The Nation reported on December 11 that “a test” of the first tsunami-detection buoy off the Phuket coast “has found it to be functioning properly”. That’s good, seeing as it had only been put out there a few days earlier. Three more buoys are to be positioned well out in the Indian Ocean.

No word on why it’s taken two full years to do so. Perhaps the National Disaster Warning Centre, which did such a marvellous job of not issuing a warning about the 2004 tsunami, was waiting for an auspicious zodiac moment.

But who cares, right? The Kasikorn Research Centre, which is a local bank’s think-tank (think-bank), has predicted that tourist arrivals on Phuket this holiday season will be up 87% from 2005 — 4.7 million taking a chance.

Amusingly, sort of, a joint Thai-German research team announced on Monday that it had found four underwater mud volcanoes 200 kilometres off Phuket. There was some murmuring about this being a sign of oil, but I couldn’t really tell what was so exciting about it that The Nation put the story on the front page.

In any event, two days later the chief Thai scientist involved said maybe he’d jumped the gun on the announcement, maybe they’ve not mud volcanoes, and anyway he didn’t want to scare off any tourists who might not like to hear the words “Thailand”, “volcano” and “underwater” all in the same sentence.

Sounds like someone forgot to put the scientific discovery through the political filter first. This is an ancient and trusted procedure here, even if the last time they waited for the political filter to do its job, 5,300 people were killed.

The photos here are from The Nation and various news agencies. I forget which ones. Most of the smaller ones can be clicked for much larger versions. Previous Dorseyland notes on the tsunami are here, here, here and here.

Actually, the best tsunami photo of all may be this one below, taken by Kapkaew Leebamrung of her playmate horsing around on the Thai Navy boat that was famously thrown miles inland by the waves. Kapkaew and other kids down south who’d lived through the catastrophe were given cameras by some professional photographers and told to get busy. The results are on display at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand in Bangkok.

For the record … Politics and empty talk

About half of the billions of dollars donated by individuals, companies and governments worldwide to help the victims of the tsunami has still not been spent, the BBC reported this month.

According to figures obtained from the United Nations Department for Aid and Development, several foreign governments have also only given only a small proportion, and at times none, of the money they promised.

Of the $6.7 billion pledged, about a 10th has yet to be delivered, and only $3.4 billion has been spent thus far.
China offered $301 million to help Sri Lanka recover from the disaster, but has thus far delivered just $1 million. Spain pledged $60 million to Sri Lanka, but came up with less than a million, while France said it would give $79 million, but delivered just over a million dollars.

The United States has given about 38% of the money it promised. The European Commission owes about $70 million, and Britain $12 million.

The BBC said that of the 50,000 homes promised by the Red Cross, just 8,000 had been finished. Speaking to the BBC, the international director for the British Red Cross defended its performance: “It sounds bad, but I think it needs to be put into context. It is incredibly difficult … We raised the money knowing it was difficult. It will take time to spend this money in a responsible manner,” Matthias Schmale said.

“I know this sounds like slow progress … When the tsunami swept away houses, it also swept away identity papers, legal plot papers, etc. We have taken almost a year to help people back … to make sure they have legal ownership of their plots.”

The UN’s special rapporteur on adequate housing, Miloon Kothari, was unimpressed, telling the BBC: “I do not accept the explanation that it is going to take four to five years, in some cases, seven. I’m an architect, I know how long it takes to build a house.”