Whateva said:

Thailand is a very popular touristlocation 4 swedes.

/peace Manki

manki said:

How unfortunate in this case

The Sobbing of the Bells
by Walt Whitman

The sobbing of the bells, the sudden death-news everywhere,
The slumberers rouse, the rapport of the People,
(Full well they know that message in the darkness,
Full well return, respond within their breasts, their brains,
the sad reverberations,)
The passionate toll and clang -- city to city, joining,
sounding, passing,
Those heart-beats of a Nation in the night.

manki said:

Not sure if it's actually the high season though, so it might have been worse.

Here something a friend of mine emailed to me. Before and after pictures.


http://www.digitalglobe.c...llery.html

There was a Thai man on T.V who lost his wife, son, brothers and parents. Two young boys returned to the U.K without their parents, missing, presumed dead. Their aunt flew out to bring them back..what do you say to them and the many thousands out there who have lost loved ones.

It's beyond belief.

its almost to horrible to believe. it brings the devastation into perspective when i read the death toll is the entire population of the city (and surrounding communities) in which i live. i can't help but wish it were possible for me to do more.

my prayers are with the families

luv4u said:

It's very hard to comprehend. I've been to Southeast Asia twice, and some of the beaches in Thailand that were the most devastated, are the very ones I've been on. Most recently as last year at this same time. It's hard to imagine that everything's destroyed now, and that so many people (maybe even people I've met while traveling there) are now dead.

maxism said:

It's the height of the high season there. December and January are the busiest months in Thailand for tourists.

i've just been to walmart...

picked up some cough syrup, some shampoo, a christmas decoration that was on sale... oh, and made a donation to the red cross for disaster relief

it just feels so strange. while i am shopping for the banal items of my cushy northamerican existence, i can so casually ring up a donation for such a monumental disaster.

don't get me wrong, it is fantastically convenient that they are collecting money. we are so lazy we like it when things are made easy for us. it is just a slap in the face how lucky i am.

Lleena said:

It is beyond belief.

I barely EVER cry, but I have shed tears every day since this disaster happened, quietly to myself. It just breaks my heart.

Two stories today have left me feeling utter disbelief:

1. The UK man who wrote hoax emails to families who had posted on a website trying to trace their relatives, telling them that there relatives were dead. He has appeared in court today - I don't know what the maximum sentence is for this type of crime, but I hope he gets it.

2. The Swedish boy who was in hospital, being looked after by his grandfather. Apparently he has disappeared and Swedish police believe he may have been abducted by a European man. In the UK they are saying that they are concerned that the man may be linked to a paedophile ring.

I don't know what to say or think ... I can't even believe such horror upon horror is possible.

Reincarnate said:

i just heard of this at work last night!!!! i cannot believe there is someone out there that is so callous and disgusting as that. God forbid something horrible happen to his family. then again he obviously has no heart so he probably wouldn't care anyway....

Reincarnate said:

Malaysian Ship Rescues Tsunami Survivor



KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - An Indonesian man swept off shore by last week's tsunami was found afloat on tree branches and debris, the second person to be found alive on high seas days after the disaster, officials said Tuesday.



Rizal Sapura, 23, was plucked out by a Malaysian cargo ship from the Indian Ocean on Monday evening, about 100 miles from the shores of Aceh province, said Adrian Arukiasamy, a spokesman for shipping company K-Line Maritime Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.


The crew of a container vessel that was returning to Malaysia from South Africa had spotted him clinging to the branches of an uprooted tree, Arukiasamy said.


"It was certainly a miraculous survival," he said.


Rizal, who subsisted mainly on rainwater, was weak and in shock, Arukiasamy said. He will be taken for medical treatment when the ship arrived in Malaysia's western harbor early Wednesday.


No other details about Rizal were immediately available.


It was the second such incident reported in Malaysia in recent days.


A Malaysian tuna ship last Friday found an Indonesian woman who held on to a sago palm tree for five days in the Indian Ocean after the Dec. 26 tsunami swept her out to sea.


Malawati, 23, arrived Monday in Malaysia's northwestern Penang state, where she has been hospitalized. Officials said she had been bitten by fish and was traumatized by the ordeal, but she kept alive by eating the palm's fruit and bark.


Indonesian consulate officer Helena Ferat said Tuesday that authorities were trying to trace Malawati's husband, who has been missing after the tsunamis hit their home in Banda Aceh.

