Precious time was lost in the days following the
Dec. 26 earthquake as the world underestimated the extent of the catastrophe. Steadily
the death toll welled steadily upwards -- from the hundreds to the thousands, to the tens of thousands, and then to the unbelievable hundreds of thousands. The horror became clear: This was a disaster of historic proportions. "You wonder where are the people? What has
happened to them?" A shaken Kofi Annan asked about two weeks later on viewing the destruction in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
How each nation responded will long stay in memory. Sri Lanka put the island nation's ethnic conflict aside; Indonesia continued its war with separatists. Germany pledged $680 million, none of the oil-rich Gulf nations offered more than $30 million.
India refused aid money and said, "We share this tragedy;" The U.S. asked, "how much do we have to pay?" At first offering a stingy $15 million, Bush raised the relief total to $350 million -- which many noted represented less than he spends every two days in his Iraq adventure
Precious time was lost in the days following the
Dec. 26 earthquake as the world underestimated the extent of the catastrophe. Steadily
the death toll welled steadily upwards -- from the hundreds to the thousands, to the tens of thousands, and then to the unbelievable hundreds of thousands. The horror became clear: This was a disaster of historic proportions. "You wonder where are the people? What has
happened to them?" A shaken Kofi Annan asked about two weeks later on viewing the destruction in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
