This ought to send the Freeps into meltdown: France #1 aid donor?

[flvegan]

From their beloved Foxnews:

France: We're the No. 1 Aid Donor

"Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's (search) boast that France was vaulting to "the head of all the contributors" appeared to respond to comments from Andrew Natsios (search), chief of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which distributes American aid.

In a FOX News interview this week, Natsios said France tends not to be a world leader in foreign aid and often packages its help as loans, which he suggested were inappropriate in emergencies."

More at: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,142934,00.html

[ck4829]

1. Hold Up! Didn't Bush say the US Aid was a loan?

[AllegroRondo]

3. $20 million of it is

[quaoar]

2. Yes, but...

we are still ahead of Burkina Faso and Lithuania.

USA! USA! USA!

[ClassWarrior]

4. You mean le Free Republique?...

NGU.

[ck4829]

6. Great Idea. Let's start using that to refer to the den of freepers

I have no problems with France, but I know the freepers wouldn't like that

[ClassWarrior]

7. It's the root of the word...

<LOL>

NGU.

[Goldeneye]

8. Especially the question mark eom

[ChairOne]

10. dunno French - "free" = "libre" ? Or is that "book"? /eom

[quaoar]

17. Free Republic

République libre

[billyskank]

44. La Republique Libre, surely?

On the other hand, they may not get that...

[Cerridwen]

5. Er, well, it has to be said.

"Don't forget Poland."



}(

[Kota]

15. Ha!

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[progressiveBadger]

11. And we would be British if it weren't for them

Funny how people forget history so fast.

[Lex]

18. Exactly!

Idiots.

[idiosyncratic]

19. Yes, without the French blocking the ports, we would be British

I bet "bedridden" didn't see that in the talking points on FOX.

[quaoar]

23. I'll bet bedridden also doesn't live

in or near one of the many towns in America called Lafayette.

[ooglymoogly]

27. good one

touche!!!!!!!!! its good to see the freepers put in their places

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

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[muriel_volestrangler]

36. They wisely warned against getting involved in an imperialist war?

Along with most of the rest of the western world, they also enacted the Kyoto agreement, in an attempt to save the world from environmental disaster. Meanwhile, the USA decided that GDP was more important than the world's climate.

[tsuki]

47. Two imperialistic wars.

[progressiveBadger]

37. That's a pretty poor argument for hating a country

But I guess people like you don't need much coaxing to hate, huh?

[Kabelplink]

39. I never said I hated France

It's a beautiful country.

[JimmyJazz]

38. Welcome to DU!

Here's your hat....what's your hurry?

[miss_kitty]

41. why does France or the world

owe the US a living?

[prolesunited]

12. Shouldn't you be pouring some wine

down the drain or something useful like that? :shrug:

[cali]

22. get thee back to fweeperville. n/t

[JimmyJazz]

24. Good lord! You missed a turn or something!

You meant to click here http://www.freerepublic.com - oh, and you forgot to blame Clinton - maybe on your next post :7

[SemperEadem]

26. yeah, but they helped the country repel the British

sent ships, aid, etc--and I'll bet we worked out some deal--oh yeah, the Louisiana Purchase for a steal.

some dull-wattages don't know their history and it shows.

[Tinoire]

29. LMAO! Would you care to amplify?

You know "PUMP UP THE VOLUME" !!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[Flagg]

40. I'm French and I speak German.

Looks like America failed
<sarcasm>

[Piperay]

45. Enjoy yourself while you can

I predict a quick tombstoning...bye bye.

[Lerkfish]

50. seeing as Bush has Hitler as a role model, not much different.

defend the Bush fascist somewheres else....mmmkay?

[samtob]

13. This seems to have become a contest

of who has the deeper pockets.

I think it is very noble of all nations that have given to the relief of these poor people. But somehow in the last two days it has become competitive, who can give the most.

[Lex]

16. Well, the U.S. is broke---Chimpy gave all our money to Halliburton

and to his daddy's defense contractor buddies.

I think we should help, certainly---but it is all borrowed money as far as the U.S. is concerned.

[K-W]

21. politics is as politics does

just as long as aid is getting to the right place, its fine with me

[SmokingJacket]

32. Hey -- excellent thing to have a contest over!

Sure as heck beats the usual who-has-the-bigger bombs contest.

Let's hope it lasts.

[DoYouEverWonder]

46. Great,

no matter how much it is, it's still not going to be enough.

Most people don't seem to realize the magnitude of this disaster. There are over 100,000 dead already. Whole islands that were inhabitited are gone.

What was that Jesus said about he who helps the least of these?

[macllyr]

14. France gives $54 million

The help given by the french governemnt is now 40 millions Euros ($54 millions), not taking into account private donations to NGO.

