the death of journalism 2.4

The pain! The pain! Did all swedish journalists leave their brains and hearts at home? Don't know, but they sure do act like that. For instance, one of all these wannabe journalist standing in front of one of the devestated Thai beaches asked why Germany could send 20 something forensics to help identify their deceased tourists in Thailand when Sweden only had sent 4 or 5. Well I think that would be pretty damn obvious. There actually live about 82,5 million people in Germany, almost ten times as many as Swedens 9 million. They should have one or two more forensics to spare, don't you think? There are more Swedes missing than Germans so it ought to be quite obvious that it's easier for the German government to find the necessary rescue resources than it is for tiny Sweden. Same goes for the comparison with Italy. Italy has a population of 58 million and they have 14 dead and 600 missing in the region. About 5000 italian tourists and 3500 italian residents were in the region according to the Italian FM. Approximately 10,000 German tourists were in the region. Compare that to Swedens 20 000 - 30 000.
The fact is that it would be very hard for the Swedish government to find a way to help 1500 - 4000 missing, hurt and maybe killed Swedes in an accident in Sweden. Why should it be any easier for them to do the same thing in Thailand?
It really pains me to defend the Swedish government, I don't like them. But I think the Swedish journalists should criticize them for their lousy politics, not for not being able to gather the same amount of rescue resources as Germany or Italy.
It's interesting to see that you'll find just the same sort of accusations in our neighbouring countries Denmark and Norway.
I hope that our dear journalists are just as eager to investigate their own actions during this horrible catastrophy. It annoys me to see how often journalists use people in shock, people who are looking for their kids or their parents as interview or photo objects just to be able to deliver a selling and tearful story. They should be able to report all the horrors of this tsunami and still treat its victims with some respect.

More facts about the catastrophy here and here

Interesting comments from the world:
"Thus, currently nearly penniless, passport-less, travel insurance-less etc. at the moment. But at the hospital everything is free including email access. Unfortunately, the US embassy has not been very helpful in contrast to other embassies and we don't know much logistically in terms of loans, passports, retreiving our stuff, etc. The ambassador to Sweden personally visited all the Swedes (several were on our boat trip)." Read more here.

"An unknown number of Swedish independent travellers are also missing. The Swedish Foreign Minister, Laila Freivalds, told journalists in Stockholm she feared many of them would never be found. She is travelling to Thailand with relief workers to assess the situation and help in efforts to get Swedish nationals home.The Swedish government has sent text messages to everyone who has a Swedish telephone in Thailand, hoping to gain some answers as to the whereabouts of some of the missing. The Swedish government has responded by chartering three large passenger planes, which will make 20 flights to Thailand in order to get all Swedish citizens back by next Tuesday." Read more here.
It's obvious that there are different views about the performance of the Swedish government if you go outside the Swedish borders.

And more to read from Denmark and Norway.
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