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Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Tsunami Dollars and You

The Tsunami tragedy of 2004 has always been particularally heart-wrenching for me, I feel rather connected to it and the work being done in it's wake.
There's news out yesterday from the BBC that is quite distressing - only about half the money donated to the relief/rebuild effort, has actually been spent. The rest is sitting pretty in bank accounts, some 3 billion US dollars! And about 10% of all the money that was promised to the effort by foreign governments has never been given! (China, Spain and France promised 301, 60 and 79 million respectively and have each given only 1 million!)
This is a problem, a big problem! Of the millions of people left displaced only 1/3 of their homes have been replaced - that means 2/3 are still living in temporary shelters - like tents! And that isn't acceptable.
The Red Cross in particular was given 2.2 billion for its efforts and has only used half of that total, and built (to completion) 8000 of their promised 50,000 homes. In response to criticism and questioning the Red Cross has made some valid points:

  1. They knew and reported from the very beginning that their efforts would be long-term and rebuilding was a 4-5 year process, not an instant deal.
  2. They talk about the efforts necessary in figuring out land claims and proper ownership before homes can be built.

Obviously they are right - this is a long-term response. The question is how long is appropriate - how long can we wait to give people back their homes when the money is in the bank? What do you think?? Check here for an article on the BBC report and a movie clip of the BBC news itself. Check em out and see. Do we have a responsibility to say something about this??

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