By Patricia H. Kushlis
Today’s New York Times lead editorial, “Are We Stingy? Yes” unfortunately hits the nail on the head.
The U.S. government, at least however, upped its humanitarian aid for South Asia’s post-Christmas Tsunami disaster yesterday from its initial paltry pledge of $15 million to a slightly less paltry one of $35 million and now promises an unspecified larger sum. This $35 million now equals that committed by the Australians but about $12 million less than the EU.
Perhaps the US raise can be attributed to well-deserved embarrassment, but even the larger amount is dwarfed by the more than $1 billion per week the administration currently spends on the Iraq occupation - or, according to Moveon.org, the $35 million we spend in Iraq every 7 hours.
The US $20 million increase in disaster relief aid is all to the good, but Secretary of State Colin Powell and USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios, the lead relief aid administration spokesmen over the holidays have gone out of the way to sugar-coat and distort the U.S. Government’s overseas assistance record.
The President, meanwhile, remains holed up on his Crawford, Texas ranch outside of media range having announced earlier today - this time through a White House press spokesman - that he will sent Powell and Florida Governor brother Jeb Bush to the area to assess the damage. Would either former Presidents Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan have closeted themselves in this fashion? I doubt it.
Last night, Natsios told Newshour’s Gwen Ifill that during 2003 the “US gave 40 percent ($2.4 billion) of all government assistance for international humanitarian (relief) aid for all countries of the world.” He continued: “So we’re the largest donor by far, and I would say 40 per cent of the total given. . . it’s a lot of money.” He added that “Sixty percent of all the food given in humanitarian assistance around the world comes from the U.S.” and stated that the U.S. is the largest donor to UNICEF, the International Red Cross, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
If Natsios’ words told the entire story, Americans should have every reason to feel proud of their government’s generosity towards the less fortunate. But the reality is far from it.
So what is the story? Where does the U.S., the world’s richest country, stack up in the realm of international donor nations? Perhaps this is a good time to take stock.
According to the New York Times editorial, most Americans think that the U.S. spends 24 percent of its budget on aid to poor countries – when, in fact, it “actually spends well under a quarter of one percent.”
This, sadly, is just another example of a misinformed – and, in my view, a misled and gullible - American public that believes an electronic media (80% of Americans get their news from mostly entertainment driven television) that is all too willing to accept unquestioningly its government’s pronouncements.
Further, although the transcript of Natios’ Newshour interview does not state so directly, Natsios also implied that the U.S. is far more generous internationally than the Europeans especially in the area of disaster relief. Natsios, by the way, did not distinguish disaster relief from development assistance because, as the Times editorial pointed out, this would have made the US look bad in comparison.
Natsios also inferred – although the Newshour transcript was vaguely worded - that the US contribution outstripped the Europeans on a per capita basis. Maybe so. But what is he comparing? Only disaster relief? Where does development assistance come in? And is he comparing the U.S. contribution with only one European country’s bilateral aid such as Germany, France or the UK? Or is the comparison with multilateral aid that is donated by the member countries to the European Union, both or what?
More accurate, simple to understand, comparisons based on real data are sorely needed because thus far the administration’s apples and oranges claims don’t compute. How so?
The Times, for instance, argued that the European Union alone dwarfed U.S. development assistance in 2002 and 2003 by more than double - $16.2 billion for the US in 2003 versus $37.1 billion for the EU. Even if you add in $2.4 billion of humanitarian relief aid to the US figures, the EU still comes out way ahead.
Meanwhile, Germany’s Deutche Welle reported today that the European Union has indicated it would “release up to $47 million (30 million Euros)” to aid countries affected by the Tsunami. This figure does not appear to include aid-in-kind or bilateral contributions made directly by individual European governments. Deutche Welle also reported that the EU had “budgeted some EURO 500 million on humanitarian aid projects in 2004” and that it plans to tap its reserve fund of some EURO 200 million to cover Tsunami relief.
The bottom line? U.S. government representatives need to stop distorting the record and come clean to the public. Many Americans are generous but the the administration's rhetoric obscures the fact that the U.S. aid budget makes us look like Uncle Scrooge at Christmas Time all year round.
And by the way, the President needs to get out of the swimming pool, dismount his horse and return to the Oval Office. This is the world’s worst disaster in years – it’s time to show leadership, tell the people the truth and begin a long overdue evaluation of U.S. international funding priorities.