We can all be proud of public donations raised for the Tsunami appeal. In UK we’ve raised 200 million pounds ($350m) which the government will match from the public purse. Similar efforts in other countries have pooled together to help our international cousins in their time of need with a managed program.
As many people that died as a result of the Tsunami, die every week in Africa from poverty-related factors - but for some reason that doesn’t get the same attention.
On the other hand, Saddam Hussein murdered hundreds of thousands of his own people, and he is a problem that the US has already spent at least $150bn on fixing.
We elect our governments to spend the money out of our pockets. So in democracies, we have full control.
There are multiple things we can do in Africa and I’ve not been following it long enough to have all the answers. I’m just asking what factors result in us giving little attention to Africa, but lots of attention to Iraq.
It is fine and good and the Christian thing to do to spend money on easing human suffering, no matter what the cause. But, money and effort should also be placed on removing the proximate causes of the problems. Much of the world’s suffering is caused by failed political/economic systems --usually headed by some form of despot-- which the rest of the world does not have either the interest nor the fortitude to confront.