I'm not feeling particularly inspired to blog today. I think I'm just tired. Who knows - maybe when I'm sat at home, with food in my stomach and a soft robe on my shoulders, my brain will kick into gear.
On the plus side, the reason for my fatigue is a good one. I'm writing a news story on the Indonesian tsunami, namely the alleged failures of the country's early warning system, and it's been draining but enjoyable.
There's a growing dispute about who should take responsibility for the fact that residents of the Mentawai islands - where the current death toll tops 300 - did not receive an early enough warning about the disaster.
The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) insists that a 5-minute warning was given but it just wasn't quick enough for villages minutes away from the earthquake's epicenter. They say that villagers (who apparently would have almost certainly felt the earthquake) should have run for their lives, and that the failure of some of them to immediately do so means more disaster-preparedness education is needed.
But some Indonesian officials claim that two buoys had been vandalised, which may have affected the functionality of the system, and one official went as far as to say that the entire system was broken by last month! UNESCO says they have data to prove it functioned fine and that warnings were sent out.
And, just now, I received a press release from the German Research Centre for Geosciences (Germany helped build the system) saying that any claims of damaged equipment (even just the two buoys) are baseless.
I sense tomorrow is going to be an even busier day. This calls for some yarn:
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| Colinette Point 5 'October Afternoon'. By the time I get round to knitting with this it won't be October anymore. But that's okay. |
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