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Though
Much Is Taken, Much Remains
The Other Side of the Tsunami Story
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Carol Platt Liebau - Columnist
Carol
Platt Liebau is editorial director and a senior member
of theOneRepublic and CaliforniaRepublic editorial
board. She is an attorney, political analyst and commentator
based in San Marino, CA, and has appeared on the Fox
News Channel, MSNBC, CNN, Orange County News Channel,
Cox Cable and a variety of radio programs throughout
the United States. A graduate of Princeton University
and Harvard Law School, Carol Platt Liebau also served
as the first female managing editor of the Harvard Law
Review. Her web log can be found at CarolLiebau.blogspot.com [go
to Liebau index]
 Though
Much Is Taken, Much Remains
The Other Side of the Tsunami Story...
[Carol
Platt Liebau] 1/3/05
Perhaps
the last, most horrible story of 2004 will become the first,
most
inspiring tale of 2005. In the wake of the earthquake
and tsunami that have killed more than 150,000 and wreaked
such devastation, there has been an enormous outpouring of
generosity, sympathy and good will – reminding all of
us of the potential for good that exists even amid the most
desperate disasters.
Of course, the U.S.
government (which provides 40% of the world’s
foreign emergency aid) has responded with typical munificence,
pledging at least $350 million to the effort; this sum is supplemented
by the deployment of 12,000 military personnel, who are manning
ships, planes and helicopters to deliver and distribute food,
medicine and water to survivors. Certainly the response most
effectively puts the lie to U.N. Under-Secretary-General for
Humanitarian Affairs & Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland’s
charge of “stinginess,” leveled last week at all “Western
nations” but aimed at the United States.
But even more noteworthy – and equally typical – is
the response of the American people themselves. In Seattle, a
group of children stood in the rain to raise relief funds by
selling hot chocolate. In New York, six children organized a
door-to-door bake sale for the same purpose. A Kentucky widow
threw a New Year’s Eve party to benefit the tsunami survivors,
and a Trinidadian cabdriver gave $150 in cash to the leader of
a Jewish relief agency in Manhattan. These are the kind of people
who make America the world’s most generous donors to private
charities – with $33 billion spent in private foreign aid
during the year 2000 alone.
And Americans are donating to tsunami-related charities in a
volume that surpasses even the pace of its post-9/11 giving.
As of 6:00 p.m. Friday, Amazon.com reported that 130,000 people
had donated $10 million through a link on its home page for donations
to the Red Cross. Catholic Relief Services was so overwhelmed
by donors that its web site was shut down for two and a half
days. And Save the Children has received over 1,000 calls per
day from donors, raising $5 million. Christian charity World
Vision has raised in excess of $8 million.
America’s oft-maligned corporations have also stepped
up to the plate with unparalleled generosity. Pfizer has pledged
$10 million in cash and $25 million in medical supplies, including
the anti-infective drugs Zithromax, Zyvox and Diflucan. Merck
will donate cash, as well as providing antibiotics and other
medicines, adult nutritional supplements, infant formula and
baby food, and Kaiser Permanente is sending 5,000 doctors to
the tsunami-plagued region and will donate $100,000 to the American
Red Cross. Federal Express (FedEx) will ship 200,000 pounds of
medical supplies to the region; Coke and Pepsi are donating bottled
water. They are joined by others – including Johnson & Johnson,
Starbucks and J.P. Morgan Chase; too many, really, to name.
So even as the United
Nations grasps for control and squabbles over which national
government donates most, Americans are quietly
coming forward with their own gifts. That’s private charity – money
that hasn’t been taken involuntarily by a government, but
is instead freely given. It supports services that are more cost
effective, efficient and well-targeted than any UN-coordinated
project, impeded by burdensome bureaucracy and internal political
agendas.
And at least
this time, Americans aren’t alone. Good souls
across the world – especially the Western world and Japan – are
offering what they can to help their Muslim and Buddhist brothers
and sisters who are in such desperate need.
So what leads all
these people to give their own hard earned money to help people
that most of them have never met, in places
that most will never visit? We all know the answer. And even
as we mourn for those lost in this tragedy, such an outpouring
of love and compassion proves without doubt that even – and
perhaps especially – during times of seeming evil, good
does exist and will endure until the end of time, and beyond. tOR
Columnist
Carol Platt Liebau is a political analyst, commentator and CaliforniaRepublic.org editorial
director based in San Marino, CA. Ms. Liebau also served
as the first female managing editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Her web log can be found at CarolLiebau.blogspot.com
copyright
2005
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