Funny thing is, just a week before some goverments got together and asked that
amerika stop using SONAR because it DISTURBS sealife...
How's this for consperasy;
You know about the SPACE STATION, but the sea is THE FINAL FRONTEER.

Kayleigh said:

Oh thanks, thats great news

I've heard very little about the tsunami's effect on Australia. Didn't it hit the northwestern coast of the continent? Has anyone heard any news stories?

tom deeelaayy quoted verse of the bible about floods killin sinners on the days


after the sunami

shame

full

Watch where you send your money. Read this story

Corruption watchdogs keeping eye on tsunami aid
CTV.ca News Staff

With aid money pouring in to the region stricken by the Dec. 26 tsunami, concerns are growing that corrupt officials in the affected countries will use it to line their own pockets.

World governments have pledged about $1-billion to the emergency aid and rebuilding in Indonesia alone.

In 2003, the Berlin-based Transparency International listed Indonesia as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

A non-profit group called Indonesia Corruption Watch says it has already received reports of government bureaucrats reselling donated food and supplies. Corruption experts on the ground estimate that one-third of the relief money could go the "greasing the wheels."

The UN insists it's watching the relief money, and western politicians are choosing their words carefully when they discuss the issue, because they don't want to scare away donors and potential investors.

Some of the same concerns are present in Sri Lanka, where UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited on Sunday. He said that the UN had mechanisms to see that aid was not siphoned off to corrupt officials.

"We are concerned that the image of it would hold people back from sending money because they fear the money would end up in the wrong pockets," said Michael Elmquist, head of UN relief efforts in Indonesia's Aceh province.

"The problem of misuse of aid and corruption of aid, again, if it exists -- I'm not saying it's not there -- but it certainly hasn't presented itself as a significant obstacle or a significant impediment to what we're all trying to do," Adam Ereli, a deputy spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said Friday in Washington.

Transparency International's 2003 report noted that during a three-decade rule starting in 1967, former President Suharto was alleged to have stolen between $15 and 35 billion US from the Indonesia's coffers.

Suharto topped the list of the world's most corrupt politicians, besting the take of notables like Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines and Mobuto Sese Seko of Zaire.

Suharto was pushed out of office in 1998, but his successors -- former presidents B.J. Habibie and Megawati Sukarnoputri and the recently elected Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono -- haven't made much progress on their promises to clean up the system.

Many Suharto-era politicians remain in power and reforms have not had much of an impact.

Yudhoyono is expected to appoint a cabinet-level official to oversee aid operations.

"From the beginning, I have said all assistance must be handled with transparency and accountability," Yudhoyono said last week. "To assure foreign assistance is being properly used, I will personally direct and control the funds."

Both Canada and the United States have been criticized for their slow response in delivering firm numbers on financial aid to the region. But anti-corruption advocates say that approach -- and attaching some strings to promised funds -- might be the best way to ensure the money makes it to the most needy.

With a report from CTV's Kathy Tomlinson

shausler said:

Are u serious? That bastard!

Tsunami Survivor Picked Up After 15 Days



By JOCELYN GECKER, Associated Press Writer

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - A tsunami survivor rescued after 15 days adrift in the Indian Ocean recounted Tuesday how he lived on coconuts that floated by, tearing them open with his teeth. Indonesia, meanwhile, said it hoped to ease the bottleneck of aid flights by opening a second airport north of Sumatra island.


Also Tuesday, Indonesia's military chief extended a new cease-fire offer to rebels in Aceh province, the region hit hardest by the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 150,000 people across southern Asia.


Rebels in the area welcomed the proposal made by Gen. Endriartono Sutarto during a news conference in Banda Aceh.


"We have to work together to help Aceh," Sutarto said.


The 21-year-old survivor, Ari Afrizal, was picked up Sunday by a container ship after being swept out to sea by the tsunami from a beachfront construction site in Aceh. He is the third Indonesian to be rescued and brought to Malaysia.


"The earthquake lasted about 15 minutes," Ari said after the ship docked at Port Klang near the capital of Kuala Lumpur. "Then the waves came, big, big waves that slammed down hard on us."


