BBC news.

Just watched BBC news on cable at 8pm while having dinner. And the journalist in Sri Lanka interviewed Kofi Annan when he went to survey the area. He actually mentioned Singapore as one of the aid countries! I was so pleasantly surprised. “Countries like the U.S., Australia, Japan and even Singapore…..� something about the aid that we are pouring in… It’s amazing that Singapore could actually be on his mind when he talked about the ‘superpowers’ of the world. Well, just something that I thought I should share…

Guess most of us would be concerned about whether the huge amount of aid would be channeled into the right places. Especially corruption is not unheard of in places like Indonesia and India. We’re talking about more than $3billion of cash and lotsa food, clothing, and medical supplies coming from the whole world. And to be distributed to all these developing nations where even communication within their own countries is a problem. Perhaps UN should set up a committee to overlook where all the funds go to, and to account for every single cent that’s going into a particular country’s rebuilding project. The money must not go into the wrong hands.

Something that I read from an Australian who wrote on the Lonely Planet’s travel forum about the insufficient funding proclaimed by UN. This came about as one traveller wrote in to say that the entire world seems to have shift their focus to aiding the tsunami victims in Asia and seems to have forgotten all about Africa. Mmm… Wonder if the part on govt capitalising on the event to get more funds from people is true… It’s something for u to ponder on and gauge for yourself…

"I work for a government agency and I know from experience (especially the Bali bombing) that the majority of goverments use natural disasters such as this as a fundraising exercise for their operations that they want to remain secret. Basically they use the public outpouring of grief and sympathy to capitilise on the event and get peoples cash to use as they please. Medecins Sans Frontiere (Doctors without borders for us English speakers) have it right, they have enough cash already to do all they can in Asia and yet most western countries are still saying that several billions of dollars is needed to help with the efforts there, why is there such a discrepancy ?

Unfortunately as Africa's crisis is not something that is a natural disaster and because of the western worlds attitude that the spread of AIDS/HIV is easily stopped by the use of condoms nothing will ever change to help these poor people out of their situation. What a lot of the western world doesn't realise is exactly what ZoSo has pointed out, most of the women in Africa don't have the same civil liberties that women in the western world have and so if their husband or partner doesn't want to use a condom (or doesn't have access to them or simply can't afford them) then she isn't in a position to argue and so the disease continues to spread. The problem is also compounded by the fact that most African establishments (Hospitals, Dentists, Tattooists etc) don't have the money to purchase disposable needles or proper steralising equipment.

I think the best thing that us informed and morally responsible travellers can do to help is to make as many people in western society as we can aware of the plight of the people in Africa and ask them to do all they can to pressure their own government to provide not only much needed funding but also access to the medicines that us westerners take for granted and which can extend the life expectancy of someone infected with AIDS/HIV or in most cases almost remove the "terminal" component of this horrible disease. "

On a happier note, Sudan is finally ending their civil war! The longest in Africa’s history… The government and the Southern part signed an agreement today. I do hope the rebels are really putting down their arms. So many innocent have died needlessly. And cannibalism actually went on during all these wars. It’s a tactic to scare their enemies and to punish them. What ghastly acts. It’s taking place in the Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC) as well. What a ‘democratic’ country eh….
Read more about it here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4157707.stm

Kudos to Australia for being the largest donor country so far. For a country that small, it has been able to fork out more than $700 million! And the Australian celebrities even held a concert at Sydney Opera House to raise funds for the victims... Now, where is America in the standing of the donor countries??