Asian Tidal Waves kill thousands

[djwayne]

We recieved this e-mail from my friend in India.........

 

Dear folks,

 

Found this wonderful passage in The Ramayana, The Indian Epics Retold

by

R.K. Narayan. The passage is taken from 'Ganga's Story' (p.28)

 

Every inch of ground on Earth... has a divine association. Mother Earth

has been there since the beginning of creation, being one of the five

primeval

elements. She has seen countless pairs of feet running about on

thousands

of aims and pursuits, both evil and good, and will continue until Time

swallows

and digests everything. Even after the participants have vanished,

every

inch of earth still retains the impress of all that has gone before. We

attain a full understanding only when we are aware of the divine and

other

associations of every piece of ground we treat on. Otherwise it would

be

like the passage of a blind man through illuminated halls and gardens.

 

Slan,

Abhay

 

The destiny we share

Is a dream come true

Now is HERE... here is NOW (Clannad)

 

Aum Namoh Bhagwate

[Tedster]

Beautiful and thought-provoking passage. Thanks, DJ...

[Jeff Klopmeyer]

I'm pleased to see the US just raised its aid contribution by tenfold... we're now committing $350 million in relief.

 

 

- Jeff

[halljams]

Originally posted by Jeff Da Weasel:

I'm pleased to see the US just raised its aid contribution by tenfold... we're now committing $350 million in relief.

 

 

- Jeff

That is good.

Too bad bush will use it to promote some stupid shit.... like himself.

[djwayne]

Maybe Osama can donate some fleas ??

[miroslav]

Originally posted by halljams:

Originally posted by Jeff Da Weasel:

I'm pleased to see the US just raised its aid contribution by tenfold... we're now committing $350 million in relief.

 

 

- Jeff

That is good.

Too bad bush will use it to promote some stupid shit.... like himself.

halljams...I don't think that's really the case.

 

Promote himself how?

 

He's signed off on other relief packages in the past...and he's never gone out of his way to specifically pat himself on the back.

 

BUT...I see nothing wrong in him pointing out that the USA...HAS donated that amount of aid.

 

You folks can't have it both ways...complain when he(USA) doesn't give enough...and then make negative speculative comments when he(USA) does.

 

And...why the hell does this thread continue to thrive on this forum, when it has become quite political...

...common Craig...get it out of here, please...or people need to stop the political comments.

[3D Audio]

If you haven't seen any of the satellite photos of the tsunami damage, I have posted several, culled from different websites, on my site.

 

Satellite tsunami photos

[Anderton]

<<...common Craig...get it out of here, please...or people need to stop the political comments.>>

 

I've already made my feelings clear about political comments.

 

But this thread continues because of things like Djwayne's post.

 

This is a terrible, terrible tragedy. I'll say it again: There is no room for politics. People are suffering. We can sort out the politics later.

 

Peace.

[Mats Olsson.]

I haven't said anything in this thread yet...

 

My country is in deep shock. Currently 3559 people are listed as missing or dead. The list will eventually get shorter, but probably not by much. (To put the numbers in perspective: the total population of Sweden is 9 million, about a million less than Michigan).

 

This is by far the single worst tragedy in my countrys history. Pretty much anyone you talk to knows someone that is directly affected from this terrible tragedy.

 

Everybody wants to help.

In a unique cooperation, last night all (5) major TV networks joined forces together with many radio stations and the largest newspaper to raise money for the relief. The result exceeded the most optimistic expectations: 333 million SEK was raised (aproximately 50 million USD). All over the country, many charitable events & campaigns are held to collect more money.

 

Still, my country is not destroyed like the ones that got hit by the tsunami. The death toll is now close to 130 000, but it won't stop there. Lord knows how many that are physically injured.

Those who have survived suffer mentally from what they've experienced. Millions of people are homeless and/or jobless. They need us.

 

My hope for the new year is that people will not forget those in need. Give what you can. Also small amounts makes a difference. Have a garage sale to raise money (a good excuse to get rid of your christmas gifts!), let your kids sell lemonade & cookies.

 

The Red Cross can use many more volonteers, even if you only have a couple of hours available for charity work, call them!

[nursers]

From Sydney Morning Herald: ;(

 

Jessie Maulder unzips the bodybag. The anonymous corpse smiles hauntingly back at her. The eyes are heavily sunken, the face puffy and bruised.

