John,
As a proportion of GNP the most generous contributors are the Scandinavians and they derive the least geopolitical benefit as well, though the US contributes by far the most $ with its enormous market. But that isn't the story here.
The story is that the UN has some expertise in managing disaster, also in co-ordinating relief efforts. Your friends have arranged to harness this expertise to assist at a time when you need it.
The story I see is the UN doing something right. What matters is that even small countries half the world away are sending expert floodworkers and doing the best they can. The UN has the expertise to co-ordinate that. So you are not alone and the rest of the world is *not* made up of people who want the worst for you.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
