Just curious what our standards are nowadays?!

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Nobody said

"Where's Saudi Arabia? Where's Kuwait? Where's Russia? Where's China?"

No they said

"Where's the United States?, And why haven't they given us more money?"

I've got before and after sat photos on ICX (one of the guys posted them) And the devastation is severe. The tragedy is horrendous.

Thing is, (go ahead and blast me because I really will desearve it) Unless things of this nature and magnitude happen from time to time, the earth would have trouble sustaining the amount of life on this planet.

The flu pandemic of 1918 killed over 20 million people (including my Great Grand Mother) This was but a pimple on the gnat buzzing around the fly on the.... well you get my drift.

Anyway, terrible as this was? Shit happened and this time it happened to people elsewhere. Somehow different if it's a natural disaster as opposed to a malicious attack in my eyes. Not ultimately (for the people effected) but you know what I mean.

Sad, terrible, tragic

What is there to say? The ten year old British girl who is credited with saving over 100 lives is a pretty good story. The rest is juet more news about more death.

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quote:

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Nobody said
"Where's Saudi Arabia? Where's Kuwait? Where's Russia? Where's China?"
No they said
"Where's the United States?, And why haven't they given us more money?"

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Of course the muslim fundamentalists are saying that it was Allah's will and punishment for that part of the worlds partnerships (I'm supposing in a business sense) with the western world.

A lot of muslims in that part of the world yet Saudi gave what? 20 million? Kuwait 10? etc. so on and so forth. Hell aren't they thier brothers or something?

Yet the holy crusaders are expected to gives billions of dollars because we are so rich. Well I'm not sure anybody's noticed lately but don't we have the biggest deficit in history right now? (And no, we don't need to talk about the reasons for that. Give it a rest...the name need not be spoken in this thread. Not even one time. Period, not that I'm saying it's all his fault)

anyway, Personally, I can think of better places in the world where this should have happened if it had to happen at all.

The only real tragedy is the children. Hate is taught, you're not born with it. The innocent children. If not for them, I wouldn't give this thing another thought. Yeah I'm a bitter mean ole bastard. And just getting meaner with age.

I look at my kids (and the biggest damn issue of the day is who got to eat the last brownie bite) and I feel really sorry for the masses of children killed or left orphans.

I admit the parents of children lost have my sympathies as well regardless of thier political leanings (on a strictly parental level).

The thought of losing my kids makes me think dark evil thoughts. Wo be unto the individuals who cause it ot allow it to happen through inaction.

Natural disasters just suck. BUT it IS nature. Remember I'm not a religious man so I simply do not believ in God's (or Allah's) will. I think thats superstition idiocy.

Just my position so we don't need to dwell on that. To each of us our own.

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While I am sorry about the disaster over there I find myself feeling much the same as Dev. Assuming a linear trend over the last 50 years we will have 12 billion people on this planet by 2055. Yeah, how's that gonna work out? Whether we like it or not something's gotta give. Either the population has to stop growing at this alarming rate or more people are going to be killed in disasters such as this. I'm glad I don't live there, I'm glad I have no family that lives over there and I'm sorry that many people have lost their lives. There's nothing I can do about it other than pledge some money and hope that some corrupt charity doesn't abuse it. Other than that, fingers crossed it doesn't happen over here.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Mad Max:
What's more embarassing? The fact that the UK and the US had to be shamed into giving more money or the fact that a lot of the death could have been prevented with a $20mm early warning system? Whose fault is that?

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I don't think that the US was shamed into giving more money. We were being smart about it and looking at the big picture before we jumped in with it all. It would be dumb to give it all at once without knowing all the details.

In fact we are not done giving...

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Originally posted by Cacophonous:
I don't think that the US was shamed into giving more money. We were being smart about it and looking at the big picture before we jumped in with it all. It would be dumb to give it all at once without knowing all the details.

In fact we are not done giving...

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I'm just going by what I read. The first US pledge was $35mm then it went up to $350mm. A similar change in pledge was made by the UK - they went from 15mm UKP to 50mm UKP in the space of one day. What caused those changes to be made one might never know. As you know you have to be very careful in what you believe and what you don't. Anyway, both countries spent billions invading Iraq so, to quote one column, "It seems that when it comes to taking life, money is no consideration. When it comes to saving it, economic realities prevail." from here (which is not the same source as the "shaming" - I heard that on TV, CNN I think it was).

