cheeni

I've been blogging the last few days at Tsunami Warning Tracker. This is the first time I've seriously used Blogger.com's services, and I have to admit the user-interface is unparalleled.

The scale of the loss, and the sort of near brush with the Tsunami that Madras has had, has left quite a bitter after-taste to the New Year. Of course the world remains just as harsh a place, the politicians and capitalists didn't waste time in making the most of the situation. The Asian countries will be soon expected to pay for an over-priced white elephant in the form of a Tsunami early warning system that they can ill-afford. Naturally the saviors due west will expect the some thanks for their self-less services.

Time and again we hear sound bites from the man on Pennsylvania Avenue that leave my jaw hanging - he's nobody's fool, that man. He deftly claims that the USA gives 40% of all humanitarian aid in the world. Hmm...Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering ?

The Times said most Americans were under the impression, from recent polls, that the United States spends 24 percent of its budget on aid to poor countries; it actually spends well under a quarter of 1 percent, the newspaper said.