Something wrong with sunbathing next to the victims of tsunami?

Is there something wrong with sunbathing next to the victims of the tsunami?

  • No

    Votes: 6 33.3%

  • Yes

    Votes: 12 66.7%
  • Total voters
    18
Z

zanket

Human
Valued Senior Member
Re tourists sunning themselves in Phuket just down the beach from the corpses still floating in the flotsam from the tsunami, is there something wrong about this to you?

They could be helping the victims who desperately need help just a short walk from their freshly cleaned-up ritzy hotel. On the other hand, they are helping to keep the tourist industry alive.

Bonus question: Is it wrong if the tourists are glad about the suddenly cheap prices?
 
this isnt ment to excuse them but how long would be too long? i mean after the bali bombings people were holidaying there so as not to kill there tourist industry. I have a friend at work who had already paid for a holiday over there before all this, she was surposed to be leaving next week and unless our goverment clasifies it as a disaster area she cant get her money back but even still she is planing to go to the other side of (i think it was sri lanker she was going to) where it wasnt effected. She was surposed to be spending the second half of her holiday there but moved it up. Is that wrong? there tourist industry DOES need the income and the countrys can do with as much money as they can possably get.

As to the bonus question it might not be "wrong" but it is definitly calouse
 
Xerxes said:
Its not wrong, but its incredibly stupid and shortsighted.
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Do you then think that those back at home who are doing nothing for the victims are more incredibly stupid and shortsighted, given that the sunbathers are at least spending tourist dollars there? Or is it just that the tourists are having fun in sight of the victims? Or?
 
I have to agree with Zanket here. I think I read that the US is giving 35 million as relief aid. That would keep one of their aircraft carriers afloat for very long I think. What is the war effort in Iraq costing them daily. Surely more than 35 million. Definitely for a week. And 35 is what they could spare for a huge disaster affecting a large region of the world.
 
Do you then think that those back at home who are doing nothing for the victims are more incredibly stupid and shortsighted, given that the sunbathers are at least spending tourist dollars there? Or is it just that the tourists are having fun in sight of the victims? Or?
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Nope - here's what I think. Its sleazy in the way townsfolk would pillage Jewish homes before all the Jews had gone off to concentration camps. They have the opportunity to do something tangible by not doing something else while Americans back home are now in debt from the holidays and can't afford to do much more than donate a few dollars.

Look at it this way: its a once in a lifetime opportunity to be flung into relief efforts accidentally and they're busy wasting it.
 
Sunbathingat the moment does seem wrong, agreeably, tourists are necessary for that region and they bring much money with them, but that does not mean it is necessary to spend the day sunbathing while the natives stand besides the rubble that once was their home. How about constructive tourism, going there to help the people reconstruct and recover from the floods instead of sitting in the sun complaining about the debris littering the paths to their hotels.

I agree that it is stupid and short sighted and I cannot really understand those people.


So, the US is giving 35 million dollars? That's not so much, but Germany is only giving 20 million euros... I assume that most nations have appealed to the citizens to donate money for those in need of help, at least our government (the German one) has done so and I expect some billion euros finding their way to those in SE Asia. Another thing to consider, things are cheaper there, so perhaps not that much money is needed...

As to the bonus question... yes, I think some of them are happy about the low prices, not that they were very high before. Anyway, I am quite happy that my parents returned from Sri Lanka for Christmas.
 
america has uppped it donation to $350m, while NZ's measly contribution including money raised by the red cross is just over $2.5m, for fucks sake, we are speniding $2b on a highway, surely the govt can cive more than $500,000
 
It seems reprehensible to be lying there tanning on beaches that only days ago killed so many people. While the tourist dollars will help the countries that need it.. it just seems strange that a couple of days after this tragedy that people would be lying on these very beaches to improve their tans. How could anyone lay out on a beach getting some sun while so much pain and suffering surrounds them. Boats and aircraft are probably all over the place looking for floating bodies out to sea, and they lie there glistening in tanning lotion. It just seems wrong to me.

Instead of going there and using the tourist dollars that will aid the country in a small way... remember that the majority of the money they will be spending will be ensuring the comfort of the hotel owners.. wouldn't it have been better that these tourists stay home for now and donate the money they would have spent there to help feed and provide medication, clean water and shelter for the survivors. I'd think that would do more at the moment to help the countries affected than buying a drink at the bar. Buying a martini at the bar won't help the victims... it will merely line the pockets of the large corporations who own the hotels.

