Médecins Sans Frontières [Doctors Without Borders] has announced that it has received all of the money it can use in the tsunami disaster and asks that you give to others.

They have decided that it is better to be honest and to admit there are limits, than to continue to take donations which they know cannot be used as the donors wish.

Honesty, what a concept. This is why I have supported them in the past, and will support them in the future.

Oxfam still needs money, as does the International Red Cross / Red Crescent. These groups are going to be feeding millions for months while the economies and distribution systems are re-built.

Yesterday Colin Powell mentioned, almost in passing, that there are four to five thousand US citizens missing in the areas struck by the tsunami. Apparently a State Department spokesman had mentioned this a few days ago. I can’t find this fact being reported, only the 15 confirmed dead.

The BBC Foreign Victims box has the same disconnect for the two largest donors:

Germany: 60 dead
1,000 missing
Sweden: 52 dead
2,322 missing
Britain: 41 dead
159 missing
France: 22 dead
99+ missing
Norway: 16 dead
91 missing
Japan: 21 dead

Australia: 12 dead
79 missing
South Korea: 11 dead
9 missing
[Figures include those feared dead but not all unaccounted for. Sources: Reuters, AP]

Digby mentioned this lack of reporting this morning.

Doesn’t the M$M think the American public would be interested in that fact? Doesn’t Acme, Inc. think this would strike a chord with people, and perhaps encourage Americans to be more generous towards relief efforts?

If the worst case comes true and up to five thousand Americans have died in Asia, how are Americans going to react to Dubya hanging around at the ranch cutting brush and his initial $15 million dollar aid package?