http://tinyurl.com/5xkbd
"WASHINGTON — Americans think of themselves as the most generous people on Earth. So to many, it came as a shock to hear that the U.S. response to the southern Asian tsunami this week was considered stingy.
But views of American generosity depend on who is doing the measuring and how.
By total money, the United States by far donates more than any other country in the world. This is the gauge preferred by most U.S. officials.
But when aid is calculated per U.S. citizen or as a percentage of the economy, the United States ranks among the least generous in the industrialized world.
As U.S. officials and foreign aid experts debate which measure is more apt, the issue is another example of how Americans' views of themselves differ from those from around the world."
"Foreign aid
Government aid and private giving, per person, per day in 2002:
Country Government Private
Norway $1.02 $0.24 Denmark 0.84 0.01 Sweden 0.61 0.01 Netherlands 0.57 0.04 Switzerland 0.35 0.07 Belgium 0.28 0.02 Ireland 0.28 0.06 France 0.25 0.01 Finland 0.24 0.01 Britain 0.23 0.02 Japan 0.20 0.004 Austria 0.18 0.02 Canada 0.17 0.02 Australia 0.14 0.03 United States 0.13 0.05 Italy 0.11 0.002 Spain 0.11 0.01 Portugal 0.9 0.001 New Zealand 0.8 0.01 Greece 0.7 0.001
Sources: Center for Global Development, Foreign Policy magazine"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4137477.stm
"Organisers of Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations will set up donation points for revellers to give what they can to the tsunami disaster appeal.
The move on Friday comes as the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) in Scotland announced that £4.48m had been given by people north of the border."
The population of Scotland is 5,000,000 and £4.48m is $8.6m, so that's about $1.70 per head. (So far.) So if the citizens of the USA (pop 293,000,000) give as generously that's $0.5 billion!
-- William T Goodall Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/
"Our products just aren't engineered for security." - Brian Valentine, senior vice president in charge of Microsoft's Windows development team.
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