Not Too Proud

China asks for earthquake rescue/recovery resource help. In response, individuals and nations mobilize. Examples:
Russia, Japan and Taiwan:

A 60-member Japanese rescue team arrived in Beijing late yesterday and is expected in the quake region early tomorrow, Xinhua said. A chartered freight flight from Taiwan arrived at the hard-hit city of Chengdu, the provincial capital, loaded with blankets, tents and clothes.

Russian planes delivered aid to the quake area, and China agreed to accept rescuers and medics from its northern neighbor, Xinhua said, quoting a Russian Emergency Ministry statement distributed by the Russian news agency Interfax.

Thailand:

BANGKOK, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn on Thursday made a personal donation of 100,000 RMB (some 14,286 U.S. dollars) in cash to help disaster relief in China after a strong earthquake hit the southwestern province of Sichuan.

Earlier on the day, representatives of the Thai Red Cross Society and the Chaipattana Foundation under royal patronage, also passed on a donation of 200,000 U.S. dollars to China Red Cross Society.

Cambodia:

PHNOM PENH, May 14 (Xinhua) -- The Cambodian Red Cross here on Wednesday donated 10,000 U.S. dollars through the Chinese Embassy to the Red Cross Society of China to facilitate its humanitarian activities for the earthquake-affected areas in China.

"We, therefore, would like to ask your kindness in conveying the message of condolence to the families of the dead and our sharing of the hardships and difficulties being struggled over by the survivors and the rescuers," said Bun Rany, president of the Cambodian Red Cross, in a letter to Peng Peiyun, president of the Red Cross Society of China.

Phoenix, AZ, USA:

[American college student Carlos Hernandez and] hundreds of others who had traveled from Phoenix to Chengdu as part of sister city exchanges – from students and teachers to firefighters, police officers, and judges – awakened with the same reaction. They immediately reached out to their friends and counterparts in Sichuan Province's capital, a city of some 11 million people located 60 miles from the epicenter of Monday's earthquake. The confirmed death toll in the region reached 19,509 Thursday, and China said the number could rise to 50,000 once all the missing are accounted for.

Phoenix Sister City officials swung into action, setting up a Chengdu Earthquake Relief Fund to accept cash donations. They sent a group member to China on Wednesday to meet with counterparts in Chengdu and set up a bank account where the funds collected in Phoenix can be transferred to help the local population.

Canada:

Canadians have donated $80,000 [to the IRC] so far for relief efforts.

The Nova Scotia branch of the Chinese Benevolent Association of Canada will also take donations on Sunday. Members will be touring some of Halifax’s cemeteries, visiting their ancestors’ graves. The association will ask for donations at the end of the tour, when the group meets at Dragon Buffet King in Bayers Lake Business Park at about 1 p.m.

Meanwhile the UN finds itself in a quandary: what should it do if a nation refuses most disaster aid and--like Myanmar and unlike China--isn't mostly up to taking care of itself.

Myanmar's isolated military regime is still allowing only a "trickle" of aid and a few international aid workers into the country, the U.N. said Tuesday, reaching about a quarter of the 1.5 million people affected by the recent cyclone that killed more than 34,000 people. Meanwhile, China has welcomed foreign money and supplies, but not international rescue teams, to help survivors of the earthquake that has killed more than 12,000.

The LA Times staff writer couldn't resist rolling in this little moral equivalence grenade:

Rejection of outside aid by governments in times of crisis is not unprecedented. India did so after the 2004 tsunami, China after floods last year and after the 1976 Tangshan earthquake that took more than 240,000 lives. The United States also turned down offers of help from the U.N. and other nations after Hurricane Katrina. Such decisions are generally made out of national pride and in efforts by governments to demonstrate their capability to care for their own people.

Because it's only "national pride" which would cause a self-sufficient nation to refuse aid which could be better utilized by more needy nations.

Anyway, some have suggested that the UN should airdrop the aid anyway. The French foreign minister rightly called Myanmar's response to the cyclone aftermath "a crime against humanity." But as with other such governmental abuses of citizens, the UN remains prone. To be honest, though, I'm not sure how the body should respond otherwise, at least in this case.