Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg visited Washington DC joined by Senator Charles Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to ask for fiscal help from the federal government for Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.
In New York City, the public and private losses caused by Hurricane Sandy, which were not covered by private insurance come to $15.2 billion. New York City’s recovery is vital to America’s continued economic recovery and growth.
Read the Mayor’s remarks delivered yesterday at the U.S Capitol Building at http://on.nyc.gov/UdLnVc.
Highlight from the remarks: “We haven’t waited for the help that we hope to get from Washington to come, but given the scale and the impact of the storm, Federal assistance is clearly warranted.”
Where does haiti stand after the deadly 2010 quake? While about $15 billion of aid money is still missing in Haiti, progress is still being made. “Recovery is here. It is painfully slow, it is agonizing to watch, but it is recovery,” said Harvard professor Paul Farmer. He has spent three decades in Haiti and is opening a new hospital. Big factories could also stimulate the country’s economy, creating 20,000 jobs at just one plant. Progress can also be measured somewhat superficially; HuffPo “Good News” writer Cameron Sinclair finds the silver lining in other ways. He noted the lesser-but-still-positive positives of Haiti, such as its fast WiFi and rich history. (Perhaps that’s looking too hard in the forest to see trees, but y’know.) So, while recovery is still being sought after, it is still coming. And in some ways, it is already here. (Photo by Ken Cedeno / The Washington Post) source
Tense times call for Kerry: The Massachusetts Senator, also head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will be traveling to Pakistan this week, likely to try to smooth things over after what’s been a very rocky stretch for American/Pakistani relations. Kerry has long been a supporter of the aid the U.S. has been providing Pakistan — as we mentioned yesterday, it totals $18 billion over the last nine years — so one might expect a pacifying tact on this visit. Also, in your alternate political history update, we could be halfway through President Kerry’s second term right now. source
We didn’t know! In the aftermath of Osama bin Laden’s killing in Pakistan last week, one pressing question has been this: how on earth could a U.S. ally (made so by the billions in aid America gives them each year) acting in competent good faith not have known that bin Laden was living less than a mile from a huge military academy? In a town swarming with retired military officials? Pakistan denies any knowledge or wrongdoing here, but that’s just it — this is a situation in which any admission of wrongdoing is so diplomatically catastrophic that no government would ever cop to it, regardless of how it would make them look. What do y’all think? source
At the water’s edge: Chilling new amateur video footage of the tsunami that swept away entire Japanese towns and villages. This seems as good a time as any to remind everyone of something we’ve mentioned frequently- if you’re going to donate, first of all, thank you, and second of all, do so intelligently. The idea of people trying to financially exploit natural disasters and human suffering is self-evidently disgusting, and as such informed decisions are important. (EDIT: idroolinmysleep notes that the BBC has a longer version of the clip.) source
We will be reviewing our assistance posture based on events that take place in the coming days.Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs • Offering some more context as to what the U.S. plans to do with the military aid that’s going to the country. Those U.S.-supplied guns don’t seem like quite a good idea now that they’re aimed at protesters, do they? Some more guarded words from Gibbs: “There is a verty important opportunity for the Egyptian government to address grievances that have been in place for a number of years.” Obama’s folks are certainly doing a lot of pussyfooting today, aren’t they? source (via • follow)
An Obama administration official says the U.S. will review its $1.5 billion in aid to Egypt based on events unfolding in the country, where the authoritarian government is struggling to extinguish huge and growing street protests.An AP story • Reporting on Obama’s plans to possibly keep, cut back on or kill Egyptian aid. It’s not so far as cutting it off entirely, but still … this could prove to be a turning point in U.S.-Egyptian relations. source (via • follow)
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