Sunday
(0)With a natural catastrophe of this proportion, it is clear that the whole region will be picking up the pieces for the foreseeable future. Death toll is now 10,000 and rising, depending upon your news site, and the emergency situation has been publicised for ten hours
The Foreign Secretary sent out the message of condolences and said "stand by for action". However, there are no links or help on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website for families to telephone or leave messages for family members or friends, holidaying in the tropics. Nothing on the State Department for US citizens either, although such aid may be dealt with at a local level. Australia is far better prepared with a hotline. The BBC, agitprop wing of the government, wishes to hear your experiences of the tsunami, but does not provide you with a number if you wish to let your loved ones know that you are still alive.
Especially as it is the holiday period, such emergencies are the time when government departments should place themselves at the service of their citizens. Should, but do not.
UPDATE: The FCO emergency telephone number is 0207 008 0000. However, if you wish to obtain more direct information on each country, you have to visit the 'Travel Advice by Country' pages on the FCO website. These will give you direct numbers for the embassies in individual countries: India, Indonesia, Thailand, Maldives, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia.
If you were to visit the frontispiece of the FCO website, there is still no indication where such information is held. The BBC does not hold this information on its indepth webpage concerning the disaster. Both the BBC and Skynews tuck the number away at the bottom of their webpages reporting the deaths of Britons.
I am sure they are very concerned, and they are monitoring the situation.
Posted by Michael Jennings at December 26, 2004 09:00 PM
Israeli MFA has a premanent Situation Room for such, well, situations. They are very good about taking care of Israelis abroad, and providing help to disaster victims worldwide. These may be the only things they are actually good at, though.
Posted by Alisa at December 26, 2004 10:06 PM
The media in the UK, by this I mean BBC (radio and TV), ITN, Sky/Fox and Channel 4 and 5 (again ITN), have all repeatedly told people to ring the FCO emergency line number, on 020 7008 0000.
I would imagine that the British high commissions and embassies abroad would not have the faintest inkling at this time of who is alive or not, given the remoteness of many of the stricken locations, but I can tell you that if you need to contact anyone in Phuket or Ko Phi Phi, then the mobile cells were definitely working last night
Posted by Julian Taylor at December 27, 2004 09:09 AM
I'm sorry to disappoint you but I got the number to call from the BBC news reports. You have let your desire to dump on the BBC to blind you to what is taking place in front of your eyes.
Posted by ian at December 27, 2004 02:02 PM
My criticism of the BBC and the FCO does not focus upon radio or television where these numbers are publicised.
It concerns that other channel of communication, the internet, which can communcate emergency information with clarity and simplicity. Both websites fail this simple challenge.
If you are abroad and wish to contact the FCO (ie. no radio or television), the websites are not very helpful.
Posted by Philip Chaston at December 27, 2004 03:14 PM
I marvel at how chauvinist the reporting of deaths and injuries is. Sod the Poles, Czechs, Germans, French, Belgians, Finns, Swedes, Koreans, Australians, New Zealanders, Japanese, Americans, Candians, not to mention the Indonesians, Thais, Sri Lankans, etc., etc.,
How many dead Brits ?
Posted by Edward Teague at December 27, 2004 04:07 PM
Why is anyone waiting for the government? Fook 'em, it will be the NGO's that 'get there firstest with the mostest'.
Posted by Stehpinkeln at December 27, 2004 04:21 PM
Phiip,
One minor point that we all seem to have overlooked ... it was Boxing Day. To get a bureaucrat, especially a Foreign Office bureaucrat, out of his dank hole on a public holiday just ain't going to happen come hell or, rather aptly as may be the case, high water. As for getting a bureacrat to update the website I doubt they could find sufficient highranking parasites to countersign the 3 sheets necessary to make an amendment to the page.
Posted by Julian Taylor at December 27, 2004 05:11 PM
The US State Department is publicising, on its website, an "800" number since about 1700 GMT, 27DEC04. Isn't that fast enough for you ??
Posted by MommaBear at December 27, 2004 09:54 PM
Edward Teague - The media is simply reflecting the concerns of its audience. My initial thought when I heard about the tsunami was "How many dead?", then soon after "How many Australians?" And the local media told me both figures I was chasing, in that order. I imagine this is broadly true of most media sources across the world. Is that right or wrong? Not really for me to say. The media is giving consumers what they want. And I'd happily wager that a large proportion of those who rail against that fact thought in a similar way before rapidly chastising themselves and coming out to gripe about the media's local bias. Though I doubt they'd admit it.
Posted by I'm suffering for my art at December 28, 2004 04:46 PM
I should add that I believe most media consumers would be concerned about how many of their countrymen have perished in this disaster. Thus the fact it's reported prominently is completely legitimate.
Posted by I'm suffering for my art at December 28, 2004 04:54 PM
