Mark Steyn: This bulletin is for all areas of the Pacific basin except Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California. ... This earthquake is located outside the Pacific. No destructive tsunami threat exists. At that point, the tsunami was still an hour away from Thailand, and several hours away from Somalia. But whoever issued that bulletin either never thought to call anyone in the Indian Ocean, or had no one in his Rolodex to call.
On Tsunami's Shore
Catastrophes unleash great human energies, Michael Gove reports from the shores A land already drowning
Eye on Politics & Law Lords: We Are The World: Is Nothing Sacred...?
We are the world and Tsunami help is coming with no strings attached...
The UN continues to send its best product, bureaucrats.
Well, dear friends, we're now into the tenth day of the tsunami crisis and in this battered corner of Asia, the UN is nowhere to be seen -- unless you count at meetings, in five-star hotels, and holding press conferences.
Aussies and Yanks continue to carry the overwhelming bulk of the burden, but some other fine folks also have jumped in: e.g., the New Zealanders have provided C-130 lift and an excellent and much-needed potable water distribution system; the Singaporeans have provided great helo support; the Indians have a hospital ship taking position off Sumatra. Spain and Netherlands have sent aircraft with supplies.
The UN continues to send its best product, bureaucrats. Just today the city's Embassies got a letter from the local UN representative requesting a meeting for "Ms. Margareeta Wahlstrom, United Nations Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator and the Secretary-General's Special Coordinator for Humanitarian Assistance in Tsunami-afected countries." Wow! Put that on a business card! And she must be really, really special because she has the word "coordinator" twice in her title!
• More UNreality . . . But the Dutch Get It [Act of God; Bill Picked up By UN? ]
• · Ed Brenegar I'd say the United Nations has failed, and has failed for a long, long time
• · · Bill Gates and Bono Demand A Better Deal for the Poor in 2005
• · · · William Pfaff On all sides, the fanatics had a good year ; [Celebrating Political Metaphor ; ]
• · · · · Mr. Obama may indeed be destined for political stardom, but before Obama fever fully takes hold it's worth noting how little national attention has been given to the senator he's replacing: Peter Fitzgerald. The Unsung Maverick: Sen. Peter Fitzgerald took a stand against corruption and pork. ; [Briton Ian Colledge, 29, is a keen diver who has traveled widely in southeast Asia. He was on a diving trip to Thailand with his Czech girlfriend, Petra Vesela (ironically, vesela means happy), when the tsunami struck the island of Surin Neua. Since then he has been keeping a Web log for CNN.com He lives in Prague and is writing his first novel ]
• · · · · · MI6 double agent was 'betrayed by a journalist' - What’s new! The games adults play