” La France va contribuer pour 22,16 millions d'euros. Paris a dépêché une centaine de secouristes avec 800 kg de médicaments. Jacques Chirac et Jean-Pierre Raffarin ont annoncé que la France était prête à doubler le montant de son aide, ce qui la porterait à plus de 40 millions d'euros. ”

<http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3216,36-392410,0.html>

[cali]

20. Actually, I just heard England is giving $95 million

Good. A bidding war between the donor nations. Now all they have to do is honor their pledges. I still like Leahy's idea of taking some of the unspent Iraqi reconstruction money and donating it to disaster relief.

[Tinoire]

30. Cali - do you have a source for that ?

Last I checked, the EU as a whole was up to about 91 million and the British were nowhere in the lead. I'd be favourably surprised because Blair is as much of an empty-heart as Bush.

[muriel_volestrangler]

31. Here's the BBC's list at the moment

World Bank $250m
UK $96m
EU $44m
US: $35m
Canada: $33m
Japan: $30m
Australia: $27m
France: $20.4m
Denmark: $15.6m
Saudi Arabia: $10m
Source: Reuters, United Nations

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4136153.stm

but it seems to change by the hour. I don't know if the UK figure includes private donations or not.

[aneerkoinos]

34. More info

Major western and other wealthy governments have pledged already a total of more than 400 million dollars, most if not all of it for immediate emergency relief, according to an AFP list based on figures provided by the governments.

"Other leading government contributors were Japan at 40 million dollars (including around 10 million dollars to support NGO work), the Netherlands at 36 million dollars, Canada at 32.8 million dollars, Germany at 27 million dollars, Australia at 27 million dollars, Portugal at 11 million dollars, Saudi Arabia at 10 million dollars, and Arab Gulf neighbor of Qatar at 10 million dollars.

The French government pledged 22 million euros, including its portion of the European Union aid program, which amounted to 20 million euros. The British government pledge excluded its contribution to the EU.

On Thursday, the French government then said it was ready to provide 20 million more euros to prevent epidemics.

Smaller contributions from 15 other countries, most of them European nations but also China, Iran and Kuwait amounted to more than 25 million dollars, according to figures compiled by AFP."

http://www.turkishpress.com/world/news.asp?id=041230183636.soio214u.xml

Where's the 63 million pledged by Spain, what's the story on that?

[Tinoire]

43. Terrific!

I don't know about Spain... I've noticed that depending on which source you use, they seem to inadvertently leave it someone's pledge. I saw the same thing about Spain you did. Will be heart-warming to see the final tally.


Thanks :)

And now the blood chills a few degrees to say:

Hey W! You ain't got no damn coalition and no one's falling for that crap! Fork over your coronation money!

[Tinoire]

42. WOW! Thank you. That is so good to see!

The Norwegian from the UN who made that remark is a damn hero. I am sure countries would have given more than their initial sums but he's pitted them one against the other to see who can appear the least stingy! I love it. Thanks for the good news!

[Kellanved]

51. that list looks faulty

Neither up to date, nor realistic, nor complete - not even in the top-ten.

[Lerkfish]

52. interesting...about as much as the inaugaral budget...400K dead

but just not more important than his self-coronation

gawd I hate this filthy excuse for an administration....

[aneerkoinos]

53. Update

UK: $96m
Sweden: $75m
Spain: $68m
France: $54m (Including France's share of EU aid)
EU: $44m
Japan: $40m
Netherlands: $36
US: $35m
Canada: $33m
Australia: $27m
Germany: $27m
Denmark: $15.6m
Portugal: $11m
Saudi Arabia: $10m
Qatar: $10m
Other European countries, Iran, Kuwait, China: $25m

Sum: $540m


Private donations are flowing in, some examples


UK: $39m
US Red Cross: $18m
US Unicef fund: $37m
Catholic Relief Services $25m
Finland: $4m
Italy: $17
Switzerland: $9m
Netherlands: $13m

World Bank: $250m

[quaoar]

25. Meanwhile, back in Crawford....

President Bush has cleared nearly half an acre of brush from his ranch.

[femme.democratique]

55. ...Bush scratches his ass, wishin' he had some blow....

[Old and In the Way]

28. Natsios? Isn't he the guy that tld us that the US costs for the Iraq War

would be $3 Billion, tops? Like I'd ever believe anything that guy ever says again.

[theboss]

35. Am I the only one sick of this discussion?

Why are we keeping fucking score? And are we even keeping an accurate score (tallying donations from private donors, relief organzations, etc)?

[Name removed]

48. Deleted message

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[FogerRox]

49. get ready for a 1/4 or even a 1/2 mill dead--ouch

[aneerkoinos]

54. Situation is living

Lot of info missing especially US donations, but numbers from the list I posted above:
UK more than 135m
US more than 115m (Unicef, Red Cross, CRS)