Tsunami Aid

These last few days have been dominated by the terrible news about the Tsunami off the coast of Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia, and the rising tally of those that died (as I write, it's estimated at 25,000 people). The BBC reports that one of the world's largest relief efforts is now underway to help out the affected countries.

It's so hard not to react to this disaster without the deepest sympathy for the local inhabitants who have lost family members, and for those who are injured, or who have lost their homes and so on. It also feels frustrating that we can't directly help. But you can donate money to aid agencies - if you wish to, you can do so via the Oxfam web site.

Of course, governments also have an obligation. This BBC article talks about how the world typically reacts to such disaster: "International response tends to be the same - immediate interest, immediate help but long term neglect". So a year after the earthquake in Iran, which claimed the lives of around 30,000 people, there are still survivors living in temporary shelters. Already the UN's emergency co-coordinator Jan Egeland has said the Asian tsunami might be the worst natural disaster ever. That implies the need for unsually large contributions.

He is also complaining that rich countries are not giving enough to the poor anyway. Take the US for example. This Reuters story says that the World's richest and most powerful country will "provide an initial $15 million in aid for victims of the devastating tsunami in Asia and has already released $400,000".

The excellent JWalk blog did some initial sums.

"Let's assume that the U.S. will spend $200 billion for the war in Iraq (a conservative estimate). Further assume that this money will be spread out over a 2-year period. This works out to about $11.4 million per hour. So when it's put in these terms, the U.S. has pledged (so far) the equivalent of about 79 minutes of war costs."

Surely we can all do more?