Solicitation letter

What is happening in Indonesia is a horrific tragedy. As of now the death toll stands at 80,000. Every 6 hours the body count climbs another 5000. The stories are heartbreaking. Most of the dead are children, followed by women and the elderly. Parents swept into the waters clung to their children until torn apart by debris and surging tides. Bodies are hanging in trees and wedged in between fence posts. The World Health Organization is already in action trying to bury the dead, hauling bodies in trucks and bulldozing them in mass graves. They fear an epidemic of disease from the rotting corpses of humans and animals within days. The initial damage estimate totals billions of dollars.

The behavior of all Western countries in response has been meager in proportion to the scale of disaster. Here is a survey of initial aid donated from rich countries; Japan $30,000, France $170,000, Australia $7.6 million, Britain $600,000, Canada $814,300, China $2.6 million, European Union $3.5 million, and the US initially pledged $15 million. In response a UN official from Norway, Jan Egeland, made a disparaging statement about the generosity of rich nations, "We were more generous when we were less rich, many of the rich countries. It is beyond me why we are so stingy...Actually foreign assistance for many countries now is 0.1 or 0.2 percent of gross national income, that is stingy."

The United States took umbrage from Egeland’s remark, and commentators have frequently misrepresented Egeland’s comments on all rich nations as a national attack on the US. Colin Powell responded defensively, pointing out that the US leads all nations in foreign aid dollars (although they are last among the 21 industrialized nations who signed the 1992 Rio De Janeiro Earth Summit in terms of aid as a percentage of GNP) and immediately pledged another $20 million on top of the initial $15 million. There are two issues worth commenting on, the general state of foreign aid to developing countries from industrialized nations and the initial aid packages to the Indonesian disaster, which is one of the worst human catastrophes in several centuries. The more pressing issue is Indonesia.

Compare the US’s responses to this catastrophe and the four hurricanes that swept through Florida this year; Charley, Ivan, Francis, and Jeanne. In the aftermath of Florida’s hurricanes President Bush immediately flew to Florida to survey the damage. He set aside $3.17 billion, 9000% more than the aid for Indonesia, of which almost $1 billion has been spent. The US deaths from the four Florida hurricanes totaled 124. In the aftermath of the tsunami President Bush was on vacation “clearing brush and bicycling” at his Crawford, Texas ranch and as of this writing has agreed to a meeting of the National Security Council by video conference. The US’s response political and financial response has thus far been languid and inadequate. The rest of the industrialized world has reacted much more shamefully.

For a bit more perspective on the US’s initial response: Consider that on the same day the US pledged $35 million in aid a story appeared in the New York Times about Wall Street bonuses. Some CEOs received bonuses of over $20 million in 2004. When the reporter asked one executive how he would spend his money, he briefly reflected and answered, “Maybe a little Porsche for the Hamptons house, but probably not.” In another story one can find that the price tag for the upcoming Presidential inauguration party will exceed $40 million – before security costs. In a country rich enough to support such extravagance – more can certainly be done.

There is good news. Under domestic and foreign pressure the US government is expected to pledge more money and pressure other countries to follow their lead. Equally as important is that people can help directly with very little effort. (At http://www.redcross.org/ it is possible to donate as little as $5.00 which anyone should be able to afford.) This disaster presents an opportunity for people of the Western world to directly intervene on behalf of their government’s behavior and help save thousands of lives. International relief agencies are collecting money for Indonesia. A list of agencies can be found