US donations to Africa outstrip Europe by 15 to 1

[GI Joe]

PRIVATE American citizens donated almost 15 times more to the developing world than their European counterparts, research reveals this weekend ahead of the G8 summit. Private US donors also handed over far more aid than the federal government in Washington, revealing that America is much more generous to Africa and poor countries than is claimed by the Make Poverty History and Live 8 campaigns.

Church collections, philanthropists and company-giving amounted to $22bn a year, according to a study by the Hudson Institute think-tank, easily more than the $16.3bn in overseas development sent by the US government. American churches, synagogues and mosques alone gave $7.5bn in 2003 - a figure which exceeds the government totals for France ($7.2bn) and Britain ($6.3bn) - according to numbers from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development which deal a blow to those who claim moral superiority over the US on aid.

Carole Adelman, the author of the Hudson Institute report, has discovered that a further $6.2bn a year is donated by independent US organisations, $2.7bn by US companies and $2.3bn by US universities and colleges, mainly through scholarships, to reach an overall private US donations total of $22bn.

In stark contrast, in separate exploratory work for the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), Adelman found that the maximum EU figure was a mere $1.5bn in private sector donations, 14.6 times less than the comparable US figure.

cont
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=730652005

[towski]

Just another example of why the citizens of the US are the greatest in the world.

I love it when we set the bar in things like this! :D

[Bamby]

You give the funds we do the work.

The US funds the troops that the european countries send on UN duties and aid groups like Concern and Trocaire(european) do all the ground work.

Bit like Saddam's rein in Iraq as a matter of fact.
The US funds most of it but leaves otheres to do the ground work

[Goupillon]

The article is statisitcally inept, firstly it makes a country by country comparison, when the US population is more than 3 times the size of the largest EU country Germany, secondly it compares figures out of context If you aggregate all the European figures and divide by population and GDP its clear who comes out on top.


Quite simply the figures arent comparable, this Journalist needs to retake GSCE maths. However I think this whole arguement is ridiculous anyway, government and private aid is only made necessary by our economic hegonomy caused by unfair trade rules. It would be much cheaper for us in the long run too encourage these countries to develop thier own regional trade organisations.

[Djj1973]

You give the funds we do the work.

The US funds the troops that the european countries send on UN duties and aid groups like Concern and Trocaire(european) do all the ground work.

Bit like Saddam's rein in Iraq as a matter of fact.
The US funds most of it but leaves otheres to do the ground work


Ever her of the Peace Corps?

[Dangerrmouse]

Peace corps? No, I never heard of them. I did find the website though. 7000 volunteers are a big help.

[Djj1973]

How about Project hope?
Doctors without Boarders?

to name a few more. To Say that we are generous only with money is insulting.

[Dangerrmouse]

Did you mean "Medecins Sans Frontieres" formed by French doctors and journalists in 1971, expanded internationally in the 1980's to include English-speaking "Doctors without borders", then finally joined by the American section in 1990?

[Djj1973]

Ok sure but you are missing the point:To Say that we are generous only with money is insulting.

[serenity]

We are not more generous...there is nothing genetically about us that make us a morally superior (or inferior) people. The entire argument is, I think, predicated on this unspoken idea--Americans are the "best" people.

This is a profoundly strange, even perverse, way of thinking.

We are not more "generous"--we give more money (as individuals) because we have more.

Generosity is not measured by amounts given--Oprah and Bill Gates are not "generous", despite the adulation thrown their way by worshippers--because they don't "FEEL the giving--it doesn't touch their way of life.

The same is true of myself--I don't suffer deprivation through my giving...so I can't acurately be called "generous." (Though I, and in fact most americans, are in a real way MORE "generous" than Bill Gates or Oprah, when you think about it).

It's not that we shouldn't give, or that it doesn't matter; we should, and it does.

But i also think we cease the embarassing rhetoric about how "generous" we are as a nation--a meaningless idea, when you think on it a little.

[Dangerrmouse]

To suggest that you all normally arrive late for everything, then rewrite history via Hollywood to take all the credit, as in WW1, WW2, MSF... That might be an insult, but if the cap fits...

[Bamby]

<Serenity said>"we give more money (as individuals) because we have more."

Well thats not reall all that true. Over in Europe we are sucked dry through tax and other government moneygrabbing schemes :D
I was over to visit my cousin in Attleboro, MA and she said here house cost $200,000,
I Europe 300,00 euros is good(and euros are bigger value than $'s :rolleyes: ) :lol:

Many tourists from around the world but mostly Americans(who got there first passport 2 days before there flight left) are stunned at how much things cost :eek: