I was surprised how well the BBC handled this,as I did not think I was going to be able to watch it.
Personally I think the British embassy/Goverment were USELESS. Those who think what did they do wrong,Please enlighten me as I am totally lost how you have came to that conclusion.

I have to say that I think this program hit me more than the news stories
( due to my choice of career paths I generally have to ignore a lot of the tragedy in news stories and get on with work )
But when I actually sit down and watch something like a well produced drama or read a book about it hits me little harder - just the way I cope, I suppose!?

Anyway they were still respectful of subject matter at least, I felt so anyway.

I do feel it is the shame that a nation that survived,
the Battle of Britain,the Blitz and the Falklands crisis -just to mention a few major events - could not resource the people on the ground where they were needed when first and foremost their citzens needed them and secondly and almost if not definitely as important a number of "friendly" nations everyday people needed help!!

I just hope that they have learnt from it all and will do better, God forbid there is a "next time"!!
- Just my opinion

Skippy

If you have ntl,it is available in "TV on demand" in the "free" section of tv programmes.

quote:

Errr exactly what did they do wrong ?

Greg,

The above is a question, not a statement from which a conclusion can be drawn.

I'll ask it again. What did they do wrong ?

Cheers

Hello Gordon,
Hope you are doing ok, sorry for not getting back to you earlier, been in Glasgow all week.
Unfortunately i dont have vhs now but i could watch it at my parents if you would be so kind.
As for your ex, Par doesnt see any of the lasses who frequent Pun's house now that she is working. Now she has a new circle of friends she has very little contact even with Pun (her first real friend in England). This isn't down to not wanting contact but really not having time.
Anyway dont want to clog up the thread so best of luck and hopefully talk soon

Keith
You asked what did they do wrong

1 Patong is one of the major resorts in Phuket with thousands of foreign tourists,why was there no one from the British embassy to help. As patong has a hospital many injured and dead from surrounding areas were brought there.Our friends lost all there belongings,passports etc etc and they had to go to Phuket town for help.

2 We flew out of Phuket on the 29th,the
Americans,dutch,germans,all the scandinavian countries,even south africa had representives there to to help those in need,did the British embassy NO.
Common sense really that people would head for the airport, so why nobody there to help.

3 As I walked into BKK airport carrying my 10 month old daugther I had all this ,are you dutch,are you german,are you swedish etc etc right in my face.They were carrying flags,pieces of cardboard stating which country they represented so those who needed help did not have to look.Did anyone come up to me and say are you British, NO, was there anyone with a British flag or Britian written on a piece of card, NO
OK the British embassy did have staff there,but they were set up in a corner and I only noticed them as I went to collect our bags.
Compared to the others the British embassy did not have enough staff there to help.

4 I was contacted by phone to see if my family needed or wanted to be evacuated back to the UK.That was in the early hours of New years day with the flight leaving BKK at 9.00am that day with BA.Why did it take so long to get a flight to evacuate people or does it now take 5 days to fly London to BKK.

5 Did Mr Muppet (Blair) cut short his holiday and help cordinate the rescue of British citzens like a leader should do,NO

Plenty of other nations like ours probably did not what to do or how to go about it.But from my experience they did far better and had people where they were needed and more of them.As for the British Embassy well it gave "finding a needle in a haystack" a hole new meaning.

During and after the events of the 26th December I have yet to hear anything good said about the way The British Embassy/Goverment handled things.

I do hope they learn from this and are better equipped should anything of this magnitude ever happen again,but I for one will not be holding my breath.

I hope that answers your question.

Thanks for your detailed reply, I really was unaware of any of this. Indeed, it does sound like the usual British mucking fuddle

Thanks Again
Keith

For those in South East Asia ...

Tsunami, The Aftermath is showing soon on HBO (UBC Channel 12). The date of the first screening is obviously no coincidence:

Part 1: Tues 26 Dec 20:00 / Sat 30 Dec 11:00
Part 2: Tues 26 Dec 21:40 / Sat 30 Dec 12:40

(Times shown above are Thai. Times shown on the HBO website are Singapore/Hong Kong, 1 hour ahead)

Regards

quote:

Posted 07 December 2006 00:38 Hide Post
N,Barton,
I didnt watch it because the true facts never come out in a Documentary/Drama. The TV company couldn't care less about peoples feelings, loss of loved ones and tragedy, they are more concerned in making money.

I believe this docudrama was very even handed in its depiction of the events after 26th December. Seemed to try and cover the problems faced by survivors but also covered the more controversial subjects such as the multi national companies opportunistic land grabbing. I also thought the final scenes with the sleazy hard nosed reporter talking with his photographer buddy ..... the slow zoom to show tears welling in his eyes ... total stroke of genius.

quote:

The only bit I think that could have ben explained "a little" better is why the monks were cremating people straight away ??
Did that indeed really happen??

Yes it really did happen, unfortunately from first hand knowledge I can confirm

I have part 1 and 2 on DVD ... out on loan today but welcome pm me and ill do my best

Guava - thanks for a reply to my query - I thought nobody would answer.

Could we(UK) have not sent a hospital ship or something to help?

- Skippy