A wave of tragedy and support

How much the world is truly donating

By Kerry Eskenas
From the February 2005 Print Edition

More than 150,000 people died in the December 26 tsunami that resulted from an undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean, according to cnn.com. With a magnitude of 9.0 on the Richter Scale, this earthquake was so powerful that it caused the Earth’s axis to waver slightly and the Earth’s rotation to speed up by 3 microseconds. The resulting wave, which reached heights of up to 30 feet, was one of the greatest disasters in human history.

A Berkeley student, Lea Kreidie, was scuba diving off the coast of Thailand when the tsunami occurred. Having dived three times before, she noticed that things weren’t quite normal on what would have been her last practice dive before receiving diving certification. Fortunately, she was able to escape harm by maneuvering her way to the water’s surface as the tsunami went by. Thousands of others, however, were not so lucky. In response to this tragedy, many countries, organizations, and individuals have come forward with donations to help the tsunami victims.

However, with such a high death toll and so many in need of aid, there have been numerous challenges made about the amount of money donated by certain countries. In particular, the emergency relief coordinator of the United Nations, Jan Egeland, seemed to target the initial $15 million contribution from the United States when he said, “We were more generous when we were less rich, many of the rich countries. And it is beyond me, why are we so stingy, really… Even Christmas time should remind many Western countries at least how rich we have become.” According to cnn.com, Egeland’s comment resulted in a controversy over how generous the United States is, and prompted President Bush to say, “Well, I felt like the person who made that statement was very misguided and ill-informed.”

Last year, the United States provided 40 percent of all humanitarian aid in response to world disasters, a total of $2.4 billion. After coming under fire for his comment, Egeland said that the media had misunderstood him. He added that the United States and Europe have shown great generosity in their donations to the tsunami relief effort.

It has been suggested that those who criticize America’s level of generosity are failing to take into account the high level of donations given each year by private citizens. According to ABC News, private donations from the United States to help the tsunami victims have exceeded $200 million, including $1 million from Sandra Bullock and $10 million from Coca-Cola. President Bush, who is said to have around $13 million, donated $10,000 of his own money.

A community service organization called the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, which has one of its 59 chapters here at Berkeley, is raising money to send to tsunami victims through fundraisers at Chinese grocery stores throughout the United States. In addition to the many private donations from Americans, the U.S. government has raised its donation to $350 million.

Another challenge to nations’ generosity centered on the Arab nations located in the Persian Gulf. Indonesia, the nation with the largest Muslim population in the world, was also the nation that suffered most in the tsunami disaster. More than 100,000 Muslims in Indonesia perished in the deadly wave, and there were many Muslims in other countries struck by the disaster. However, although Arab nations in the Gulf are wealthy from their oil resources, they pledged relatively little to victims compared to the pledges of Western nations. According to the Christian Science Monitor, Saudi Arabia initially pledged $10 million, but that has now been raised to $30 million. Kuwait has raised its $1 million offer to $100 million, and the United Arab Emirates has raised its offer from $2 million to $20 million. Some explain the relatively low levels of support from Muslim countries as stemming from poverty and discord in these nations, but it seems that there is another factor restraining Arab donations to tsunami victims.

There appears to be a widespread belief throughout the Arab world that the tsunami occurred as a divine punishment of those who don’t follow the teachings of Islam. According to a January 5 report on WorldNetDaily, a Muslim cleric named Sheik Fawzan Al-Fawzan explained, “We know that at these resorts, which unfortunately exist in Islamic and other countries in South Asia, and especially at Christmas, fornication and sexual perversion of all kinds are rampant. The fact that it happened at this particular time is a sign from Allah.” When a substantial portion of the Arab world declares that the tsunami victims deserved the destruction that befell them, it is not surprising to see rather modest donations from Muslim nations toward victims of this disaster, many of whom paradoxically were Muslim.

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