Note to "president" Bush & "Mr"Blair

[Crazyhorse]

Hello.

So you, and the CIA, and MI6 have been telling us repeatedly how we are at high risk from terrorists, and 25000 people get killed by a natural disaster in 2 hours.

Yeah right.

And can I add my sincere condolences to all those thousands of folk that lost almost as many relations as your forces killed in the first few days of Iraqi bombing.

What a shame that the thousands of families of the Iraqi (and Tsunami) dead are not given half as much coverage as the British bloke who immediately flew home from Sri Lanka with a sprained ankle.

[Ape]

What a shame that the thousands of families of the Iraqi (and Tsunami) dead are not given half as much coverage as the British bloke who immediately flew home from Sri Lanka with a sprained ankle.

Hear hear! Absolute vomit-inducing the way the news story was presented as "holiday trips spoiled by nature" with such a massive loss of human life. Shows that in the West the true nature of Xmas has nothing whatsoever to do with common humanity, but is just selfish and greedy all the way.

[Holly]

Hi Crazyhorse,

I've been following this as well. I think maybe in the first 24 hours the media was struggling to get news, which perhaps explains the apparent trivialty of the earlier stories. It also perhaps shows the extent of the disaster, that so much was cut off, including the news. We're so used these days to getting instant news.

I've been watching it in Sky news today and the loss of life is just unimaginable and is only really just unfolding. I also hope the US puts as much effort in to humanitarian relief as it has done into war!!

We were at a beach resort in Thailand earlier this year and I've been sitting here worrying and wondering where the Thai friends we met out there are, praying that they are safe. It just makes it hit home harder and makes it even more real.

Holly x

[Estelle]

Perhaps if the US and UK governments had spent a fraction of what they spent on the war in Iraq on ensuring that there was an adequate tsunami warning system in the Indian ocean then many lives would have been saved.

Oh .... no - I'm being stupid. The governments of these fabulously rich Indian Ocean Rim countries should have spent their own countless billions on it.

As usual, hypocrisy rules OK

Estelle

[WT]

Dunno about the cost, but it would really have helped if the countries bordering the Indian Ocean had not rejected the idea of having just such a system last year. It probably wouldn't have been up and running yet but, if there had even been basic communication such as that which allowed Kenya to evacuate the beaches, they would have saved so many lives, albeit not in the nearest and remotest areas. I sincerely hope that those governments will now rethink their priorities (and I am sure that the US government will be only too willing to help to protect its base in the Indian Ocean)...

[Holly]

Maybe this thread should also be titled Note to Mr Blair!!

I know everybody needs a holiday but isn't it about time he returned from sunning himself in the red sea to take personal charge of Britian's role in the biggest natural disaster in modern times??

There I feel better for that!

Holly x

[Edited by WT: Your wish is my command, I've retitled it for you! :wink: ]

[DavidEngland99]

Hi Holly,

Well, maybe I would let Tony Blair have his holiday if he was a decent prime minister while he is here. I went on the anti-war demo, and afterwards I watched him on TV saying "Trust me" (refering to the WMD of course).
I even wondered if it was the right thing to go on the demo - after all, surely the PM knew more about security than me!

How he can stay in office after the truth came out. Maybe he should stay on holiday, the country is probably better off without him. If he were here running the relief effort he would probably find a milionaire busnessman (or do I mean crook) who would take the money and do something 'creative' with it!

BTW, the money the government is currently pledging would buy less than a 1/10 slice of that stupid, crappy millennium dome!!

David

[WT]

As an update, I note that the governments of the countries around the Indian Ocean have now changed their decision and will install an early warning system (no doubt with significant western assistance). I sincerely hope that this will prevent such a disaster from ever having these consequences again.