Disaster
Disaster
Updated 11:44pm (Mla time) Jan 09, 2005
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the January 10, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
A COUPLE of days before the crisis summit of world leaders in Indonesia, George W. Bush announced he was in the thick of a campaign to raise aid for the tsunami victims. Toward that end, he said, he had appointed the last two former presidents, his father George Bush and immediate predecessor Bill Clinton, to lead the effort to collect private donations. Bush urged Americans to help. "In this situation, cash donations are most useful, and I've asked the former presidents to solicit contributions both large and small."
Clinton added: "Between public and private commitments now, we're up to about $3 billion."
Well, it's good that the United States has joined the world in trying to defuse what the United Nations calls the worst humanitarian crisis ever in modern times. The magnitude of the devastation is mind-boggling, and so is the scale of relief work that needs to be done to overcome it. Better late than never. But Bush's strenuous effort to raise funds for the victims of the disaster merely draws attention to the things he can easily do-to help not just the current victims but the future ones as well; the latter, by making sure they do not become so at all.
The first, and most obvious, is to cut down on arms spending. Nothing more shows the epic scale of human folly than that hunger and deprivation persist amid the wanton waste of precious resources, which is deliberately done simply to increase the destructive capabilities of nations, America's above all. The human species is the most intelligent among the species ever to walk this earth, yet it is at the same time the dumbest. Some members of the species more than others, the current US president chief among the latter.
Compare the $3 billion three American presidents together have so far raised from public and private American sources with this: the world spends the most for arms, currently $950 billion per year. The figures for seven years ago, 1998, show the kind of skewed priorities we have. That year, the world spent $780 billion for arms and $13 billion for basic health and nutrition for everyone in the world. The lowest item in the rung was basic education for everyone in the world, which was only $6 billion. Americans and Europeans spent more to feed their pets-$17 billion-than they did to give water to the thirsty; expenditure for water and sanitation for everyone in the world was only $9 billion.
The United States accounts for close to one-half of the world's arms expenditure.
The US military request for 2005 is $420.7 billion. Last year, its budget was $399.1 billion and the year before that, $396.1 billion. It is 29 times bigger than the combined spending for arms of all the "rogue countries" (Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria), which is $14.4 billion. That is certainly more than 29 times bigger than the combined spending of the UN and all its agencies, which is $10 billion. All this while the UN faced a financial crisis over the past decade and was forced to cut back on its humanitarian work because members have not paid their dues, the United States chief of them: it owes the UN $762 million, nearly half (48 percent) of standing dues ($1.6 billion).
Last year in a televised speech, Bush said he was seeking $87 billion for Iraq, a sum to be used to put down all resistance to the most brazen act of occupation to have taken place in postcolonial times.
He wants to help? Easy. Get out of Iraq and cut back on arms.
The second is just as easy. At least from a rational perspective, which is, however, the perspective that George W seems resolved to fight to the bitter end. That is for him to sign the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol puts into action the recommendations of the Rio Summit of 1992, notably the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 to levels 5 percent below 1990. The industrialized countries, chiefly the United States, account for 55 percent of those emissions. Last November, Russia, one of the last holdouts, signed the Protocol, leaving only the United States and Australia out in the cold. The greenhouse gas emissions are believed to be the single biggest cause of global warming over the last couple of decades. Scientists predict that as global warming worsens, we will see tsunamis regularly engulfing various parts of the world.
In 1992, George W's father rejected the Rio Summit. Ten years later, in 2002, George W not only did not attend the Johannesburg meeting, he tried to block the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. Mark Townsend explains why: "An estimated 5,000 pro-business lobbyists, led by US interests, chorused the message that the status quo is adequate. A leaked letter to President George Bush, signed by 31 groups, including Republican Party lobbyists, some of them linked to oil giant Exxon Mobil, warned that such issues could prove destructive to domestic interests."
At Johannesburg, the US delegation also fought the European proposal to generate energy from renewable sources such as the sun, sea and wind. According to the UN, the US consumption of energy has jumped 21 percent and its greenhouse gas emissions have gone up 13 percent in the last 10 years.
Bush wants to help? Easy. Sign the Kyoto Protocol and join the rest of the world in saving the planet. That way, there won't be many more victims of tsunamis to help.
Some years ago, I recall someone complaining that the youth of today were crazy to latch on to the word of rock stars rather than public officials. Well, when rock stars unite to raise money for victims of natural disasters, they manage to make waves. When public officials gather to decide the fate of the world, they manage only to make tsunamis. No, the youth are perfectly sane. Amid the cacophony or racket or rock and rap, they can still tell music from noise.
