Peter Foster's articles are always excellent. Don't miss what is between these two excerpts.
Kim Jong-Il has reportedly decided to kick in US$150,000 to the tsunami relief effort. Presumably not too much will be coming from the average North Korean, who is starving. Scouring the lists of national donors, I couldn't find anything from Cuba either.
[. . . . ] The outpouring of generosity from the peoples of free nations -- and the wonders of relief technology -- represent a powerful affirmation of how the sympathetic, benevolent and innovative aspects of human nature have all been promoted and enhanced by the system that so many of the tsunami victims lack.
Bud Talkinghorn: The UN's tsunami power play
This concerns David Frum's column in The National Post (Jan. 4 A-10). Frum argued that the real UN complaint is not that the West is being stingy with their aid, but that rather, that this aid is not going to be filtered through the UN. Besides, the UN's massive $20 billion corruption scandal pertaining to the Saddam Hussein-Iraq "oil for food" program, there is the endless political in-fighting amongst the members of its bloated bureaucracy. Their track record with other on-going disasters in Africa does not augur well for their handling of worldwide aid money.
I am with you on this, Bud. Do you trust the UN? In fact, remembering the corruption, which group does one trust with aid money?
I thought of the Red Cross; then I thought of the Red Cross collecting blood from gays, even when they knew by then that it was gay men, overwhelmingly, who were infected with HIV/AIDS. The Red Cross allowed people to be infected and die because they were so politically correct they didn't want to to single out gay men. The Red Cross continued to take blood from them and allow it into the blood system which resulted in the infection and/or death of many, one of whom I knew. I remember and I do not feel comfortable with the priorities of the Red Cross, its ethics and trustworthiness. This organization was supposed to act to protect the blood system, not the feelings of potentially infected blood donors.
So what organizations do we trust? The UN? Hardly. Think the corruption surfacing just this year. Think of the stupidity of Mbeki as a leader in South Africa; has he helped in his own country's AIDS crisis? What happened to the money/drugs sent to his regime? Check the Jan. 8, 04, UK Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) I think of another example, a UNICEF jeep used to ferry the large family of one Asian VIP-in-a-small-pond to school. It raised his profile and his stature locally -- but for what UN purpose? So much for money to UNICEF.
I talked with a friend about this yesterday and she has already contributed this week to two charities to help with local problems.
The Disenchanted American -- Are we growing world-weary? -- Hanson
China, Russia, and India watch bemused as the United States tries to hunt down the psychopathic killers while Western elites ankle-bite and hector its efforts. I suppose the Russians, Chinese, and Indians know that Islamists understand all too well that blowing up two skyscrapers in Moscow, Shanghai, or Delhi would guarantee that their Middle Eastern patrons might end up in cinders.
There is something about Victor Davis Hanson's tone; read it for yourself. Full of information, facts and . . . . ennui, perhaps.
There is a new strange mood of acceptance among Americans about the world beyond our shores. Of course, we are not becoming naïve isolationists of 1930s vintage, who believe that we are safe by ourselves inside fortress America — not after September 11. Nor do citizens deny that America has military and moral obligations to stay engaged abroad — at least for a while yet. [. . . . ]
Instead, there is a new sort of resignation rising in the country, as the United States sheds its naiveté that grew up in the aftermath of the Cold War. [. . . . ]
Imagine a world in which there was no United States during the last 15 years. Iraq, Iran, and Libya would now have nukes. Afghanistan would remain a seventh-century Islamic terrorist haven sending out the minions of Zarqawi and Bin Laden worldwide. The lieutenants of Noriega, Milosevic, Mullah Omar, Saddam, and Moammar Khaddafi would no doubt be adjudicating human rights at the United Nations. The Ortega Brothers and Fidel Castro, not democracy, would be . . . .
[. . . . ] In fact, an American consensus is growing that envy and hatred of the United States, coupled with utopian and pacifistic rhetoric, disguise an even more depressing fact: Outside our shores there is a growing barbarism with no other sheriff in sight. [. . . . ]
Charity: Tsunami Aid -- "Voltaire's smile" -- Think about this one.
Voltaire's smile Tony Blankley, Jan. 6, 05. Tony Blankley is editorial page editor of The Washington Times.
[. . . . ] But after we have taken care of the emergency (which we will do, pretty much, single-handed — I don't think we are waiting for a French or German aircraft carrier full of helicopters and medicine), let us not get carried away with generosity for rebuilding lands that have been mismanaged since the beginning of time.
If we are going to go further in debt to ease human pain and suffering, here are a few numbers to keep in mind. When one of our young military heroes dies in Iraq or other combat, his or her next of kin get only a $6,000 "death gratuity" (half of which is taxable), up to $1,750 for burial expenses, plus $833 a month for surviving spouse until remarriage and $211 per month per child until 18.
If our soldiers, anticipating dying in the line of duty, want to provide more for their children, they have to pay for such insurance out of their meager wages. There are, apparently, some strict limits to our generosity.