 

The only hope of identifying the body and the thousands of other unclaimed corpses will be through DNA testing and by looking for distinctive marks: a tattoo, jewellery, perhaps a piercing or a scar.

 

"What I'm trying to do is get the families reunited with the bodies so they can at least take them home," she says. "As tragic as it is, it's actually a blessing to find the body, a real relief because there are thousands that will never be found."

 

The 20-year-old medical student from Melbourne is dressed in gumboots, gloves and a mask which she has daubed with tiger balm. A week ago she was on holiday. Now she is helping out in a makeshift morgue at a temple in Krabi, 250 kilometres south of Phuket.

 

A fresh batch of bodies has arrived from Phi Phi Island, and Ms Maulder is looking to see if a 24-year-old Swiss woman, Jen, is among them. Outside the morgue, Jen's boyfriend, Adrian, a blond, tanned young man no older than 23, hands her a sketch of Jen's tattoo. He was with his girlfriend when the tsunami hit. "Remember, she has a bellybutton ring too. Please find her," he pleads.

 

Ms Maulder walks through the rows and rows of the dead. Some are in bags, others are completely exposed. Naked, bloated and bloodied. Eventually she comes to a body with a tattoo matching Adrian's sketch. "Oh boy, I've found her." She walks outside to break the news.

 

Adrian holds his head in his hands and cries. Ms Maulder reaches out and holds him. "Was it quick?" he asks her.

 

"Yes. And now you've found her, it's over. You can take her home."

 

Ms Maulder hands him a mask and they walk - hands held tight - into the morgue to view the body together. "I'll only show him the tattoo and bellybutton. It's too horrific for him to see the rest," she tells the Herald.

 

Later, he thanks her for finding Jen. "At least maybe I can take her ashes home or something."

 

Ms Maulder and her best friend, Ineka Dane, are among the scores of Australian volunteers who have spent the past week helping police and forensic officers from around the world identify the thousands of nameless bodies scattered across the rim of the Indian Ocean. They have become quasi doctors, forensic officers, counsellors and translators.

 

They were on Koh Lanta, an island south of Phi Phi, when the disaster occurred. "We knew we had to stay and help. You can't go sightseeing, looking at Buddhas in northern Thailand when you see something like this," Ms Maulder says.

 

When each new batch of bodies arrives, Ms Maulder works with forensics to take DNA samples and examine the victims' teeth. She also records clothing, jewellery and other distinctive features.

 

"It's a horrific thing and nobody wants to see this but I would rather be here doing this, sitting with families when they recognise their loved ones."

 

So far Ms Maulder has positively identified 12 bodies.  She has at least another 15 families looking for their loved ones, including a Swedish man looking for his four-year-old daughter and a Norwegian family who have lost nine of their relatives. There are also two Australian families.

 

"It's good for them to know they have a fellow Australian who is out there looking as hard as they are. I think when I get home it will be difficult for people to understand the magnitude of suffering we have seen. They don't see the families who have to come and collect the totally monstrous bodies left."

 

Throughout the day she talks with forensic officers from Norway, Germany and Britain. "This is a world away," she says, referring to her life in Australia.

 

Ms Dane, also 20 and who grew up with Ms Maulder in Tasmania, goes through images of the unidentified bodies with grieving families. If a match is found, she passes the image to Ms Maulder to check. She also rings embassies and sits with families while they wait.

 

"I prefer to stay outside. I don't have the stomach for it," she says.

 

Both women are working 12 to 14 hours a day. Yesterday Ms Dane translated the Thai death certificate into English to help Western families. "Bodies just keep coming in. It's like a war zone," she says.

 

Ms Maulder, whose mother is a doctor, says she is able to view the new bodies before their images are downloaded onto computer, alleviating undue distress for the families.

 

After a quick break for a cigarette and a Thai coffee with condensed milk - habits she has taken up this week - Ms Maulder heads back into the morgue to check for a missing Norwegian. "Don't write that I've been chain smoking. My mother will kill me," she laughs.

 

The man she is looking for has only nine fingers. Ms Maulder picks up the hands of a possible match and counts. She double checks. It is not a match.

 

Had she seen many dead bodies before this?

 

"Only in the anatomy room. Never real people. Never. It's such an emotional thing being here day after day seeing this and smelling this. For me the dead bodies are not the problem. What affects me is seeing the loss on the families' faces," she says.

 

"It is such a terrible thing for the families to see that last vision of their loved one in that state so I cover the bodies and just let them see the tattoo or the piercing."