Updated 11:44pm (Mla time) Jan 09, 2005
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the January 10, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
A COUPLE of days before the crisis summit of world leaders in Indonesia, George W. Bush announced he was in the thick of a campaign to raise aid for the tsunami victims. Toward that end, he said, he had appointed the last two former presidents, his father George Bush and immediate predecessor Bill Clinton, to lead the effort to collect private donations. Bush urged Americans to help. "In this situation, cash donations are most useful, and I've asked the former presidents to solicit contributions both large and small."
Clinton added: "Between public and private commitments now, we're up to about $3 billion."
Well, it's good that the United States has joined the world in trying to defuse what the United Nations calls the worst humanitarian crisis ever in modern times. The magnitude of the devastation is mind-boggling, and so is the scale of relief work that needs to be done to overcome it. Better late than never. But Bush's strenuous effort to raise funds for the victims of the disaster merely draws attention to the things he can easily do-to help not just the current victims but the future ones as well; the latter, by making sure they do not become so at all.
The first, and most obvious, is to cut down on arms spending. Nothing more shows the epic scale of human folly than that hunger and deprivation persist amid the wanton waste of precious resources, which is deliberately done simply to increase the destructive capabilities of nations, America's above all. The human species is the most intelligent among the species ever to walk this earth, yet it is at the same time the dumbest. Some members of the species more than others, the current US president chief among the latter.
Compare the $3 billion three American presidents together have so far raised from public and private American sources with this: the world spends the most for arms, currently $950 billion per year. The figures for seven years ago, 1998, show the kind of skewed priorities we have. That year, the world spent $780 billion for arms and $13 billion for basic health and nutrition for everyone in the world. The lowest item in the rung was basic education for everyone in the world, which was only $6 billion. Americans and Europeans spent more to feed their pets-$17 billion-than they did to give water to the thirsty; expenditure for water and sanitation for everyone in the world was only $9 billion.
The United States accounts for close to one-half of the world's arms expenditure.
The US military request for 2005 is $420.7 billion. Last year, its budget was $399.1 billion and the year before that, $396.1 billion. It is 29 times bigger than the combined spending for arms of all the "rogue countries" (Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria), which is $14.4 billion. That is certainly more than 29 times bigger than the combined spending of the UN and all its agencies, which is $10 billion. All this while the UN faced a financial crisis over the past decade and was forced to cut back on its humanitarian work because members have not paid their dues, the United States chief of them: it owes the UN $762 million, nearly half (48 percent) of standing dues ($1.6 billion).
Last year in a televised speech, Bush said he was seeking $87 billion for Iraq, a sum to be used to put down all resistance to the most brazen act of occupation to have taken place in postcolonial times.
He wants to help? Easy. Get out of Iraq and cut back on arms.
The second is just as easy. At least from a rational perspective, which is, however, the perspective that George W seems resolved to fight to the bitter end. That is for him to sign the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol puts into action the recommendations of the Rio Summit of 1992, notably the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 to levels 5 percent below 1990. The industrialized countries, chiefly the United States, account for 55 percent of those emissions. Last November, Russia, one of the last holdouts, signed the Protocol, leaving only the United States and Australia out in the cold. The greenhouse gas emissions are believed to be the single biggest cause of global warming over the last couple of decades. Scientists predict that as global warming worsens, we will see tsunamis regularly engulfing various parts of the world.
In 1992, George W's father rejected the Rio Summit. Ten years later, in 2002, George W not only did not attend the Johannesburg meeting, he tried to block the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. Mark Townsend explains why: "An estimated 5,000 pro-business lobbyists, led by US interests, chorused the message that the status quo is adequate. A leaked letter to President George Bush, signed by 31 groups, including Republican Party lobbyists, some of them linked to oil giant Exxon Mobil, warned that such issues could prove destructive to domestic interests."
At Johannesburg, the US delegation also fought the European proposal to generate energy from renewable sources such as the sun, sea and wind. According to the UN, the US consumption of energy has jumped 21 percent and its greenhouse gas emissions have gone up 13 percent in the last 10 years.
Bush wants to help? Easy. Sign the Kyoto Protocol and join the rest of the world in saving the planet. That way, there won't be many more victims of tsunamis to help.
Some years ago, I recall someone complaining that the youth of today were crazy to latch on to the word of rock stars rather than public officials. Well, when rock stars unite to raise money for victims of natural disasters, they manage to make waves. When public officials gather to decide the fate of the world, they manage only to make tsunamis. No, the youth are perfectly sane. Amid the cacophony or racket or rock and rap, they can still tell music from noise.
posted by Dante at 8:18 PM
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