Tsunamis

[gag1]

Hello Tony mate. Agree fully with you. Said the same thing to the missus as we watched it. Surely the media can get the point across without resorting to showing grief-stricken people/corpses. The Daughter phoned last night and asked us if we had seen a copy of the Sun newspaper for that day, (tuesday), she siad all the girls where she works had been crying after seeing the pictures in the paper.its always the same though, why anyone would want to see those pictures is beyond me. Ell - thats a great idea mate, I for one would contribute.

cheers.
george

[gag1]

Aye Marc, wherever there is a chance to make money out of disaster, somebody will do it. Travel Agents should be compelled to donate any such monies to the disaster funds.

cheers.
george.

[alan]

Depending on how badly damaged these resorts/towns are or how quickly they can rebuild and clean up its probably doing more harm than good by cancelling holidays etc,these people depend on holiday makers/industry,its understandable if you are going in the next few weeks or months I would have done the same.Some areas seem to be alot worse off than others.Just seen the news this morning and they say its unlikely it would ever happen again in that region,on that scale anyway.Saying that the waves were hitting Somalia which is 3000 miles away !

[Edited on 29/12/2004 by alan.f]

[mark]

The problem with the big holiday companies is that not a lot of what you pay for your hols will make it down to the local people. I bet Thomas Cook/Thomsons etc are already haggling behind the scenes for a reduction in costs due to deterioration in quality, a reduction that will drop nicely in the pockets of their shareholders, rather than pass it on. Thomsons are on record as doing this in previous disasters in the far east. Me Cynical, never.

I\'m certainly up for making a donation. I\'m gonna do a bit of \'netting in a mo, might be nice to find somewhere small and adopt an island or something, and send whatever direct. Just my personall preference, which might be a complete impossibility under the circumstances, but a nice thought I suppose.

All the big holiday centres will be getting lots of attention, but there a hundreds if not thousands of small islands, that will probably see little if any help in the forseeable future

[Marc]

For some reason or another, mainly politics the Island Chiefs are refusing help from outsiders as it it not from their goverment.

From Minivan News
10:32 am: *Island chiefs refusing to accept aid from Male\' that does not come from government sources*

10:30 am: *Private relief work is continuing despite government ban on private relief work - but government refusing cooperate with private helpers*

Politics and religion eh, I would have thought they would have been grateful of help from anywhere.

[alan]

I think my post was a little premature as the hours and days go by it looks worse that I first thought,some remote areas have\'nt even been searched yet,been watching alot of the news and I think these people can bounce back from this they seem very resourceful.Also heard that some tourists are still going out(Thailand),one group said they have been going for years now and have decided to go and help out instead of having a holiday.one said he wanted to \"give a little back after all the good times we\'ve had out there\".


Marc my brother wanted to start a diving school in Fiji about 18 months ago,its a long story but he had to deal with local chiefs,he had to pay three different chiefs certain taxes and rents if he went ahead with the business but he got the impression none of them got on.Needless to say he\'s still \"thinking\" about it.He said it was a dream come true until he made more enquiries,suppose its there way of life,they probably think ours is crap !

[gag1]

Friday, 31st of December, 2004 - Death toll now at 124,000 people - not one word from Tony Blair - USA pledges 18,000000 in aid (!) - NO plans to send out Royal Navy ships to assist. Kind of says it all doesnt it. Its a bit different when there is a war to be fought though.

george.

[sless]

tony blair is on holiday

[Marc]

This thing is getting worse by the hour.

I always used to think Sky News was one of the best and up to date channels for the news but they are showing some grusome images of this disaster.

I\'m sure they could cover this with a bit more tact and dignity. Lisa and the kids are in tears when ever they see it.

I\'ve stopped watching Sky News now.

[alan]

Friday, 31st of December, 2004 - Death toll now at 124,000 people - not one word from Tony Blair - USA pledges 18,000000 in aid (!) - NO plans to send out Royal Navy ships to assist. Kind of says it all doesnt it. Its a bit different when there is a war to be fought though.

george.

George dont think we have many Navy ships to send or maybe theres none in the region,we could probably get our whole fleet on the flight deck of one of the U.S Air Craft Carriers.
Think China could respond in some way,there people may be poor but the government is\'nt

[mark]

quite a lot of our fleet is already there, well nearly, 2 or 3 days steam away in the gulf.

can\'t see what we can\'t deploy a couple to ceylon and elsewhere in the indian ocean.. Not as if theres a military threat from the sea out out there

[willywetegg]

Said on the news this morning that two of our warships were on there way there allready.

Jim.

[alan]

One lucky chap here.
HIKKADUWA, Sri Lanka (Reuters) - British surfer Martin Markwell had always dreamed of catching that perfect wave -- but when it finally came along, it was a nightmare.
Markwell was paddling on his surfboard on Sunday off the popular Hikkaduwa beach resort on Sri Lanka\'s palm-fringed southern coast when he was swept up by a tsunami wave and sent crashing over a white sand beach and into a hotel restaurant.

\"It was really terrible because I was surfing, I was really surfing on a wave I wasn\'t supposed to be on,\" he told Reuters.

\"As an experienced surfer, when I saw the wave come I realised something was wrong, but I couldn\'t escape because my surfboard was tied to my ankle.\"

His wife Vicki and son Jake looked on in horror from a hotel balcony as he crashed towards the shore. Miraculously, he stayed atop his board until he reached the hotel, jumped off and waded to safety as the ocean rolled back to feed a much larger tsunami wave on its way.

The family regrouped and ran inland into jungle to safety just minutes before a giant tsunami wave 10 metres (30 ft) high crashed into Sri Lanka\'s coast, killing more than 28,500 people.

[gag1]

Aye Alan, you are right there mate, most of our ships have been scrapped in one or another round of cuts.

cheers mate.
george.

[gag1]

Fully agree Marc, turned sky on this afternoon and there was this poor guy kissing the bodies of his two little boys. The scene left nothing to the imagination. No need for pictures like that mate. Wont be watching sky news in future if they have to rely on such footage to get their story across.

cheers.
george.