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2004-12-31 Southeast Asia
Ghouls rush in
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Posted by tu3031 2004-12-31 10:31:05 AM|| || Front Page|| [11134 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 Is this the UN observers?
Posted by jackal  2004-12-31 10:53:15 AM|| [http://home.earthlink.net/~sleepyjackal/index.html]  2004-12-31 10:53:15 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 I can think of a very good location for the local's to store the bodies.... all around the hotel. We wouldn't want the tourist to miss out on the scenery would we?

This is sick!
Posted by CrazyFool 2004-12-31 11:02:19 AM||   2004-12-31 11:02:19 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 I can understand coming in for a planned vacation to a hotel that wasn't damaged - it's too late to change plans and the local economy certainly needs the infusion of cash - but to bitch about the lack of total perfection?

These clowns are stacking up some serious bad karma. (And if they're supposed Christians and don't believe in karma, do they think their god will forgive - or forget - this behavior?)
Posted by Barbara Skolaut  2004-12-31 11:43:45 AM||   2004-12-31 11:43:45 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 One suspects that Belgian Boy is one of those people who regularly condemns others for their "insensitivity."
Posted by Mike  2004-12-31 1:32:41 PM||   2004-12-31 1:32:41 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 This is schizophrenic...

The tourists are being, well, tourists. Dolts, Gluttons, Philistines, and Boors - with money. Nothing new there except the magnification in these circumstances of just how uncouth and callous people can be. So I hope the Thais (and others in this situation) skin 'em alive (economically speaking) and take every last Euro & Dollar these louts possess.

The locals need these jobs. They need the tourist industry to recover and resume ASAP. It's not like they can all revert to being fishermen again, overnight. They need the hotels and restaurants and bars and, yes, even the Go-Go's open, up, running, stocked, and full of stupid ripe Rubes.

The hypocrisy factor will provide many fat juicy targets for people to lampoon and vent upon. We all know that the self-proclaimed uber-sentitive types actually are only sensitive to themselves - their range of detection ends at the tip of their noses. So have fun with 'em.

In Thailand, at least, the dickhead tourists are fortunate - the Buddhist Thais will smile, make them happy, and only take their money - instead of slitting their throats.
Posted by .com 2004-12-31 2:02:04 PM||   2004-12-31 2:02:04 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 Bizzare Times. I'm numbed.
Posted by Lucky 2004-12-31 2:16:53 PM||   2004-12-31 2:16:53 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 I'm taking this as a HINT that the 'devastation' is not as severe as the "stingy" commenters would have us believe. Keep a sharp eye on your wallets. I also revise my estimates of the total restoration of the tourist areas to 18 months. (I had originally said 3 years.) That being said, the "little people", who are truly suffering, will continue to be used as pawns...
Posted by Seafarious  2004-12-31 2:36:44 PM||   2004-12-31 2:36:44 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 What .com said. And Seafarious, too.
Posted by trailing wife 2004-12-31 3:04:27 PM||   2004-12-31 3:04:27 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 Prawns? I love prawns! In garlic sauce and sometimes fried...
Posted by Emily Litella  2004-12-31 3:16:48 PM||   2004-12-31 3:16:48 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 Although basking in the sunshine in the midst of death is morose, there remains not a thing anyone can do now to turn back the clock or return the dead to life. Life will and must go on, folks. Pass the lotion.
Posted by Capt America  2004-12-31 3:29:05 PM||   2004-12-31 3:29:05 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 Ugly EUropeans?
Thailand is was the worst hit.

Really life does go on and the money is needed.
But try and keep assholery™ down to a minium tourists folk.
Posted by Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-12-31 4:00:20 PM|| [http://www.slhess.com]  2004-12-31 4:00:20 PM|| Front Page Top

#12 I'm taking this as a HINT that the 'devastation' is not as severe as the "stingy" commenters would have us believe.

