Foreign Aid

The Katrina aftermath includes a phenomenon that I, for one, wasn't expecting: massive reverse foreign aid — many countries offering aid to the U.S. victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The single largest such aid package I've seen announced is from Kuwait: they've offered us $500M in aid, in the form of oil products. That's extremely generous by any measure I can think of, and — considering what the U.S.-led coalition did for Kuwait in 1991 — somehow very fitting and right. But still gratifying, and...somehow, still unexpected. In the words of Kuwaiti Energy Minister Sheikh Ahmad Fahd Al-Sabah:

“We, Kuwaitis, feel it is our duty to stand by our friends to alleviate this humanitarian tragedy and express our gratitude for the support extended to us by Washington throughout the distinguished ties between the two friendly nations … This gives us the opportunity to show our gratitude to our friends and allies who stood by us in the darkest times … They supported us with the blood of their sons.”

The same article in the Arab Times that yielded the above quote also has this list of countries that have so far committed aid for Katrina victims:

Afghanistan, Argentina, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Poland, Romania, Tunisia, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Belgium, Britain, Canada, China, Colombia, Cuba, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Germany, Greece, Georgia, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, the Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Venezuela and the United Arab Emirates.

I don't know about you, but I find the list above to be simply stunning. Never mind that in some cases (Cuba!) the offer is a chance to kick W, or that in some cases the amount of aid is relatively small. Just the fact that 78 (if I counted correctly) countries are pledging aid to the U.S. is kind of mind-boggling.

Maybe Americans have made more friends in faraway places than the lefties would have us believe.

A tip 'o the hat to Chrenkoff (whom I will miss very much when he quits blogging to take his new job) for the pointer to the Kuwaiti contribution.