US increases pledge by ten times

After seeing this depressing story by Charles M. Sennott from the Boston Globe, I was heartened to read this one by James Lakely in the Washington Times today.

I commend the administration for its increased pledge (by 10 times no less!) and hope that more is on the way. As many have said before me, this is another opportunity for the US to regain world admiration and respect.

While the post mentions that the new pledge of $350 million is "more than the combined contributions of Europe's richest nations," according to the aforementioned Boston Globe report, we are still behind them per capita.

As of [Dec. 30th], the amount the United States has pledged is eclipsed by the $96 million promised by Britain, a country with one-fifth the population, and by the $75 million vowed by Sweden, which amounts to $8.40 for each of its 9 million people. Denmark’s pledge of $15.6 million amounts to roughly $2.90 per capita.

The US donation is 12 cents per capita.

Which means that the US is now at $1.20 per capita. The Bush team promises that the final figure will reach close to $1 billion, and I hope it does.

Look, this is not an issue over which we should be playing politics (although both the Boston Globe piece and the Washington Times piece are doing just that, surprise surprise). But I can't help but wonder if this increase is due to that very political pressure being put on Bush to do more.