Helen Clark is apparantly considering a national day of mourning to commemorate the New Zealnd victims of last week's tsunami. All three (so far) of them.
OK, so that's a little cruel. There are almost 800 kiwis unaccounted for, and if even fifty of them are dead, it will be a tremendous disaster in such a small country as ours. But at the same time I can't help but feel that Clark is missing the larger picture. Over 150,000 people have died in this disaster. Shouldn't we spare a thought for them too?
we all react to tragedy in our own way. it is silly to declare a national day of morning unless there is some massive public demand for it. As if we are being told how we should be reacting on personal level....
ReplyDeleteDo you get the day off for national mourning? I think we should wait until the weather clears up - otherwise it won't be very nice for going to the beach.
ReplyDeleteIf they made the day after Auckland anniversary or Waitangi Day a day of mourning then that would give us a chance to fly off to somewhere sunny (like Thailand) for the week on only 3 days leave! Yay!
Seriously - I think it would help the Thais a whole lot more if people took a holiday and spent some money in their country than stood around in NZ with long faces.
Thailand is not THAT poor a country and as much as they need more O- blood and doctors for identifying bodies they have a good system and leadership (the primeminister gets in at ground level and kicks some ass) and thus this disaster is far less than they are capable of coping with. meanwhile other countries are more desperate (I am actually paraphrasing Thaksin - thai primeminister - here). He would have been refering to sri lanka and indonesia. There is a danger of focusing too much on Thailand because there were so many tourists there even though Thailand has things as "under control" as you can expect.
ReplyDeleteI'm mourning my paycheck...
ReplyDeleteMy boss's new financial backer died in the tsunami so I have to stay on $300 a week. -_-
Declaring a day of mourning is never quite so successful as declaring a day of celebration.
At least if you give people a day off they have a reason to celebrate. You can't MAKE people care. *sigh*
Indeed Thailand is quite a wealthy country and will probably recover quite quickly - especially as most of their coastline is unaffected including Bangkok. It'll make things worse for them if people feel it's "insensitive" to take holidays there and wreck their tourist industry.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure if Auckland was destroyed in a volcanic eruption (1:20 chance in the next 50 years apparently) we'd be keen for tourists to visit the rest of the country and provide tax $$$ to pay for the rebuilding.
sorry to disappoint you Rich but Waitangi is a Sunday this year and is not (yet) Mondayised
ReplyDeleteI was under the impression that Hon. Phil Goff *was* attending the current Asian Tsunami Relief summit as Minister of Foreign Affairs and New Zealand representative. That is his ministerial role, and I'm sure that he'll be giving detailed briefings to his Cabinet colleagues on his return.
ReplyDeleteCraig