6*
L A CKAMA Priait
January 26, 2005
Commenta
Face Off:
Has America done enough to help tsunami victims?
U.S. financial contributions to
tsunami victims is insufficient
Student Po
How goes fin®
aid?
Our country has been generous;
it’s time to look at our own needs
Jacob Ray
Elizabeth Tobey
The Clackamas Print
The Clackamas Print
Granted we sent some money
Only a month ago we witnessed
perhaps the worst natural disaster of over too. We even raised the amount
our time, but it appears that provid from $35 million to $350 million
ing aid is not a top priority for the after criticism that the original
amount was, well, not even close
United States.
Immediately following the hor to enough.
“[It] gave the wrong impression
rific earthquake and tsunami in the
Indian Ocean countries around the to the rest of the world,” Sen..
world, individuals and various relief Patrick Leahy said.
Perhaps $350 million is enough
organizations began working to pro
vide aid to the victims. That work to buy a better impression, but it
continues and is far from complete. doesn’t come close to providing
Yet in the United States our finan relief to five million victims.
cial focus already seems to be else
It is estimated that emergency
where.
aid will require just shy of $2 bil
We have witnessed the most lion. Rebuilding efforts will need
extravagant and heavily guarded more than that.
presidential inauguration in history.
As a country that prides itself on
With everything that is happen being one of the most powerful and
ing in the world around us, our influential in the world, we ought
government chose to put their time to be able to contribute a little more
and money into a celebration. It’s a than $350 million. Other countries
choice that was made despite much certainly are.
Japan has pledged $500 million
criticism.
“Precedent suggests that inau and intends to send more. Germany
gural festivities should be muted pledged $651 million. Australia
if not canceled in wartime,” said topped it all, promising a $764 mil
Rep. Anthony Weiner in a letter to lion aid package, more than twice
President Bush last week.
what the United Stated has offered..
But unfortunately, like planning i
In another letter, eight congres
sional democrats stated that the an expensive inauguration during a
inauguration was causing an unfair time of natural disaster, Bush shows
financial burden on the District of us time and again that his priorities
Columbia.
are not oh a global level.
This celebration cost so much
Just a few weeks before the
that money was taken out of our tsunami hit, Bush made the deci
Federal Homeland Security Fund to sion to cut our 2005 contribution
pay for it.
to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
We redirected government Tuberculosis and Malaria. The fund
spending to provide amenities such is currently one of the organizations
as bottled water, box lunches and hard at work providing relief to the
granola bars for the extra security tsunami victims and they have no
officials who will be on duty.
financial support from us.
Approximately five million peo
Out of the 22 wealthiest nations
ple have had their homes, families in the world, the United States ranks
and lives taken from them by the 19 for overall foreign aid giving.
tsunami. They are fighting disease And now we are buying box lunches
and hunger while they try to rebuild instead of helping to rebuild a coun
what they have lost, and the United try.
States is buying granola bars for
We may be rich, but we need to
learn how to share.
police officers.
Another natural disaster hap
pens and of course America jumps
in to save the day,
I’m talking about the tsuna
mi that hit southeastern Asia last
month, quite possibly the worst
natural disaster to happen in this
young decade. Americans, being
the nice people we are, just rolled
our sleeves up and dove right in.
On top of the $350 million
of the taxpayers’ money that the
government decided to contrib
ute, it seems like every charity
ip America has a tsunami relief
raBL
Tjherf there ate the private
donations, and I don’t know if it’s
just me OTt it really scares me to
see both. Because of this, it has
somehow been imposed that we,
as Americans, owe it to ourselves
to help out. I mean, I’m not trying
to downplay the devastation of the
tsunami, but this country already
has enough problems of its own,
so why should wc be worrying
about other countries’ problems?
Well we do have a “knack”
for “helping” other countries, but
that’s another story. The national
debt is somewhere around $7 tril-
lion dollars (and growing by $2
billion dollars per day), this coun
try is at war, the unemployment
rate is at an average of five-and-a-
half percent, one out of six people
in Oregon don’t have health cov
erage, and we’re expected to give
away money to help rebuild other
countries when ours isn’t doing
too well?
