(Untitled)

[madralaoi]

It's all so awful, with the earthquake and the destruction. I hope nobody I know has died...I know that stuff happens and death happens to everyone, but I can't help but feel sad. It's a huge tragedy for the alredy poor people who live in Thailand, Sri Lanka and India.

Comments

[stephicozar]

*hugs you*

I think pretty much the entire world is feeling these emotions of helplessness. Its very sad. We were very lucky here, in that we only got the tail end of the tsunamis and the north west of Aus is so sparsely populated and so far above sealevel but for all those small but overpopulated countries who's entire landmass is no more than a few feet above sea level there's nothing anybody could have done.

I hope it might put some things into perspective for some people in the world.

[madralaoi]

*hugs*

And of course, if the sea level rises due to global warming...what happens then to these islands?

[stephicozar]

Precisely. They all disappear - it'll give the cartographers all something new to do but all those millions of people will be even more displaced. Life's a bitch, eh?

[sealwhiskers]

Yeah...it's such a huge tragedy, so much more deaths than anything else in so many years...

I think the worst story about reality views that I've heard was the one kejn told about the Swedish man who was annoyed about his vacation to Thailand being postponed because of this (!)

it goes safely to say that it's not always cool to be Swedish... :(

[madralaoi]

Sorry to laugh out loud...but I doubt his stupidity has anything to do with him being Swedish. ;)
Sometimes stupid people are just stupid.
On the other hand I marvel at the stupid questions from the Swedish journalists, who seem to care more about embarassing the government than the actual situation!

[sealwhiskers]

yeah..it's bizarre...
I'm just so painfully aware of the media coverage this has in Sweden that it doesn't have here in the States (they do cover it...but not at all at the same scale). I guess I just expected more from a Swede, my bad ..he..

On another note, I got the package from you guys yesterday! (bottles of swedish booze, swedish magazines with recipes, spices and more + a card!) Thank you so much!! You, Palle and So + family are so so very sweet!!!

*megahugs*

[cdybedahl]

A friend who usually goes to Thailand every year this time, and who hasn't been answering her phone since the quake, just called and said that this year they'd decided to stay at home for no particular reason. Which was a relief.

[madralaoi]

*smiles* I'm glad for you and your friend, of course. :) My cousin has also been in Thailand and thereabouts several times and I'm very glad that he wasn't there this time.

[jedispice]

Of course it's a tragedy, but do you know what disturbs me the most? That you get to see dead bodies, drowned, and floating by on your TV screen at dinner time. And they are all locals, asians, no white people.

I have noticed this pattern before; it's not OK to show dead Swedes on the news, it's not Ok to show dead europeans (from traffic accidents, etc), it's not ok to show dead americans (soldiers in Iraq or victims from 9/11).

However, I have seen dead russian soldiers in Tjetjenien being dog food (literally), Moscow victims from a terrorist bomb in the subway, burned Iraqi soldiers, drowned Thai locals, murdered african families and Israeli civilians blown to smithereens, all on prime time TV news.

I can understand not showing Swedes, since some of the victims relatives might be watching, but it's almost racist the way news footage is censored. It's interesting, and I don't really know on what level it occurs.

[madralaoi]

Well, I've seen white dead bodies on the news...so I think you're wrong in this particular incident. I've never thought about it before but I will keep my eyes open for it.