I read about the American leadership in the tragedy in Japan was ashamed. Here we are the richest country in the world and they are our friend and ally. Yet our contributions are dwarfed by countries like Thailand. We should be leading by sending money, personnel, food and other basics. Yet our contributions are paltry.
For example, compare these two contributions from the Reuters article:
*UNITED STATES
"The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan has arrived in Japan to assist relief efforts. More U.S. warships arrived off the coast on Sunday.
-- The U.S. embassy in Tokyo has provided an initial $100,000 in immediate disaster relief assistance, and Washington is ready to provide any additional help requested.
-- The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) that includes disaster response and nuclear experts, and urban search and rescue teams, comprising 144 people and 12 dogs to help find survivors. "
Wow, a whole $100,000 in contributions. I am so proud, not! Now look what Thailand has done:
THAILAND
"The cabinet has allocated 200 million baht ($6.58 million) to buy warm clothes, gloves, rubber boots, instant food and other goods to be sent to Japan in the next day or two. It will also send 15,000 tonnes of rice.
-- A first medical team leaves on Monday night, including two doctors and a nurse. They will primarily be taking care of about 500 to 600 Thai people in quake-hit Sendai, northeastern Japan. Thailand has another 17-staff medical team ready to go."
Thailand has significantly less assets than America, is not a leader of the free world and yet they are far more generous than the United States. Where is our leadership? Oh, I forgot our leadership could not even address the Gulf Oil Spill until members of his own party demanded that he take action.
We must be leaders of the world, not spectators. It is in times like this that true leaders show what they are made of. Whether it is Lincoln, Roosevelt, Churchill or Reagan, when the times get tough, true leaders emerge. It is time for Obama to take off the training wheels and get on his big boy bike and start leading the troop. Otherwise, it will prove to other countries that the United States is no longer the leader of the free world.
The attached Reuters article itemizes what other countries are contributing. Are you as displeased as I am?
Factbox: Aid and rescue offers for Japan quake
(Reuters) – An international rescue effort to help Japan seek survivors of a massive earthquake and tsunami and address a nuclear crisis is gathering pace, with around 100 countries offering assistance.
Japan's government has received offers for assistance from 91 countries, and has accepted assistance from about 15 based on assessed needs, mostly for specialized international urban search and rescue (USAR) teams and medical teams.
Following is a list of aid offers:
AFGHANISTAN
The southern Afghan city of Kandahar announced it was donating $50,000.
AUSTRALIA
Sent a 72-strong urban search and rescue team, including sniffer dogs, to Miyagi prefecture. A wide-body C-17 military transport is also providing airlift support, helping move fresh water, Japanese troops and equipment to the quake-zone.
The government has also offered field hospitals and victim identification specialists.
BRITAIN
Sent fire brigade search and rescue specialists and equipment including heavy lifting and cutting equipment consisting of 64 personnel and two dogs, and said it would send nuclear physicists if requested.
*CHINA
A 15-member rescue team arrived in Japan on Sunday, state news agency Xinhua said, bringing with them four tonnes of equipment for search and rescue operations, including their own power supply and telecommunications. It said it was ready to provide more aid.
-- The government has donated 30 million yuan ($4.56 million) of relief supplies to Japan, the first batch of which has already left Shanghai, including quilts and tents.
-- Health Minister Chen Zu said China is ready to send whatever medical aid is need to Japan at a moment's notice, Xinhua news agency said.
- Premier Wen Jiabao said on Monday Beijing stood willing to offer further help.
-- China's Red Cross Society has donated another 5 million yuan ($761,200) in emergency aid to its Japanese counterpart, the official Xinhua news agency said. The group has already donated 1 million yuan to Japan following the quake.
FRANCE
France has sent a search and rescue team consisting of 134 personnel.
GERMANY
Germany has sent a search and rescue team consisting of 41 personnel and three dogs.
HUNGARY
Hungary's emergency authority said it had offered a 16-member crew as part of the International Response Assistance Network (RANET) programme to check radiation and do medical advisory work in seven monitoring teams.
INDIA
Is ready to send search and rescue teams and relief material to help during rehabilitation and reconstruction. The navy is on standby to send its ships to Japan.
INDONESIA
Will send 15 search and rescue personnel with experience in the Haiti quake as well as blankets, mattresses, water tanks and bottled water in emergency aid to Japan.
LITHUANIA
Lithuania's state fire and rescue service said it was ready to offer up to 32 rescuers, including three with search dogs and three paramedics. Lithuania coordinates assistance via the European Union.
MALAYSIA
Will send a team of more than 50 search and rescue personnel to Japan on to assist with rescue efforts. The team will carry equipment such as aid material, medicine and five tracker dogs.
MONGOLIA
Has donated $1 million and 2,500 woolen blankets, and has offered to send up to 300 soldiers to help with relief efforts, the country's Montsame news agency said.
NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand has sent a search and rescue help team consisting of 65 personnel.
