The better side of America

[centra]

We have had all the wrongs the United States of America has done to the world pounded into our brains. Did you ever wonder what we have done that was good for the world?

Hearing the Canadian broadcaster (Gordon Sinclair) from a 1973 Canadian radio broadcast, I got to wondering what good we have done for the world in our history as a nation. Do you have something to add? Hearing this broadcast for the first time made what I had read three other times though out the years mean much more, and got my curiosity up. Hear it for yourself here Canadian Communications Foundation - Fondation Des Communications Canadiennes

Mr. Sinclair has since passed away, my sympathy’s go to his family and my admiration and respect go to Mr. Gordon Sinclair.

1.) “As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtze. Well, who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did, that's who.”
Gordon Sinclair

2.) “They have helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges and the Niger.”
Gordon Sinclair

3.) “Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy, were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts.”
Gordon Sinclair

4.) “When the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. And I was there. I saw that.”
Gordon Sinclair

5.) “When distant cities are hit by earthquakes, it is the United States that hurries into help... Managua Nicaragua is one of the most recent examples.”
Gordon Sinclair

6.) “The Marshall Plan... the Truman Policy... all pumped billions upon billions of dollars into discouraged countries.”
Gordon Sinclair

7.) “You talk about scandals and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everybody to look at.”
Gordon Sinclair

8.) “When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them.”
Gordon Sinclair

With the help of others from another board (less than I expected, not much interest it seems)

Here is the rest of the list.

9.) Liberated 25 million people from the ruthless Tailbone in Afghanistan. Gave them a chance to fight for their own liberty. Gave woman a chance to learn and work.

10.) Liberated 25 million in Iraq from a brutal regme.
We liberated 50 million Muslims after it was Muslims who attacked us on 9/11.

11.) Countless money contributed to International Red Cross. (anyone have an actual figure for the last 60 years or so?)

12.) Rescues of countless of international ships by the USCG. (anyone have an actual figure for the last 60 years or so?)

13.) The releasing of hundreds of Asian slave laborers by the USCG.

14.) Rebuilding Korea.

15.) International Maritime Iceberg Patrol. (waiting for verification from SGTBJH)

16.) Liberation of Eastern Europe. (cold war outcome)

17.) Setting the example of freedom, liberty and justice for the world to see.

18.) America has made 17.9 Billion people free over the last 100 years

19.) We gave the worth the real American Dream - living life on your own terms as a free person. The idea that people can achieve according to their talent and effort and not one's birthright is America's gift to the world. America's greatest contribution by far was organizing a system of government based on the FACT that all human beings have inalienable RIGHTS, given to them by God, in which NO OTHER man can take away.

20.) The first gulf war, liberating Kuwait from Iraq.

21.) America is the biggest donor for aids help in Africa.

22.) Calling the killing in the Sudan genocide.

23.) Protecting the Kurds in North Iraq from Saddam after the first Gulf war. (we could have done more).

24.) American helicopters and ships delivered "significant" amounts of humanitarian aid to Lebanon in 2006.

25.) The usual U.S. contribution during major disasters is 25 to 33 percent of total international aid, according to J. Brian Atwood, a former USAID administrator.

26.) What about the new technology we have brought to the world?

27.) What about better agricultural techniques that have enabled countries to obtain better yields, and higher quality crops?

28.) What about our medical research that has brought medicines and techniques to the global medical world to improve and lengthen lives?

29.) We have given the world a view of the surface of the moon, the automobile, the airplane, and the internet

30.) Indian Ocean tsunami the U.S. government has committed nearly $1 billion, with private donations topping that.

31.) Mrs. Laura Bush announced a groundbreaking Public-Private Partnership between the U.S. Government, PlayPumps International, the Case Foundation, and other public and private sector partners. This $60 million alliance will work with 10 sub-Saharan African countries to bring the benefits of clean drinking water to up to 10 million people by 2010.
USAID Fact Sheet: U.S. Launches Public-Private Partnership for Clean Water in Africa

32.) The United States Government, Through USAID And The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief, Will Provide A Combined $10 Million To This Alliance Over Three Years.

