After a slower-than-expected reaction, Arab countries have picked up the pace with donations being belatedly adjusted. Oil-rich Saudi Arabia, for example, initially offered just $10 million but has raised that to $30 million.
Many Western media critics rounded on the Gulf states after the initial low pledges, stating that a much faster and greater reaction was expected, not least for their fellow Muslims in Indonesia, the most populous Islamic country in the world.
An independent Jordanian analyst said that the lack of support was not suprising, particularly when the same Arab states tend to fail their own region, Sudan and Iraq being good examples, and the pledges for the tsunami victims are still small.
