In what appears like a bidding war, the U.S. and other countries seem to keep upping the ante in disaster aid

BY ZACHARY R. DOWDY | STAFF CORRESPONDENT; This story was supplemented with wire service reports.

January 6, 2005

UNITED NATIONS - After what some regard as a slow start to the disaster relief effort, the United States and other countries have launched what appears to be a bidding war, seemingly upping the ante each day.

First, the United States committed $15 million, then days later, $35 million. Then, on New Year's Eve, amid comments by political observers that President George W. Bush's three days of inaugural festivities later this month could cost $40 million or more and that Bush spends about that much in a few hours every day in the Iraq war, the United States raised the sum to $350 million - the highest offer internationally at that point.

This week, Japan pledged $500 million. Then yesterday, as the disaster entered its 10th day, Germany and Australia surpassed that figure, offering $674 million and $810 million, respectively. The economic brinkmanship has generated an unprecedented amount of generosity, garnering record-breaking donations in record time.

The display of what has been called "competitive compassion" even raised the eyebrows of Jan Egeland, the UN Emergency Relief coordinator and the official who called the nations stingy for their slow response. Now, he praises the 40 or so donor nations and world banking institutions for donating between $3 billion and $4 billion, saying he hopes the giving continues.

"This is the year of compassion as the world should have," Egeland said at UN headquarters yesterday. Egeland said a factor in the race to donate may be the number of people from the world's richest nations who were victims. He said other factors include images on TV of people struggling to survive.

He acknowledged, however, that a major factor is the scale of the disaster, with a death toll rising beyond 150,000. "What I hope is that we have become a better world in 2005 than we were in 2004," Egeland said, calling the global response to the tsunami crisis "phenomenal." He pointed out, however, that global humanitarian assistance for the 100 or so countries where the UN had operations last year added up to $5.8 billion. "Twenty of those countries have tsunami-style emergencies," he said, yet those crises did not generate similar altruistic responses. Phyllis Bennis, of the Washington-based the Institute for Policy Studies, said the tsunami victims are seen among even the most miserly as legitimate victims, whereas those in war-torn countries such as Sudan and Congo are victims of man-made tragedies, which don't generate as much sympathy or cash.

Bennis said, though, that "the reaction is good" this time.

"It's about time the world's most affluent nations began to help," she said. "They're spending billions on war and not spending what they should be for humanitarian purposes."

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said the donor nations "simply want to help."

"It's not about who is first in aid giving," he said. "We have no ambitions about our ranking."

This story was supplemented with wire service reports.