UPDATE: The US government is putting together a massive relief package for the tidal wave victims, according to Colin Powell

Monday, Egeland called for a major international response to the tsunami disaster — 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.” His remarks prompted U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Tuesday to assert that the United States is “not stingy” when it comes to providing aid to countries in distress.

Powell said the United States has responded with help for countries devastated by the weekend’s tsunamis and will continue to assess the situation with an eye toward providing more aid. “The United States is not stingy. We are the greatest contributor to international relief efforts in the world,” he said. Powell told CNN’s “American Morning” that the catastrophe was “unprecedented in scope and scale.”

He said the United States had responded to an appeal by the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent by providing $4 million of the $7 million it initially requested worldwide. The U.S. State Department said an additional $20 million in aid will be added to the $15 million the United States has already pledged for nations hit by the tsunamis. In addition, said Powell, nine patrol planes and 12 C-130 cargo planes packed with relief supplies were on their way to southern Asia.

So basically the US is providing $35 million dollars in aid along with a bunch of transport aircraft. This is a lot of money in aid that is being sent however, the slow response gave some of those UN pukes a chance to take shots at the US and criticize the US while they do nothing. That is why as I said before if we had quick reaction disaster relief brigade this would not give these UN pukes a chance to take shots at us while providing immediate aid to those who needed. Why doesn’t the holier than though UN not have quick response disaster relief brigrade? They swindled enough money from the Iraqi food for oil program to finance one.

So the US has stepped up, so I wonder who is going to follow us. Korea how about you?

The Korean government has initially authorized $600,000 in disaster relief aid for the countries affected by the recent tidal wave disaster in southern Asia. However, the Chosun thinks that it is not enough.

Our government earned itself international kudos by deciding yesterday to send US$600,000 (W628.6 million) in relief funds and assistance. It mustn’t think, however, that this is all it needs to do. As order is restored to the disaster sites and the true extent of the damage comes to light, it will be necessary to proffer additional assistance.

In 1999, when massive earthquakes struck Turkey and Taiwan, Korea sent $100,000 in financial assistance, earning criticism from both home and abroad for being ungenerous.

Internationally, we are still viewed as penny-pinchers in terms of providing disaster aid. Last year, Korea’s official development assistance (ODA) totaled $300 million. Even if supporters claim this should not be compared to the $15.8 billion granted by the United States or Japan’s $8.9 billion, it didn’t even amount to one tenth the amount sent by the Netherlands ($4 billion), a nation with a similarly sized economy to ours.

We cannot hope to be accepted as a good neighbor by the international community, nor raise Korea’s prestige on the world stage, if we continue to behave in this way.

I tend to agree with the Chosun Ilbo on this one. I believe this is caused by the “we are a small, weak country” mindset in this country. Many Koreans do not realize the economic, political, and military power this country possesses, plus the one’s who do are hesistant to give away large sums of money because the memories of poverty and hunger, not so long ago, are still fresh in their minds.

Hopefully Korea will use this crisis as an opportunity to use their economic and political affluence to aid many people in these developing countries effected by this tradgedy.

In addition I hope my own country, the US, does the same. This is a chance for the US to really show it’s good side which nobody ever seems to notice. The US should put together a full scale relief effort and encourage others to do so. It is times like this that I wish the US had a quick reaction military brigade whose whole job is to provide disaster relief. Just imagine if we had these soldiers on the ground within 24 hours setting up aid clinics, searching for survivors, and beginning clean up operations. Plus these soldiers would all be trained at these skills and would not have to make things up as they go. How many lives could be saved if we had a unit like this? Many lives can still be saved if we act now. This is also a prime opportunity to help many people in the Muslim world with an operation that doesn’t involve tanks or bombs which is the only help many Muslims tend to see from us. If we can drop the 82nd Airborne on anybody in 24 hours, why can’t we instead drop a disaster relief unit on someboy in the same amount of time?

This also leads me to another point about why does it always have to be America that has to lead up a major operation internationally, such as disaster relief? Why can’t Korea create a disaster relief brigade like I have suggested? Instead of having 3,600 soldiers from the ROK Army sitting in Iraq doing nothing besides playing Starcraft in their on post PC Bang, why can’t Korea make a disaster relief unit out of those soldiers instead that would actually do something relevant? This unit could begin relief operations and then become a command and control node for international relief agencies to further organize the relief operaions. The world doesn’t have to wait on America all the time to do something. Korea is more than capable of leading such a large operation if they put money and resources behind the project.

Korea always seems so concerned about its image internationally and being known as experts in disaster relief would really enhance Korea’s reputation and image to the rest of the world. The Korean government always says they want an independent relationship with the US and here’s there chance. Why can’t President Roh tomorrow tell the world Korea is going to lead a major international campaign to aid the affected areas and here is the money and resources I’m going to provide, who’s with me? However, this would require leadership and vision, so I’m sure President Roh is sitting in the Blue House right now waiting on America to do something first.

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