1 million dollars

1 million US dollars. is that a lot of money? it depends. malaysia donated 1 million to the red cross for katrina. of course it is very much needed. being that katrina will cost over 200 billion when all is said and done. but let us look at malaysia. #61 in the human development index. united states has a hdi rank of 10. malaysia has a foreign debt of 48.6 billion. life is good in malaysia, but it is a developing country. 1 million US dollars might not do much here, but it equals 3.77 million malaysian ringgit. third world country helping out a first world country.

later I learned of the asian countries rallying for katrina. you see, world news in the US is non-existent. so this things are not apparent. hmm.. so malaysia's donation was a reaction to the donations of the other third world countries? india with a hdi index of 127 and foreign debt of 104.4 billion donated 5 million dollars. sri lanka with a hdi index of 93 and foreign debt of 9.6 billion donated 25 thousand dollars. I presume that is why malaysia came up with the 1 million dollars. just that I think it would have made more sense for malaysia to have donated the 1 million to indonesia during the tsunami. I'm not actually sure if they did. I don't read thestar daily.

but it is good to see that malaysia also donated 1 million to pakistan for the recent earthquake. but don't you think that more should be given to the third world country? is malaysia giving 1 million to pakistan just because they gave 1 million to the US? would it not be better to have given both the millions to pakistan instead? pakistan has a hdi index of 135 and a foreign debt of 33 billion.

I'm not saying that the US does not need help. katrina was and is devastating. but we're talking about state donations here. malaysians from all over have donated to katrina relief. also we can't compare americans and malaysians or pakistanis. who has more spending power? many americans can afford to give 1 million dollars and not feel the pinch. we can't say the same for malaysia and pakistan. but of course when a country no matter how rich or poor suffers from such catastrophe, everyone must chip in. but if my colleague goes bankrupt, I'm not going to go into debt for him. sure I'll give whatever I can, according to my financial situation. now that I think about it, 1 million dollars is not that much after all. malaysia should double their donation to pakistan.