The “stingy” commenters need to STFU and FOAD. Still, relatively speaking, Thailand was not hit that hard. I think the news focused on Thailand because it was easy to report (surprise, surprise, the MSM looking for quick and easy profit), and a lot of tourists were there. Courtesy of nationmaster.com, the current breakdown of tsunami related deaths looks like this:
1. Indonesia 79,940
2. Sri Lanka 24,743
3. India 12,500
4. Thailand 2,394
5. Somalia 120
6. Burma 90
7. Maldives 67
8. Malaysia 65
9. Tanzania 10
10. Seychelles 3
11. Bangladesh 2
12. Kenya 1
Total Officially Dead: 119,935

The figure for the dead will undoubtedly increase as the governments get further back into currently inaccessible areas. I don’t doubt that the Indonesian total will land between 100-500K dead from the earthquake and the tsunami, and 2-3x that number will die from disease -- unless we get right in there and set up some temporary infrastructure really quickly. It’s the water borne disease stuff that needs to be prevented right now.
Posted by cingold 2004-12-31 4:29:39 PM||   2004-12-31 4:29:39 PM|| Front Page Top

#13 edit
Thailand is not the worst hit.

preview is your friend
Posted by Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-12-31 4:58:05 PM|| [http://www.slhess.com]  2004-12-31 4:58:05 PM|| Front Page Top

#14 Life goes on, but I would strongly recommend against asking for a discount on the room, or asking if somebody can do something about that smell.
Posted by BH 2004-12-31 5:40:25 PM||   2004-12-31 5:40:25 PM|| Front Page Top

#15 We have a word for people like that here in East Tennessee. Touroid, a tourist who is a real pain in the ass.
Posted by Deacon Blues  2004-12-31 6:13:26 PM||   2004-12-31 6:13:26 PM|| Front Page Top

#16 Hi ya Lucky! Getting ready for the second Grand Theft BCS are ya? :)
Posted by Shipman 2004-12-31 6:36:28 PM||   2004-12-31 6:36:28 PM|| Front Page Top

#17 I live in Bangkok. .com had it right. Incongruous as it may seem, what Phuket most needs right now, to exist as a viable community - is continued and immediate tourism. Phuket is nothing but a tourist community - golf shops, dive shops, internet cafes, travel agencies, bars and restaurants. Only the west coaat of the island got clobbered - and then only back about a km or so. Probably 65% of the island's businesses were not physically touched by the surging seas. But - every last one of them will be destroyed if tourists stay away. And - this was a highly seasonable place - I would guess that Phuket businesses took in 40% of their annual profit between December 10th and January 20th each year. So - every single day of lost tourist revenue now - in high season - costs 1% of annual profit. Maybe even more.

Thailand is by no means one of the worst hit locations - in the end, perhaps Thailand will be 15th on the list of "own citizen" casualties. Even within Thailand, it will probabaly only be about number 3 on the national fatalities list - more Swedes will have died in Thailand than Thais. The reason that Thailand is getting so much atention is that it is where many foreign nationals died. It is also where more western tourists had video camcorders running, to capture their vacation activities.

Surviving businesses in Phuket desperately need tourists to keep coming - that is the only thing that will feed the Thai survivors in Phuket in the long run. It is somewhat macabre, but it is the best that can be done to help Thailand.

Looking at the scenes of devastation in Bandar Aceh - now THAT is a place that has been almost sterilzied of human life. I hvae no concept of how to bring that place back to life.
Posted by Lone Ranger 2004-12-31 10:46:19 PM||   2004-12-31 10:46:19 PM|| Front Page Top

#18 Lone Ranger. I thank you for your insight. I agree. Getting back to work and on with it is a great curative in all respects. Life really must go on.
Posted by Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-12-31 11:36:58 PM|| [http://www.slhess.com]  2004-12-31 11:36:58 PM|| Front Page Top

#19 Glad to hear you're ok, Lone Ranger. Good luck with everything.
Posted by Crereper Thomble7221 2005-01-01 12:00:45 AM|| [http://Seafarious offsite]  2005-01-01 12:00:45 AM|| Front Page Top

18:53 cingold
18:53 cingold
18:52 cingold
18:52 cingold
01:00 .com
00:00 Crereper Thomble7221
23:42 Aris Katsaris
23:37 lex
23:36 Sock Puppet of Doom
23:36 Me
23:15 lex
23:07 lex
22:46 Lone Ranger
22:30 Chuck Simmins
22:29 Chuck Simmins
22:27 Glenmore
21:58 .com
21:55 Frank G
21:51 Sock Puppet of Doom
21:50 Stephen
21:48 Sock Puppet of Doom
21:37 Dave D.
21:32 Edward Yee
21:24 Frank G









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