33.) The United States is the largest international donor in Sudan, consistently providing 80 percent of all humanitarian assistance-and more than $1 billion since 2005.

34.) From FY 1994 to FY 2005, USAID/OFDA provided more than $590 million of humanitarian assistance to Sudan.

35.) We helped complete the Panama Canal

36.) Given people from other nations a place to live in peace and freedom in our country.

37.) Sent our people to South & Central America to help their law enforcement to take down drug lords.

38.) Liberated the Philippines and on July 4, 1946 the US granted the Philippines independence. The newly independent Philippines sent the US a bill for war damages. The US paid.

39.) Provided aid at the outbreak of the Ebola virus in Zaire.

40.) I’m not sure if we were involved in the Chernobyl incident.

41.) Iranian Quake-A partial survey of U.S. private aid contributions indicates that so far more than 38 tons of supplies have been shipped to Bam earthquake victims and more than $750,000 have been collected for the purpose of purchasing relief supplies locally and in other locations. AmeriCares, based in Connecticut, was the first disaster relief organization to take action to help the Bam victims, airlifting 35 tons of supplies to southeastern Iran within days after the quake. The supplies, estimated to be worth $3 million, contained urgently needed items such as antibiotics, IV sets, and four World Health Organization (WHO) health kits, each with a capability of providing basic medicine and provisions for 30,000 people for one month.
California-based Direct Relief International, one of the largest humanitarian assistance organizations in the United States, dispatched an air shipment of 3.5 tons of supplies, worth about $330,000 to Bam January 2. Working in conjunction with the U.S. corporations Bristol-Meyers Squibb and Johnson and Johnson, the relief group sent surgical equipment, antibiotics, orthopedic immobilizers, and two disaster relief modules, each containing splints, gauze, casting materials, and other items.
According to Dr. Mohammad Farivar, the president of ERFO, his organization is working to raise $1 million for the more than 1,500 orphans in devastated Kerman province. His wife has traveled to Bam to assist in the relief operations.
U.S. Charities Supplement U.S. Official Relief for Iranian Earthquake

42.) AmeriCares, which receives charitable donations from individual American citizens and from U.S. corporations, mainly medical manufacturers. Since its founding in 1982, AmeriCares has provided an estimated $3.4 billion of aid in over 137 countries.
U.S. Charities Supplement U.S. Official Relief for Iranian Earthquake


43.) Ted Hart, president and CEO of the ePhilanthropy Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based educational organization dedicated to fostering the use of the Internet for philanthropic purposes, estimates total charitable donations by American citizens in 2003 reached $275 billion, up from $241 billion in 2002.
U.S. Charities Supplement U.S. Official Relief for Iranian Earthquake


44.) In 1997, when a 7.1-magnitude quake killed more than 2,000 people in Iran's Khorasan and Ardebil provinces, the U.S. government committed $125,000 through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. U.S. private-sector aid in that quake was strong as well. The Iranian-American Medical Association donated $18,000. The Iranian-American Society of New York donated $15,000. Ordinary Americans donated $40,000 to certain Iranian-American charity groups.
U.S. Charities Supplement U.S. Official Relief for Iranian Earthquake


45.) After the catastrophic earthquake of 1990 in the regions of Gilan and Zanjan that killed about 35,000 Iranians, the U.S. government donated $800,000 worth of supplies. The private Earthquake Relief Funds for Orphans (ERFO) responded with approximately $250,000 in donations for 174 Iranian orphans.

46.) In 1998, when a flood devastated Bangladesh, the flood-prone Muslim nation of 134 million people, the United States gave an estimated $3 million in supplies, such as equipment for flood forecasting and infrastructure upgrades.

47.) When a flood affected Jakarta, Indonesia in 2002, the world's most populous Muslim country, the U.S. government and American charities provided emergency aid that benefited approximately 50,000 victims.

48.)After floods nearly submerged the northeastern Sudanese city of Kassala in 2003, the U.S. government donated health services, water sanitation supplies, and other equipment that benefited 100,000 people.

49.) Similarly, official and private U.S. relief aid worth millions of dollars helped hundreds of thousands of victims when earthquakes struck Algeria in 2003 and Turkey in 1999.

