Donations mostly from generous non-Muslims towards majority Muslim victims

[Guest guest]

> Mon, 03 Jan 2005 03:59:48 +0900

> adishakti_org

> A little about tsunami

> " Xxxxx Xxxx " <xxx@xxxxx>

>

> Dear Jagbir,

>

> Your insights about the tsunami really relieved me very very much.

>

> Actually, when I heard the news about tsunami, without thinking

> ... I just order my family which is in Indonesia donate all money

> which I have left in Indonesia for the tsunami's. And after that,

> I could not help tears flow from my eyes.

>

>

 

 

" I am amazed to see such generous aid coming from countries like the

USA, UK and Australia. Most of the victims here are Muslims and our

people have a cultural belief that the West is out to destroy us -

it's interesting to see this belief being shattered. "

 

Imran, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

 

 

" We hear a lot about how much the Western world is giving, publicly

and privately, towards tsunami relief work. Some of it very negative

comment indeed. However it's curious that none of the very wealthy

oil-rich countries in the Middle East seem to be doing anything very

much to help. After all, Indonesia is the world's most populous

Muslim state, you'd have thought that would inspire some action. It

appears to me that some parts of the world are expected to help no

matter who has been affected, and some aren't. "

 

John R Smith, UK

[Guest guest]

shriadishakti , " jagbir singh "

<adishakti_org> wrote:

> >

> > Mon, 03 Jan 2005 03:59:48 +0900

> > adishakti_org

> > A little about tsunami

> > " Xxxxx Xxxx " <xxx@xxxxx>

> >

> > Dear Jagbir,

> >

> > Your insights about the tsunami really relieved me very very

> > much.

> >

> > Actually, when I heard the news about tsunami, without thinking

> > ... I just order my family which is in Indonesia donate all

> > money which I have left in Indonesia for the tsunami's. And

> > after that, I could not help tears flow from my eyes.

> >

> >

>

>

> " I am amazed to see such generous aid coming from countries like

> the USA, UK and Australia. Most of the victims here are Muslims

> and our people have a cultural belief that the West is out to

> destroy us - it's interesting to see this belief being shattered. "

>

> Imran, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

>

>

> " We hear a lot about how much the Western world is giving,

> publicly and privately, towards tsunami relief work. Some of it

> very negative comment indeed. However it's curious that none of

> the very wealthy oil-rich countries in the Middle East seem to be

> doing anything very much to help. After all, Indonesia is the

> world's most populous Muslim state, you'd have thought that would

> inspire some action. It appears to me that some parts of the world

> are expected to help no matter who has been affected, and some

> aren't. "

>

> John R Smith, UK

 

 

 

 

People lead while governments struggle to catch up

 

JANET BAGNALL

The Gazette

 

Friday, January 07, 2005

 

No one would have thought in the first days following the Dec. 26

tsunami disaster that historic heights in aid would be scaled, that

the international community would react in a way never seen before.

 

The first responses were from governments, offering small, almost

token amounts of money as though poor people in faraway places could

keep going on their usual $1 a day after losing their families,

homes, livelihoods, health and facing starvation.

 

The day after the tsunami struck, the United States, the world's

richest economy (GDP $11.5 trillion), announced it would provide $15

million in emergency aid. Canada's initial offer was $1 million or

three cents on behalf of every Canadian. In Italy, the government

set aside $4 million for relief - a sum that was instantly eclipsed

by Italian cell-phone users who pledged $15 million in response to

prompting by a phone company.

 

From China to Saudi Arabia to Britain, people were angry and

embarrassed by the paltry sums put forward by their governments, as

though a few cents per person here and there could make up for the

scenes of heartbreak and devastation they were seeing daily in

newspapers and on television screens.

 

In Beijing, Yang Zhi, 74, a retired civil servant, donated 500 yuan

($60 U.S.), a quarter of his monthly pension, to the tsunami

victims. Not that the government made it easy. There were so few

approved donation sites that Yang had to make a two-hour bus ride

from his home. The Chinese government's initial pledge of

 

$2.6 million was quickly overtaken by individual donations - in a

country where the average annual income is less than $1,000 a year.

 

In Kuwait, a front-page editorial in al-Qabas newspaper blasted the

rulers and said the country owed a great debt to the people of

southern Asia. That prompted an increase in aid from $2 million to

$20 million.

 

In equally autocratic Saudi Arabia, King Fahd, stung by his

subjects' criticism, ordered Saudi Arabian Television to hold a

telethon to raise money from private donors. Although hardly a model

of generosity himself, the king upped the country's contribution

from $10 million to $30 million.

 

In Britain, donations from private citizens, companies and groups

came in at the rate of

 

$2 million an hour. British banks and credit-card companies became

the first to agree to waive transaction fees on pledges to all

charities. The Blair government has been scrambling to keep up with

an increasingly critical population.

 

At home, Quebecers were outraged when they found out the Charest

government has committed only $100,000 to the relief effort, far

less than British Columbia's $8 million or the $5 million each

pledged by Ontario and Alberta. Quebecers are ashamed of the

provincial contribution, said Quebec unions whose own donation of

$110,000 more than matched the province's.

 

Around the world, people have taken the lead where governments and

rulers faltered, seemingly unable to grasp either the enormity of

the disaster or just what it is their voters or citizens want from

them.

 

But what people want is straightforward enough: real help delivered

as fast as humanly possible in sufficiently generous amounts to get

the victims of the tsunami back on their feet.

 

No recycled money or promises. No money called relief that would

actually have to be spent paying off debts to the same wealthy

countries providing " aid. " Everything done in a completely

transparent fashion, so that donors can follow the money from their

pockets to the people in devastated areas.

 

This relief effort could prove to be historic in more than one

sense. It could be a turning point in how people around the world

help one another: directly, quickly, as one human being to another.

 

Canada is the first country to have declared a unilateral moratorium

of debt repayment. Every debt-holder nation should follow suit. To

expect the countries hit by the tsunami - Sri Lanka, Indonesia,

Myanmar, India, Somalia, Thailand, Maldives, Malaysia and Indonesia -

to pay off the billions in foreign debts that they owe is, under

the circumstances, nothing short of obscene.

 

The message behind the deluge of aid from people around the globe is

there is a widespread desire to do things differently. If their

governments don't want to go along with this new spirit, they might

well find themselves replaced.

 

JANET BAGNALL

The Gazette