can't believe that this has become a pissing contest...

...but a number of people on the "right", responding to the complaints of america's initial puny donation of $15m to the tsunami victims, keep asking, "how much has France donated?!". Well, foxnews.com (of all people!) has responded:

FoxTV on France

France: We're the No. 1 Aid Donor

PARIS — One-upping the United States, France said Thursday it is the No. 1 donor for the Asian disaster — pledging 42 million euro ($57 million) — following barbs from Washington about the extent of French generosity.

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's (search) boast that France was vaulting to "the head of all the contributors" appeared to respond to comments from Andrew Natsios (search), chief of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which distributes American aid.

In a FOX News interview this week, Natsios said France tends not to be a world leader in foreign aid and often packages its help as loans, which he suggested were inappropriate in emergencies."

(This is particularly funny, since the additional $20m that the US has pledged IS a loan!)

"The aid program in France is not that big," he said. "They do not tend to be dominant figures in the aid. The British are, the European Union is, the Japanese are, we are, the Canadians are."

In Paris, France's Foreign Ministry shot down those aspersions. Spokesman Herve Ladsous said French aid for tsunami victims "is clearly donations and not loans."

He also said France gives more development aid than all other members of the Group of Eight industrial nations — which includes the United States — when measured as a proportion of its economic output.

"The figures speak for themselves," said Ladsous. France allotted .41 percent of its gross national income to development aid in 2003, nearly triple the .15 percent from the United States, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (search).

Pretty amazing that Fox ran this, considering the amount of "France-bashing" that they do! Of course, they make it sound like France is boasting about this, which i rather doubt. I also doubt that these facts and figures will shut up their detractors.
But screw all of that! Nobody should be comparing anything and trying to show anyone up! We need to just come together and help these poor people! I know that i get caught up in this crap, but just because i see the childishness of the conservatives! Our government, and especially bush, has been slow to act and respond and show our solidarity. It's embarassing, but hopefully, the world can come together on this issue!