Another UN official gave a gratuitous slap to America yesterday when he claimed America was being stingy in its aid to people and nations hurt by the tsunami. Norwegian UN—Undersecretary—General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland suggests that Christmastime should remind many Western countries how rich we have become and adds that politicians in the US (and Europe) "believe that they are really burdening taxpayers too much, and that taxpayers want to give less. It's not true. They want to give more".
 
This mindset is symptomatic at the United Nations and the EU: omniscient faceless bureaucrats believing that they really know how we feel and want to dictate to us how to behave. If taxpayers want to give more, there is a plethora of aid agencies and efforts to give to which do not involve the United Nations. People are free to so give and can probably take a tax deduction for it should they do so.

If the humanitarians at the UN want to aid the victims who are refugees from their homes maybe they can dip in to their disproportionately generous amounts given to the Palestinians — who have used these fungible funds to generate hate, sponsor terror, and murder innocent people. Per capita they receive, by far, the highest amount of aid for any "refugees" in the world, roughly $300 per capita per year. The contemplated aid package additions, in the wake of Arafat's death, would increase that amount by 50 to 100 percent. The only UN agency devoted to a single group of "refugees" is UNWRA—dedicated to them. UNWRA openly has Hamas members on its payroll—how about taking some money from that worthy group?

Ed Lasky   12 28 04