No support for Canadians stranded by the tsunami
According to a report on CTV NewsNet, the Canadian embassy in Thailand has completely failed to help Canadian citizens stranded by the tsunami that hit there on boxing day. Citizens who fled the waves, leaving their belongings and identification behind, were told that it would take the standard 10 days to receive a replacement passport, and that they would be charged the replacement fee. This, in contrast to US citizens who received passports the same day, free of charge. As proud as I am of being a Canadian, I find this absolutely despicable; it shows a complete lack of compassion and understanding, characteristics that Canada is supposed to be known for.

- posted by Kamalistan @ 1:06 PM

 
Devastating tsunami
I'm sure you've all been watching the latest news on the earthquake and tsunami that hit a dozen countries in South and Southeast Asia, killing an estimated 77,000 people as of noon today. The truly amazing thing is the total lack of warning that the residents of the far-flung countries such as India, Sri Lanka, and even Somlia received in the hours between the earthquake and the tsunami reaching their shores.

According to this article from the Globe and Mail, almost no large animals in Sri Lanka's largest wildlife refuge, which was devastated by the flooding, were killed - it seems they all had time to flee from the low-lying areas into the hills and avoid the waters. It's been well established that animals are more attuned to major events such as earthquakes, and in this case the animals likely reacted to the tremors from the distant earthquake and fled to safer ground. The question is, if they had the time to flee, why did authorities not have time to warn the people and evacuate the coastal areas? There has been plenty of evidence in the past of the kinds of tsunamis that are created by off-shore earthquakes, so this should not have been a surprise.

- posted by Kamalistan @ 12:43 PM