Who banned Farangs from the Morgues etc.

[Nervous_Dog]

You may have seen reports about Farang?s been banned from Morgues etc, and how this is part of the theory of the government deliberately hiding the death toll.

 

I was having a dawn breakfast with a old friend and work mate today, and of course the disaster was touched upon.

 

It turns out their son was transferred from the Bangkok Police to work in Phuket because of his excellent English. This is his story, which they asked me to relay here.

 

Now this guy is only a 2nd lieutenant, new on the force, and only married two days before the disaster struck.

 

He was located on duty covering liason between Farangs, and the morgue staff, and was very dismayed at the total chaos and lack of discipline on the sites.

 

Most Farang volunteers are wonderful, a few he wished he could throttle!

 

However the real problem was huge numbers of people pushing their way in, unzipping bags etc to try and find lost ones.

 

In their position, and as he himself said, maybe he would be driven to do the same.

 

However, the threat of spreading disease, as well as the fact in their haste, they often dislodged tags, trying to claim someone who wasn?t their relative etc. (Like the Filipino Ballet dancer that wasn?t! until they had been moved to Bangkok, away from the bodies real relatives)

 

In frustration he took it upon himself to issue the order banning Farang?s from morgues.

 

No sooner than he did it, it was rushed by frustrated people to Reuters and on the wire.

 

Now this lad knows that no way in the west we would allow strangers to wonder around unsupervised in a morgue.

 

The threat from disease, miss placing people etc is too great.

 

But many seemed to think it was ok. He himself said, in their shoes I would try too, however the risks and the damage being done was too great to allow to continue un-supervised.

 

So he issued the order.

 

Now he is shit scared his career in the police is over, as he never nor could he reach at the time, a superior.

 

It was a young cop, taking what was probably the right decision at the time.

 

He is now very nervous, and worried, however I think he did the right thing as well, made a tough decision, at a very diffuclt time with 3 days no sleep.

 

DOG

[Flashermac]

I should think someone higher up would realise he did the right thing. Just where does one have unsupervised people running around examining cadavers in a morgue?

[FIGJAM]

Flashermac said:

I should think someone higher up would realise he did the right thing. Just where does one have unsupervised people running around examining cadavers in a morgue?

 

From one of those "higher ups":

 

"For seven years, I've been telling the government that Thailand needs a missing persons bureau because we have a thousand people every year who go unidentified. The police just throw the bodies in the river or burn them," she said. "I've been telling the ministers that when the police find an unidentified skull or other body parts, they must not destroy them, they must call me to come and get the body and do a DNA analysis. Now that we have this disaster on an international scale, and we cannot cope with it ourselves, I think finally the message will get through."

 

They are already loosing the kids alive who were "safely" in their custody, would you trust them if there were your children and family at stake?..

 

Fairy tales aside, in case of any *serious* problem/accident 3th world countries always remember us that they are not places to take one's family to, IMO.

[Guest]

it was the right decision he made. exactly the right decision.

[Guest]

Maybe he could have handled it a little bit better. As they say, hind sight for some reason is better then foresight.

 

Maybe in the future, more people will be trained on how to handle emergencies, disasters, etc.

[Nervous_Dog]

Hi Fly, glad you agree, his family are concerned he may be seen in a bad light

 

DOG

[pattaya127]

Thanks for that much telling report. We can see that "THAILAND" is being blamed, when someone at his modest level tried to not "act thai", meaning not relegating decision-making so something is done when it should be done.

 

Again, this poor guy, because of the media unleash on "THAILAND" could suffer from it, and i have heard so many stories like that for years. Someone tries to do something, and whatever consequences from it, he is reprimanded, if not sacked from it.

 

This is why I think there is no hurt in waiting that things settle to play the blame game and the angry "why?"s and "but"s (won't save one life, won't put one shirt on a destitute kid).

 

All these rumours are flying way too fast, and we should not second them so easily, at least treat them as such, because right now, no one should have a "TIT" agenda, when so much help is needed and many people, albeit not weighing the mediatic consequences, try to do something.

 

Great post, really highlight the difference between being out there, under pressure, and the "I told you so"s behind one's comp screen, at home.

[gummigut]

Okay, I'm confused. Banning from Morgues is one thing, but didn't Thaksin say that they should not go to morgues, hospitals, etc...?

 

<<burp>>

[cardinalblue]

Curious, only westerners or all people meaning thais were also banned?

 

 

It was a gutsy call by the young fellow...

 

Where he probably made the mistake is not the ban but he (I am guessing here) did not have a contingency plan on how to handle these family/friends/media once he issued a ban statement...

 

If you take something away in disaster situations, you must clearly explain to whomever this is our plan and this is what we are going to do. One must create the feeling of giving them something, some hope, something that will make their sitation easier not worse. Issuing a ban without having the explanation of the next steps will draw the wrath of many.

 

The explanation of the ban is not what satifies those interested parties. It has no meaning or significance to them. They want action and to be told what to do next and how to do it to resolve their concerns and desires..

 

This is where having a disaster management plan and training of that plan will minimize organize chaos that disaster situations bring. There will always be confusion but in a disaster, one needs to show clear leadership and command if there isn't any, and one is not sure of the next steps. Creating the illusion of leadership is very important to the affected parties so they feel someone is in charge and their needs are being attended to.....

 

Just off the top of my head, could he not have requested from X number of bangkok hospitals to send immediately pathology staff (to handle the bodies), psychology staff (to handle the family) and public relations (to handle the media).

 

In disaster mangement, if you have only a few trained disaster mangement people or even one person (i.e. night-shift hospital nursing supervisor), it goes a long way towards to makng things better or at least not more chaotic when managing untrained staff and difficult scenarios....

 

His only fault would be he was throwin into a situation where he, himself, was untrained and thus his decision-making capabilities were probably limited and unexperienced at best.

 

Definately, not his fault but he does make a nice scapegoat...

 

Cardinalblue

[Guest]

Hi,

 

As af as I know, all people have been banned from the morgues for some time now. Only forensic experts (many of them are farang by the way) may enter folloing proper hygiene procedure.

 

Very sensible decision and not one made by a second lt. only.

It was already on the news way before the new year.