[ 01-05-2005: Message edited by: Mad Max ]

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I simply meant that if anything like this happened to the US, Canada, the UK...there would be a 200 post thread crying "oh the humanity" but not even a single "holy shit!". The only reference on this board to the tsunami was made by Mr. Harris.

I didn't hear anything about bitching about "where is the US". The only thing I heard was Americans, Canadians and Brits alike complaining about their own respective governments not being there fast enough. But the truth of the matter is, you cannot simply just dole out money. You cannot simply just deploy military personal for rescue, recovery and reconstruction. While this was a disaster, it must be handled like any other "project" and in order to properly perform "project management" you need to know the full scope.

And no I didn't take you original post out of context. Just took the opportunity to discuss the subject thats all

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I was simply shocked that nobody made mention of it for the holy shit factor....

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Let me twist this around and mention one difference. I think that if this incident did happen over here there would be people on the streets in some countries celebrating the fact, never mind thinking about putting their hand into their pockets to help.

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Let me twist this around and mention one difference. I think that if this incident did happen over here there would be people on the streets in some countries celebrating the fact, never mind thinking about putting their hand into their pockets to help.

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TSUNAMI NIGHT AT THE ROXY!!! $.25 DRINKS!!! LADIES GET IN FREE!!!

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You must also remember, there are 4000 Americans missing!! That potential loss of life makes it more significant than 9/11 so what more does it truly take to bring it home?

And for the record, I did not want to start anything with this thread. And you cannot say that the holidays were an excuse cause I can read dates....people WERE posting here over the holidays!

I was just making an inquiry and a few of you showed your prejudice! Bigots...

FUCK YOU!!! plain and simple. You know when asked an American doesn't even think of a Canadian as a foriegner. Hell the Brits really either.

Mexicans we do. Now why is that? But some fucking Canadians seem to be all critical of Americans, American policy, etc.

FUCK YOU snag Who the hell made you some kind of moral value police. Richard Nixon had it right in the 70s. "Fuck the poor"

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FUCK YOU!!!

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I never took acception to your president in this post. In fact, I applaude him. I took acception to you (and a couple others) and your (and their) piss poor attitude.

Thanks for showing your true colours though. Obviously you put on a facade of being respectable, intelligent and rational.

Just like Indonesia...Thailand...Sri Lanka...oh I see a trend!!

judgmental prick

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well, you guys ARE truly showing your ignorance. It is like an empty sentiment. Here your president is doing a massive PR campaign for a thuggish previous 4 years....trying to save face for America....talking about generosity of Americans....and here you guys are spitting out this bigotted bullshit!

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I remember watching video of people in Thailand dancing in the streets celebrating 9/11.

The space shuttle crash was celebrated as well in parts of the ME, Allah made it happen I heard chanted.

What did Charlie Sheen say?

SHE'S A FUCKING HUMAN BEING, MAN!

show some compassion rather than your digusting self-righteous rationalization to a biggoted opinion on something like this. The people over there are fucking human beings man! 4,000 Americans are missing over there. 150 Canadians. 140 Brits....and who knows how many from other allied countries that were simply there vacationing. It was not just the "Muslims" that are suffering! Hell, a vast majority of India is Hindu...they have done nothing to the US! But I assume you will probably then say "well, Hindus have done nothing FOR us"...or will it be "give them time and they will"?

You want people to stop dancing on the street when something bad happens to the US, then put that attitude behind you man. You can give money out the ass all you want but if you still come off as an asshole you will still be considered an asshole.

If you only do things out of expectations of reciprocation, unless the noble sentiment is there, you will be sadly disappointed.

As for not seeing any organized people celebrating in the US, no. You won't. But consider the cultrual, economic, political and military differences and you will maybe understand just a little bit that you cannot compare society here to society over there. YOU CAN'T!! And because you can't compare it, it does not give you one iota of an excuse to justify your lack of compassion!

And I would rather sound like I am speaking out my ass than to be considered heartless and uncompassionate.

And you think all americans are unfeeling because there were no posts made about the tsunami on a video game message board?

As much as I feel sorry for the people who have died, been injured, lost relatives and lost possessions, I don't feel the need to regurgitate everything I've said elsewhere on this forum.

You have absolutely no fucking idea what anyone on this board has done by way of offering assistance so posting the shite you have done above is really pathetic.

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How much have you personally donated so far, snag?

Or have you even dontated yet?

Or have all you done is create this thread?

