Well.. I would have hoped this administration would at least put aside partisan and international bickering over this enormous tsunami disaster.. but alas, it was too much to ask for. Apparently stung by domestic and some UN criticism over being "stingy" (although that was never directed at the USA, but more at rich nations in general).. the officials in the administration have tried to deflect this by saying that overall they have done a better job then France has and that France doesnt do much and hasnt done much for aid
One-upping the United States, France nearly doubled its aid pledge for tsunami victims to $57 million Thursday and briefly claimed the role as leading donor nation, following barbs from Washington about French generosity.
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's boast that France vaulted to "the head of all the contributors" appeared to be a response to comments from Andrew Natsios, chief of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which distributes American government 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 are inappropriate in emergencies.
"The aid program in France is not that big," he said. "They do not tend to be dominant figures in the aid. The British are, the European Union is, the Japanese are, we are, the Canadians are."
At France's Foreign Ministry, spokesman Herve Ladsous shot back that French aid for the tsunami victims "is clearly donations and not loans." Ladsous also said France gives more development aid than the United States and all other members of the Group of Eight industrial nations when measured as a proportion of a country's economic output.
"The figures speak for themselves," he said.
France allotted .41 percent of its gross national income to development aid in 2003, nearly triple the .15 percent from the United States, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
France doubles aid for Asian Disaster
(France's leading role was quickly took over by Britain, who upped their donation to 95 million US, and Sweden, who upped their contribution to 75 million US.)
I wish this administration would STOP PLAYING POLITICS AND TRYING TO SCORE POLITICAL POINTS over the world's greatest natural disaster... this is 9/11 40 times over!
Update [2004-12-30 15:26:37 by tribe34]: France President Jacques Chirac has indicated his support to a German proposal yesterday to temporarily forgive debt that some of the SE asian countries such as Indonesia owe to Western European countries.
