Flying Yangban

'MiG tipping' near the Iranian-Afghan border

How boring can it get at a USA air force base?  Check out the action at the Shindand air base in western Afghanistan:

The sprawling air base lies close to the border with Iran and life there is so slow that U.S. troops at times resort to "MiG tipping" -- a game that involves standing on the tail of one of the many wrecked Soviet-era planes and tipping its nose up.

"It's a pretty pointless and silly thing to do," said one serviceman. "But there really isn't that much to do around here."

Some 'tipped'  MiGs at Shindand air base (Reuters photo)

For non-Americans, the 'tipping'  part of MiG tipping may be derived from the urban legend of 'cow tipping.'

The election train roles through central Asia

Fresh from stops in the Ukraine, Iraq and Palestine; the Democracy Express rolled through central Asia today. 

The Argus (with a new name?)  is all over the latest election news in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (Country name links are for the respective archives).  Nathan is doing yeoman's work on this one so be sure to give him a holler.

BTW, check out Nathan's post in which he does was bloggers do best: fact checking.

The politics of a tsunami

I know that I should keep politics out of the tsunami disaster but politics is life (or perhaps I should say that life is political) so here it goes:

-I would love to hear what the Big Hominid would make from this headline: 'Asia, united by grief, remains free of any Western-style recrimination' (reg. req.).  You could say that this reflects a more emotionally healthy view of man and nature compared to us control-freak westerners.  On the other hand, I think that attitude makes south-east Asians more likely to fall victim to the next disaster that comes down the pike.

-Is America not pulling its weight in aid to poor nations?:

The United States spends about 0.14 percent of gross domestic product on foreign aid, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. That figure, however, excludes generous private donations -- $33 billion in 2000 -- far more than the $10 billion in government aid.

U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Andrew Natsios told the Associated Press that U.S. emergency relief rose to $24 billion in 2003. And Secretary of State Colin Powell expects U.S. aid for tsunami relief to exceed, eventually, $1 billion.

(Now you'd think that $1 billion figure would be a big story. But in a show of unabashed solipsism -- in a world where what you say always trumps what you actually do -- Beltway pundits are more interested in the fact that Bush didn't hold a press conference on the tsunami until Wednesday than in the fact that the United States is talking about spending $1 billion to help tsunami victims.)

This year, the United States gave more than $826 million to the U.N.'s World Food Programme -- that was some $100 million more than the European Union and its countries combined -- despite the European Union's larger population and marginally bigger gross domestic product.

Meanwhile, American taxpayers have bankrolled a defense apparatus that protects people around the globe. Our Betters in Europe should think twice before criticizing U.S. levels of humanitarian aid when Americans are carrying their water when it comes to defense. (Who was it that had to send troops into the Balkans because Europe couldn't manage a problem in its own backyard?)

43 billion dollars a year is not a small amount, especially considering the degree of defense freeloading our brothers in Europe and Asia exercise.

Also, I'm more than a little sick of the attitude of some people who seem to be more concerned with doing things through the U.N. than with getting about the business of helping people.  Andrew S. Natsios, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, is right when he says that neither the U.S. nor the U.N. should be 'in charge' of emergency and rebuilding aid: 

The president also announced Wednesday that we are setting up a core donor coordination group with Japan, India and Australia, and we hope other countries will join. This group will coordinate its relief activities with the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which is leading efforts to help survivors of the tsunami.

The United Nations is expected to launch an appeal for funds Jan. 6, and we expect to contribute.

However, the principal response -- as we see on television reports -- is rightly being made by the people of Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and Indonesia, which suffered the greatest damage. Their doctors, police, army and other public officials, as well as ordinary citizens, are quickly collecting the injured, disposing of the dead, bulldozing debris to reopen roads and sharing whatever they have with those who have lost everything. Our job is to support, not supplant or take over, local efforts by the first responders of the countries affected.

It's just ridiculous that we have to waste time and energy smoothing ruffled feathers at the U.N. during this time.  Let's just hope the U.N. handles the tsunami disaster relief better than it handled the oil-for-food program.

Tsunami relief: Every little bit helps

I don't feel the need to give much of an overview of the current state of things in South Asia right now.  I'm sure that everyone is well aware of the devastation caused by the recent earthquake and tsunami.  The death toll has already passed 100,000 and I expect that the final number will be much more.

Several bloggers have already talked about relief efforts.  Much of the initial efforts have been for rescue work and providing emergency provisions.  Many nations outside of the disaster area (notably Australia, the USA, New Zealand and Singapore) have deployed their militaries to help and groups from all over the world are converging on worst-hit areas.

The next thing that the region needs is vast amounts of medical aid to prevent the rapid spread of disease among the survivors.  Because of that, I've decided to give some money to AmeriCares since they are reputed to be a pretty efficient outfit and are concentrating on delivering medical supplies.  Click on the AmeriCares graphic if you would also like to make a donation.

Yahoo has also set up a site were you can make a donation to the American Red Cross' relief efforts.  Again, just click on the ARC logo to go to the donation site.

Don't worry if you can't give a lot.  According to AmeriCare, every $100 of cash donations allows them to deliver about $3,000 in medical supplies.  So even ten bucks will go a long way.