Guest Posted January 3, 2005 Report Share Posted January 3, 2005 HT said "What don't you understand? US registered/sighted (mechanical) an 8.5 earthquake in the Indian Ocean. We called Indonesia and Australia right away, of possible impending danger. What do you think they should have done with this information? Believe it or not, it's not all that unusual. " [color:"blue"] Anything in the 8 range is unusual and it should be watched. [/color] As for what people should have done with the information: I have already answered that. If you were in a position to do something and you were given this information, would you have watched vigilantly or would you have gone back to sleep? I think you would have done what I would have done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redbaron Posted January 3, 2005 Report Share Posted January 3, 2005 That's ok. But I really don't see any financial gain, by altering the truth about an impending disaster. At least in the short term. What are you saying? Thailand officials planed this? Common. Get serious. Thai officials diverted information about this, for personal gain? That's a real stretch, Dave. I'd have to see something other than rampant paranoia, to see otherwise. Just watching from the sidelines here, but isn't it obvious why govt officials have a reputation for covering up the truth? Tsunami, Bird flu, SARS.... to hide their mistakes, save face... TIT na? Nothing to do with financial gain etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lazyphil Posted January 3, 2005 Report Share Posted January 3, 2005 I dont think this is about face or comparable to SARS/bird flu, I dont need to remind you this was the earth having a seriously bad hair day and showing we are ants ...also you, me, westerners coming from blame/compensation cultures are often looking to assert blame on someone, I do however feel Taxin should donate some serious personal wealth, how much is he worth? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redbaron Posted January 3, 2005 Report Share Posted January 3, 2005 pretty sure he's worth more than you, I and Rusty put together! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pattaya127 Posted January 3, 2005 Report Share Posted January 3, 2005 to no one in particular: Guys, i am really disappointed whatever happens in thailand, and this was something as far as happening TO Thailand, you spend all this time discussing politicians and hanging by every word Thaksin is saying. Frankly, it does not matter it's to throw him to the wolves, you make him the star of the show. we've been doing that for 3 years now. it's a'll re-hash stuff, and the very fact that someone like FlyW's and thousand others moved on this tragedy, means to me that who cares what T said or blabbered, people moved on from all corners to help. You are the only ones listening to him, truly. there is very simply not in Thailand's modern history any gvnmt or politicians as a governing body that has governed for the good of the people. Instances, yes, but never more than that. maybe you want to have these same discussions for the next 20 years, i dunno.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 3, 2005 Report Share Posted January 3, 2005 >>>>on the PM censoring press issue I feel I got all the news I needed from the nation ok including Thaksin being one of the first nation leaders to admit most of the missing will probably never return alive <<< i believe that nobody can actually be blamed for the wave. but what happened after the wave is criminal. now, days after being back it appears all like a bad dream, especially looking at the news. it all is made to appear so different, and the chaos of the first days is not mentioned by anyone. the days when we were all sitting and asking why the fuck the premier made a public speach that thailand had at most 2000 dead while we had at that moment in our temple more than that already lying around, just below our quarters began the ocean of stinking bloated corpses, and far more corpses lying around in the beaches we have been, and even more in the beaches we have not covered yet (the plunderers though had). communication was up, i was on my mobile all the time from takuapa. fact is that if we would have known the extend of the destruction it would not have been only a few hundred of us rescue volonteers arriving, but thousands. rescue teams arriving after us in phuket were even held up in phuket to work there instead of the far harder hit takuapa district in phang nga province. at the moment everybody seems to cover up their failures, but one day i do hope that these people will have to answer for what they did. and believe me - i am not alone with my anger. that is shared by every single local i have met there. by every rescue volonteer of the first hour. even local police officers and soldiers i spoke with expressed the same feelings. in those days of chaos there was no distinction anymore of real world hirarchies down there, just humans who did everything in their power and beyond to get the incredible mess in some sort of order. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 3, 2005 Report Share Posted January 3, 2005 Hi Fly, So what is needed for a better response effort? Where did it all break down? Government officials hampering the effort? Problems associated between individual relief teams? Inabilities to communicate? Lack of any structures, that should have been in place? Keep in mind, that this thing hit some very remote area's. Sketchy initial reports are to be expected. But that should be in terms of hours....and not days, which was the reality. You're in a unique position to know what went wrong. Where do you think relief efforts failed? It's obvious that initial reports of severity came in way too late. But is anyone at fault there? It was a remote place, and communications were knocked out. Who didn't listen to you? I'm upset to hear that. You were part of the first response team, but sounds like nobody wanted to listen. Am I correct in thinking this lead to so much if the mis-information coming out of there, and subsequent problems? HT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 3, 2005 Report Share Posted January 3, 2005 HT - read this http://board.nanaplaza.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=380685&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=31&fpart=1 In the first couple of sentences it gives the reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thalenoi Posted January 3, 2005 Report Share Posted January 3, 2005 ib13 said:hmm not too sure how to prevent traffic deaths actually, but maybe MM has an answer for us also there? Don't allow 15 people to sit in the back of a pick-up might be a start? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 3, 2005 Report Share Posted January 3, 2005 where did it break down? well, first, khao lak is *not* a remote place. just 100 km from phuket airport. roads were open, and communication was possible as well, did *not* break down. only a comparatively small strip of land along the coastline was affected, 3 or 4 km from the beach to the next hill inland was deathzone. the next problem was that the whole thing was underestimated, news of the extend of the catastrophy just did not get out. that is why far less rescue crews responded, and too late. too few airplanes were put aside for the transport of first response teams. to little transport from phuket airport to phang nga. we had to improvise all along. people outside just did not believe us. even when the international agencies arrived there was the guy who has been just an hour in the area who asked me if i usually also tend to exagerate things. i was just too exhausted and in a general state of shock to respond anything else than "no". when i arrived at the airport for the plane out i believe the main reason for some people to believe me was not what i have actually said, but the state of shellshock i was in. yesterday night i had a read through the thaivisa thread, to see how the public saw the event. it is weird, when i was already standing surrounded in corpses, when i was wandering around kao lak, people still made posts of phuket. that was two full days after the wave hit. people in power all over the world had access to images shot from military helicopters, had access to satelite images straight away. every buffalo can see from that that this was a major catastrophy. why was that not publicised? why were we, 24 hours after the wave hit, only informed that the whole of thailand had not more than 400 casualties? and still, now, a week after, the full extend of the death toll in thailand is played down by the official statements given. the official numbers just do not match the reality of what we saw, and my friends who are still down there still see. and my friends are still pulling vast amounts of corpses out. mark my words - the real death toll in thailand is in the tenthousands. we, on the ground, have seen and known that from day one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.