US gov., offered US tsunami survivor: toothbrush, phone call, book

[donsu]

no money, no hotel room, no nothing


http://www.buzzflash.com/mailbag/04/12/mai04361.html

-snip-

This is Pearl. I am currently in Bangkok waiting for a flight I have cajoled my way onto. I am one of the survivors. With only scratches, bruises and infections I am fine.

-snip-

My house was wiped out, as were 3000 hotel rooms, around 600 other resident/vacation homes and almost all the business in the area.

-snip-

The wave deposited me, a small swedish girl and a 60 foot police cruiser (medium sized steel patrol boat - around 20 tons) 1 kilometer from the beach - in the jungle.

-snip-

My town is gone. There are probably 2% of the original buildings in a recognizable form. I am very lucky to even be making my way home. The U.S. government offered me a phone call, a toothbrush, a paperback book and a temporary passport. No hotel, no food, no flight home. I was told that I could take out a loan if I could list three people who would vouch for me at home.

-snip-
-------------------------------


sigh

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. Sad to say, the U.S. embassies and consulates have long had

a lousy reputation for taking care of their own people.

Over the years I've heard countless stories of Americans caught up in disasters or wars or civil disturbances or trumped-up criminal charges saying that they got more help from the British or Canadian or other diplomats than from U.S. diplomats.

[xultar]

2. Sounds more like a prisioner encampment kit. n/t

[drdtroit]

3. GWB, ever winning hearts and minds n/t

[diddlysquat]

4. Amazing.

[itzamirakul]

5. Sorry, her story will never

reach the MSM. It might make the "big-hearted" rw look bad.

[Octafish]

6. "...she was appalled at the treatment" from the US Government.

American diver underwater during catastrophe

EXCERPT...

Faye Wachs said she was impressed by the efforts of the Thai government and the International Committee for the Red Cross, but "she was appalled at the treatment they got" from the U.S. government, her mother said.

At the airport in Bangkok, other governments had set up booths to greet nationals who had been affected and to help repatriate them, she said.

That was not the case with the U.S. government, Wachs told her mother. It took the couple three hours, she said, to find the officials from the American consulate, who were in the VIP lounge.

Because they had lost all their possessions, including their documentation, they had to have new passports issued.

But the U.S. officials demanded payment to take the passport pictures, Helen Wachs said.

CONTINUED...

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/29/tsunami.diver/

[Solly Mack]

7. surprised?

I think not

[coreystone]

8. I Mean No Offense! I Am So Saddened by the Events In the Indian..

Ocean area of last week.

I have become more of a skeptical of what is being posted on this site and that of "buzzflash" due to numerous reasons. I do not desire to depreciate anyone's pain, but, how is that this person is able to communicate from Bangkok with a "phone call, a toothbrush, a paperback book and a temporary passport"!

What are the corroborative sources, and what are the circumstances which give this account of such a tragic event such credibility?

[baba]

9. I actually know this person.

He is a friend of mine that has lived in Thailand for several years and works as a dive instructor in a tourist resort area. Another friend forwarded his email story to everybody who knows him. I am absolutely sure his story is true! He probably went to an internet cafe or someplace with internet access in Bangkok. That's not hard to believe. He wanted his friends and family to know he was okay.