Warning: mktime() [
function.mktime]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in
/usr/home/meconlen/eediots/wp-includes/functions.php on line
29
Warning: date() [
function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in
/usr/home/meconlen/eediots/wp-includes/functions.php on line
31
Warning: date() [
function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in
/usr/home/meconlen/eediots/wp-includes/functions.php on line
32
Warning: mktime() [
function.mktime]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in
/usr/home/meconlen/eediots/wp-includes/functions.php on line
29
Warning: date() [
function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in
/usr/home/meconlen/eediots/wp-includes/functions.php on line
31
Warning: date() [
function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in
/usr/home/meconlen/eediots/wp-includes/functions.php on line
32
Warning: mktime() [
function.mktime]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in
/usr/home/meconlen/eediots/wp-includes/functions.php on line
29
Warning: date() [
function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in
/usr/home/meconlen/eediots/wp-includes/functions.php on line
31
Warning: date() [
function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in
/usr/home/meconlen/eediots/wp-includes/functions.php on line
32
1/9/2005
It’s been fascinating to watch the political and media wrangling in the wake of the tsunami. America’s efforts were described as stingy, an accusation that I’ve seen repeated recently in the traditional media. It’s time to debunk some of the myths.
The US government has initiall allocated $350 million in an aid package. This would seem, at first glance, to be a small amount of money when compared to the $764 million promised by Australia, the $690M by Germany, and $500M from Japan. But let’s examine the real numbers. The $350 million in aid being promised by the US doesn’t count military spending, which was estimated on the 5th of January to be $6M a day, and expected to increase as more ships, aircraft, and personell move into the area. That’s $42 million a week, or more than $80 million since the tsunami first rolled ashore in Banda Aceh. And that’s just the money spent by one branch of the US military to provide humanitarian aid, the Navy. There are millions more spent by the US Army and the Air Force, which has been flying supplies to the aire non-stop since day one on a variety of aircraft, such as the C-130, the C-17, and the huge C-5 Galaxy. Let’s look at the $500M offered by Japan. There’s a clause in that grant…that states that they can only have that money if they spend it buying Japanese goods and services. Hardly an aid package, rather a taxpayer funded boost to the Japanese economy disguised as disaster relief.
Let’s examine the UN’s involvement in the disaster relief efforts. The UN has claimed all along that they should be in charge of coordinating the response to the disaster. One UN staffer even had the audacity to claim that the UN was the only organization with the moral authority to respond to this disaster. Moral authority? Excuse me? On Jan. 3, as this blog reports, the UN’s primary concern was coordinating 24 hour catering for the meetings they were having at a 5-star hotel removed from the real action. No UN peacekeepers, no UN aid workers, no UN supplies…the real work, on the ground, in the disaster area, saving lives, is being done is by the US, Australian, and Singaporean military and aid workers. It appears that nobody in the area really expects, or even wants, the UN to be involved. Perhaps because they don’t want their women and children raped by UN “Peacekeepers".