Wednesday, December 29, 2004, 6:29:36 PM, Veronica Caley wrote: VC> I read several of these articles including the one you cite. This news VC> source does not seem to be anything like an objective news outlet, but VC> rather another arm of right wing propaganda machine, therefore I give i= t no VC> credence. Thank you, Veronica; I have now looked at the site more closely -- yes -- at first very sleepy glance I thought I was looking at a standard news site... VC> Re the UN comment, out of order and undiplomatic. I think it's worth looking at what Jan Egeland actually said: >The second stage is for medium and long term help. The UN is holding > a conference next month to discuss the next steps following > this disaster. Already the UN's emergency co-coordinator > Jan Egeland has said this might be the worst natural disaster ever. > That implies the need for unusually large contributions. >He is also complaining that rich countries are not giving enough to the > poor anyway. "It is beyond me why we are so stingy. Really. Christmas > time should remind many Western countries at least, how rich we have beco= me," he said. >"There are several donors who are less generous than before in a growing w= orld economy." >He suggested that governments "believe that they are really burdening >the taxpayers too much, and the taxpayers want to give less. > It's not true. They want to give more." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4130127.stm VC> Concerning how much US VC> government will contribute to Asian relief? Who knows? Mr. Bush's tac= tic VC> for several years is to mandate programs, offer money to pay for it and VC> then greatly reduce it. =20 I think perhaps I'd best be no comment... -- I do have a plea. Both the US and the UK rely on citizens giving money (of course Bush has actually admitted this) but that shouldn;t stop peopke who feel they can give something, doing so. Our Disasters' Emergency Committee, having raised more than =A340 million for the Sudan, has now launched a Tsunami Appeal. They already have $5 million - since yesterday and the appeal hasn't really started -- but, well, the more the better. Their web page is a bit shaky at the moment (they've had to change it fast) and I think a lot of people are trying to access it -- still, here it is: http://www.dec.org.uk/ or people might prefer to give to Medecins Sans Frontieres -- particularly people outside the UK -- they are already there and will be sending more teams www.msf.org/ and www.doctorswithoutborders.org/ NB their web pages are also shaky, too many people are trying to access them Judy --=20 mailto:judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html