Playing Politics With Tsunamis.

Further to my comments on the Observer article by the head of Christian Aid, (essentially, of course politicians are playing politics, it’s what they do) via Tim Blair I see this at The Diplomad.

Well, we’re heading into Day 7 of the Asian quake/tsunami crisis. And
the UN relief effort? Nowhere to be seen except at some meetings and on
CNN and BBC as talking heads. In this corner of the Far Abroad, it’s
Yanks and Aussies doing the hard, sweaty work of saving lives.

Go read the whole thing …..the conclusion:

We have no fancy aid workers’ retreat — notice the priorities of the
UN? People are dying and what’s the first thing the UN wants to do? Set
up "a camp for relief workers" one that would be "fully self-contained,
with kitchen, food, lodging, everything."

As I noted a few days back, the further up the greasy pole of power one goes, from the individual to the State to the International Bureaucracy, the less actually gets done and the more gets talked about and planned. I believe the EU’s conference in planned for next Friday…as Richard North pointed out, the caterers have been put on alert.

2 responses

  1. “And the UN relief effort? Nowhere to be seen except at some meetings and on CNN and BBC as talking heads.”
    A bare-faced lie. UNICEF, for example, has been providing thousands of bed sheets, drinking water bottles, cooking utensils sets and mats for those made homeless in Sri Lanka, and distributing thousands of water tanks and millions of purification tablets in India. UNHCR, as well as being active in Sri Lanka, is today airlifting tons of shelter and other emergency supplies to Aceh.
    Need I point out what the ‘UN’ in UNICEF and UNHCR stands for? I suppose I probably do. It stands for ‘United Nations’.
    I notice you didn’t even bother to check the accuracy of Tim Blair / Diplomad’s assertions before happily repeating them. Anything that sticks the boot into the UN is well and good I suppose.
    And you have the gall to accuse others of ‘playing politics’.

  2. william garland Avatar
    william garland

    Do any of the organizations soliciting funds for tsunami relief guarantee that the funds received will be doveted exclusively to that purpose and not in any way diverted to some other use ?

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