The Swedish donation to the survivors of the devastating disaster in South East Asia is more than tw

[rodeodance]

and the US is downshifting once again.


http://www.nettavisen.no/english/article321700.ece
NEWS IN ENGLISH
RELIEF AID:
Sweden donates more than the US

Carin Pettersson
31.12.04 10:51

The Swedish donation to the survivors of the devastating disaster in South East Asia is more than twice the amount donated by the United States, the world’s richest nation.


Sweden is donating SEK 500 million (USD 75.6 million) in relief aid, reported the Swedish paper Aftonbladet. The US is donating USD 35 million. Norway has decided to increase its donations by doubling the original amount and has now allocated NOK 100 million (USD 16.5 million) to the survivors of the disaster.

The amount the US decided to donate has created reactions. The Norwegian UN Undersecretary Jan Egeland, who is in charge of UN’s emergency relief coordination, stated Monday that rich countries are too stingy when it comes to emergency aid.

«I don’t understand why they are so stingy. If a country donates 0.1 or 0.2 percent of GDP in foreign aid, I don’t think that is particularly generous,» Egeland said at the press conference Monday.

Egeland was forced to modify his statement when President George Bush became furious. Bush claimed Egeland was «very misguided and ill informed» and claimed that the amount allocated was only the beginning. However the American institution, the New York Times, completely agrees with Egeland’s statements. In an editorial under the headline «Are We Stingy? Yes» printed Thursday, the New York Times states that «Mr. Egeland was right on target.»

[aquart]

1. "Richest"? They don't know we're running on fumes?

Don't tell them.

[Zywiec]

3. I thought we were a third world country?

At least that's what I read here all the time. Maybe someone should let the rest of the world know...

[msongs]

2. how much private citizen money was donated? nt

[sjdnb]

4. Sweden also took in 9000 Iraqi refugees in 2006

over 40 percent of the 22,000 Iraqi refugees who found their way to Europe. And Sweden is bracing for a significant increase this year. Based on the numbers of Iraqi refugees arriving in Europe in the first two months of 2007, the total seeking asylum this year could be well over 40,000.

According to estimates by the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, the number of Iraqis displaced within Iraq -- already some 1.9 million -- is growing by 40,000 to 50,000 each month. Well over 2 million have made it across the border to neighboring countries -- Syria now hosts some 1.2 million Iraqi refugees, and Jordan has crammed in 750,000, representing an almost 15 percent boost to that country's population.

As of May 2007, the US had let in 800 Iraqi refugees since the war began in 2003. In May they said they'd admit 7,000 - but, that remains to be seen.

Sources: MSNBC and Spiegel Online International

[Joe Fields]

5. The robber barrons have emptied our treasury.

[Thothmes]

6. What was the value

of the 6 ships 5,000 sailors, 24 hour flight operations for two weeks. How many Swedish military were on the ground or in the air to help the victims of the cyclone? Sometimes aid is more than money