International Assistance?

[Anonymous]

Have you ever noticed that America is always expected to help out other countries when tradegy strikes?

So, where are those other countries now? Has anyone heard of any assistance coming from anywhere?

 

[Robert Dewey]

I was thinking the same thing... Other countries are quick to put there hand out and grab up all the relief they can, but none of them seem to place an offer to return the favor.

Perhaps if they have though, we just don't hear about it.

 

[Tim Vasquez]

This idea was done on the "joke caller"-styled Phil Hendrie show after the Indonesia tsunami and California mudslides. We are the rich kid on the block and do an amazing job taking care of our own. Maybe Norway and Switzerland could send aid though.

Tim

 

[M Conder]

Venezuela offers fuel, food to hurricane-hit US

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050829/pl_af...hervenezuelaoil

I don't know if the offer is genuine, or just a political ploy by Chavez, but I suspect the latter.

 

[B Ozanne]

Edit: removed my comments, I don't care about this thread.

 

[Bill Tabor]

This should be an interesting thread. For all the good America has done over all the years past, I get the impression most countries hope we just get destroyed by a giant meteorite or something. I'll be surprised if we get much in the way of true sympathy except perhaps for the British and Australians.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Let's PLEASE not turn this in to a political thread. If you feel that your own comments are more political than anything else, PLEASE refrain from posting. Start a blog or something if you really need to get it off your chest!

Instead of arguing your opinion regarding this topic, how about discussing what other countries have "pledged"...

 

[Jay Cazel]

ABC Radio said something that Japan would loan the USA some of there oil reserves, but really what could any other counrty do to help us? Besides sending money to the Red Cross or something like that.

 

[Mikey Gribble]

I don't know what the deal is with Chavez's statements. If he is serious, it is a 180 from his normal stance.
I am not surprised that no foreign countries are jumping to the aid of the United States. Like Tim mentioned, we are considered the rich kid and we can help ourselves. IMO the gesture of at least offering would be a welcome change. Everybody around the world expects the U.S. to bail them out when they get in trouble and we almost always step up and do it. It has become so normal for us to help with problems around the world that we are now expected to help and are efforts are totally taken for granted. I remember hearing several countries and officials at the UN complaining about how the US was spending the 15 billion dollars we contributed to fighting aids in Africa. That is more than the rest of the world combined gave to fight aids in Africa, yet all some people can do is complain about how we are spending the money. The same thing happened with tsunami relief. Two days after it happend there were outcries all around the world because the US apparently wasn't doing enough.
Despite the fact that the US provides a security umbrella for dozens of countries around the world and we donate massive amounts of economic aid, we are still the country everyone loves to hate. I just don't get it.

 

[Anastasia]

For what it's worth - I am a Canadian and I have been glued to CNN (which I usually can't stand) and of course the Stormtrack forum, since Sunday evening. I am floored by the coverage I have seen and I have shed more than a few tears over the past few days. I have only experienced the briefest touch of a hurricane personally in Miami during Dennis and I can't begin to imagine what it would be like to experience something on the scale of Katrina.
I plan on donating to the Red Cross. I am educating my friends and coworkers on the devastation of the hurricane. I am a proud Canadian with mixed feelings about the United States, but I am a human being who recognizes that human suffering has no political boundaries.

Take good care,
Anastasia

 

[Anonymous]

Who knows why the rest of the world dislikes the US....who cares! The US can manage its own disasters without needing any foreign help.

If a country was to state they are willing to help, they would expect ten times as much as they offered from the US in return. So what is the point....

 

[Joe Nield]

This is the reality of our position in the world as the most powerful and wealthy nation on the planet. We have the resources to handle this.

These nations where people are living on the equivalent of 10 cents a day can't very well gather up some goats and send them over. Let's keep our heads here. :roll:

 

[Andrew Geil]

Who knows why the rest of the world dislikes the US....who cares! The US can manage its own disasters without needing any foreign help.

If a country was to state they are willing to help, they would expect ten times as much as they offered from the US in return. So what is the point....

Because sometimes helping people is just the right thing to do.

 

[Kevin Askew]

Sorry im very opinionated on the subject with alot of military vets in my family. NOBODY is even offering. We have helped liberate parts of the planet. NOBODY is offering disaster relief? That REALLY irratates me. We lost thousands & thousands to help other countries yet NOBODY offeres disaster relief. The hell with them then, raid the radical islamic countries turn their deserts to glass & keep their freakin oil for us. sounds harsh but hey, do they actually care about us???? Times like this I say no. Just an opinion from a person who has lost loved ones HELPING others.

 

[John Massura]

Just because there hasn't been mass outpourings of help in the news media yet, doesn't mean there hasn't been help offered. Perhaps they are waiting for the big picture to become known before they can offer their specialties. Perhaps they are doing small things behind the scenes (medical personnel, utility workers, etc.). Kuwait has helped out in the past during hurricanes, Australia has sent firefighters several times to the West, and Canada has helped during such instances as 9/11 and the New England blackout of a few years ago, as well as during blizzards.

So, while there may not be a huge offering like for tsunami relief (which was an entirely different animal), I feel confident that our fellow neighbors will be helping as much as they can.