By Dan Lenard
Buffalo, NY – Sometimes it takes a disaster of the proportions of the Southeast Asian Tsunami to show the world the truth of who has their best interest at heart. America has shown it leads the world when it comes to giving aid and comfort to disaster victims. Others have used the Tsunami to ride a wave of arrogance.
First, the world media has swarmed south Asia with its correspondents looking for every emotional angle they can to bring in viewers. Every person in the disaster zone had their universe shattered. The pictures tell the whole story. They don't have to scrounge around to find interesting stuff. To his credit, NPR's Jason Beaubien has done an outstanding job calmly reporting only the facts from Sri Lanka. He has been the exception.
What has been disturbing about the aftermath of this disaster besides those emotionally draining, graphic pictures of carnage, has been the political opportunism used by several governments, UN officials and some news agencies hostile to the US, to spew their anti-American (i.e. Bush) rhetoric. Al-Jazera, the Gatar based, Arabic language, satellite news network actually had the audacity to spread a malicious lie that the earthquake was caused by a joint nuclear weapon test by the United States and Israel.
After a White House news conference announcing more aid from the US Government, CBS news's correspondent, Bill Plante had the nerve to comment that the increase in aid was only to quell criticism of the United States from Islamic countries. I didn't hear that in the news conference. Why did Mr. Plante feel it necessary to report that as a fact in the story?
While he has since apologized for his remarks, (and it's not the first time!) the UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland suggested that the United States and other Western nations were being "stingy" with relief funds, saying there would be more available if taxes were raised. The fact is that for the first critical days after the disaster, Americans, Australians and a few others were doing most of the heavy lifting. The first significant relief force to arrive in the region was a U.S. Navy task force led by the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. The navy's helicopters immediately set upon the critical work of rescuing victims, delivering aid to remote locations and ferrying the injured to hospitals. What did the first U.N. assessment team do upon arrival in Sri Lanka? A former Foreign Service officer reported that they checked into a five-star hotel well inland and set upon the pursuit of 24-hour catering.
It has been widely reported that Saudi Arabia, the world's richest Islamic country has pledged a paltry $10 million for millions of Muslim refugees of the tsunami disaster. Last year, Saudi Arabia raised $150 million dollars for the families of suicide bombers.
Truth be known, the U.S. government provided $2.4 billion in food, cash and humanitarian relief in 2004 - 40 percent of the world's total in relief aid. That's hardly what I would call stingy. America provides relief for suffering because that's what America does, and we expect nothing in return. Aside from official US government aid, private contributions can make a huge difference in our ability to start a positive tide on this tragedy. It is our responsibility to look out for our fellow man. That's why we all need to contribute to refutable charities involved in the relief effort. Just forget the UN. Some of their officials should contribute some of money they personally have left over from the oil for food program.
Looking outside the box,
I'm Dan Lenard.