Tsunami Anniversary

This is the anniversary of the tragic tsunami that struck Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India in 2004. The following is a respectful and moving reminder of that event in Thailand in photos, song and words by Jintara Poonlarp.

I spent several months shuttling stuff and people between Langkawi (Malaysia) and Medan and Banda Aceh (Indonesia). I'll never forget the things I saw and the people I helped. The humanitarian facet of the US military is a huge, but largely unrecognized force that continues to be downplayed.

The previous two decades of U.S. foreign policy has been largely dedicated to rescuing Muslims or trying to help free them from tyranny - in Bosnia, Darfur, Kuwait, Somalia, Lebanon, Kurdistan, post-earthquake Pakistan, post-tsunami Indonesia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet they detest us.

I'm beginning to wonder if we should just let them drown. Gurgle, gurgle.

Tilokarat wrote:This is the anniversary of the tragic tsunami that struck Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India in 2004. The following is a respectful and moving reminder of that event in Thailand in photos, song and words by Jintara Poonlarp.

Tilo, I think you'll find The 5th Anniversary was Yesterday....Boxing Day the 26 th December......

Right. I posted it on Boxing Day afternoon in Toronto, Canada, where it is a balmy +3 degrees, forgetting that it was already the 27th in Thailand.

Tilokarat wrote:Right. I posted it on Boxing Day afternoon in Toronto, Canada, where it is a balmy +3 degrees, forgetting that it was already the 27th in Thailand.

O.K Uncle Tilo. I'll let you off,as you might have SUNSTROKE being exposed to that + 3 Degrees was that 3c OR 3f ????? BTW It was 29c = 84f in NK This Afternoon, spent a peaceful 3 hours by my pool,also braved it and had a little dip BUT the water was Fu*king Freezing......

Well, it was 3 degrees c, as we do not deal in real degrees anymore, which is too bad since it is so much easier to understand. The problem with the balmy temperatures is that it was accompanied by a day and a half of torrential downpours. Thus, there was no laying about in the sun and no snowball fights either.

This means that most Canadians stayed inside and watched Canada squeak by Latvia 16-0 in ice-hockey, and Sweden smash the Czechs 10-1. Other Canadians watched American university students perform their annual rituals this time of year and I do not mean gazing at them as they wrote their Christmas exams. No, this means watching them play four-down football on an incredibly small field interspersed with shots of the dainty cheerleaders and wonderful majorettes. The southern schools have beautiful long-legged majorettes (see L.S.U., Alabama, Ole Miss et al for those); whereas, the northern schools (see Ohio St., Michigan, Michigan St.) which I cannot stand, have marching bands led by male strutters.