Tsunami: Where Are the Americans?

12/30/04

It's in the News NOW and it requires comment immediately

Tsunami

It's been four days on this date in this year of our Lord 2004, since a tsunami hit Southeast Asia. For four days my mind has been boggled and the brain cells have desperately trying to absorb it all.

I did make mention of the tsunami on my normal Monday entry, The Week Just Passed. And then I hastily added it to the pre-written entry. It was so early into the event that at the time of my reportage, from the post indicated above, I quote myself "Over 6,000 dead from resulting Tsunamis."

Since then the death toll has increase exponentially on almost an hourly basis. I was, as difficult as it is to believe, speechless.

As expected, I have listened to the news and pundits. All substitutes as everyone in America is on vacation this week, even the President as the Washington Post rather nastily noted. Not that every damn senator and congressman isn't also on vacation but that fact alluded the WAPO.

Also, does the WAPO really think the American people are so stupid that we don't know that there's such things as cell phones, even picturephones, to keep the President of the United States in touch with the world?

I really have nothing to offer but my thoughts about it all. Thoughts hopefully presented from a rather typical American's perspective and not meant to make me sound stupid yet a few of them do.

For instance, I had no idea that Thailand even had a sea shore. I envision Thailand as a mysterious, religious sort of place buried deep in the jungles of Southeast Asia.

The next thought that overwhelms my already overwhelmed mind is the sheer waste of it all. In this era of technology and vast seismic recording institutes, email, the Internet and damn, I live only 10 miles from the Atlantic Ocean my own self. To advertise a local bistro any idiot can rent an airplane with a banner trailing from its tail, touting happy hours from four to six.

From what I see, most of the places hit were areas on the sea shore, duh, as that is where tsunamis tend to occur. And as sea shores do, vacationers tend to congregate there. The underwater earthquake that caused the tsunamis was recorded hours in advance before the resulting killer waves hit the shores. Couldn't someone, somewhere, have rented one of those little airplanes and warned those happy people on holiday to head for the high ground?

No one figured out major undersea earthquakes cause tsunamis. Maybe some guy forced to cover on the day after Christmas could have sent out an email, maybe made a phone call?

Of course this is Monday morning quarterbacking and who knows, I did hear somebody sent out an email warning of a tsunami but hey, maybe it's just me, but an email just doesn't do it for a killer tsunami.

I live in a country with color-coded threat warnings should a terrorist cough. Although also I wonder if the United States of America has some sort of system in place in the event such a thing should ripple through the Atlantic. Being so close to the ocean I've spent many a happy sunny afternoon on the beaches of Maryland and from the videos of this recent tsunami that I've seen, the same sort of overwhelming wave could easily wash over Ocean City or Rehobeth Beach.

Further research and I discover that the Atlantic ocean is not as vulnerable to tsunamis as the much shallower Pacific. In fact, I don't recall in my recent readings any such thing as a tsunami to hit the east coast of the United States.

Those countries so much more vulnerable to tsunamis, shouldn't they have been a bit more on the ball about the things? Because as bad as the economic toll is going to be with the destruction, not to mention the loss of life so horrendous we're all still in shock, those once profitable European tourist spots are going to take years to recover the lost revenue.

I heard former President Bill Clinton though President Bush should have come out sooner and announced to the tsunami victims that he "felt their pain". I'm thinking the President might have been very busy dealing with phone calls from India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, et al. No wait. Yeah, Clinton would have been right out there in the national spotlight the day after the tsunamis hit and as the death toll rose, announcing his plans and feeling their pain.

There's been criticism from the UN that the US didn't give enough though it's always big, loveable America that gives the most, all the time, that comes in to save the day, that WARNS ITS CITIZENS OF IMPENDING DANGER!!!!!

Okay, I feel better now getting this off my back.

I do heartily approve of Bush's plan to work with Austrailia, India and Japan to oversee rescue and recovery efforts. This is, you understand, a back slap of the hand to the UN. Yeah, the UN. Can't help Haiti, didn't help Ruwanda, stole every dime they could from the Iraq oil for food program. America should just hand them another pile of American bucks for Kofi and his son to deposit directly to their Swiss bank account.

I'll end this first missive of tsunami impressions with one question: WHERE ARE THE AMERICANS?

All week I am hearing that thousands of Americans are missing. Who?

There's been plenty of time for every relative of an American missing to contact the media. While there have been a few on the pundit shows, the only American I saw alleging to be missing a relative was someone with a cousin who actually lived in Thailand.

There was another model type and I've heard a few scuba diver types on Greta. But these were survivors!

I suspect there were not many Americans in any of the devastated spots . It was the day after Christmas, a time not normally spent in exotic Thai seaside pursuits by most Americans. If Americans even go there any other time of the year all that much.

It's possible I'm wrong about this but I predict when all is said and done there's few American deaths from the tsunamis.

Which means nothing except while I keep hearing about thousands of missing Americans I note the distinct lack of wailing relatives. Could be those countries want us to THINK there's thousand of Americans missing?