[Penny]

The full story is here http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3152288a10,00.html

but it pretty much says that we will pledge to give them $20 mill a year for 3 years, extending it to 5 if nessecary.

That seems like quite allot given the size of our country, and when we have other areas that could use the money. I didn't realise we had $100 mill just lying around.

[Sparklechick]

It's a shame about what's happened but I'm not sure if we should be spending that much on them, certainly considering there are a lot of wealthy countries who can afford it.

Perhaps Helen felt the pressure from the others at the meeting she attended and decided that we needed to give more to save face.

[z3n]

Originally Posted by Penny

The full story is here http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3152288a10,00.html

but it pretty much says that we will pledge to give them $20 mill a year for 3 years, extending it to 5 if nessecary.

That seems like quite allot given the size of our country, and when we have other areas that could use the money. I didn't realise we had $100 mill just lying around.

It seems to me that most of the world is under some kind of geo-political peer pressure not to be the country that seems unkind and stingy when it comes to Sunami aide.

[Penny]

It does seem to be a bit of a competition, atleast at the end of it some good will be done (I hope!). And I do believe in donating, this applies to both the government level and personal level, only within your means.

I have donated about $6 to it, because thats what I can afford, its like loose change from a shop or something, I'm not going to donate so much that I can eat myself.

The same should apply to the government, how can we afford to give away $20million a year, when we can't seem to pay the few million over 3 years or whatever to pay our radiologists a decent wage and attract more so we don't need to send our cancer paitients to Australia, OR delay treatment.

it just seems allot for us.

[z3n]

Originally Posted by Penny

It does seem to be a bit of a competition, atleast at the end of it some good will be done (I hope!). And I do believe in donating, this applies to both the government level and personal level, only within your means.

I have donated about $6 to it, because thats what I can afford, its like loose change from a shop or something, I'm not going to donate so much that I can eat myself.

The same should apply to the government, how can we afford to give away $20million a year, when we can't seem to pay the few million over 3 years or whatever to pay our radiologists a decent wage and attract more so we don't need to send our cancer paitients to Australia, OR delay treatment.

it just seems allot for us.

I agree with you.
A personal sacrifice is a grand gesture. But a politician sacrificing the welfare of his/her own citizens is a grand Jester.

[Penny]

maybe its got something to do with the elections, they should be coming up sometime this year, maybe not until October...

[busyness53]

this is an awful lot of cash considering we could inject it into our own country, we have many needy people, homeless people within new zealand, how can we as a country help other countires when we cant even help ourselves?

[trogg]

Like the old saying "charity begins at home"

[Diane]

I agree.. though it's great helping another Country in need, there's always something that needs fixing at home first

[trogg]

We shouldn't forget "do unto others as they have done unto you"

The reason I say that is because I have to wonder how much the Indonesian government donated when we had the disastrous floods in the lower North Island last year.