 

The women have another week of their holiday left and will spend it at the morgue.

 

"I'll never ever forget this for the rest of my life. I think I'll have to incinerate my clothes," Ms Maulder says.

[LiveMusic]

Originally posted by Mats Olsson.:

This is by far the single worst tragedy in my countrys history. Pretty much anyone you talk to knows someone that is directly affected from this terrible tragedy.

Why is this? Is there some reason Sweden would have so many people in that area?

[Mats Olsson.]

Phuket and other parts of Thailand are very popular for Swede's on holiday.

And during christmas & new year, many people are free - the schools are closed from 18th of december through 9th of january, so this time of year tourism is peaking.

[Barandine Vondenger]

I saw an image of a "person" in india holding a baby.

I thought oh you lucky guy or girl(I can'e tell if its a man or woman) your baby is safe and sleeping in your arms.

then I notice the look on the "persons" face ain't joy , it's grief. The baby is dead..

How he or she must feel to be given a gift like that beautiful child and have it dead in your arms from a tidal wave.

This is being repeated over and over to the point on incomprehension and madness..

.tens of thousands of dead all at once. sometimes everyone is dead and there is no one to hold the dead baby. so It lies on the apathetic sand, cold and alone, forever waiting for the water to be over.

I can't smell the bodies..

Nor do I see multitudes of dead folke bobbing in the water twenty miles from land and being used by natures othre children.

The mobs of hongry mommies and daddies who've become insane from the deaths and hunger and injustice of it all are inaudible to me.

The TIDAL WAVE is gone.,after disease and starvation and mindeless mobs are done the dead will number over three hundred thousand.

HOW does this affect me. what should "I" do? how can I deal with this?

I could send a dollar. or ten..

I could wear a black armband or patch or ribbon to HONOR the dead.I could wear a white or green band or patch or ribbon to honor those who survive.

I can celebrate life and live for all those who have passed.

And every baby I hug from now on gets another for that cold lifeless one on the beach.

thats the least I can do.. .

[nursers]

Very well put Arell

[Shars]

Sickos Alert!!! Read this at will!!

[meccajay]

Reading Nursers post, it got me to thinking. What is the most crucial priority right now...the families need to identify the dead vs the need to get the bodies buried?

 

In Nursers post the workers are indoors in a makeshift morgue, with most of the bodies bagged. In many news clips this weekend, there are still bodies out in the open air either rotting by the roadside, or being set out inside tents for people to identify family members. In site of my understanding of how important it is for family to identify there loved ones, That seems to me to be a huge mistake!

 

At some point in the next week or more, those corpses are going to start claiming other lives thru the spread of desease.

Shouldn't the primary focus of the relif effort be burying the dead ASAP?!

 

I saw a report last week about how the British gov was angry at one of the countries suffering the disaster, because all the bodies in that area were being buried in mass graves to protect the living from possible disease spead...this was on day 3.

Many vacationing Brits were reportedy amoung the dead in that area, and may possibly never be identified due to the hasty burials. Is that somehow more important? Isn't it just as painful for a local to bury there child in a mass grave as it is for a tourist? Yet somehow the locals were showing up with there children and loved ones to be added to the mass burials. That seemed to be the right thing to do....for the sake of the living. Am I wrong here?

 

Anyway, were now at day 9, and apparently there's still bodies unburied and exposed in some areas.

 

Are these clips old footage from last week? Or has the need to identify bodies outweighed the need to protect the living?

[Base]

OK, have just managed to get through this entire thread (only skimmed some of the longer posts, but I'll read them fully when I have more time).

 

Some of the stuff about it not being a competition which countries contribute more, but many have supposedly been treating it like one, trying to outdo each other. A bit petty but then again, who gives a crap as long as it gets more money out there. Some countries (inc. the UK) have been shamed into increasing their contribution by the population donating more than the government (who are now pledging to match what the public puts in), whatever works really!! Same with celebrities using it for publicity, as long as they pay big, let them!

 

I've donated to Save the Children, I'll send more next payday.

[shniggens]

Originally posted by Base:

A bit petty but then again, who gives a crap as long as it gets more money out there. Some countries (inc. the UK) have been shamed into increasing their contribution by the population donating more than the government (who are now pledging to match what the public puts in), whatever works really!! Same with celebrities using it for publicity, as long as they pay big, let them!

.

Hell yeah! If it takes some petty competition to get them to donate more, well then let the games begin!!!!