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International-UN-NGOs
Playing favorites at tsunami aid conference
2005-01-08
From the Rantburg Diplomacy Desk. This story amused me as the jockeying for position begins, and status is determined by whose taxpayers can offer more tribute...
Finland found itself in a different league from the other Nordic countries at the emergency summit held in the Indonesian capital Jakarta this week. Sweden, Norway, and Denmark had all sent ministerial level representatives to the meeting, who had a right to speak at the gathering. Finland was represented by Markku Niinioja, the Finnish Ambassador to Indonesia. He followed the meeting with other observers in a separate room via closed-circuit television.
"You Finns can just go play the slots with the tour bus crowd. No VIP room with the high rollers and the pretty waitresses for you!"
On Tuesday Finland was offered the possibility to send a representative from Helsinki, who would not have had the right to address the gathering. This means that Finland was represented indirectly by the European Union. "It raised the threshold to go to Jakarta even higher", LehtomÀki says. "It could have something to do with the fact that the other Nordic Countries are significantly bigger donors of aid - in fact, they are among the leading providers of aid in this Asian crisis." Norway's massive contribution puts the country in a category of its own. Denmark has said that it would give EUR 58 million in tsunami disaster relief, and Sweden has pledged EUR 57 million. The Finnish government has so far earmarked EUR 12 million for the effort.
Gotta pay to play.
Posted by:Seafarious

#7  ...My understanding though is that although the Finns are pretty Scandiliberal, they were for the most part straight shooters, so I'm not sure if I understand the article - did they sent the man on the scene there to do his job and the EU/UN won't let them play unless they send someone higher ranking?..

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2005-01-08 9:48:07 AM  

#6  Finland had better pony up some reindeer meat, or they're going to have to drink that cup, Captain.
Posted by: Asedwich   2005-01-08 1:59:01 AM  

#5  Excuse me, but where the hell were this losers when Kurds and Shia were killed at the hands of Saddam & thugs?

The tsunami was an act of nature; but the Saddam thugs were preventable. Great circle jerk.
Posted by: Captain America   2005-01-08 1:07:49 AM  

#4  nada - Lol! Gee - I seem to remember that, but I won't say I do... sheesh - getting senile! I believe I prolly came close to it (north of town, right?) on my runs up to Chiang Rai to cross Burmese border for new visa stamp. Once they killed the 30-day game, I went to Vietienne and Phnom Penh. Never did follow the crowd to Panang.

I lived on Charoen Pratet Rd - running along the Ping River (it was across the street) in the SE quadrant in The Doi Ping Mansion. The French Consulate was 2 doors up toward the closest intersection with Sri Donchai. Need a decent 1 bdrm furnished? 15K/month. I had UBC Cable, a phone, the worx, heh. Avg'd about another 7,000 for all the goodies. Run by an Israeli guy who was cool. I can get the name and phone number for him to you if you need it. Easy to find, too - just say you want Wat Chaimongkon - it's a white 12-story bldg across the street. The 2 cleaning ladies are a scream and will try to shove learning Thai down you throat, lol! I speak enough to get around, eat, etc.

My volunteer thingy was back in my Bangkok days - one flood was particularly bad (at sea level every rain is a flood there, lol) and there was some serious damage in Bangkok Noi across the river.
Posted by: .com   2005-01-08 12:54:26 AM  

#3  We can only hope this can help the victims, but I'm gonna be a little cynical here and say some of this moohlah's going to disappear. I don't think the UN's fixed its accounting problems yet.

Off Topic -- Actually, back to the Tourism Disaster Topic -- .com, yeah, Thailand rocks, and I came "this" close to getting captured by Chiang Mai, too. (It's still a possibility in the future, too.) And no, the "volunteers" didn't ruin it for me. I played the Quiet American role, and spent most of my time with the Irish, Swedish, and Dutch girls who liked to work more and talk less. They were all much better to be around anyway. Did those bumper stickers have a purple elephant on them?
Posted by: nada   2005-01-08 12:14:44 AM  

#2  Do I hear €50m...I have €50m...do I hear €55m
Posted by: Seafarious   2005-01-08 12:10:54 AM  

#1  The Bidding War on this disaster may help the victims, who knows how much will be skimmed and scammed out of the pot, but it is just about the ugliest visage of what should be a positive aspect of mankind I can imagine. Truly, it has become disgusting.

And the UN is the chief whore of the game. Yeah, they be leadin', all right.
Posted by: .com   2005-01-08 12:06:52 AM  

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