I just got news today that a friend of mine and her child's bodies have just been identified... they still have not found her older child, so there may still be a hope for her.
Although I have been watching this develop over the past week, I still clung on on to the hope that they may have been somehow away from her home in phi phi and safe from harm. I am still feeling in shock and cannot quite come to terms with this, even though there are so many lives lost and news coverage etc.

It is so important that we all try to donate as much money as we can to try and help the natives of these islands. So much media coverage seems to be given to the tourists and little to the people whose homes were these islands.

God bless you Mel, Tia and Millie x x x

ladymisskat said:

I'm very saddened to hear this, kat. The whole news of this is pretty devastating.

ladymisskat said:

i'm so sorry. our prayers are with the survivors and their families.

fantasyislander said:

Thank you.

I am so sorry to those that have lost loved ones..

This is so tragic... and everyday more and higher numbers.

my friend and her husbands bodys have also been found

Mach said:

To Mach and ladymisskat and all the others who have lost friends and family... there are no words for this. I can only say I find it terrible. If it would be helpful, I would pack my things and go help over there. But the authorities say it's more helpful to donate. So that's what I did. Love and strength to you all. Might there be beautiful stars in this darkness.

Dear Mach and ladymisskat, I'm so sorry for your losses. *hugs*

My cousin is waiting for skin grafts here in a hospital but his wife and kids are still missing. He saw the hotel going to ruins and his family was still indoors. I don't know which is better, to die together with your beloved ones or stay alive to remember them every day.

I am so sorry to hear of your loss. I pray that your friends and relatives are in a better place now.

Im surprised that no one has posted the story about the dog that saved a boy from the tsunami. http://www.cnn.com/2005/W...ro.dog.ap/

Family dog saves boy from waves
Sunday, January 2, 2005 Posted: 5:52 PM EST (2252 GMT)

CHINNAKALAPET, India (AP) -- "Run away!" her husband screamed from a rooftop after he spotted the colossal waves.

The command was simple but it presented Sangeeta with a dilemma: She had three sons, and only two arms.

She grabbed the youngest two and ran -- figuring the oldest, 7-year-old Dinakaran, had the best chance of outrunning the tsunami churning towards her home.

But Dinakaran didn't follow. He headed for the safest place he knew, the small family hut just 40 meters (yards) from the seashore.

Sangeeta thought she would never see him again. The family dog saw to it that she did.

While water lapped at Sangeeta's heels as she rushed up the hill, the scruffy yellow dog named Selvakumar ducked into the hut after Dinakaran.

Nipping and nudging, he did everything in his canine power to get the boy up the hill.

Sangeeta, who like many south Indians only uses one name, had no idea of the drama unfolding below. Once she had crossed the main road to safety she collapsed into tears, screaming over the loss of her eldest son.

"I had heard from others that the wall of my house had collapsed, I felt sure that my child had died," said the 24-year-old mother.

Selvakumar looks pretty much like every other dog in the village. He hardly ever barks and lets the three boys climb all over him and pull his tail without protest.

At night, he joins the rest of the family and sleeps among them, no matter how may times they throw him out.

Most days, the dog escorts Dinakaran to and from school, spending the rest of the day playing with the other two boys, or begging for food.

Sangeeta's brother-in-law gave her the puppy, following the birth of her second son. When the brother-in-law died in an accident two years ago, they changed the dog's name to his.

Sangeeta's family had always lived along the coast, just north of Pondicherry, a former French colony.

The morning of December 26 began like most others, with sunny skies and a cool breeze.

Sangeeta's husband, R. Ramakrishnan, had just returned from his early morning fishing with a boat full of fish.

From their home, the view of the ocean was obstructed by a two-story community center. So when they heard a strange noise coming from the sea, Sangeeta's husband went to investigate.

When Ramakrishnan saw the waves, he ran to the roof of the center and shouted down to Sangeeta to flee. That's when she made her agonizing choice.

"He is somewhat older than the other two. I knew he would be able to run, so I grabbed the other two," Sangeeta explained.

Dinakaran credits the dog with saving his life.

"That dog grabbed me by the collar of my shirt," the boy said from under some trees at Pondicherry University, where the family is waiting for relief. "He dragged me out."

Sangeeta said she wept with joy when she saw her son walking up to her, with Selvakumar by his side.

The Tamils of south India believe that talking about the death of a living person can make it so, so Sangeeta didn't want to mull over her decision or speculate how she would have felt had her son not survived.

She did say that she believes some special spirit, perhaps her brother-in-law's, resides in the young yellow dog.

"That dog is my God," said Sangeeta -- with Dinakaran sitting on the ground at her feet and Selvakumar sleeping on the warm asphalt next to him.


