http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/12/31/1104344987544.html?from=top5&oneclick=true Too little, too late: Scandinavian fury at governments' response By Patrick Lannin in Stockholm January 1, 2005 Scandinavians are fuming at their governments' initial lax response to the tsunami disaster as hopes dimmed for thousands of foreign tourists, mostly Europeans, still missing days after the wall of water hit. Sweden feared its tourists had been hardest hit. Its media said as many as 4000 Swedes could be missing as the official figure of 1500 seemed to be based only on charter tours, without including backpackers or those on scheduled flights. Newspapers across the Nordic region fired off editorials accusing their leaders of being too slow to respond to the initial disaster and to send out help to their countrymen. Swedish tabloids were the harshest critics of the Government. "She went to the theatre," said Aftonbladet, referring to the Foreign Minister, Laila Freivalds, saying she waited 30 hours after the initial report of the disaster to go to her office. The Swedish Government has conceded it took too long to react, but said no one understood the scale of the disaster. On Thursday Svenska Dagbladet screamed "Bring them home now", referring to Swedes still stranded in Thailand. "There is good reason to ask whether it took too long for governments in Denmark, Sweden and Norway to understand the scope of the catastrophe and of the acute need to help their citizens," said the leading Norwegian daily Aftenposten. In Denmark, one opposition party demanded a special meeting of parliament's foreign affairs committee. "My firm opinion is that the Government should have sent down a disaster management team," Mogens Lykketoft, the leader of the opposition Danish party the Social Democrats, told the daily Politiken. Sauli Niinisto, the former Finnish finance minister who saved himself and his two sons by clinging to a lamppost for two hours as the water kept rising, was highly critical of his government. "I assumed that there would be an emergency meeting by the Government within four to five hours of the disaster and more officials would be sent to Phuket," he told a TV talk show after his ordeal in Khao Lak, the worst-hit beach in Thailand, where he suffered a leg injury saving a Swedish child from drowning. "After 18 hours, when I got in touch with Bangkok and Phuket, I realised we had not been taken seriously ... I was left with the feeling that no one wanted us anywhere." A tourist, Benny Engard, told the Finnish daily Hufvudstadsbladet that he could not reach a government helpline. "That's just incredible in this 'Nokia-country', with millions of phones." Finnish tabloids painted their front covers black and showed photographs of the missing. "Where are they?" they questioned. A chain text message was also being sent by mobile phone in Finland asking people to light a candle in their window. Officially, their home countries have reported only 212 foreign tourists as killed, but Thailand alone has said that at least 435 foreigners died there. Many more could be among the 6043 missing in Thailand. The German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroder, told citizens to expect that hundreds of missing compatriots had been killed. Thailand's tally includes dozens of Swedes, Germans, British, Americans, Norwegians and Italians. Tourists from Australia, Canada, Japan, Singapore, South Africa and South Korea were also among the dead. Thai police said 3000 people may have been killed in Khao Lak. Major Chakrit Kaewwattana said more than 1800 bodies had been recovered from Khao Lak beach and its luxury hotels, especially popular with Scandinavians and Germans escaping the long, dark winter back home. He said searchers expected to find several hundred more bodies on an island north of the beach. The German Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, urged people to give money to victims instead of buying New Year fireworks, and across Scandinavia there were signs people would do the same. Sweden plans to fly flags at half mast today.
Just curious. Is this post meant to be a respond to the thread about US being stingy with aid by implying that since Sweden is also so its not that bad? Or does this thread imply that its right for citizens to criticize their governments for being stingy with aid in the face of a major disaster?
Well, whatever the intent, it shows that the criticisms here weren't just Bush bashing. People in similar situations are doing the same to their leaders.
Why dont people realize that you cant make the full donation until the damages are assessed? How are the donors supposed to know the extent of the need if the damages are still unknown? The contributions made to this point are a starting point. Any attack on these contributions are the result of the critiquing parties lack of understanding of the situation.
rvolkin; The same thing was brought up in the other tsunami thread. I'll also add as someone who's done damage assesment from disasters its almost impossible to gauge what the amount of help needed for recovery will be but its always better to ere on the higher number. Anyway giving to groups like the Red Cross now any funds not used for the Tsunamis will be used to build up resources to respond to the next disaster.