Would anyone here feel comfortable by lying on a beach and being waited on hand and foot by the people who survived, knowing that most of the staff who are working to ensure that you enjoy your holidays have probably lost loved ones only a few days ago?

Instead of going there to be served.. they should be going there to serve the people who've survived this tragedy.
 
BBC News asked this Scotsman who was sunbathing whether he'd lost any friends in the tsunami and he said Most of them had survived... Most of them, meaning some had died and yet, there he was intent on finishing his holiday. I think these people are in serious denial.
 
tablariddim said:
I think these people are in serious denial.
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Life goes on.

I am wondering why people at home are so morbid that they follow every news item so they can see as many dead people as possible and buy the newspapers with nice pictures of the big wave.
 
That's because some people at home may still have some people who are missing or unaccounted for spurious. And those who don't have any friends and family who were there, well it's an unfolding tragedy. It's on the front page of every newspaper and at the start of every news item. You can't not look. And refusing to look so as not to be morbid does not mean that it will get better. Yes there are some morbid people out there, watching this unfold with fascination, but most keep watching this disaster trying to understand, trying to wrap their brains around the thought of so many deaths in such little time.

And yes life does go on spurious, but life goes on at the moment with the thought that over 120,000 have perished in a matter of minutes and life goes on with the thought that the death toll will rise. My life goes on with the thought that my childhood friend and her husband are still unaccounted for. If I were there right now, I can assure you spurious, I would not be tanning myself on a beach, intent on finishing my holidays like that Scotsman. I'd be out scouring the hospitals and morgues trying to find the friends that did not survive. But then I guess I must be morbid.
 
Another example of this human tstupidity is the distribution of relief. It seems that there is a shortage because the unnaffected folks inland are absorbing most of it before it reaches the places in serious need.

Had to see it coming..
 
"tourists sunning themselves in Phuket just down the beach from the corpses still floating in the flotsam" to me this is sooooo wrong!
"On the other hand, they are helping to keep the tourist industry alive." sunning your self next to corpses isnt helping anyone!
 
Bells said:
That's because some people at home may still have some people who are missing or unaccounted for spurious. And those who don't have any friends and family who were there, well it's an unfolding tragedy. It's on the front page of every newspaper and at the start of every news item. You can't not look.
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Yes, you can not look. I don't.
 
Xerxes said:
Another example of this human tstupidity is the distribution of relief. It seems that there is a shortage because the unnaffected folks inland are absorbing most of it before it reaches the places in serious need.

Had to see it coming..
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"Thanks, just put it there in that corner, we'll take care of further distribution" is heard quite a lot these days. After they finish taking best pickings, they'll relabel the rest saying "Courtesy of your local Government Party", naturally. Remember us in the next election.

Crises are times of great opportunity, for some. :(
 
"I am wondering why people at home are so morbid that they follow every news item so they can see as many dead people as possible and buy the newspapers with nice pictures of the big wave."

Because it's fascinating.
Both for the magnitude of the deaths and for their ultimate insignificance. The number of people killed exceeds the total population of most towns I've lived in. I'm sure most of you have seen this.
And yet in twenty-two hours enough babies will be born worldwide to more than replace all those killed.

The tsunami shows us just how insignificant individual human life is. Hence we're fascinated.
 
Xev, some of us - spuriousmonkey for example - try to suppress that fascination. I suspect he believes that in so doing it may raise the significance of individual human lifes. The fascination and the suppression of the fascination are both human traits. I'm quite clear which one I would like to atrophy. How about you?
 
I wouldn't make either atrophy. Things like that keep one humble - I don't mean humble in the Christian sense, as in meek and willing to do the bidding of others, but in the Buddhist or Asatru sense, as in knowing that one's individual existence is meaningless in the face of the universe.

But I would never want to think of myself that way always, because as meaningless as my life is in that context, it is ALL that matters to me. So I don't feel guilty or want to suppress either side.

Besides, I've always been fascinated by death. There is a certain respect one is brought up to treat a corpse with - but those pictures of the devastation stretching for miles and miles are amazing.
 
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