Delvakumar the dog takes a well earned nap after rescuing 7-year-old Dinakaran, sitting behind him.

This story brought tears of joy to my eyes.

Something I came across today:


Mounties arrive in Thailand to identify Canadian victims
-----

at 17:31 on January 4, 2005, EST.
By JOHN WARD

OTTAWA (CP) - A team of RCMP forensic experts has arrived in Thailand to help identify Canadian tsunami victims in what could be a long, painstaking job.

Sgt. Gilles Deziel said the 10-member team will travel from Bangkok to the tsunami zone Wednesday and start drawing up an action plan.

While it's not clear how many Canadians died - five have been confirmed killed and up to 150 are unaccounted for - experts say it should be possible to identify all the bodies recovered. But it will take a lot longer than it does on TV.

Although the RCMP has struggled with a backlog of hundreds of cases in their DNA labs, Deziel said the dispatch of the team won't upset work back home.

"We have to take account of people on courses or leave," he said. "It's normal to have people off . . . and these people were drawn from across Canada."

The Mounties come with strong credentials. The team is led by Insp. Neil Fraser, Canada's representative on Interpol's disaster victim identification subcommittee, and Insp. Brian Andrews of Vancouver.

Fraser worked on the 1998 Swissair crash off Peggy's Cove, N.S., which killed 229 people. Andrews has extensive experience in the Vancouver case involving missing prostitutes and the pig farmer accused of killing them.

They will join other international experts on the scene who have already begun taking fingerprints and tissue samples and recording dental records from the dead.

Barry McLellan, Ontario's chief coroner, and James Young, Ontario commissioner of emergency planning, are already in Thailand.

The Mounties say they will use the four basic methods of identifying disaster victims: physical appearance, fingerprints, dental records and DNA.

Dr. David Sweet, a forensic identification expert from the University of British Columbia, said dental records will likely be the first choice because they are the fastest and least expensive method.

"You'd want to start with dental records because they're quick and they're very reliable. They are also relatively inexpensive compared with DNA samples.

"The comparisons can be done with X-rays or written records or any other dental information available."

If they have to fall back on DNA samples, it becomes tricky and time consuming.

While the omnipotent technicians on TV shows such as CSI seem to have no problem producing DNA identifications from the smallest samples in the blink of an eye, the real world is far different, Sweet said.

In reality, he says, it can take a week or more to process a single sample, something which surprises even some police officers.

A rush case can be done in 36 hours, he said, but even that's only half the job because it then has to be compared against a known sample of DNA.

In some cases, that known sample can be collected from a victim's toothbrush or hair brush. In other cases, a sample from a close relative can be used.

Identification of victims in mass disasters is a hit-miss proposition. In the Swissair crash, Sweet noted, all the passengers were identified despite the horrendous impact.

In the case of the World Trade Centre collapse, only about 10 per cent of the almost 3,000 victims were identified, as tissue samples were often little more than charred blobs.


©The Canadian Press, 2005

Reincarnate said:

I heard the latter story too. I can't believe people are so sick & disgusting that they would bilk $ out of people & prey on children @ a time like this, but I guess for those heartless motherfuckers this is as good a time as any. It's really, REALLY disgusting...

And a big hug to all those who lost friends & family in this tragedy

This tragedy is on such a huge scale it affects every one of us. It does instill hope in humanity to see such a united showing of grief and the amounts of money being donated is amazing.

My friend and her daughters are survied by her husband who is Thai. I just read in the paper today that the Thai government has declined any aid from the vast amounts being collected. This is crazy. These people have lost absolutely everything and have been given 2000 baht (around £30) with which to try and rebuild their homes and lives.

I just can't understand why they would do this. All these people want is to try and get back to normality which is impossible without outside help...

I am arranging an event to raise funds to send directly to the people of Phi Phi Island hoping that this will help them build what they have lost

Dear Friends,
Please take a look at the attached picture of this
victim (a 2 years old boy) from Tsunami.
If you do not know him, please forward his picture to your friends or organization in your country for further publication.
This boy is about 2 years old. Found and taken from Khao Lak Resort Area,the
southern part of Thailand. His parents are missing.
His nationality cannot be identified.

Please contact Dr. Anuroj Tharasiriroj of Phuket InternationalHospital,
+66 76 249-400, http://www.phuket-inter-hospital.co.th
I thank you all for extending kindness to this boy.

With kind regards, Tess Ruktapurana Thai Airways International PCL

Whateva said:

He's already reunited with his family, thank god.

edits
[Edited 1/8/05 5:34am]