Tuesday, June 10, 2008, 12:45 PM
Dear Main Stream Media,
I would like to thank you for your less than one month coverage on Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar. You reacted quickly and provided a lot of information during that time. However, nothing has changed in that country since devistation occured. Your pictures and words may have touched millions of lives, but they did nothing to actually help. Aid is still not flowing where it should be, the US is still limited to the delivery mission as we have been doing for the last month, and there are still hundreds of thousands of people suffering.
You tend to highlight the world issues that you want to and push the political agendas that help your organizations and that's about it. It's good to know that once the link is removed from your homepage (as it was a few days ago on news.google.com, cnn.com, and others), it the world stops caring about these people. The suffering is still occuring in Myanmar and China. The atrocities never stopped in Africa.
Keep pushing the important news like "Clint Eastwood and Spike Lee Go to War!" because that's what we really should be focusing on as a nation. Who cares about these third world countries and their devistation...they're not real people anyway, right?
Thanks again,
PC
[ 1 comment ] ( 16 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink
Saturday, May 24, 2008, 03:55 PM - USMC
I found this online while I was reading some news from Myanmar. All I can think about is that the people in Myanmar are waiting for aide and we're waiting to give it to them. I come to work early every morning HOPING that we're given the green light to expand beyond the 5 C-130 flights a day we're doing. It's so heart wrenching to know that we're right here with an incredible ability to deliver and distribute aide to all of the affected areas and we can't do anything. I just want to scream: WE'RE RIGHT FUCKING HERE, LET US IN!!! This is really taking a toll on us.
Burma's Non-Political Flood
by
Thu I Sann
Water, water, all around me
But I am so..so… thirsty.
Here, there, human bodies' everywhere
But none alive accompany me and share.
And I look at myself
Broken hopes and empty handed.
And I look further around
Just like a post heavy-battled ground.
Wild cyclone has wiped all things down.
Where are those kids from innocent playground?
Where are students in the green and white uniform?
Where is my town always singing along country rock songs?
Where are my mates who search for freedom and independent?
Where are those local chicks with new-leaf-color lips?
Where are those parents with a too busy habit?
All my questions disappear,
All my answers whisper…and whisperer.
Collaborated disaster of the nature and the dictator!
And I constantly hear voices from my empty stomach
Asking me food, forcing me speak out and stand up.
I silently speak with my loudest, to the entire world
Then mankind's sympathies come and knock my door.
Let me now open my door
'Cause those sympathies will help to fix my wounded floor.
Let me invite them with an open heart
'Cause those sympathies will help my life reconstruct.
Hello Mr. militarists,
Your guns are currently useless,
My demands are urgently needed,
Here, I'm alive, not a corpse yet,
Neither much time left.
Together, let's work out as a nice diplomat!
(Dedicated To My Mother And People Of Burma Who Lost Lives And
Who Are Hardly Survived Under Both Natural And Political Weathers!)
[ add comment ] | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink | related link
Sunday, May 11, 2008, 02:00 PM - USMC
More info to follow soon, but I'm now a Thai TV star. I've been told by a few people out in town that they saw me on TV.
[ add comment ] | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink
Wednesday, February 6, 2008, 07:55 AM
So, we're running through the infamous Walking Street of Pattaya this morning and we realize that there's something weird going on. Not only are there girls and boy/girls trying to sell themselves, but there's also a bunch of monks, incense, what look like offerings, and other stuff. It seems that today must be Chinese New Year! It's an odd scene to see 9 monks standing in front of a club and blessing it while some of the girls are praying and others are yelling various comments to the passers-by.[ 1 comment ] ( 4 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink
Saturday, February 2, 2008, 08:29 PM - Food
Just a quick catchup for all of you who don't read Lisa's blog or need a recap because I only post on 2 month centers as Marc so statistically pointed out: After Bangladesh, we went to Hawaii for a week, spent Christmas and New Years at home, got sent to Korea for a week on 8 hours notice, and am now in Thailand. Nice recap.
I've decided that when I eat at a restaurant that I would like to go back to in the future (especially those in foreign countries) that I will blog about them in my own personal review. Hence: Bassaracum.
The Internet told me that this restaurant was excellent and has been since the 1980s, serving primarily "Royal Thai Cuisine". You can read all about that on their website if you click on the "related link" below.
So tonight, I drug my friends all the way over there to check it out. It turned out to be a very elegant restaurant in an unlikely setting. More of a cross street than an alley, but it sure felt like an alley. The people were exceedingly pleasant and eager to serve. As appetizers we tried the Chicken Sate with peanut sauce (of course), shrimp spring rolls, Krathong Thong (like a pastry cup with shrimp, pork, corn, and peas). For my main course, I had massaman curry (in Lisa's honor since it's her favorite). It was outstanding...I dare say even the best I've ever had. To top it all off, we shared a mango and sticky rice dessert (which my faithful followers should know is one of our favorite desserts of all time).