RUSSIA
Russia's state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, said it had offered to help in responding to the problems at Japanese nuclear plants if necessary. Russia sent 75 rescuers on Sunday to work in quake-affected areas, the Emergencies Ministry said.
SLOVAKIA
Prime Minister Iveta Radicova told parliament that Slovakia had 250,000 euros ready for Japan, but will coordinate with other EU states. Radicova said Japan had asked not to send rescue workers until they have a general idea how to proceed. Slovaks have 25 rescue workers ready.
SOUTH KOREA
A 102-member South Korean rescue team departed for Fukushima, where the stricken nuclear plant is located, on Monday aboard three air force C-130 planes. A further 100 rescue workers are on standby to go to Japan. An advance team of five rescue workers and two search dogs have been in Japan since Saturday.
SRI LANKA
Announced $1 million aid and a military relief team with medical assistance to be dispatched to Japan.
TAIWAN
A 28-member team of rescue specialists left for Tokyo on Monday. The team contains some specialists who worked in Christchurch, New Zealand, which was hit by a quake in February. It has sent its first batch of supplies, including clothing, blankets and food, and will start shipping heaters.
*UNITED STATES
The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan has arrived in Japan to assist relief efforts. More U.S. warships arrived off the coast on Sunday.
-- The U.S. embassy in Tokyo has provided an initial $100,000 in immediate disaster relief assistance, and Washington is ready to provide any additional help requested.
-- The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) that includes disaster response and nuclear experts, and urban search and rescue teams, comprising 144 people and 12 dogs to help find survivors.
VIETNAM
Will provide $200,000 in quake/tsunami aid. the Vietnamese Red Cross will give an initial $50,000 via the Japanese Red Cross, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said.
OTHER BODIES:
-- Technical assistance teams have been deployed from the Turkish Red Crescent, Switzerland Humanitarian Aid Response Team, Canadian Medical Assistance Team, Save the Children and Plan International. Initial observations from the MSF assessment teams that deployed to Miyagi prefecture indicate the need for food, blankets and water in Sendai City. Telecoms sans Frontiers (TSF) is providing emergency telecommunications assistance from Tokyo.
-- Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) currently has a team of 10 people divided into three teams conducting mobile clinics and assessments in Miyagi prefecture.
-- The U.N's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says on its website that an emergency rescue and relief operation under way in northeast Japan continues to be hampered by high magnitude aftershocks.
($1=30.38 Baht) Sources: Reuters/www.reliefweb.int/UN/MSF (Reporting by Reuters bureaux, compiled by World Desk Asia and David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)
For example, compare these two contributions from the Reuters article:
*UNITED STATES
"The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan has arrived in Japan to assist relief efforts. More U.S. warships arrived off the coast on Sunday.
-- The U.S. embassy in Tokyo has provided an initial $100,000 in immediate disaster relief assistance, and Washington is ready to provide any additional help requested.
-- The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) that includes disaster response and nuclear experts, and urban search and rescue teams, comprising 144 people and 12 dogs to help find survivors. "
Wow, a whole $100,000 in contributions. I am so proud, not! Now look what Thailand has done:
THAILAND
"The cabinet has allocated 200 million baht ($6.58 million) to buy warm clothes, gloves, rubber boots, instant food and other goods to be sent to Japan in the next day or two. It will also send 15,000 tonnes of rice.
-- A first medical team leaves on Monday night, including two doctors and a nurse. They will primarily be taking care of about 500 to 600 Thai people in quake-hit Sendai, northeastern Japan. Thailand has another 17-staff medical team ready to go."
Thailand has significantly less assets than America, is not a leader of the free world and yet they are far more generous than the United States. Where is our leadership? Oh, I forgot our leadership could not even address the Gulf Oil Spill until members of his own party demanded that he take action.
We must be leaders of the world, not spectators. It is in times like this that true leaders show what they are made of. Whether it is Lincoln, Roosevelt, Churchill or Reagan, when the times get tough, true leaders emerge. It is time for Obama to take off the training wheels and get on his big boy bike and start leading the troop. Otherwise, it will prove to other countries that the United States is no longer the leader of the free world.
The attached Reuters article itemizes what other countries are contributing. Are you as displeased as I am?
Factbox: Aid and rescue offers for Japan quake
(Reuters) – An international rescue effort to help Japan seek survivors of a massive earthquake and tsunami and address a nuclear crisis is gathering pace, with around 100 countries offering assistance.
Japan's government has received offers for assistance from 91 countries, and has accepted assistance from about 15 based on assessed needs, mostly for specialized international urban search and rescue (USAR) teams and medical teams.
Following is a list of aid offers:
AFGHANISTAN
The southern Afghan city of Kandahar announced it was donating $50,000.
AUSTRALIA
Sent a 72-strong urban search and rescue team, including sniffer dogs, to Miyagi prefecture. A wide-body C-17 military transport is also providing airlift support, helping move fresh water, Japanese troops and equipment to the quake-zone.
