Hidden Dragons

So everyone's pitching in to provide relief for victims of the Burma cyclone and the China quake, right?

Well, you have to wonder if private citizens/institutions/governments are doing as much as possible when you read something like this:

More after the jump...


From Yahoo News: "She [Ziyi Zhang, star of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon] said she donated $144,000 and received a pledge of $100,000 from Wendi Deng, the Chinese-born wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch."

Good for Zhang and sounds generous of Deng at first glance, but consider the fact that Deng's husband is worth $9 billion. I'm no mathlete, but I think that's like the average person donating a penny or a dime or something. And perhaps Deng/Murdoch's donation would be somewhere closer to pocket change if Deng wasn't a business partner/friend of Zhang.

There's a whole host of (very different) complicated politicalisms underlying both the Burma and China disasters, but it makes you wonder what the publicized international relief efforts really amount to. Wikipedia has decent summaries of what the community of nations has donated to each China and Burma. For example, the US government's relief for the Sichuan quake is under that of less economically potent nations like Ireland, Norway and Spain.

I don't know, but what's the point of amassing overflowing wealth if not to use in emergencies such as these? And even if it doesn't arise from noble intentions, it seems like such charity can only benefit you or your government's political/moral/power standing in the long run.

But maybe giving gets in the way of morning swims.