Jeddah Disaster: What If Jeddah was an American City!

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Dawad Al-Dawad from Aramco

Dawood Al-Dawood from ARAMCO

As Jeddah city has encountered such a devastating flood disaster by the end of November, specifically, a day before Eid Al-Adha where millions of Muslims around the world celebrate.

Official resources claimed that the flood was caused by the heavy rain downpour the city.

To me, it is a bit fishy that the rainfall only has caused the city to sink into the water due to the bad sewage infrastructure! But there is no evidence to confirm that my point is true.

In 2005, a category 5 hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans in LA, USA and left the city with a massive destruction.

Regardless of details, according to CNN that over 94 countries had provided U.S. with their generous support in terms of sympathies, financials, and materials.

Lets go over the list:

  • Afghanistan: $100,000
  • Armenia: $100,000
  • Australia: $7.6 million
  • Azerbaijan: $500,000
  • Bahamas: $50,000
  • Bahrain: $5 million
  • Bangladesh: $1 million
  • Belgium: Medical/logistics teams to Red Cross
  • Canada: 2 helicopters, 32-person rescue team, Air Canada evacuation flights, medical supplies
  • China: $5.1 million cash and relief supplies
  • Djibouti: $50,000
  • Finland: 3 logisticians to Red Cross
  • France: Tents, tarps, Meals Ready to Eat (MREs), water treatment supplies
  • Gabon: $500,000
  • Georgia: $50,000
  • Germany: MREs and high speed pumps
  • Greece: Cruise ships, private offer of an International Committee of the Red Cross Web-based tracing system
  • India: $5 million
  • Israel: Tents, first aid kits, baby formula
  • Italy: Generators, water pumps/purifiers, tents, medical supplies
  • Japan: $1 million cash, generators, tents, blankets, bottled water
  • Kuwait: $400 million in oil, $100 million cash
  • Maldives: $25,000 cash
  • Mexico: Bedding, MREs, baby care items, personal hygiene kits
  • NATO: Coordinating European assistance offers
  • Norway: $1.54 million in relief supplies
  • Organization of American States: $25,000 cash
  • Qatar: $100 million cash
  • Republic of Korea: $30 million cash and in-kind donations
  • Saudi Arabia: $255 million from Aramco
  • Singapore: 3 helicopters
  • Sri Lanka: $25,000 cash
  • Taiwan: $2 million cash, medical supplies
  • Thailand: Large amounts of food
  • United Arab Emirates: $100 million cash
  • United Kingdom: MREs
  • U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: U.N. Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team and logistics support
  • U.N. World Health Organization: Public health officers and logisticians
  • Venezuela: Up to $1 million to Red Cross

Yeah, Saudi Arabia was one of the biggest contributors with 225 millions USD in cash (844 million Saudi Riyal) came from ARAMCO which is the Arabian Oil Company. Ok, it is about a month now since that heavy rain and disaster damaged Jeddah. Yeah, no contributions from any of these big companies and organization to be given!

So my question goes again, What if Jeddah was an American city?

http://www.alriyadh.com/2006/07/06/article169231.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_response_to_Hurricane_Katrina

22 thoughts on “Jeddah Disaster: What If Jeddah was an American City!”

  1. You all all boasters want to show up your good names in front of bosses but never have faith in natural disasters the original boss is to be obeyed and prayed.What happens to poor countries and places where every year millions of people get trapped in floods but you Arab guys never think of theses affected areas not single fils are donated so taste the wrath of nature or wake up open your eyes live a simple life dont copy your western bosses they are filthy rich

  3. Dear Ahmed,

    I guess you did not properly defended these guys… I am using Wikipedia as a supportive information resource

    below is what the official Saudi Riyadh Newspaper wrote on their news article, assuming you can read Arabic!

    وحسب إحصاءات الأمم المتحدة الخاصة بكارثة كاترينا، فإن المملكة العربية السعودية تقدمت بمساعدات بلغت أكثر من 250 مليون دولار لمنكوبي الكارثة، وهو أكبر تبرع لضحايا الكارثة يأتي من بلد خارج الولايات المتحدة، وجاء في تقرير لوكالة (اسوشيتدبرس) الأسبوع الماضي بناء على تقارير صندوق إغاثة الكوارث الطبيعية التابع للأمم المتحدة أن المملكة العربية السعودية تتصدر جميع البلدان الأخرى بالنسبة لمقادير التبرعات التي تقدمها لإغاثة المتضررين من الكوارث الطبيعية في العام 2005.

  4. Do you think Riyadh Newspaper is better source than Wiki & CNN? Dude don’t get too emotional.  We all know our Newspapers look for the image, and make things away bigger.  Aramco are not responsible for what happened to Jeddah. There’s campaign called “Klouna Jeddah” many companies are in that campaign :)  
    http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/09/04/katrina.world.aid/

  5. Yeah, There is a social responsibility there!

    These companies make the money out of this land so there are obligations!

    If these companies donated any money I am so sure they will definitely announce that accordingly!

    Are there any proves?

  6. Everyone in Saudi Arabia knows how much Aramco contribute in our society.  And you can’t deny that. Why you haven’t fixed your post? correct the info :)

  8. interesting observation, yesterday i heard a terrifying story of a victim from a friend and the first thing i thought is how its unbelievable that we really had a natural -not sure i should call it that but anyway- a natural disaster !! here in jeddah its so underestimated
    first of all if it was an american city you’d know the real number of victims , i really doubt its a lil over 100
    second, we would get really good videos and reports on what happened and our leaders will be sympathetic!  instead of a shoura member saying this:http://www.alwatan.com.sa/news/writerdetail.asp?issueno=3373&id=16572&Rname=80and as u said rich companies would contribute
    Its so sad, let’s hope its the first and last one inshalla

  12. its a bit inappropriate to try and compare the two situations honestly…the article inappropriately downplays the corruption accusations that led to Jeddah’s MAN MADE disaster…also it fails to state facts and highlight the fact that Katerina caused between 80-90 billion dollars worth of damage, caused over 1,800 deaths and over 700 people missing…if katerina hit Jeddah the city would literally not exist anymore…again because of poor city planning and excessive corruption that is left unchecked…just for the record, i am a resident of jeddah

  13. Dear Mohammad,

    I am afraid that we are having a misconception here

    This post aimed to expose the generosity side of the contributions that were given to victims of what had happened in New Orleans by our big companies, not the size of the disaster!

    Thank you for such a great comments

  14. Dear Ibrahim

    First of all let me commend this article on its call for social responsibility from  all companies and organizations, but you must realize that government agencies or companies dont really make contributions that big without government approval. If you want to speak about non-government run companies then yes by all means they should be hammered because only a handful of big companies in Saudi actually have social responsibility and community outreach programs. So Ibrahim if you want to make a case for social responsibility look at non-government entities because while we would like to think that the government will help us in any situation we have to help ourselves too and take initiative in our own communities and push the non-government companies in Saudi Arabia to share a little bit of the wealth their owners have accumulated over the years.

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