The government has also offered field hospitals and victim identification specialists.
BRITAIN
Sent fire brigade search and rescue specialists and equipment including heavy lifting and cutting equipment consisting of 64 personnel and two dogs, and said it would send nuclear physicists if requested.
*CHINA
A 15-member rescue team arrived in Japan on Sunday, state news agency Xinhua said, bringing with them four tonnes of equipment for search and rescue operations, including their own power supply and telecommunications. It said it was ready to provide more aid.
-- The government has donated 30 million yuan ($4.56 million) of relief supplies to Japan, the first batch of which has already left Shanghai, including quilts and tents.
-- Health Minister Chen Zu said China is ready to send whatever medical aid is need to Japan at a moment's notice, Xinhua news agency said.
- Premier Wen Jiabao said on Monday Beijing stood willing to offer further help.
-- China's Red Cross Society has donated another 5 million yuan ($761,200) in emergency aid to its Japanese counterpart, the official Xinhua news agency said. The group has already donated 1 million yuan to Japan following the quake.
FRANCE
France has sent a search and rescue team consisting of 134 personnel.
GERMANY
Germany has sent a search and rescue team consisting of 41 personnel and three dogs.
HUNGARY
Hungary's emergency authority said it had offered a 16-member crew as part of the International Response Assistance Network (RANET) programme to check radiation and do medical advisory work in seven monitoring teams.
INDIA
Is ready to send search and rescue teams and relief material to help during rehabilitation and reconstruction. The navy is on standby to send its ships to Japan.
INDONESIA
Will send 15 search and rescue personnel with experience in the Haiti quake as well as blankets, mattresses, water tanks and bottled water in emergency aid to Japan.
LITHUANIA
Lithuania's state fire and rescue service said it was ready to offer up to 32 rescuers, including three with search dogs and three paramedics. Lithuania coordinates assistance via the European Union.
MALAYSIA
Will send a team of more than 50 search and rescue personnel to Japan on to assist with rescue efforts. The team will carry equipment such as aid material, medicine and five tracker dogs.
MONGOLIA
Has donated $1 million and 2,500 woolen blankets, and has offered to send up to 300 soldiers to help with relief efforts, the country's Montsame news agency said.
NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand has sent a search and rescue help team consisting of 65 personnel.
RUSSIA
Russia's state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, said it had offered to help in responding to the problems at Japanese nuclear plants if necessary. Russia sent 75 rescuers on Sunday to work in quake-affected areas, the Emergencies Ministry said.
SLOVAKIA
Prime Minister Iveta Radicova told parliament that Slovakia had 250,000 euros ready for Japan, but will coordinate with other EU states. Radicova said Japan had asked not to send rescue workers until they have a general idea how to proceed. Slovaks have 25 rescue workers ready.
SOUTH KOREA
A 102-member South Korean rescue team departed for Fukushima, where the stricken nuclear plant is located, on Monday aboard three air force C-130 planes. A further 100 rescue workers are on standby to go to Japan. An advance team of five rescue workers and two search dogs have been in Japan since Saturday.
SRI LANKA
Announced $1 million aid and a military relief team with medical assistance to be dispatched to Japan.
TAIWAN
A 28-member team of rescue specialists left for Tokyo on Monday. The team contains some specialists who worked in Christchurch, New Zealand, which was hit by a quake in February. It has sent its first batch of supplies, including clothing, blankets and food, and will start shipping heaters.
*UNITED STATES
The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan has arrived in Japan to assist relief efforts. More U.S. warships arrived off the coast on Sunday.
-- The U.S. embassy in Tokyo has provided an initial $100,000 in immediate disaster relief assistance, and Washington is ready to provide any additional help requested.
-- The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) that includes disaster response and nuclear experts, and urban search and rescue teams, comprising 144 people and 12 dogs to help find survivors.
VIETNAM
Will provide $200,000 in quake/tsunami aid. the Vietnamese Red Cross will give an initial $50,000 via the Japanese Red Cross, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said.
OTHER BODIES:
-- Technical assistance teams have been deployed from the Turkish Red Crescent, Switzerland Humanitarian Aid Response Team, Canadian Medical Assistance Team, Save the Children and Plan International. Initial observations from the MSF assessment teams that deployed to Miyagi prefecture indicate the need for food, blankets and water in Sendai City. Telecoms sans Frontiers (TSF) is providing emergency telecommunications assistance from Tokyo.
-- Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) currently has a team of 10 people divided into three teams conducting mobile clinics and assessments in Miyagi prefecture.
-- The U.N's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says on its website that an emergency rescue and relief operation under way in northeast Japan continues to be hampered by high magnitude aftershocks.
($1=30.38 Baht) Sources: Reuters/www.reliefweb.int/UN/MSF (Reporting by Reuters bureaux, compiled by World Desk Asia and David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)
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