Terrible Tearful Tuesday Tantrums

Nothing going on here. I just LOVED that title, is all.

(Just kidding.)

There is A LOT going on here, actually. The screams you hear everywhere are from all the people who are trying to help the victims of last week’s Tsunamis, as these helpful people run crashing headlong into another culture and way of life.

Finding ways to help the all people hurt in the Tsunamis. Seems that it is easy to help (at least for us here at home) but once the goods have been purchased and put on planes or boats, actually getting it to the people in need is causing all the Terrible Tantrums.

Seems the airport in many places is too small for cargo planes to land, and there is no Air Traffic Control to speak of. There are many places where medical help is needed, but there are no doctors or hospitals left to receive the medicines, or perhaps there never were any there to begin with.

Well Digging Equipment is being rushed to many of these places too, but then there is no dock to receive that heavy equipment, nor are there roads to transport them over. Besides all this, there is no permission given for drilling anywhere, since the land ownership is in dispute, or the owners do not live in the area, or inept politics are in force, etc., etc.

All this is not a reason to stop giving, but more and more, this is becoming, and requiring, a Military Operation, since they can airlift the goods where they are needed with helicopters. They can also set up entire hospitals where needed, and drill (temporary) wells without the (seeming) need to ask permission. After all, who is going to argue with an armed squad of Marines when they start to drill a water well?

Roads? Those who are aiding the people of the area may well end up building the roads that are needed – and the buildings – and the infrastructure that is necessary, to really make all this work.

Talk about Extreme Makeover! But this is all to the good, at least for now.

Personally, I am VERY glad that they put an American Military General in charge of all this. That means that something will get done, and perhaps in time to help the hurting.

After all, you can’t just hand someone the money they need when they have no way to purchase what they are lacking. That method of emergency relief for the homeless only seems to work in this country, and that, only during snowstorms or Thanksgiving.

Hospitals? Doctors? Seems that we (in the developed countries) may end up building these places and staffing them with skilled professional outsiders, at least in the larger areas. That does not mean, however, that the local populace will use these places, inhabited by strangers with strange equipment. Time will tell.

Much more urgently needed is an Early Warning System for Tsunamis. But the ‘Tantrum’ part of this is that the very people we wish to warn, have no communications structure to speak of. These are not people who are used to wearing cell phones. (In fact, who wears a cell phone at the beach?) Some of these places there is only electricity for personal use a couple of hours a day, it at all.

What is not in place is a civil defense. A group of paid civil servants who are always on duty, whose sole job it is to warn others of impending catastrophes, or to call the necessary agencies to alert, such as fire departments, hospitals, etc.

The problem, you see, is that there is no such governmental anything, in most of these places. Nor is there anyone trained, who can provide the manpower for them. Most of these places do not even have fire departments, hospitals, or a representative of the government locally. This is Paradise, after all, and where in Paradise are such things required? “Fire Department? If your hut burns down, build another one in an afternoon.”

Probably what will end up being developed for these places is a solar powered siren, hooked to a satellite radio on a proprietary wavelength, and the infrastructure to support all this will be in a developed country. Just wait and see.

(Or, we could use Atlas Hotels, since they are nearly everywhere over there, and they do have electricity, phones, and personnel to get the warning and send it out. But they will still need those sirens.)

So much for the Tantrums that come from trying to help people who live on a completely different level of existence than we do.

There are A LOT of heroes being made these days, over there, but they are also becoming Miracle Workers, figuring out a way to even get these stricken areas the aid they need now.

If you want to help, go to THIS LINK

Regards, and Happy Tuesday!
Roger