Belgium gives 60 cents, France gives 41 cents, and Greece gives 21 cents. The US gives 15 cents. Some rightly argue that the US gives money through private charitable donations but according to the OECD that bumps up the US charitable donations figure to 21 cents, still leaving it at number 22 neck a neck with Greece. But the US is a rich country and insists that we should be looking at the total amount that it gives rather than the percentage that each person gives of the national wealth. But this has to be squared with the fact that 50% of its aid budget is not spent on poor countries but middle income countries in the middle east or countries such as Pakistan, countries well able to support themselves, with Israel being the biggest single recipient of US foreign aid. Further, 80% of the aid given goes to American companies in those countries. They further point out that the US provides massive logistical assistance in the form of ships and helicopters in times of crisis, but while this is certainly so, these logistics are already in place and are operational on a daily basis whether used for aid or for nothing much at all, which again reduces the overall contribution that the US appears to make. In short, the US is not terribly generous at all compared to rest of the developed countries. In fact it is one of the stingiest as former Presideny Jimmy Carter observed. The US spends $421 billion per year on its military budget, that's almost more than the rest of the world put together. Add together all the other country's military budget and you get nearly $900 billion being spent on arms. It would take just $2 billion a year to save 1 million lives from malaria alone. Think about that. Even a simple mosquito net here in Cambodia costs just $2 and lasts for years. It's $1 dollar a dose to save a child with malaria in Africa. It's time the world woke up to the fact that with a little effort we can save millions of lives each year, that there is an ongoing disaster that far exceeds the dreadful event two weeks ago. The obvious generosity that is apparent when a disaster hits can be tapped, the will is there we must simply find the way. And one of those ways is for each country to recognise that it is not doing enough, that they so not live up to their words, that they do not deliver on their pledges and they fail to deliver on their promises. And that they are nowhere near as generous as they like to believe. Commit to the 0.7% of GDP that everyone agreed upon years ago. Follow up the pledges with money to the full, and if the money is no longer needed for a specific cause, use it sensibly elsewhere. And what about this, a 1% cut across the board on military spending. That would make $9 billion dollars available each year for targetted relief for poor countries. If the US in particular committed to this, then it could indeed hold its head up high and claim to be one the world's most generous nation - instead of one of the stingiest. yechydda, A visitor made this comment,
comment added :: 14th January 2005, 04:09 GMT
A visitor made this comment,
comment added :: 15th January 2005, 04:28 GMT
john mchugh made this comment,
comment added :: 19th January 2005, 05:41 GMT
A visitor made this comment,
comment added :: 20th January 2005, 03:12 GMT
john mchugh made this comment,
comment added :: 23rd January 2005, 04:55 GMT
|
Related Websites:
The Paranoid forum
Blow off some steam with some of the most eccentric people on the planet!