UNgrateful

Why am I not surprised by this type of crap.

U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland suggested that the United States and other Western nations were being "stingy" with relief funds, saying there would be more available if taxes were raised.

Oh, Raise our taxes to give relief money. How much money floods in from other countries when there are disasters in the US. I'm guessing NONE.

In response to Mr. Egeland's comments, Mr. Duffy pointed out that the United States is "the largest contributor to international relief and aid efforts, not only through the government, but through charitable organizations. The American people are very giving."

It takes some major sack to gripe about charitable giving. Especially at this level. The only country reported that has come even close to the amount offered by the US government is Australia with $10M. (US offering $15M) No one has even mentioned the non-governmental monies that have and are going to be sent.

A CNN Report states :

On Monday, U.S. officials said the total package of aid so far was $15 million.

In addition, Powell said, nine patrol planes and 12 C-130 cargo planes packed with relief supplies were on their way to South Asia.

And

In a news conference at U.N. headquarters in New York Monday, Egeland called for a major international response -- and went so far as to call the U.S. government and others "stingy" on foreign aid in general.

"If, actually, the foreign assistance of many countries now is 0.1 or 0.2 percent of the gross national income, I think that is stingy, really," he said. "I don't think that is very generous."

In an interview Monday night with CNN, Egeland reiterated his view: "It bothers me that we -- the rich nations -- are not becoming more generous the more rich we become."

The average rich country gives just 0.2 percent of its national income to international solidarity and international assistance, he said.

"We keep 99.8 percent to ourselves, on average. I don't think that's very generous," he said.

I couldn't find anything that is specifically called the Gross National Income, but I did find a list of the GDP and GNP for the top countries in the world. Both list the US as having over $10 Trillion dollars. How much of that do they think we should be forced to give to the UN? 1% would be $100 Billion Dollars. Then, with the recent record of the UN, how much should we trust that this money would not fill some UN bureaucrat's pocket.

This guy should just STFU.

UPDATE:
Well here's a good article that puts American giving into perspective. Put out by Front Page Magazine.