Public / Private donation contrast

The Irish government is trying in vain to keep pace with private donations. Not unexpected from either the Irish public (generous to a fault), nor the government (incompetent to a T).

It's this kind of behavior by the smaller countries of the world (as well as some domestic hand-wringing) that led a visibly testy White House to increase disaster aid commitments by nearly 10x over the initial amounts (which were 4 days late as it was).

Not to pollute noble actions with petty politics, but activists take note: there are successful (albeit very indirect and uncredited) ways to affect US policy. The rest of the world pulled "moral values" out from underneath the Bush administration on this one. It's one of the very basic tenets of both politics and warfare: make your enemy's strenght his weakness. Bush & Co. have been masterful at this in the past, and their opposition has been both timid and impotent in response. Perhaps they will (re?)learn small lessons here.