Quake Aid

This weekend's earthquake in Asia seems to be provoking a similar private donor response that followed last Christmas' Indian Ocean tsunamis.

The Canadian government, meanwhile, immediately announced a contribution of $300,000, though Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew admits that this contribution will increase, arguing that, using the Globe's paraphrase, "[i]t was important to assess the disaster first."

He continued:

"I think it is important we're accountable to Canadians. I think they want to know exactly what we will be doing, so when we announce our contribution, we will also express what it will be doing, but you can count on the government of Canada to react generously and as I say, in the course of the day, we will announce a further contribution."

I appreciate Ottawa's sentiments in desiring to assist the affected countries, but are there any criteria by which contributions of this nature are even assessed? It's interesting that the Minister's pre-determination is that Canada's present contribution will increase, even while acknowledging the need for an assessment of what amount is required.

It's comments like this that can lead one to conclude, cynically, that the disaster assistance Ottawa provides is tied to the attention the disaster receives and domestic political pressure (the Globe notes that the $300K "caused an angry reaction from some people in Montreal's South Asian community") rather than any objective measurement of what the situation actually requires.