NEWS: Australian P.M. John Howard announces $1Bn Aid Plan.

At the request of Indonesia for Australian assistance in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster, P.M. John Howard has made this pledge after a meeting with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. P.M. Howard said the aid will be directed to various urgent and future concerns.



Good. The Oz economy is strong and i agree with this package. A lot of immediate help, with assistance later. This plan is less likely to be corrupted.

Related News Links:
www.smh.com.au

That's really good news for those affected by the Tsunami.
Donations around the world are now over $3 billion US with Australia, Germany, Japan and the US out in front.

The BBC has done a good job keeping track of donations so far but they've left out a few countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and a few others.

BBC
Australia
Prime Minister John Howard pledges $765m (over �400m) to Indonesia over five years. Donations from the public total $58m. About 350 military staff, four military helicopters, a troop transport ship, a military health support team and a water purification plant are being sent to Indonesia, as well as a team of volunteer medical professionals.

Germany
Berlin has now increased its aid pledge to $674m. Germany is also sending a mobile hospital to Aceh and a military ship with two helicopters, aid supplies, water treatment equipment and an operating theatre on board. The public have donated an estimated $130m.

Japan
$500m in government donations, 120 civilian emergency workers sent to tsunami-hit countries.

USA
$350m in government donations, plus military assistance involving 12,600 personnel, 21 ships, 14 cargo planes and more than 90 helicopters. Private donations are also pouring in, with $120m donated to the US branches of the Red Cross, Oxfam and Save the Children, and to Catholic Relief Services.

Thanks for that link AceOfBase, it was interesting to see individual contributions by countries.
Also great to see that so many have really pulled out all the stops to give all that they can.
I had thought that the UK government would be more generous and shouldn't there be a listing there for the UN?

I asked on another thread. Do we know exactly what all
this money is going for? What is the plan? Has one been
made public.

Were the donations thought through before making them,
or are the countries just throwing money at a bad situation?

I'm GLAD countries and organizations are donating. Very glad.
But WHAT IS THE PLAN for the money? Dozens of countries and
organizations are running over to a poor part of the world with
fists full of $$$ ... is there any coordination?

I heard that (gulp) the UN plans to have refugee camps. I certainly
hope we can get things up and running before that happens.
Considering the track record of UN refugee camps (child porn,
child prostitution rings) ...

I will volunteer to be the devils advocate here... so forgive these somewhat cold hearted questions...
but...
when is the aid gonna stop? when is it enough? the problem doesn't seem to be money, but distribution.... so throwing more money could be just increasing the bottle neck...

at this time, there seems to be about $5000 for every person that is remotely involved... that is 2 years worth of the salary to the average worker over there... do we stop when everyone lives in taj mahals, and drinks dom?

there are STILL vacationers laying out on the ocean beach getting a tan, right next to where they picked up bodies a week ago... (the coast is still making money)

supposidly many of the beach resorts were only closed a few days for cleanup, and they continued to service the clients still staying....

most other resort owners have said they would reopen within the month....

Now i hear admitals from government spokespeople that the numbers of dead, were overestimated assumptions based upon worse case scenarios... and that the actual count can't be counted for many weeks....

and what is up with the overpolitiicized money war.... who can give more... do i hear 20.... heres 20 do i hear 30....
yes australia wins with 1 billion...... going once... going twice....

another very cold question....
How many countries offered money and help, when USA went thru its largest hurricane season? or when the midwest was suffering hundreds of tornadoes that leveled whole counties....
of course our loss of life was much less (better shelters) , but the destruction (the part you can actually pay to rebuild) was at least as much... if not more.... (i remember billions in florida alone)

not one dollar from another country!.... but now everyone is clamoring to offer funds, not because they see the need, but because they don't want some jerk official to call them a "cheapskate" yeah... gotta love the morality of that one...

ok ok, so now with my personal opinion....
I feel sad for all the families and orphans that lost someone. And tremendously sad for the loss of life... but all the money in the world wont raise the dead.
... and I do hope that they get the help they need to go on.... I feel very sure that they will get all the help that can be given, eventually...



[edit on 5-1-2005 by LazarusTheLong]

"How many countries offered money and help, when USA went thru its largest hurricane season? or when the midwest was suffering hundreds of tornadoes that leveled whole counties.... "

America did not ask for help? ... Those poor countries did. Indonesia asked Australia for help directly, and the government responded. Also it makes good political sense as it is perceived that our biggest terrorist threat is from Indonesia - I reckon its also 'protection' money.

LazarusTheLong,

I agree with part of what you said. There really needs to be a limit put on monetary aid. But raising a point about no foreign aid being given to the USA for hurricane relief is a joke.

Why should countries send money to the richest country on the planet? If the US was hard up for cash it could try invading less countries or cutting its defense budget. These SE Asian countries are poor and desperate. Their infrastructures cannot cope with these disasters. Thats why money is thrown their way.

Yep, I agree with Lazarus. It seems like this is nothing more than a publicity stunt. It's sad that you can actually buy "halos" these days...

Of course PR is part of it, but please ... these devastated people need help and people and their governments are responding appropriately - the generosity comes from the heart.

typical american for you there,,, (LazarusTheLong)
Sad thing is US will probably steal most of the money sent to the area with crappy contracters building cities what will fall apart in 10 years or so.

Actually, that figure has risen to 5 billion in the long term after comparing it to the restoration of Europe which needed 300 bilion.

for those people ignorant of what "devils advocate" means...
it means someone has to ask the questions that many want to ask, but no-one will....
this is usually the person who finally says... "is something burning?" even though they themselves are on fire...

it means i am asking questions from a distant perspective...
i stated that my own heart felt feelings were separate from those (mostly* see below)....

but i also stated alot of the questions that have been hinted at by the media, the public, the officials, and the ats board members....

and yes i am quite proud to be an american.... but i am anything but typical...

and don''t focus on the question of help for the "USA".... that ws meant to stir a debate on a general basis of who deserves help and who doesn't... the USA WAS A BAD EXAMPLE, SO INSTEAD I ASK, how many nations helped rebuild any african country after a plague or drought? (many thousands die in these) or on an aids vaccine (millions die per year in africa) ... are our brown brothers not worthy, since they are not muslim and threatening to kill us? Does that accuratly portray the question now?


one question that i did personally ask many times... is this:
how much money does it take to resurrect the dead? because you would think with all the blind contributions being given, that people are ordering their relatives back from a catalog at macy's. They already have more money than it took to build that area to begin with.... so, at what point is it enough.?
when all the survivors live in palaces? We need to rebuild them, not buy them happiness... they deserve that also, but you know the old saying... "you can't buy happiness"

and i agree with the person who said that the money given by america would probably be for inflated contracts with american companies... I don't neccessarily see that as bad... just honest.... in these situations... the waste is tremendous... we should get our part of that waste.... (after all we are one of the leading contributors) said somewhat sarcastically..

"how many nations helped rebuild any african country after a plague or drought? (many thousands die in these) or on an aids vaccine (millions die per year in africa) ... are our brown brothers not worthy, since they are not muslim and threatening to kill us? Does that accuratly portray the question now?"

um ... Australia did and continue to help those non-muslim nations? Altho not so much in cold hard cash, but lots of work in education, training, aids education, healthcare, vaccination programs, agricultural programs, water systems, etc.

www.ausaid.gov.au...

... I agree those African nations need help too and more of it, and maybe we have become a little immune to their plight.


[edit on 5-1-2005 by c_au]

as an aussie im am proud that our government are doing somthing with the money, it is definatly worthwhile and you will never find me complaining about it.

i hope that this will put indonesia(sumatra/Aceh) back on it's feet.