Day: January 1, 2005

Japan becomes biggest aid donor with $500 million dollars.

Japan pledged up to $500 million in grant aid for tsunami disaster relief today, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced, making the country the largest single donor to victims of the catastrophe.

The Japanese announcement came a day after President Bush increased the U.S. pledge tenfold to $350 million. Tokyo’s promise put Asia’s wealthiest economy at the top of the global donor effort to help countries recover from the disaster that has killed at least 123,000 people from Malaysia to Somalia and has left millions homeless.

This “one upsmanship” in amount of relief aid is a little weird. It’s hard to see the humanity in it now. It looks like a popularity contest. Not that the people in Southeast Asia won’t need every penny of it. I just think it’s becoming a little disingenuous.

Tourists return to the beaches and bars of Phuket.

Six days after one of the worst natural disasters in decades, foreign tourists were back on the beaches of this Thai resort island Saturday, frolicking in the gentle waves of the Andaman Sea, riding jet skis, posing for snapshots and sunbathing topless on the sand.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’d feel awfully creepy having a BBQ on a beach in Phuket right now. I understand the need to “get back to normal” and all, but it does seem a little soon to be vacationing in an area where bodies and debris are washing ashore.