Monday, January 03, 2005

 

Why Keep Score?

These are the latest figures reported:

Britain has collected close to $100 million by New Year’s Eve, and Australia $110 million, while the United States has pledged $350 million, which are all meant for the immediate term expenses. Altogether, relief pledges are in the order of two billion dollars. Says UN emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland,”It’s the biggest outpouring of relief in such a short period of time.” EU is holding a donor meet to quickly organize aid for the victims. It has already donated $44 million.
Is it just me, or is it the EU that looks stingy here? Surely an economy whose currency will soon supplant the US dollar (well, so they say) can at least match up to Britain, if not the US itself, right?

BTW, for what it's worth, I'm doing my own giving via private charities, not via the UN nor anything associated with it. For obvious reasons.