In a recent comment, some nameless person laments the contribution of money to tsunami-affected countries.
It stinks of politics. Do you know of any american families that individually received aid from the US govt? Other than welfare rats.
At first, I couldn’t believe that we’re sending more overseas for aid than we would send to Florida for hurricane relief. But then, how many people died in Florida? And how many people’s homes were insured? In spite of itself, our country is pretty rich. And for those people that aren’t, there are government programs that can help.
Comparatively, people in south asia have had their entire lives swept away. Inhabited islands have moved and sank into the ocean, submerging homes entirely. We’re not taling about people who lost their jobs and can’t afford to pay their rent. We’re talking about working people being flushed out to sea along with the place that they work, families being separated by the chaos of natural disaster, and the possible trading of children into slavery. If we can throw money at it to make it better, as humans, we should.
I guess this is a danger of living in such an area, just like Californians are at the mercy of the next big earthquake. Still, we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of people dead or missing. Even I am not so callous to think that our government should not contribute to this human cause.
