Barack Obama wins the Democratic Nomination

[Izor]

Our country is fighting a war, so on top of all our ridiculous spending on that we still manage to squeeze out 3x what you do for foreign aid. You dont have anything else to spend on.

[Squeezer]

Back to the topic at hand, sorta.

Who would you like to see as McCain/Obama's running mate?

Personally I'd like to see Kathleen Sebelius

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Sebelius

or Jim Webb. Edwards would be cool too. Maybe as a pipe dream, Obama-Paul?

[Fit of Rage]

Uhm, the Dutch people are known for being among the countries who give the most money to for instance the Tsunami per resident.

And, there were tons of Dutch people and equipment helping the oh so great USA with Katrina. You needed our specialists, our divers, our F16s.

So how much have you donated to disaster relief in the last 3.5 years?

[Galleleo]

In the last 3.5 years? Lets see, I donate 50 Euros a year to a fund for victims off all kinds of stuff. Last 3 years I have donated on average 100 Euro on the rally one of our radio stations holds every year around Christmas (for different causes, like Darfur). And various other donations of, lets say another 100 Euro over the last ~4 years. So that would bring me to like 175+300+100=575 Euros. As a student with tons of other costs, I think that is a very decent amount of money.

I have told you (this forum) before, I am critical about stuff the US does and I am critical about stuff the Netherlands does. The US has its good things, the Netherlands has its good things. But when it comes to Aid, sure the US gives a lot, great. But relatively speaking, the Dutch do what we can. And if you find me numbers saying our stuff could be done better, I will agree with you. But as far as I know, and all the numbers I have seen say that the Netherlands does a shitload of stuff for foreign aid compared to its size, inhabitants, etc.

You have to realise, I am pretty much a socialist (not communist). I believe the strong should help the weak, and obviously the US has more room to give more foreign aid if you are really the economical powerhouse you claim to be. And yes, you have more economical problems right now, but the numbers and what I am talking about is over a longer period, not right now with your house markets and stuff.

If you wanna discuss things I am critical off within the Netherlands, go right ahead, but usually its about the US on here.

[Mantra-Slider]

pfft, my country pwns your any day you n00b Galleleo, we give 0,93 % of GNI while you only give 0,81 %. ez s0n sit.

(usa gives 0,16 %)

edit: oh it looks like I missed a page haha

[Cops]

You have to realise, I am pretty much a socialist (not communist). I believe the strong should help the weak, and obviously the US has more room to give more foreign aid if you are really the economical powerhouse you claim to be. And yes, you have more economical problems right now, but the numbers and what I am talking about is over a longer period, not right now with your house markets and stuff.

I don't think they understand that when a country makes more money and has a larger population that they have a lot more money to give, so for smaller countries who are 20th their size it's dififcult to put up numbers like they do, that's why you can figure out per capita what an average person gives. As far as donations and a leader in aid Europe kind of takes it, Canada still needs to commit to more even though we're no where near the end of the list.

I think you've made your points as well as I've tried to show people that what you give is all relative to what you make and how big your population is. The leader really is and will always be Europe.

if you want to get technical on the issue

Rich Nations Agreed at UN to 0.7% GNP to Aid

Sweden 0.5
Denmark 0.48
Netherlands 0.45
Norway 0.4
France 0.23
Belgium 0.21
Switzerland 0.21
Finland 0.19
United Kingdom 0.19
Austria 0.15
Germany 0.15
Canada 0.14
Ireland 0.12
Australia 0.11
Italy 0.11
Portugal 0.1
Japan 0.09
Greece 0.07
Spain 0.07
United States 0.07
New Zealand 0.03

Source: David Roodman, An Index of Donor Performance, Center for Global Development, April 2004

here's some more facts

Around the world for numerous years, many have criticized the US for cutting back on its promised obligations and responsibilities, and that furthermore, when it has provided aid, it has been tied to its own foreign policy objectives. Yet, many rich nations that provide aid can be criticized in a similar way.

it's a great article - http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRel...to07ofGNPToAid

The interesting part is when you find out that aid can be in the form of consultants and that technically we hide are aid by dumping shit tons of money on consultants who have sometimes been criticized for being over-paid. I'll post a pie graph of how the breakdown of aid actually works.

[Zeebu]

Maybe as a pipe dream, Obama-Paul?

you sir, have a big-ass pipe

[Cops]

you sir, have a big-ass pipe

i would like to smoke that pipe, sir.

[Pearl Jam]

Back to the topic at hand, sorta.

Who would you like to see as McCain/Obama's running mate?

Personally I'd like to see Kathleen Sebelius

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Sebelius

Heard some rumblings about that here...I think that would be a wise choice. She has been a solid governor for a while now.

[Mantra-Slider]

[stats]

whats the difference between the "Net ODA in 2007 as percent of GNI" list that I took stats from and the one you posted (Quality-adjusted aid as percent of GDP)?
I see they are taken from the same page as you got your info from.

[Kolar]

Sebelius would be a good choice but wouldn't Hilliary supporters feel a little betrayed? I think Obama has to deal with her carefully because even if she publicly supports him behind the scenes she's going to seek as much power under either Administration and launch a campaign in 2016. Party before country appears to not be the only problem for the Democrats.

[Cops]

Back to the topic at hand, sorta.

Who would you like to see as McCain/Obama's running mate?

Personally I'd like to see Kathleen Sebelius

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Sebelius

or Jim Webb. Edwards would be cool too. Maybe as a pipe dream, Obama-Paul?

I read her entire Wiki page and it's kind of impressive. It's interesting how she won considering 50% of voters are registered Republicans.


Mantra, ODA is Official Development Assisstance. I think this will make some sense, 'The donor governments promised to spend 0.7% of GNI (Gross National Income) on ODA (Official Development Assistance) at the UN General Assembly in 1970'. We agreed to spend a certain amount of our GNI, but sadly the deadline was in 1975 and we're still no where near meeting that goal. I'm not sure if the amount should be re-calculated for a more projectional goal but when some countries are only getting .07 and the goal is .70 it's sort of ridicilous.

[Vykromond]

whats the difference between the "Net ODA in 2007 as percent of GNI" list that I took stats from and the one you posted (Quality-adjusted aid as percent of GDP)?
I see they are taken from the same page as you got your info from.

GNI = GDP + financial income from foreign countries - financial payments to foreign countries

Quality-adjusted = a method of statistically adjusting the price of a replacement product in order to account for the quality difference between it and what it replaces

[Squeezer]

Sebelius would be a good choice but wouldn't Hilliary supporters feel a little betrayed? I think Obama has to deal with her carefully because even if she publicly supports him behind the scenes she's going to seek as much power under either Administration and launch a campaign in 2016. Party before country appears to not be the only problem for the Democrats.

I think supporters for Hilary might explode.

They wanted a woman more than anything in the White House and they could have their "historic bid," with the first woman VP. Wonder what they'l do ^-^

[Summa]

Sebelius would be a good choice but wouldn't Hilliary supporters feel a little betrayed? I think Obama has to deal with her carefully because even if she publicly supports him behind the scenes she's going to seek as much power under either Administration and launch a campaign in 2016. Party before country appears to not be the only problem for the Democrats.

thats why you promise her something along the lines of secretary of state, where she can actually get work done on health care, or maybe chief of staff to keep her mouth shut. all thats needed is to appease here enough to throw her support towards Obama. and politics is a world of compromise, i'm sure at this point Obama is fine making a few more with hilldog in order to gain her full endorsement