grief: on the other side of the fence

australia has just announced its relief amount pegged at $765M (?) for the victims of tsunami, making the Land Down Under the largest donor to date. this moves japan to second ($500M) and US, third ($365M). this might have been a reaction to recent criticisms that rich nations don't give enough (US in particular, since it's been rumored that it spends $35M everyday for the Iraq war).

i hope that this doesn't become a race on who is the highest "bidder", because just listening to the news makes me feel like they're like, well, boasting. but then again, maybe i'm just too narrow-minded (may donations na nga, nagrereklamo pa. yung mga ibang bansa nga dyan e.. a, o nga). its not really about the money, but the victims, the hundreds of thousands of lives lost in that tsunami and the millions more that are still suffering from it.