MIGHT NOT BE SENDING much money, but the Spanish government has just decided, two weeks after, to send some troops to the tsunami area:

Spain will next week send military aircraft and troops to support the international aid effort in Asian countries hit by deadly tsunamis, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero announced.

The Hercules transport planes and helicopters will carry field hospitals and engineers to bolster the unprecedented rescue effort, Zapatero said.

But he did not specify how many aircraft and personnel would be involved nor which countries they would head to.

Meanwhile this report, by EFE -the government-owned news agency- also confirms the stinginess and manipularion that I mentioned in my previous post:

The government said at the year's end it would release EUR 50 million(USD 67m) in aid, including EUR 48m as credits at preferential interest rates for disaster-hit countries.

So that would actually be a paltry 2 million euros in direct aid; approximately two and a half million dollars. Just as a comparison, Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher has donated 10 million dollars himself. And somehow I don't think it'll be 'by year's end'.