Tsunami coverage -- specifically the numbers and names of the victims -- continues to dominate German news on Tuesday. But while commentators spent the past few days praising the rush of donations and the generosity of the world in helping victims rebuild, on Tuesday their stance is more critical.

The suddenness of the disaster and the fact that it happened in a third world location beloved by Westerners has made southeast Asia a natural media magnet, writes the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. "The remarkable thing about this sea quake is that it has affected both people from the first and the third world," the paper says. With so many tourists affected, the "media machine has gone to work at full power." The result is that Western living rooms are filled with disaster photos and the tragedy is on everyone's minds and hearts. But, what, asks the paper, about the other tragedies -- particularly the man-made, politically inspired ones in sub-Saharan Africa? What about the 3 to 5 million people who have died in recent years in Congo? Why don't Germans also donate to these causes? "In Sudan," writes the paper, "the emergency escalates from month to month, and the world still can't muster itself to free the area of the armed militias. And like a shadow over it all, lies the threat of disease and hunger: Every year more than a million people die of malaria, three million die of AIDS and 10 million from complications due to malnourishment."

One thing to think about as world donations pour into southeast Asia, says the Sueddeutsche is who will other funds be taken from? Answer: Africa. "When the world focused on rebuilding in Afghanistan, money for victims of the war in West Africa ran short," the paper writes. Now, it says, "The return of refugees to their homes is slowing down as countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone threaten to fall back into chaos." Although it is swept up in the tsunami disaster, the world, it says, also needs to act swiftly and decisively to prevent that. "It is understandable when the world turns its attention to the victims of Asia. But in truth, the larger emergency rooms lie south of the Sahara."

The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung hits the issue even harder, issuing what is akin to a rebuke to those who quickly identify with the faces of victims flooded into their homes on television, but never muster any aid for victims of long-term scourges that don't get much media attention like child prostitution or AIDS. It also attacks the self-congratulatory way it believes some Germans have contributed to the relief effort. "What we are witnessing is not really nation-wide concern" but something more self-serving. "'See here, how sad I am! I am so unbelievably sensitive that I am affected by a catastrophe far away.' Another way of expressing the same thing: I am a warm-hearted human being. It's very nice when people believe that of themselves," writes the paper. "The problem is that some then become satisfied with their altruism and when asked to give to less eye-catching catastrophes, their response becomes, 'Sorry, I've already given.'"

The Financial Times Deutschland also takes a look at the aid showered on the devastated countries and the horror with which the world has observed the catastrophe in South Asia. Seemingly hinting at a full-page Tuesday article in the tabloid Bild which questioned the fact that many tourists opted to continue their holidays despite the catastrophe, the paper writes that now is not the time for such holier-than-thou sentiments. "There is no convincing reason to demand that all tourists in the region interrupt their holidays and head home." Those suffering need to be helped, it writes, but tourism is an important part of the region's economy. "What counts is aid to the victims and not cheap moral posturing."

For Germany's other financial daily, Handelsblatt, the catastrophe not only shines the spotlight on the West and its reaction and willingness to help out, but also on the governments of those countries hit by the tsunami. India's immediate reaction of sending its navy across the Indian Ocean to help with the search for victims, and the fact that it has so far been able to manage its relief operations alone, shows that the country is becoming more and more comfortable as a bona fide regional power. Likewise, Thailand's lack of need for international funds to help recover from the disaster demonstrates economic maturity. But, the paper writes, one of the main reasons for underdevelopment is corruption and oversized bureaucracies. "To ensure that the affected areas don't become dependent on international aid in the long-term, politicians from Jakarta to Delhi must fulfill their oft-repeated promises of introducing more transparency and eliminating corruption."

A number of German dailies on Tuesday also take a look at Monday's introduction of the largest social welfare reform in Germany's post-war history. Known somewhat bureaucratically as "Hartz IV" after the reform's designer, the reform not only reduces the amount of government assistance received by the unemployed, but is also intended, through a restructuring of the country's unemployment offices, to considerably reduce the number of jobless in Germany (there are currently 4.43 million). Despite the threat of widespread protests on Monday, most of the demonstrations were smaller than expected, with only dozens of protestors showing up in most locations.