UN OFFICIAL CRITICAL OF 'STINGY' US/EUROPEAN TSUNAMI RELIEF

U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland suggested that the United States and other Western nations were being "stingy" with relief funds, saying there would be more available if taxes were raised.

"It is beyond me why are we so stingy, really," the Norwegian-born U.N. official told reporters. "Christmastime should remind many Western countries at least, [of] how rich we have become." "There are several donors who are less generous than before in a growing world economy," he said, adding that politicians in the United States and Europe "believe that they are really burdening the taxpayers too much, and the taxpayers want to give less. It's not true. They want to give more."

I find critical remarks regarding US aid to countries in need by UN officials to be the height of hypocrisy, coming as it does from an employee of an organization that is hip-deep in the oil-for-food scandal. I don't care much for the idea of more money being taken from me through taxation to go into the pockets of thieving UN bureaucrats.