Tsunami Bits And Pieces

Brickbats must go to the Thai Govt and there insensitive ineptitude regarding the Indian Ocean tsunamis. Apparently they had plenty of warning as a military island of theirs was swamped and they could have warned people in the tourist areas. I have read that they chose not to scare away the tourists because if the wave didn't come they would have lost credibility. Excuse me? By not warning about the wave they have lost all credibility in my books. This deplorable inaction is greater than the failing of persons in the accountable positions not having the second plane to hit the World Trade Center shot down.

The British Education system receives my bouquet. On a privately-shot video an English boy exclaims, "Look, tsunami!" where the obvious choice of wording would be "tidal wave" and it gets my thumbs up. Did this kid go to a private school or a public one?

Leonardo DiCaprio must be laughing now. For the filming of "The Beach" he was criticised for having bulldozers ruin the natural landscape. Well, now they are using bulldozers to fix the landscape and the movie's contribution pales into insignificance when compared with that of Mother Nature.

We were planning to go to Hawaii for a holiday. Only thing is, it's the most tsunami-prone country in the world, being in the middle of the Pacific Ocean surrounded by the Ring of Fire and all of the fault lines associated with it. No need to worry though. They have an early warning system in use, something that we will no doubt see soon in the Indian Ocean.

Yes, this Frugal Bastard did donate some hard-earned to the Australian Red Cross Tsunami Relief. And, what's more I might add, it was more than the minimum $2 required to be tax-deductible.