Punda Malidadi

Friday, January 07, 2005

You go, Germany

Now, I am not a big fan of nationalism, which might have to do with the fact that I come from a country where nationalism has been very actively discouraged for about 60 years now, but this needs to be said: Germany pledged 500 Million Euros for the Tsunami victims, and thus is the single biggest donator, beating both other large leading economies (the United States and Japan) by far.

500 million Euros, that is roughly CAD $ 803 million(today's exchange rate): ten times the amount Canada pledged, and about $10 per German citizen, not including the 200 million Euros($CAD 320 million) in private and business donations. Canada gave $ 2.50 per citizen.

German people pledged 40 million Euros during one single fundraiser TV show. German Formula1 race car driver and World champion Michael Schumacher donated 7.5 million Euros of his own money. My mom donated 100 Euros.

Now, let me tell you that I would never have expected to ever feel so proud of my country.

You go, cocitizens! I am going to donate first thing tomorrow.

posted by Catrin

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous wrote:
[2:34 AM, January 08, 2005]
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/asia_earthquake/numbers.html
Anonymous Anonymous wrote:
[8:00 PM, January 08, 2005]
Crikey, somebody's conceited. It has relevant information for Catrin, not you.
Blogger Catrin wrote:
[6:13 PM, January 09, 2005]
Yes, an hour or so after I made that post I realized that Australia was actually at the top of the list. So I am taking that back. It's really funny though how I actually looked up exact population numbers and then calculated the per capita amount myself, when it was right there on the internet.
Blogger Heather wrote:
[9:20 PM, January 10, 2005]
I love how this tsunami aid has turned into a huge dick measuring contest. Mine is bigger than yours! na na na na na. (I'm not jabbing at you Catrin, I just mean in general)
I was certainly surprised at Canada upping it to $425 million today. Not that I am not impressed by how much nations like Germany a nd Candada are giving, but that seems to be the news now...it's not about the disaster any more it is about how much the west is giving. Or how much they can out-do eachother. If only some of this money could go to other regions that need it just as desperately.

I also heard that a portion of the money donated by Austrailia is the form of loans. A lot of these donations will be spent over the next few years though, which means that reconstruction won't be a huge burden to those effected countries...That is a relief.

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