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A blot on the world's humanity

Many nations spend untold zillions on armaments and other things - much of which is of little practical help to the people of the world. Just think of what the US alone is spending on arms as against what is directed to medical research.

Now Reuters reports [as republished by CommonDreams] in "UN Reports Record Humanitarian Aid Shortfall" that the UN is severely short of money to fund humanitarian aid where needed around the globe. Surely a blot on the world's humanity and an indictment of where the priorities of many countries lie.

"The United Nations on Tuesday revealed a record $4.8 billion funding gap for its 2009 aid projects as a result of strained foreign assistance, widespread economic trouble and a ten-fold increase in needs in Pakistan.

Aisha, an eight-year-old internally displaced girl, holds a food pot outside the food distribution area of the UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) Jalozai camp, about 140 km north west of Pakistan's capital Islamabad July 6, 2009. (REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro/Files)"This recession is driving up humanitarian needs," U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes told a news briefing in Geneva, where he held meetings with donor nations who will soon set their 2010 aid budgets.

A financing report prepared for those sessions stressed that the United Nations has received less than half the $9.5 billion it sought for humanitarian work this year. Yet some 43 million people need assistance this year, up from 28 million in 2008."

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