My friend Mark works with Compassion International, another hunger-relief agency. He compiled this information about how nations have contributed to disaster-relief in Asia.
(As of Jan. 5, 2005.) Contributions pledged by governments and the World Bank to help Indian Ocean nations hit by the Dec. 26 earthquake/tsunamis. Compiled from reports by Reuters and U.N. agencies.
NATION | DONATION | POPULATION | $US PER CAPITA | % OF | |
| 1 | Australia | $810,000,000 | 19,000,000 | 42.63 | 2.20% |
| 2 | Qatar | $25,000,000 | 600,000 | 41.66 | 0.70% |
| 3 | Norway | $181,900,000 | 4,500,000 | 40.42 | 5.00% |
| 5 | Luxembourg | $6,800,000 | 450,000 | 15.1 | 0.10% |
| 6 | Denmark | $76,830,000 | 5,400,000 | 14.22 | 2.00% |
| 7 | Sweden | $80,000,000 | 9,000,000 | 8.89 | 2.20% |
| 8 | Germany | $680,200,000 | 83,000,000 | 8.5 | 18.40% |
| 9 | UAE | $20,000,000 | 2,400,000 | 8.33 | 0.50% |
| 10 | Kuwait | $10,000,000 | 1,700,000 | 5.88 | 0.30% |
| 11 | Japan | $500,000,000 | 128,000,000 | 3.91 | 13.50% |
| 12 | Ireland | $13,620,000 | 3,900,000 | 3.49 | 0.40% |
| 13 | Bahrain | $2,000,000 | 600,000 | 3.33 | 0.10% |
| 14 | Switzerland | $23,810,000 | 7,300,000 | 3.26 | 0.60% |
| 15 | Taiwan | $50,250,000 | 23,000,000 | 2.18 | 1.30% |
| 16 | Canada | $66,000,000 | 31,000,000 | 2.12 | 1.80% |
| 17 | Netherlands | $34,000,000 | 16,000,000 | 2.12 | 0.90% |
| 18 | Great Britain | $96,000,000 | 53,000,000 | 1.81 | 2.60% |
| 19 | Spain | $68,002,000 | 40,500,000 | 1.68 | 1.80% |
| 20 | Italy | $95,000,000 | 58,000,000 | 1.64 | 2.60% |
| 21 | Belgium | $16,320,000 | 10,000,000 | 1.63 | 0.40% |
| 22 | Saudi Arabia | $30,000,000 | 21,600,000 | 1.39 | 0.80% |
| 23 | Austria | $10,880,000 | 8,000,000 | 1.37 | 0.30% |
| 24 | USA | $350,000,000 | 290,000,000 | 1.21 | 9.40% |
| 25 | Finland | $6,120,000 | 5,200,000 | 1.18 | 0.10% |
| 26 | France | $66,380,000 | 60,000,000 | 1.1 | 1.80% |
| 27 | Portugal | $10,880,000 | 10,300,000 | 1.06 | 0.30% |
| 28 | South Korea | $50,000,000 | 48,000,000 | 1.04 | 1.30% |
| 29 | New Zealand | $3,600,000 | 3,800,000 | 0.95 | 0.10% |
| 30 | Singapore | $3,100,000 | 4,100,000 | 0.76 | 0.10% |
| 31 | Cypress | $370,000 | 700,000 | 0.52 | 0.10% |
| 32 | Libya | $2,000,000 | 5,300,000 | 0.37 | 0.10% |
| 33 | Greece | $1,340,000 | 10,600,000 | 0.13 | 0.10% |
| 34 | Hungary | $1,200,000 | 10,000,000 | 0.12 | 0.10% |
| 35 | Venezuela | $2,000,000 | 24,200,000 | 0.08 | 0.10% |
| 36 | Czech Rep | $668,000 | 10,300,000 | 0.06 | 0.10% |
| 37 | Algeria | $2,000,000 | 31,000,000 | 0.06 | 0.10% |
| 38 | China | $60,420,000 | 1,300,000,000 | 0.05 | 1.60% |
| 39 | Slovenia | $110,000 | 2,000,000 | 0.05 | -- |
| 40 | Slovakia | $230,000 | 5,400,000 | 0.04 | -- |
| 41 | Poland | $1,000,000 | 39,000,000 | 0.03 | 0.10% |
| 42 | Turkey | $1,250,000 | 66,000,000 | 0.02 | 0.10% |
| 43 | Bulgaria | $140,000 | 8,000,000 | 0.02 | -- |
| NA | Euro. Union | $31,290,000 | NA | NA | 0.80% |
| NA | World Bank | $250,000,000 | NA | NA | 6.80% |
| TOTALS | $3,695,318,000 | 2,532,550,000 | 1.35 | 100.00% |
United States makes up 11.5% of the population represented by the 43 countries who have donated. It has contributed 10.25% of the total from these 43 countries.
