Yesterday, in response to the administration’s announcement that the United States was donating $15 million to the relief efforts after the weekend’s devastation in Asia, one high-profile U.N. official described us as “stingy.”
But U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland suggested that the United States and other Western nations were being “stingy” with relief funds…. “It is beyond me why are we so stingy, really,” the Norwegian-born U.N. official told reporters. “Christmastime should remind many Western countries at least, [of] how rich we have become.”
Considering that the White House had announced a $40 million price tag to throw the president a party next month, the criticism was not entirely unfounded.
Less than a day later, the aid package more than doubled.
The U.S. Agency for International Development prepared Tuesday to add $20 million to an initial $15 million contribution for Asian earthquake relief as Secretary of State Colin Powell bristled at a United Nations official’s suggestion that the United States has been “stingy.”
Who says the Bush administration is unresponsive to criticism?