Posted by MoparNorm on Saturday, January 01, 2005 at 2:48PM :
In Reply to: Re: Ray@helitool? posted by Ray in Thailand on Friday, December 31, 2004 at 9:10PM :
Just so you know, as your news may be filtered, the USAID was cordinating rescue work from the American Center in Thailand within minutes after the wave hit. (Fox News Source) American search and rescue units are already in Thailand. A complete US Navy battle group, with 7,000 sailors and marines has arrived in Sri Lanka where the death toll is higher and the need greater, other American groups are in route to other countries. Over 1.5 billion in official international aid is already in the pipeline, with billions more from ordinary American citizens in route. No money will directly be given to any nation at this point but rather to International aid agencies, to prevent local officials from skimming.
From the UPI: Most residents and foreign tourists in southern Thailand's resort region were caught unaware.
"There was no warning from the meteorological department or any other agencies," said Phuket Gov. Udomsak Asawarangkul.
An alert of some kind got through to some places at a few beaches officials yelled through bull horns telling tourists to get off the beaches. Most people got no warning.
"The (first) warning was that the ocean went out and people were walking down the beach wondering why there were fish flapping on the sand," said Steve Hall, an Australian who moved to Thailand a decade ago. "By the time they realized, it was too late."
Kathawudhi Marlairojanasiri, a meteorological department weather forecast chief on duty Sunday, said the office did send warnings to radio and television stations an hour before the first waves hit on a hunch the quake off Sumatra might trigger tsunami waves.
Thai authorities apparently didn't relay it, in fear of scaring tourists with a possible false alarm."
As for the US debt, which has existed since WWII, it is currently at the same percentage of the GDP as it has been at for several decades. The falling dollar is a good thing, it makes American products cheaper on the world market and foreign products more expensive. The value of the dollar has no significant meaning if all Americans would buy American made products, but it does have a useful impact to level the difference between American wages and foreign wages. Americans are the most productive workers in the world and the fact that China and other third world countries like Thailand pay their workers wages that are inhumane is equalized when the dollar falls against other currencies. A lower dollar makes American workers at good American wages, more competitive against cheaply made and cheaply priced imports.
MN
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