Ari, who appeared fit despite the ordeal, said he saw four of his friends grab pieces of debris or uprooted trees, "but we drifted away from each other as the waves rolled us out further into the sea."


For a while, he lay on a 5-foot-long plank, weak and exhausted.


"My throat was burning. The sun was hot. I had cuts all over my body. The salt water was stinging. I couldn't even find my voice to call out to other survivors. Eventually they all drifted away and I was all alone," he said in an interview with The Associated Press from his hospital bed.


"I prayed and prayed. I told God I don't want to die. ... I worried about my elderly parents and asked for a chance to take care of them. As if my prayers were answered, a broken (boat) floated toward me a few days later."


He ended up staying on the listing boat for five days before spotting a large unmanned raft with a hut on it. He swam up to it and found a gallon bottle of water aboard.


On the 15th day, Ari said he awoke and saw the container ship bearing down on him. He attracted its attention by waving his shirt, whistling and shouting in Malay "Tolong! Tolong!" — "Help! Help!"


The captain of the Al Yamamah, John Kennedy of New Zealand, said he was surprised to see "a frail-looking man" emerge from the hut of the raft.


Hoping to relieve pressure on the tiny airport outside the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, Indonesia opened up a new airport on the island of Sabang, north of Sumatra, said Budi Atmaji, chief of staff for the country's relief operations. The airport at Banda Aceh has only one landing strip and is struggling to cope with about 200 flights per day.


A U.S. Seahawk helicopter crashed in a rice paddy near Banda Aceh airport as it was trying to land Monday, injuring two sailors. The U.S. military blamed the crash on a "possible mechanical failure" and said it was being investigated.


Atmaji also reiterated the government's concern for foreign aid workers' security in a province where Indonesia's military has battled separatist rebels for more than 20 years.


Speaking from Sweden, the rebels' spokesman, Baktiar Abdullah, said the Indonesian government's cease-fire offer "has come a bit late, but still, it is something that is positive and good." However, he expressed skepticism about the proposal, noting that the government had sent thousands of soldiers to the region since the tsunami.





Sutarto repeated claims that the guerrillas, who have fought for years for a separate homeland on Sumatra island's northern tip, had tried to hijack relief supplies. The Free Aceh Movement, known by its Indonesian acronym GAM, "is trying to stop food assistance and they are trying to rob the food away," Sutarto said. "If they ask for food, we will give it to them. They do not have to do this."

The military has long been accused of rights abuses in Aceh and offered no evidence to back up its claim. The rebels denied it and said their supporters are among the thousands of victims of the disaster who need help.

Indonesia Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi said the country hopes to take over full responsibility for humanitarian efforts by March 26 — three months after the tsunami struck.

As aid poured in for survivors, the United Nations (news - web sites) made the unusual move of turning to an outside accounting firm to track billions of dollars in relief funds and to investigate any credible allegations of fraud.

The U.N. and 80 donor nations meeting in Geneva tackled how to best use the more than $4 billion in aid money pouring in from around the world.

Japan pledged an additional $40 million in aid Tuesday through the World Bank (news - web sites) and via trust funds at the Asian Development Bank — on top of $500 million it has already promised. Asked if the United States would give more than the $350 million it has already announced, President Bush (news - web sites) said Monday, "We'll see."

Hoping to prevent future loss of life, Sri Lanka outlawed construction close to the coast after losing more than 30,000 people to the tsunami disaster. President Chandrika Kumaratunga told the state-run Daily News that the law would be strictly enforced.

Kumaratunga, who is from the Sinhalese majority, also said she planned to adopt a Tamil child orphaned by last month's tsunami — a startling gesture that appeared to be aimed at helping mend a three-decade rift between the two warring communities.

Officials in Thailand said the tsunami caused $500 million in damage to the country's shrimp-farming industry and killed more than 100 workers. Thailand sends abroad more than 250,000 tons annually and is among the world's top four exporters.

Despite fears of epidemics, the World Health Organization (news - web sites) said Tuesday there were no signs of impending outbreaks of serious disease in the disaster zones.

