Editorial: An awesome response to disaster relief

The widespread popular response to the tsunami has been extraordinary. Everywhere it seems people have been clamouring to donate towards the relief of the Indian Ocean coastal communities, often to a degree that matches or eclipses the efforts of their Governments. The United States, initially accused of giving less than expected of the world's richest economy, was able to point to its citizens' private charity. China, where charity has been a state responsibility, has seen an unprecedented level of private donations. The contributions of individual Chinese quickly eclipsed the initial official pledge of NZ$3.73 million, later raised.

In this country, too, the Government is just beginning to raise its donation to something like the amount we would expect. The initial offering was a mere token, and even when doubled to $10 million on the Prime Minister's return last week it was, as she indicated, just a start. Next week the first meeting of the Cabinet for the year should receive a detailed picture of the tsunami aftermath and the relief needed. Only then, can ministers properly set the amount the country should contribute from public funds.

The leader of the National Party was a little quick to criticise the Government's contribution on his return from holiday this week. The donation to date is "inadequate" as he says. The $10 million compares poorly with the $1.09 billion Canberra has committed. But then, Opposition leaders are damned if they criticise and damned if they don't, since that is their political role. And the Prime Minister left him the opening by failing to organise a considered response more quickly and admitting the initial offerings were insufficient.

Political points-scoring looks particularly petty beside the upwelling of popular generosity. Throughout the world, in shops, bars and on the streets, people are readily responding to the appeal. Businesses are putting their names to fundraising efforts and in some cases banks, credit card and telephone companies are waiving fees on payments to tsunami appeals. Automatic transfers enable donations to be made more easily, and with more confidence that the contribution will go where it is intended.

That might be one reason for the remarkable popular response to this disaster. Another reason, it would be idle to deny, is the intensity of its news coverage. Earthquakes, floods and similar natural disasters in recent decades have brought comparable tolls of death and devastation yet they have not elicited quite the same response. This is perhaps the first disaster on its scale to occur since the advent of technology such as cellphones, video cameras, satellite television links and full time news channels. In places where there is a free press, newspapers, too, now turn their pages over to vivid graphic coverage of a calamity such as this.

It has been noticed that the flood of donations, both private and official, from free Western countries are not being matched by the oil-rich states of the Middle East despite their religious affinity with the Indonesian region of Aceh, by far the worst-hit place. The reason is probably not religion but the lack of a vigorous independent press.

In some corners of our free press the generosity of Western powers, particularly the United States, is being criticised as an attempt to curry favour with the Islamic world after Iraq. Secretary of State Colin Powell has made no secret of the diplomatic benefits he hopes to derive. But to discredit anyone's generosity on the grounds that they might thereby improve their relationship, seems miserable in the extreme. At heart, the popular reaction to this tragedy is probably explained by its nature. A tsunami of this size is unprecedented in our lifetime, yet it is easily imagined. The sea rose without warning and swept people, trees, soil and every insubstantial building away. It made an awesome sight but no more awesome than the millions it has summoned from the pockets of people everywhere.