A thread where you toss around statements like "PR"...

Well, currently there is an American carrier group over there with medical supplies, doctors and troops. I the carrier itself can generate around 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day. How's that for PR?

[ 01-06-2005: Message edited by: Mad Max ]

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Max, as for Jodi Jones...I don't know who that is, but that is what google is for....let me check...ok, a girl in the UK murdered. Sorry for not hearing about that one! A shame for sure. But not by any means a comparison. Second, I posted this thread 11 days after the fact. I was just posting because I noticed a lack of posts. On something of this magnitude it is unusual that there was NOTHING, and that is all I posted for. Just questioning where our standards lie. I mean, day 1 it is a holy shit thing...nobody posted about it. After 10 days, sure you get inundated. But I was suprised. THAT is why I posted. I never said I was the most caring individual. And I never said all of you were heartless bigots. Fuck, do you guys not know how to read? I was saying based on some comments "some" were bigots. And because those sentiments of "they would have danced in the streets if it happened to us" have not changed, neither has my opinion of the bigotry. The contributions of those on this boards here were not in question...it was the ATTITUDE some of the posters of this thread! And I don't think you to be heartless. And I understand where you come from with the US and UK being expected to do the right thing....but there are many other nations in this world that have the same expectation placed upon them. The US does not even have a peacekeeping force...whenever required the US enlists Canada. The difference is though the US has that "you are either with us or against us" attitude. It is black and white. No grey. Here or there. No in-between. That is where the trouble starts. The thing is Max, your comments DID bring about some deep-seeded opinions in some though and the refusal to acknowledge humanitarianism win over barbarism any day is what led to this.

Outrider, your compassion to me can be summed up as this:

quote:

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Let me twist this around and mention one difference. I think that if this incident did happen over here there would be people on the streets in some countries celebrating the fact, never mind thinking about putting their hand into their pockets to help.

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Tell me how with that someone would assess your compassion. You make reference to 1,000,000 children dying each year. Also an incredible tradgedy. But that is a chronic and systemic issue in which it happens over a large span of time. The reason so many people in Muslim countries are against the US is because the only presence they know of the US is their military presence. They have suffered under economic sanctions for years. An entire generation has needless grown up hungry as punishment for a dictator they never knew...and that dictator never suffered. Hell, he didn't even care his own people did. So you cannot expect all of those people who know no different because they weren't allowed to learn otherwise to suddenly bow down to your feet in addoration and praise. THEY DON'T KNOW ANY BETTER! It is like a kid...there comes a certain time in which punishments change. Toddlers do things you might find bad but you can't punish them like the 6 year old because the toddler didn't know better. It comes not only with maturation but with education.

Now you want to talk about Canada. Well, Canada has commited $80million. In contrast, Canada was 1/10 the population of the United States. We also have deployed DART (Disaster Assistance Response Team). With that team 24 Hercules aircraft with supplies. Thank you for your attempt to minimalize my country's efforts though.
You guys all took what I was saying the absolute wrong way....criticizing the US? Not in the least.

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So...how much have you personally donated so far, snag?

I've donated.

Have you?

.. or are you just some whinny internet bitch pointing a finger at me while your wallet stays in your pocket.

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Originally posted by Cacophonous:
Xan - Umm your barn door is open.

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Originally posted by Snag:
actually, my panties were never in a knot. And I have donated. Not bad for a guy who is unemployed right now living off his savings.

As for calling you a bigot, read your posts. That is like saying because I am of German descent, I am naturally a Nazi! You are narrow minded man. There are over a billion Muslims worldwide. How many danced in the streets. Tell me!

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Here your president is doing a massive PR campaign for a thuggish previous 4 years....trying to save face for America

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Explain how you've concluded I am a bigot??

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Let me twist this around and mention one difference. I think that if this incident did happen over here there would be people on the streets in some countries celebrating the fact, never mind thinking about putting their hand into their pockets to help.

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No where does MM use a blanket statement of a billion Muslims dancing in the streets.

Quit trying to act high and mighty. You're not better than anyone on this board.

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I apologize for getting pissed off everybody. I'm done now.

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Me too.

I blame MM.

j/k

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Originally posted by LordVader:
I donated $0.65 so far. (I was at starbucks, and put my change in what I thought was the tip jar...turned out to be a donation jar for the wave thingy)

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I brought up Mexico because I know Americans don't like Mexicans (at least you Texans).

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