Australia pledges $1billion in Tsunami Aid

great, 200 million a year that they aren't spending on our public health, education, roads etc.

this may sound harsh but the world has gone too far with this. In Australia the different states are fighting to see who can give the most money.

terrible when the goverment just cut finding to all manner of areas and raised university fees by up to 50%.

And american goverment should think about reacting to comments from other countries. did they not invade iraq when other countries said it was bad?

Try fees going from 20-30g, to 100-250g in some courses.

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I think that wether they announced this as one aid package or not, we would have ended up giving/spending that much anyway in the long run.

Dont think it isnt needed either. Most parts need complete rebuilding. Infrastructure is gone. Its going to cost alot more.

..i wonder if any other country is going to top that figure on a per capita basis, come on america, lets see u give 13 billion =)

America shouldn't donate a single dime.

We're not good enough to be the world's police, but apparently it is our financial responsibility to clean up disasters in other countries.

Yeah that makes no sense at all.

How much do we spend "helping people" by being the world's police? Hundreds of billions of dollars. We can help without conflict here and give them 385 million? That's what makes no sense.

No, nobody said your not good enough to be the worlds police. But nobody has asked you either to interfere and start dropping your bombs, and backing and arming coupes and other groups in countries all over the world either. Its your unwanted medling that pisses people off.

And Yare, like I said to that ignorant clk guy, if you dont like it, run for president and keep the USA out of world affairs(if you win).

And nobody will be able to match that per capita, because simple no other country with our population can afford to imo.

but it should still be pointed out that its a billion Australien dollers.
1 AUD = 0.758287 USD

Sure we should be spending more on health, education, roads, and many other things but surely at this time their need is greater than ours. Our relationship has been strained with Indonesia for some time now. From the reaction I'm seeing that is changing. Friendly relations with the countries around you are very valuable. I'm gratified to see that we are generous unlike some other countries that shall remain nameless.

We're helping another country by rebuilding infastructure, not by dropping bombs on it or shooting the locals. Anyone want to tell me ours isn't the more worthwhile expenditure?

"We're helping another country by rebuilding infastructure, not by dropping bombs on it or shooting the locals. Anyone want to tell me ours isn't the more worthwhile expenditure?"

Agreed.
But you also have military activity in Iraq.

Our military activity in Iraq currently consists of protecting our embassy there, and not that long ago we ran the Baghdad airport airtraffic controls. Plus we are helping train the Iraqi national guard.
The only combat our troops saw, was the SAS who went in before the invasion and took out scud sites that could hit places like Israel, they also found a few of Saddams stashed war planes.

Our military is also involved in Indonesia now. They are there helping distribute aid, setup hospitals, treat the wounded/injured, and we are even sending over heavy earthmoving machinery and army engineers who will be restoring infrastructure, for example drainage and roads.

http://www.aftonbladet.se, Swedish, but the list is understandable.

Haven't donated anything yet. Lots of people are donating for the eastern asia disaster. I think I'll donate for Sudan/darfur instead. Africa is all too forgotten.

http://www.aftonbladet.se,

who's got the deeper pockets? Who cares? Get the job done-- get the countries back on their feet and then let them go on with their livelihoods. Fishermen are starting to go back to the seas, the buildings are being razed and rebuilt-- the tsunami victims will pull themselves up from the wreckage that was their life, irregardless of pledge money. It's human nature... they will carry on as best they can and we can only help speed up that process.

Do people feel guilty because of this disaster? That's what I sense....