The Ugly Europeans

Memo to John & Teresa Kerry - Here are the reports from Southeast Asia.

First a New York Times story detailing the assistance being provided by the United States Navy. An earlier edition had a picture of a LAMPS 1 helicopter making a drop of relief supplies.

Then a story from the Associated Press from Phuket Thailand .

Here are two quotes:

"That was mindboggling-- and infuriating-- for island resident Aime Yodkaew, as she swept away debris.
"I just figure if everyone uses about an hour of their holiday time (to help clean up), this would help a lot for the locals," said Yodkaew, a Swede who lives on the island with her Thai husband."

"Charles Vickson, a Buddhist visiting from Hong Kong, said that at Phuket's Laguna resort, which was not badly affected by the waves, he saw bronzed European tourists return to sunbathing by the pool just minutes after the tsunamis.
"They laid out their towel ... and the lady, with her headphones on, resumed her sunbathing as if nothing had happened," he said."

America contrasted with Europe. Anyone expecting a new book "The Ugly Europeans"?

Update 6:07 PM Here is the Pacific Fleet Online website. Note that the Abraham Lincoln carrier group has transited from Hong Kong to Banda Aceh in less than seven days and is now providing desperately needed helicopter support at the center of the crisis. (added 6:30 PM - The distance from Hong Kong to Bangkok is approx. 1545 miles, Bangkok to Singapore 800 mile, Singapore to Colombo, Sri Lanka 1567 miles, so the carrier group travelled in the neighborhood of 3500 miles in seven days, or about 500 miles per day by sea!! Not too shabby! Bravo Zulu Pacific Fleet).

Meanwhile, here is the report on Kofi Annan AWOL for 72 hours.