What is the responsibility of the U.S. government to help victims of natural and man-made disasters ?
Teachers might ask students to compare the U.S. government’s $350 million contribution to that of other countries. Students can look at total amounts of aid given, but also aid as a percentage of GNP. What observations can we make based on these calculations? The New Yorker questioned whether President Bush’s Dec. 29 statement—”We’re a very generous, kindhearted nation”—was not “unseemly” and “boastful” given that other nations (Australia, Germany, Japan) had been more generous in absolute terms “and perhaps a dozen other countries have been more so in per-capita terms.” The New Yorker went on to say that the tsunami relief the United States provided “will come at the expense of victims of disasters yet to occur,” because the administration used money from the U.S. Agency for International Development in order to respond to the tsunami without “undermining Mr. Bush’s other priorities,” such as making his tax cuts permanent. When government representatives met at the Earth Summit in Rio