Despite being the second largest nation in population to give, the U.S. ranks 4th in gross gift size behind Australia (U.S. 15 times as large), Germany (U.S. 3.5 times as large), and Japan (U.S. 2.25 times as large).
The 23 nations ahead of the U.S. on the chart account for 58.5% of the total giving.
Of the 23 ahead of the U.S., 13 are from Europe.
European nations made up 40% of the total gross in giving, compared to the USA’s 9.4%
The United States is the third most populous nation out of 233 in the world at 290 million, making up 4.6% of the total. The U.S. consumes over 45% of the world’s natural resources, and controls 45% of the wealth. Meaning that over 6 billion people (95.4% of the population) exists on the remaining 56% of the money and resources. Over half of the population of the planet lives on less than $2 per day (according to the ILO World Employment Report for 2004 released this week in Geneva).
Therefore, the $350 million (9.4% of the total world government gifts so far) that the U.S. government has contributed to the Tsunami relief effort is still substantially short of what our fair share should be when compared to what other nations are giving.
(As of Dec. 29, 2004, four days after the disaster.)
The U.S. became the 11th nation to step forward to give at total of $35 million ($20 million of that was earmarked as a loan at that point) on this date. The U.S. also ranked 11th at that point in per capita on the giving list, with the others being:
1. Denmark $2.96
2. Norway $1.82
3. Australia $1.42
4. United Emirates .83
5. Finland .67
6. Great Britain .54
7. Saudi Arabia .46
8. Japan .23
9. Taiwan .23
10. Netherlands .17
11. United States .12
6 days later, there have been 32 additional nations that have stepped forth, the U.S. has raised their support level by 1,000% to $350 million, and STILL fell another 13 places in the ranking of per capita giving to #24.
Personal Giving for Tsunami Relief
It appears that the U.S. is also lagging behind in this category as of Jan. 4, 2005.
Rank Nation Per person
1. Switzerland $5.38
2. Finland $3.40
3. Great Britain $2.75
4. Germany $2.41
5. Austria $1.70
6. Greece $1.39
7. France .87
8. United States .56
Trackable world-wide totals so far as of Jan. 4 is $667 million, of which the U.S. at $163 million represents 24%.
The U.S. total seems to be climbing at a very strong pace, and could easily double within the week. Other nations are on similar growth rates.
Corporate Giving
It appears that approximately $140 million has been donated so far in financial gifts and gifts-in-kind (products/services) by multi-national corporations. Some experts believe this could go as high as $750 million by the time all is finished.
Grand Totals as of Jan. 5, 2005
Combining government, individual and corporate giving so far, it appears the U.S. has contributed about $700 million to the world-wide total of $4,562,000,000. That’s a 15% share of the load.
Comparison to Military Spending
The U.S. government gift of $350 million is equal to:
- The cost of 1.5 B-2 bombers.
- What we are spending every two days ($177 million per day) in Iraq.
- Is less than 2/10 of one percent of the total of what has been spent on the Iraq invasion/occupation.
The world-wide grand total giving of $4.5 billion is just 2.25% of what we have spent on the Iraq War.
Our government has paid Halliburton $10.8 billion in war support services. What we have given for Tsunami victims so far equals 3/10 of 1 % of that.
It came out this weekend that President Bush is about to ask Congress for an additional $100 billion for the Iraq conflict. This will be 99.965% more than we have offered as a government to Tsunami Aid. That equals 3 one-hundredths of 1 % spent on behalf of 5 million homeless, recovering from 160,000 + dead, and all the new infrastructure needed.