50.) U.S. Charities Supplement U.S. Official Relief for Iranian Earthquake

51.) We worked hard and funded a large part of the elimination of Small Pox.

52.) We made significant contributions in food and other aid to many African states including Ethiopia and Somalia in both of their famine periods.

53.) We pioneered nuclear power and helped a great number of countries develop it.

54.) We provide easy access to some of the best colleges in the world to anyone who wishes to come. In addition we provide scholarships not only to American citizens but also foreign nationals so that may afford to go.

55.) Provided assistance in land mine detection and disposal from previous wars

56.) Sent instructors to Africa to train personal in fire prevention, prescribed burns, fuels reduction.

57.) Provide firefighters and equipment to fight the oil rig fires all around the world.

58.) Provided aid in disposal of bio/chem weapons.

59.) Trained and supplied foreign armies.

60.) Don't forget Bosnia/ Kosovo. I realize that it was a NATO led coalition - but we were in it!

61.) Our speaking out for human rights worldwide.

62.) We pay to give children with orthopedic deformities free life changing surgery (surgeries), the same for conjoined twins, and facial disfigurements. private donations also help finance these ops for foreigners. As individuals, we think nothing of adopting children from disadvantaged countries to raise, love, and give a good life too.

63.) Operation Smile-- It is a program where dentists donate/hygienists donate there time, in developing nations, giving free dental care, hygiene, for children.

64.) Our engineers were also building schools, hospitals, and roads in Panama. We are also dispensing medication and vaccinations to the tribal people.

65.) American soldiers built a pipeline was fresh water for nearly 70,000 people in Iraq.

66.) September 22, 2006
WASHINGTON, DC - Today, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced a $100 million award to the nonprofit research organization RTI International to reduce the impact of neglected tropical diseases in developing nations.
The project, which will treat more than 40 million people over five years, represents one of the first large-scale efforts to integrate existing disease-specific treatment programs to care for millions of the world's poorest people.
USAID Press Release: USAID Announces $100 Million Award to Reduce Impact of Neglected Tropical Diseases in Developing Nations

67.) July 2000 The Community Services Program provides services for needy rural communities throughout the West Bank and Gaza.
The goal is to improve the availability of local services while encouraging community participation. Projects fall under three broad categories: upgrading or construction of basic infrastructure such as schools, health clinics and roads; providing training and technical assistance to develop sustainable employment and income generating opportunities such as marketing cooperatives or computer training courses, and supporting local municipalities and village councils to make them more effective. These projects are carried out with the involvement of the community, which is expected to help identify needs, establish priorities for proposed projects and contribute what is necessary, from land to labor or partial funding.
The first phase (1999-2001), called the Community and Rural Services Program, targeted 150 villages with a total population of about 500,000 people. The second phase (2000-2002) is called the Village Services Program but will focus essentially in the same three areas. The exact scope and focus of phase three has yet to be determined. USAID plans to spend a total of $80 million on the Community Services Program, including $20 million on the first phase and $30 million each on the remaining phases.

Instead of listing it all here is the link to what we did in 2002 for the people of the world.

USAID Fact Sheets, 2002

2001

USAID Fact Sheets, 2001

2000

USAID Fact Sheets, 2000

2003 between 60 and 70 things just through this organization in 2003.

USAID Fact Sheets, 2003

I’ll post the rest of the years later.

[conlor]

The best thing that comes with freedom (which is 'happiness'), is the desire to help others.

Great list, Centra!

[Snowden]

That's a heck of a list - much more than I realized.

[centra]

Your welcome. If I continued the list is would be so long it would be unpostable. I plan on adding to the list and changing to dates and/or points only. If you have anything to add post it and I will add it to the list.

[katerina]

Good long list, that's great.
You really that work together.

[milmor_1]

Excellent list and well researched. When the cultural background of the USA is taken into account, is it any wonder that they have done so much for the world.

Unfortunately on a down note, even all the good the USA has done will never satisfy the begrudgers. But as the saying says.... how does it go now? Oh yes "To hell with the begrudgers" (Thats the polite Trackpads version of the real statement)