In review: weird location, great atmosphere, pleasant people, outstanding food, good price. The total bill for three people with drinks and everything came out to be around $65. So this is inline with the cost to eat in any of the big western hotels here, but more expensive than a non-tourist restaurant. I'd give it 5 stars and would go back there again.
[ 1 comment ] ( 5 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink | related link
Saturday, February 2, 2008, 08:28 PM
This is my placeholder because I need to write about "life in Bangladesh" for two weeks.[ 2 comments ] ( 5 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink
Monday, December 10, 2007, 09:05 PM - PC
Lisa added a utility on her blog that shows where in the world her readers are.
[ 1 comment ] ( 7 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink
Sunday, December 9, 2007, 10:42 PM - USMC
On November 15th, Cyclone Sidr came in from the Bay of Bengal and devastated the country of Bangladesh. A few days later, III Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) sent a Humanitarian Assistance Survey Team (HAST) into the country to assess the damage and what role, if any, III MEF would play in the Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief (HA/DR) to the country.
On Saturday, 24 November Lisa, Nathan, and I were at some friends house eating dinner when I got a call from my unit saying that I was being called in to work the next day in order to prepare to leave for Bangladesh on Monday morning. Wow...talk about short notice! I do have to admit that packing was pretty easy since I hadn't unpacked from when I got back from the Philippines! Needless to say, Lisa was not happy with the line: "I don't know how long I'll be gone for...it could be a couple of days to a couple of weeks to a couple of months". That kind of ruined the four day weekend for us.
Sunday came and went. I spent the entire morning through afternoon planning the movement and communication pieces of our mission. Granted, we didn't entirely have a complete mission yet. That's okay, cause we kind of made it up as we went along. Essentially there were going to be three Marine Expeditionary Units (MEU) in the area providing relief, so the MEF commander wanted to send a Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) command element to sit on top of the three MEUs. The short lesson in Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF) doctrine is that a MEF is the largest combat organization in the Marine Corps. A MEB is smaller than a MEF and a MEU is smaller than a MEB. All ya need to know
So my role in all of this was to provide communications and command & control functions to the MEB Air Cell (pilots from my unit) as they directed the MEU aircraft when to go where. Sounds good to me!
Monday came and went, waiting at the passenger terminal on Futenma just to hear that the flight slipped to Tuesday. Tuesday came and we finally took off...with my 3,000 pound pallet of comm gear!! Hey, it's better to take it and not need it than it is to need it and not have it. Due to the distance we needed to travel, we ended up staying in Pattaya, Thailand for a night. When I say night, I really mean it. We got to the hotel around 10pm and left at 7am. Most people took advantage of the endless..."nightlife" and rested on the plane the next morning.
When we landed in Dhaka, Bangladesh on Wednesday the 28th, it was full of the hurry up and wait game. After a few hours going through immigration and what not, we finally made it to the hotel and headed to the Embassy. After some SNAFUs there, we finally were allowed in and tried to scout out an area that we'd be working.
The next week and a half was full of 16 hour days trying to command and control these forces in order to meet the priorities of the local government with the resources we had. It was exhausting but very rewarding to say the least. Most of the damage was along the coast in southern Bangladesh rather than around the capital of Dhaka, but we could see remnants of the cyclone around us as well.
Below are some links to articles on the web about this high profile cyclone and our efforts in the country. Stay tuned for my next post about the experience of being in Bangladesh.
http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000. ... endocument
http://www.e-mela.com/page.php?id=1845
http://www.pacom.mil/special/0711bdesh/index.shtml
http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000. ... endocument
http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000. ... endocument
[ 4 comments ] ( 31 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink
Tuesday, October 30, 2007, 09:09 PM - USMC
I was in the Philippines for the last month. Maybe there will be more to come later. Maybe not. Ahhh...the mysteries of life![ add comment ] | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink
Friday, July 13, 2007, 10:16 PM - Japan
Typhoon Man-Yi graced us with its presence last night and all day today. Yesterday evening I took everything that was outside and put it in the storage closet except for our trash cans. I kept thinking: "oh, all the previous typhoons ended up being nothing, so I'll bet this will be the same way!" Well, I ended up obsessing over it until about midnight when I ran outside in the rain and pulled the trash cans and recycle bin inside. Uggghhh.
This morning, I awoke to winds that felt and sounded like it would break all the windows of the house and ran being thrown about. 120 knots (140 mph)!! My first question was "how am I going to let the dogs out to go to the bathroom?" Well...see the picture below:
;)
There's nothing like a good flak and kevlar to protect you from flying debris!! It was actually a pretty bad storm! Note the video below (and one more picture if you click the related link at the bottom of this post).
[ 6 comments ] ( 45 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink | related link
Next
