The Tsunami in South East Asia (Reactions of the Swedish Royals)

[Dennism]

Originally Posted by mixer2002de

anyway when he realized that 35 mio US$ is not very much he was clever enough to increas it to 350 Mio US$. And he sent his brother there to gather some infos for him. And as governor of Florida his brother has some sort of knowledge in that things.

Yes, all of which seems to be true to a degree. And as far as these things go, Secretary Powell and Gov Bush would be two of the best people to send. Well, I´m sure some Fema(Federal Emergency Management Agency) people are already there to provide assistance. So many countries are providing assistance. I think we should leave it at that. Let´s just talk about the Swedish Royals and their reactions to the tragedy in Asia and Africa.

[Helen88]

I agree it is very sad Victoria has not made an appearance at all. Also, I don´t quite believe the personal trip story...I hope there is nothing wrong with her...? I mean, she doesn´t seem to be the kind of person who would hide for a WEEK....

[Humera]

Originally Posted by Alexandria

I live in Ontario, Canada and I cannot pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV and not hear about this tragedy. And by comparison to the four or five thousand Sweden is missing, Canada is missing about 150 people, with 5 confirmed dead (as of Saturday's Globe and Mail). All-news channels have this tragedy covered wall to wall and even during other shows, the news breaks between commercials lead off with stories about this tragedy.

If the coverage of this tragedy is so vast for a nation that is missing "only" 150 people I cannot imagine what the coverage in Sweden must be for a nation that has been so severely hard hit by this tragedy with the number of tourists in the area at the time. And purely by that fact, I cannot imagine that there would be any ambivalence by anyone in Sweden at this time. But even here in Canada, from everyone I've talked to, there has been no ambivalence about this tragedy for which the magnitude and the devastation is clearly understood.

I read on the Scandinavian Royals MB that Sweden is a relatively small nation population wise, of roughly nine million. And to be missing 4,500 people is like for larger sized nations to be missing 110,000 people. I don't know how accurate those numbers are but in the least those 4,500 Swedes are someone's son, daughter, mother, father, sister, brother, friend, colleague, and for those people the loss must be devastating.

For the future Queen of Sweden to be ambivalent at this time is unacceptable and severely lacking in understanding of what and how this tragedy has impacted the people of her nation.

you're right. I think what's going on in Canada really puts things into perspective. When the disaster took place last week, many of Canada's ministers were on vacation. As you probably know, the foreign and defence ministers were recalled from their vacations within a day or two. Everyone was criticizing the Prime Minister for not returning from his private vacation in Morocco. He has only returned now, after almost a week.
If the Canadian people feel that their leaders should be in the country and not away vacationing abroad, I cant imagine how the Swedish people feel about CP Victoria's absence.

[Humera]

some pics......

[Lena]

Originally Posted by ~*~Humera~*~

some pics......

Thank you for the caps, Humera...how have you made them?

[Dennism]

For those of you in the US and Canada, the BBC news airing this evening(or even at 1:30 AM as it is here)on various PBS stations will have a report which shows the SRF for a few seconds. The audience is even showing clapping at them. It´s a good report on the reactions of Scandinavians to this tragedy. But anyway, check it out.

[Dennism]

Go to this page

http://svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=24193&a=286274

Click on Förbön i Storykyrkan under Dec 30

and you get to see the intercession from a few days ago

[Humera]

Originally Posted by Lena

Thank you for the caps, Humera...how have you made them?

You're welcome:)
Well I have this great software which lets me watch TV on my computer. If I like something I'm watching, all i have to do is press F12 and voila! screen caps!

[Dennism]

O, yes. Awesome. Those things are cool. Good to see you making good usage of that. The Queen looked so sad I must say. I watched the Intercession too. It´s quite beautiful and sad and solemn.

[Britters]

Originally Posted by Vicomtesse

Hmm...I wonder why some people still keep defending Victoria???
Why can't people be objective about her and realize that even though you may like her a lot she has very definitely misstepped with this tsumani situation.
Clearly not the super wonderful princess everyone thought she was.
She is a rather selfish person continuing to holiday rather than be a leader like she should.

But is there really a point in constantly bashing Victoria and the others? It's not going to do any good, or make her suddenly show in Sweden. While her not being present is a diappointment (to say the least), I see no point in continuely posting how horrible it/she is for not being present.

