Parsimoniousness

From the U.K.'s Independent:

There is something more morally binding about a promise when it is made by the rich to the poor. There is something altogether more shocking, therefore, when such a solemn pledge seems about to be broken.

Two years ago, the leaders of the rich world met at the G8 summit in Gleneagles and undertook to double annual aid to poor nations to $50bn (£25bn) a year. Half of that money was to go to the world's poorest people in Africa.

But on the eve of the latest G8 summit, in the Baltic resort of Heiligendamm in Germany this week, it is clear the rich world is well off track to deliver what the world's eight most powerful leaders signed up to after the biggest political lobby in history, a massive global campaign to make poverty history that culminated in 10 Live8 concerts watched by more than half the population of the world.

Overall aid to Africa has risen by less than half of what is needed to stay on track to reach the Gleneagles goal to double annual aid by 2010. A report by Oxfam yesterday suggested that, if present trends continue, the G8 will miss its target by a staggering $30bn.

Even the country which has done best in keeping its word, the UK, is projected to fall short of its promise of $14.9bn by $1.6bn. The country that has failed most so far, Italy, will be a whopping $8.1bn short of the $9.5bn it has vowed to give.

...The amount the US gives in aid is less than the annual profits of the ExxonMobil oil company

There's a perfect word in the English language to describe this. It begins with an "n." Unfortunately, it sounds like the "n" word so it's been stricken from the vocabulary of polite speech, but it does describe this perfectly. The title of this post is next best.