People are donating money to
this cause who would just walk by
a bum on the street.
There is a lot of money donated
to the relief effort and I think that
is awesome. But with the contri
bution from the government, the
charities, donations from celebri
ties, and the $15 I donated, I’m
starting to think America is donat
ing the most.
The Washington Post notes that
the current amount committed for
tsunami relief and reconstruction
is about 4 to 5 percent of the $70
billion that was spent on all for
eign aid last year by governments
and multilateral agencies such as
the World Bank.
“That’s pretty big, so I think
there is reason to believe that
maybe at least some of this
money could be productively
used elsewhere,”- said Steven
Radelet, a senior fellow at the
Center for Global Development,
a Washington think tank, who
warned that “there is a real poten
tial here for [the tsunami dona
tions] to squeeze other aid, par
ticularly in the U.S. foreign aid
budget.”
Now I know that just a cou
ple hundred million is not even
close to enough to build back up
those countries hit by the tsunami,
but that is more than enough to
give to another country. I mean,
Florida got hit with three—yes,
three— hurricanes in a month, and
I didn’t see a worldwide effort to
help out. Yes, there is a difference
between the hurricanes and the
tsunami, but it’s just the thought.
It’s a shame about the destruc
tion and fatalities caused by the
tsunami and my prayers go out
to all those affected. My whole
point is just that, yes, we are
doing enough to help out, which
is great, but we must draw the line
somewhere.
This whole thing has shown
that as a country we are very
generous; now it’s time to use
that generosity to help out the less
fortunate of this country that we
so dearly love.
“I just got the form am
need to fill it out.’
Rosaline Worslr
“Once we got it, it was
But it took it a billion y
get there.” J
Christina Boon
Regulation of violent media violates rights
N.P. Delzell
The Clackamas Print
“The Constitution is a fig
ment of your imagination, held
up to make people believe they
have rights,” said Ice T, con
troversial rapper/actor. “I don’t
believe anybody in this country
has rights.”
Media violence is only a
problem when it is takeh the
wrong way. If conservatives
start messing around with the
independent media, they will
be infringing our first amend
ment rights, just like my boy
Ice stated.
Ice gained mass popularity
with his hardcore band Body
Count after dropping the single
“Cop Killer” in the early ‘90s.
Ice has been involved in a num
ber of right-wing attacks since
then, and he has said a number
of times that his song in no way
advocates the killing of a police
officer; it’s a song he wrote
after watching the Rodney King
beating, which was flossed all
over mainstream prime time
news.
Society needs people like Ice
to show ignorant, uninformed
people that violence is real. It
makes the world go around.
Violence is in no way a good
thing but it will always be here.
People who are influenced
to act out in a violent t^ay after
watching television, playing
video games, and listening to
music have issues that go way
beyond violent media.
According to www.gatnes-
pot.com, the Federal Trade
Commission reported that par
ents are involved in minors’
video game purchases 83 per
cent of the time, and the U.S.
Court of Appeals released a
statement regarding legislature
of this nature.
“We do not mean to deni
grate the government’s role in
supporting parents, or the right
of parents to control their chil
dren’s exposure to graphically
violent materials,” the state
ment says. “We merely hold that
the government cannot silence
protected speech by wrapping
itself in the cloak of paren
tal authority ... To accept the
county’s broadly drawn interest
as a compelling one would be to
invite legislatures to undermine
the First Amendment rights of
minors willy-nilly under the
guise of promoting parental
authority.”
I don’t care if it’s a song
or a video game that has peo
ple in an uproar. This assault
on peoples’ basic freedoms is
whack. If society gave a dang
about real-world issues, no one
would care about fictional vio
lent video games and songs.
We are a world at war and
these “violent” video games and
songs don’t cause violence, a
violent world causes violence.
If society puts the potato on the
barrel and silences violent forms
of media, the First Amendment
will be sacrificed.
“This quarter sucks bee
didn’t get any.”
Jesse Freegrai\
“Ridiculously
slooooooooooooow..
Samantha Cod
This week’s poll compile
the,
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