I would also like to point out that my earlier comment about her possibly knowing someone was simply an observation of a possibility and not necissarily a defense for Victoria.

[lashinka2002]

Quite frankly I don't think an excuse of a personal vacation cuts it.
Unless she's deathly sick or missing in the tsunami there's no excuse. It's utterly selfish to continue vacationing for personal reasons under these circumstances.
(I mean no ill will towards the CP)

[Danielle]

Originally Posted by Dennism

Go to this page

http://svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=24193&a=286274

Click on Förbön i Storykyrkan under Dec 30

and you get to see the intercession from a few days ago

Thanks. Understandably, they all look so sad. :(

[Dennism]

The number of missing is now listed as 2,915 from Sweden. It is safe and sad to say that the the large majority of those people are now dead. That number has been lowered by 600 from the previous figure but that is of little comfort to those affected. This is by far the worst natural disaster(excluding famines and crop failures which happened over a much longer time of course anyway) to hit the Swedish people in its long and proud history. There are also more than 30,000 Thais, Indians and Somalians who have immigrated to Sweden. We must not forget the toll that this took on their communities and relatives as well back in their ancient lands. This disaster affects all walks of Swedish life.

Some videos of the tsunami are here.

And now I read this from the wires:

"Indonesia increased its death toll from last week's devastating earthquake and tsunamis to 94,081 on Monday, raising the total number of people reported killed in 11 countries in the Indian Ocean basin to at least 137,321."

There is an excellent hour long program on the whole tsunami, relief efforts and other things surrounding this crisis on the BBC homepage.

http://news.bbc.co.uk BBC TV special. Check it out.

[hrhcp]

Originally Posted by ~*~Humera~*~

screen caps

I'm not clear with what you and Lena mean with "caps" ????

[Dennism]

Generally, you can with a video card on the computer and a few other things, you can transmit a "photo" of a TV program onto your computer. You can edit and what not. But in the cases of the Royals here, ~*~Humera~*~ watched the show online and so took a "photo" of the computer screen instead. At least I think that´s how it works.

[Lunar]

OK...I don't usually post here but I thought that I would add my two cents to the discussion about the Crown Princess. If all she is doing during this crisis is enjoying some personal vacation time then her actions are inexcusable. However, the Crown Princess had done and exemplary job up to this point. I don’t think that it is unreasonable to give her the benefit of the doubt. All that has been said is that she is “abroad”. Nobody knows for sure that she is sitting on a beach somewhere with a drink in her hand ignoring the devastation. Perhaps we should learn more details of her whereabouts and actions before we turn the dogs loose on her. There maybe a legitimate reason that she has yet to appear and if it turns out that there isn’t one then she should have to answer to the critics. And there will be a great many of them, I’m sure.

Crystal

[hrhcp]

Originally Posted by Lunar

However, the Crown Princess had done and exemplary job up to this point. I don’t think that it is unreasonable to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Perhaps we should learn more details of her whereabouts and actions before we turn the dogs loose on her.

Good points. And I agree that I have made a factieous comment earlier .... I don't excuse myself under the motto "don't complain, don't explain".

On another MB, reference was made to the fact that Haakon was absent too. And Martha-Luise.

These are all individuals who imho have "delivered". Inasmuch as they are pretenders to the throne, given that they are in second place and entitled to a rest -- let us NOT forget far from the INTRUSIVE MEDIA, this a poignant opportunity for the holders of the crowns/thrones to (re)assert or maintain their positions.

Imho, that is surely the case with the Swedish King. All the other monarchies appear (to me) to be more accepted by their folk, so the actions of their monarchies is a form of indirect leadership.

...

Getting back to the absence of Haakon, imo there appears to be no backlash there .... why, may I ask?

If anything, his father is (in my eyes, after last years operation) in poorer shape than Victoria's father?

The other European countries have also incurred their losses, and surely all the royals there were NOT present at services. Was their absence at this MB as questioned as it is for Victoria here?

if anything, at least .... majority here have no influence one way or the other (or couldn't care in the least) what the internal or foreign policies of the Swedish Royal Family are.

[Dennism]

Well, Haakon has no really big excuse. It was written that he and Mette-Marit are in Brazil. I assume with Marius. Now it´s not good to chang