Bud Talkinghorn-A requiem for Ao Patong & Resolutions, Geologist's Alert, US Generosity, UN Sex Scandals-Funding "Peacekeeping"
Bud Talkinghorn: Life and death in the fast lane--A requiem for Ao Patong
When Abe Lincohn died, it took the news six days to reach northern Maine. Today we witness the tsunami disaster in real time. The horror seems to know no bounds. Because of the 'good' media feed out of places like Thailand, we get to replay every image till we are satiated. Then comes another video taken from a side view of the waves hitting the town. Now we contemplate better what the wave's size and power really was. The fleeing people are dwarfed by the cresting wave. Most other images showed the wave hitting the upper ground level of the facing hotels. But that was fifteen feet up from the water's edge. Now you are forced to imagine what it was like on the sloping beach, which was ground zero. Despite my misgivings at endlessly watching disaster TV, I am hooked. Did you notice how TV almost forgot the Thai victims. Who was manning the desks, bars, and restaurants that fateful morning? By constrast, they were millionaires compared to the Thai help. The reason they went there was because of the famous Thai hospitality. Let us remember them too.
Most of that nightmare addiction stems from having stayed in Ao Patong beach in Phuket years ago. My American travel buddy Art and I had a tiny bungalow which we rented for $3 a day. It was lights out at eleven, so we moved to the veranda, or down to the beach to meet new people. The entire village consisted of an unpaved road sweeping around the horseshoe bay. A few houses belonging to the local Thais were scattered behind that road. There were no bars; the restaurants doubled as bars. We could get Singha beer and Mekong rice whisky, period. Besides, at that time the detritus of consumerism--including the phalanx of hookers--had not then arrived. Art and I would eat at our compound's restaurant. It consisted of a concrete slab, and four wooden pillars supporting a palapa roof. It faced the beach, which except for a few tourists and drifters was empty. Breakfast was the most delicious crab concoction I've ever tasted. Toast and a chilled Singha beer were its companions. The locals were gracious and helpful. Our elfin waitress talked us into having the lobster tail supper. At $4 for one lobster tail, it seemed very expensive in Thailand at that time. When we saw it our eyes popped. It was about fifteen inches long and six inches wide--caught that afternoon. With the drawn butter we taught her to make, it became one of my top ten meals. In honour of serving us--practically her only clients--she had woven baby orchid braids through her bluish-black hair. No Hollywood hairstylist could have made it more beautiful. We could envision staying there forever.
The night before we left for Penang, there was a mighty wind that rained coconuts on us. But what the heck; we weren't going to let that stop the final veranda show. In fact, the wildly swaying coconut palms simply added to it. We thought that was the worst nature could bring to this Shangri-la. How wrong we were.
I am not going to believe anything the Liberals say, only what they do.
I am going to:
* Question every UN call to action and see who steps up to the plate. The thug states that cannot bring a dollar to the table will be judged (yet again). The President of Malawi can afford a $100 million palace, while his people are dying of AIDS and general starvation--just multiply that by the other kleptocratic states and you have the UN.
* Remember all the good local people I met in South India, Thailand, and Sumatra.
* Appreciate my life partner a bit more.
* Look at my humble abode and realize that it is a palace compared to most of the world's homes -- and for some there is no home any more.
* Show my appreciation for my local librarians--delightful people--and the library--a treasure--which has provided me with a stream of periodicals, books, and films.
* Judge George Bush's decisions with more acuity. I know what he is trying to do, which is Olympian in vision--unfetter the tribal and religious bonds which shackle the minds of most of the Middle East. Still, that has to be done with finesse and with an understanding of how that mind sees things. However, if history is a witness, it sometimes means taking totally kicka** solutions.
Finally, I was going to mention conquering my nicotine monkey and that "occasional" cashew snack binge. . . . . . . but maybe I will leave that for next year's resolutions.
Bud Talkinghorn--Happy New Tears (sorry a Freudian slip there).
I am counting my blessings--many--which I shall keep to myself in case the reminder evokes another jest of the gods. Let's not court bad juju. NJC
A LEADING geologist repeatedly warned Indonesian officials that an earthquake and tsunami would soon strike their shores, it emerged this weekend.
Kerry Sieh, professor of geology at California Institute of Technology, has been studying the region for nearly a decade.
Last July he became so concerned at the likely massive loss of life that he printed and distributed 5,000 posters and brochures around some of the islands later hit by the earthquake.
He addressed church congregations and schools to tell people what to do in an earthquake. His main advice was for people to live away from shorelines.
Sieh had been due to meet Indonesian officials last month to discuss a wider education programme but the meeting was cancelled at the last minute because the officials said they had no money. [. . . . ]
Krauthammer: U.S. Gives 60 Percent of Global Food Aid
Columnist Charles Krauthammer blasted U.N. officials and other America-bashers Sunday morning for trying to paint the U.S.'s foreign aid contribution as "stingy" in the wake of the Asia tsunami disaster - especially since the facts prove exactly the opposite.
"We are six percent, or less, of the world's population," Krauthammer told his fellow "Fox News Sunday" panelists. "We give almost half [of the global foreign aid]. ... We give 60 percent of all the food aid on the planet." And that's not all: "We maintain a military infrastructure that keeps the peace in the world," he noted. "We are the only people who do that."
"It's simply irresponsible to talk about the United States as anything other than the most generous nation in the world," Krauthammer said. [. . . . ]
To this I would add that I am tired of the rest of the world criticizing the US. My own experience of the generosity of Americans leads me to ask why do Americans continue being so generous to an ungrateful world?
UN sex scandal -- Exploitation, abuse, and other humanitarian efforts.
The U.N. Sex Scandal from the January 3 / January 10, 2005 issue: Joseph Loconte, 01/03/2005, Volume 010, Issue 16.
Joseph Loconte is the William E. Simon Fellow in Religion at the Heritage Foundation and editor of The End of Illusions: Religious Leaders Confront Hitler's Gathering Storm.
LAST MONTH A CLASSIFIED UNITED Nations report prompted Secretary General Kofi Annan to admit that U.N. peacekeepers and staff have sexually abused or exploited war refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The worst of the 150 or so allegations of misconduct--some of them captured on videotape--include pedophilia, rape, and prostitution. While a U.N. investigation into the scandal continues, the organization has just suspended two more peacekeepers in neighboring Burundi over similar charges. The revelations come three years after another U.N. report found "widespread" evidence of sexual abuse of West African refugees.
"The issue with the U.N. is that peacekeeping operations unfortunately seem to be doing the same thing that other militaries do,"
[. . . . ] Kofi Annan has insisted on "zero tolerance" of sexual exploitation by peacekeepers, but U.N. rules apply only to U.N. employees; military personnel fall under the jurisdiction of their own governments. Only a few peacekeepers have been deported, and no U.N. staff have been charged with criminal activity.
That's prompting tough talk from some U.S. officials about American assistance for U.N. peacekeeping missions. The United States will give $490 million next year to support about 62,000 military personnel and civilian police serving in 16 U.N. operations around the world. "Until the U.N. is willing to take decisive action and take responsibility for these acts, we should look seriously at the funding portion of the peace-keeping operations," says a foreign policy aide to Kansas Republican Sam Brownback, who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee. "I don't know any other way to force Annan to pay attention." [. . . . ]
