> >US government aid promised is now $US350M afaik or somewhat under 
> >$US1
>> per head of population.

> Don't forget to add 35 ships including the aircraft carrier Lincoln,

Lots of nice pictures of the battle group in action (and a whole lot 
of other photos as they get older).

        http://www.navy.mil/view_photos.asp?page=8&sort_type=1&sort_row=1

Next page from this one - near to bottom - some of those boxes contain 
"Sustagen" - better than nothing I'm sure, but ... :-)

For interest, the boxes here are labelled "Mona Kopyor" as was a much 
clearer photo in our largest newspaper. These appear to be Indonesian 
made biscuits. See 
http://www.pom.go.id/nonpublic/reg/detail_produk.asp?idp=1109673&klas_id=13 
for basic description. These are being trucked by US personnel here 
and by US helicopter in our newspaper photo - suggestingh taht 
Indonesia is currently (at least in part) supplying aid for the US to 
deliver rather than at this stage delivering internationally sourced 
material - as you would hope would happen.

More biscuits - being passed down a chain from indonesians to US 
military. Helmeted final man suggests a bird is involved - maybe not.

    http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=20080

This appears to be rice.

    http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=20141

BULOG on bag tells you the source.
Address matches.
Indonesian product again. Why not.

    BULOG (NATIONAL LOGISTIC AGENCY) (GA)
    Jalan Jenderal, Galot Subroto Kav 49, Jakarta, INDONESIA
    PH: 62/21/512209; TLX: 073-7964-4303.
    Contact: Bustanil Antin, Chrman.

Bande Aceh airport is at the centre of the disaster so this is 
apparently incoming supplies about to be trucked out locally.

Seahawk with full load - all Indonesian
    http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=20137
Ayam Bawang http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=20136
More biscuits - http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=20135

Warzone !!!! Not much standing here.
    http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=20106
Or here. Seahawk about to touch down.
    http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=20113
Mineral water by the pallet load - makes sense
    http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=20103


SO - ALL Indonesian aid (food/drinks) so far using these photos as a 
gyuide.

> 20 C-130 cargo planes, dozens of helicopters and thousands of
> US service personnel.  No other country on earth could do this
> even if they wanted to.

Some few others could (or equivalent naval functionality) - but it 
makes best sense for the US to actually do so. And I'm sure most 
people are highly grateful that they are doing so. I'm not sure there 
are 35 useful ships there, but we don't mind. (The battle group is six 
ships 
(http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2003/02/mil-030228-nns02.htm) 
but there are other vessels deployed to the area.

> This costs real tax dollars over and above the
> "$US350K afaik...".

I suspect that part of that is in the 350kk. but we won't complain.

> And of course there's the 3+ billion (3x10^9) dollars the US
> Govt gave internationally in various types of disaster assistance in 
> 2004.

About $US10/head of US population. Definitely a large and useful sum 
of money. More would always be nice ;-).

> In the US, private giving exceeds government by a huge amount.

Indeed. also welcome.

> Maybe the world should be grateful that we are the type
> people that want to help?

And here's the rub. I've noted all the positives above. And they are 
positives. And people should be grateful. And they often are. BUT 
unfortunately, for whatever reasons, and the reasons are complex, the 
average image that the US manages to convey is NOT one of being "the 
type of people that want to help". It's great to feel that way about 
yourselves, and it's even greater when that IS the way that the US 
behaves, and it often does. But the sum total of image is based on the 
sum total of performance, with a bias towards the nagatives, and there 
are enough negatives to help some people not see the positives. The US 
annual income per capita (GDP) is about $US37,800 per annum. The US 
GNP is about 10,000 billion $US. So each billion dollars spent on 
anything is about 1/10000th or 0.01% of GNP. $350 million is 0.0035% 
of GNP. 100 billion (!!!) is about 1%. The US doesn't HAVE to do 
anything for anyone, it doesn't HAVE to give aid, it doesn't HAVE to 
... . But in a world where there is definitely take to go with the 
give, an apparently large amount of axle greasing is an utterly vital 
part of getting along in the world. It MUt be appreciated that the US 
does "take" as well as give. You/we all know that the US (and me and 
...) benefit from the efforts of those in far worse positions than we 
are and that our luxury derives in significant part from their penury. 
I'm not arguing that this is good or bad or whatever - just noting the 
fact that it is true. I know the arguments from both sides and that's 
not the point. The point is, when you do business, there is always a 
cost of doing business. Cut too many corners and you are in trouble. 
Aid is to some extent like corrupt t[practyices in eg Indonesia. The 
major difference may be that it is out in the open. Humanitarian aid 
is intended partially to aid humantarianlly - and partially to achieve 
various political aims. If you can achieve both at once, so much the 
better. Some will be more purley humanitarian than others. But until 
you are hitting somewhere around the 1% mark, odds are you're not 
pulling your weight in the world and you're going to suffer for it one 
way or the other (or both ways:-) ). If you try to have amongtst the 
most luxuriant lifestyles on average (ignoring those noveau rich oil 
producsers :-) ), and if you utterly rely on the material and manpower 
resources of the rest of the world to achieve this, then you must pay 
your way.

So, no, on average the rest of the world is not stunningly grateful a 
fair part of the time at present. Don't be upset though, just smile 
sweetly, stick your hand in your pocket again and realise that it's 
just a part of the cost of doing business.


        Russell McMahon

PS If you fail to understand all the implications of the paradigm 
"grain fed beef", or that such a term can even BE a paradign, then 
most of the above probably won't make much sense ;-) (and maybe not 
then).



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