The U.N. health organization will need one month to say with confidence that the worst is over, the organization's southeast Asia chief, Samlee Plianbangchang, said in Sri Lanka.

The fragility of the health of the victims was clear at a Singaporean field hospital on the outskirts of Banda Aceh, where one man waited for his daughter after walking for four days to get help. He said she began suffering from diarrhea after she drank from a river where corpses were floating.

"My daughter was crying for water. I didn't know where to find it except there," said Syamsuddin, 35. "Maybe that's what made her sick."

Thai tsunami trauma sparks rash of foreign ghost sightings

Thu Jan 13,11:01 PM ET Health - AFP



PATONG, Thailand (AFP) - A second surge of tsunami terror is hitting southern Thailand, but this time it is a wave of foreign ghosts terrifying locals in what health experts described as an outpouring of delayed mass trauma.


Tales of ghost sightings in the six worst hit southern provinces have become endemic, with many locals saying they are too terrified to venture near the beach or into the ocean.


Spooked volunteer body searchers on the resort areas of Phi Phi island and Khao Lak are reported to have looked for tourists heard laughing and singing on the beach only to find darkness and empty sand.


Taxi drivers in Patong swear they have picked up a foreign man and his Thai girlfriend going to the airport with all their baggage, only to then look in the rear-view mirror and find an empty seat.


Guards at a beachfront plaza in Patong told AFP one of their men had quit after hearing a foreign woman cry "help me" all night long, and similar stories abound of a foreign ghost walking along the shoreline at night calling for her child.


The majority of Thais are deeply superstitious, believing ghosts reside in most large trees and keeping a spirit house in every home where daily offerings of food and drink are given to calm nearby paranormal entities.


Mental health experts warn tsunami survivors have picked up on this cultural factor as a way of expressing mass trauma after living through the deadly waves and witnessing horrific scenes in their aftermath.


"This is a type of mass hallucination that is a cue to the trauma being suffered by people who are missing so many dead people, and seeing so many dead people, and only talking about dead people," Thai psychologist and media commentator Wallop Piyamanotham told AFP.


He said people who claimed to have seen ghosts first-hand were people that mental health specialists would be paying particular attention to.


Wallop is currently organising a team of Thai and international health workers to join other specialists in affected provinces who are assisting people suffering psychological trauma as a result of the crisis.


Amateurs and professionals alike have been pivotal in the recovery of thousands of corpses from beaches and coastal towns ravaged by tsunamis on December 26, and in the subsequent processing of handling bloated and rapidly decomposing bodies at huge makeshift morgues.


Their round-the-clock work could be taking a devastating toll, with at least seven workers having already been hospitalised suffering extreme trauma.


Volunteers helping at Thai temples, transformed into scenes of grisly death as forensic experts struggle with the task of identification, are especially vulnerable, psychologists and doctors said.


Wallop said widespread trauma began to set in about four days after the waves hit.


"This is when people start seeing these farangs (foreigners) walking on the sand or in the ocean," he said, adding the sightings started about the same time as people "began calling for help, crying, some scared".


Many people said they could not escape the smell of death or the sights they had seen while assisting in the crisis, he said.


Wallop said the reason almost all ghost sightings appear to involve foreign tourists stems from a belief that spirits can only be put to rest by relatives at the scene, such as was done to many Thai victims.





"Thai people believe that when people die, a relative has to cremate them or bless them. If this is not done or the body is not found, people believe the person will appear over and over again to show where they are," he said.

Wallop said in time people who need counselling would be reached and assisted and the sightings would settle down, but many locals claimed they would not be swayed by such talk.

"After visiting Wat Baan Muang (a temple where hundreds of bodies are still stored) I'm very scared. I can't sleep at night and when the wind comes I'm sure it is the spirits coming," said Patong bar manager Napaporn Phroyrungthong.

"I believe in ghosts and I always will. (The tsunami) happened so quickly, the foreigners didn't know what happened and they all think they are still on the beach. They all think they are still on holiday," she said.

This seems like the appropriate place to send a little praise to
the firm where I work...we ran a company matched fund raiser for
the victims. We just sent a check for $25,000 to the victims

Revolution said: