24 Comments

1. chuck:

Shame on me, but I noticed the Nordic names. How sensitive we have become

Jan 4, 2005 - 11:04 am 2. John Moore ( Useful Fools ):

Needless to say, a very sad holiday season…

Ah, the UN. The “helping” bureaucracy exists for meetings (in 5 star resorts). I suspect many of the lower level people are more idealistic, but I have no first hand experience. I also wouldn’t be surprised if some of the lower level people are criminals, if international patronage and quotas are followed. Who knows the hiring practices? And diplomatic immunity goes a long ways.

I have helped out in communications and coordination in several disasters, including Arizona flooding, Hurricanes Mitch, Andrew, Hugo, Gilbert, and others, and the 1985 Mexico City earthquake (Mag 8.3).

Things are always confusing at the start, which is why the US government didn’t immediately grandstand their contribution (plus it goes against our culture), leading to unwarranted criticism (like from Marc Cooper, a thoughtful and humane leftie who is usually more sensible.

As is apparent if you watch Fox (haven’t sampled others), the US military is our primary disaster emergency relief arm (later relief is a different matter). They have unmatched resources.

Consider the USS Bon Homme Richard (sp – in Vietnam Days, we of course called it the Bonnie Dick) group. This is a Vietnam era aircraft carrier converted into an amphibious assault ship. As such, it is ideal for disaster relief. It carries a bunch of choppers, and has huge amounts of communications (amphibious operations require that). It comes with its support ships, and many of these ships are capable of providing lots of electricity and water (I believe that after a hurricane years ago, the big Island of Hawaii got all its electricity from one nuclear sub). First on the scene, I dudprvy, were the P-3s (the aircraft I used to crew) which has unmatched sensor capability – FLIR is great for finding people still alive at sea or on islands – the radar can see the smallest boat,and the aircraft has photographic capability to gather reconaissance data for later analysis (not as important in the days of DigitalGlobe and others.

Likewise, the Lincoln group has magnificent resources.

The Air Force has vast transport capabilities (it needs more for warfighting, but for disasters it is well set). It has aircraft that can land on short runways and damaged fields, and huge aircraft that can carry vast amounts of aid. It knows how to parachute aid if necessary. If you look at the disaster areas, the main cargo aircraft are the venerable old US C-130s, either owned by the US or other countries (with crews mostly trained by the US). At the larger airports, the much larger Air Force transports are in use.

With Air Force transport, other critical military assets such as medical and civil affairs units can get on the scene fairly quickly (first you have to identify the need, where they are going to be placed, what airfield can handle the transport aircraft, and what is the transport between the airfield and the site).

Other US allies closer to the region also supplied military aid. Australia or New Zealand (or both) I think also have P-3s (I remember training some of their guys, and watching the incredible aplomb of the pilot of a just crashed P-3, but that is another story).

The UN is more focused on development aid – which is to say, giving money to local officials who pocket it and then go to meetings (at 5 star resorts, of course) and blame the west for their economic problems.

Disaster assistance precedes development aid and has an entirely different character. The first step is assessment (and the UN is just getting their NOW??? – heck, we already know most of the situation). Before on-scene assessment, emergency resources may be dispatched simply based on the known needs of the type of disaster.

The next problem is coordination. Ideally, one would like optimal triage of individuals and areas, and optimal distribution of supplies. It never happens. In this case, the US sent a command element to Thailand that the Thais will jointly use with us to at least coordinate efforts in their area (and my guess is in many others, also).

When Mexico City lost all its long distance communications in 1985, a marine detachment was sent to the US embassy to provide critical communications (the darned leathernecks unit took our antenna with them when they left, leading to a bizarre adventure). Ham radio operators provided the communications to allow family members to contact each other (”health and welfare traffic”) and also some very critical emergency messages. The ham station I was at initially, in a Mexican’s home, handled 10,000 of those communications in a week. Today we have hams operating in this disaster, along with sat phones, still extant fixed communications (fiber, phone), and military systems, and of course the internet – blogs for sure, I would assume IRC has active channels by country and language, and email.

In Mexico City, I never once came across a UN person. I participated in meetings in the US embassy where the entire focus was on solving problems – no visible bureaucratic nonsense – just saving lives using US resources. I saw Cruz Roja (whom I smuggled a radio to from the US), Salvation Army, various European groups (rescue dogs, Doctors without Borders, and many others), Association Mexicana de Rescate (ahem), and the most impressive group was the Southern Baptist Convention, who (after fighting Mexican bureacracy for days) drove a fleet of pre-stocked semi-trailers (with fantastic communications facilities) to the area and set up feeding and clean water stations in the poorest areas, neglected by the other groups (who were focused on downtown where the buildings were tall enough to fall down and trap people). The Baptists do the same thing with US natural disasters [disclaimer: I am not a Baptist and have no association with these groups].

This current disaster is unprecedented in modern times due to the number of countries and land masses (a gazillion little islands and a couple of continents) involved. That means the coordination, politics and general complexity is immense. I would hope that the US, Europeans (especially Brit and Scandinavians), Aussies, Kiwis, Indonesians, Indians and Indonesians would work it out with minimal UN interference.

As for crime… criminals are always there, ready to take advantage of whatever happens. In this case, the most horrifying to me is the snatching of orphans, probably for the child sex industry. I also suspect the Islamofascists will do their best to blame the whole disaster on us.

Finally, in irony, it’s been an first term for Bush. Early on, we had the image of US soldiers on horseback shining lasers to direct high tech weapons from the sky. Now we have the story of relief helicopters being fired on with bows and arrows.

Amazing.

Jan 4, 2005 - 12:28 pm 3. John Moore ( Useful Fools ):

If anyone wants to decrypt the typo “dudprvy” above, I’d be intereted

Jan 4, 2005 - 12:30 pm 4. John Lynch:

If I read Diplomad’s dispatches correctly, he will soon be leaving the area and we will lose his insight into the happenings there. A shame. His writing is hilarious; his observations crucially important. I suppose we’ll get his writings again, albeit on other subjects.

Roger, I couldn’t get any of the “truly disheartening” as it requires registration, and I am feeling over-registered as is. If you could include key passages, money grafs, of articles you find interesting and that require registration, it would be useful.

John Moore: haven’t a clue, but “dudprvy” flowed from your fingertips so it must mean something.

I do hope we find continuing insights in the happenings on the ground in the afflicted areas, as well as the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of the various organizations assisting in our names be they military, NGO, governmental, or UN.

The MSM seems off base – surprise – in its reporting of this.

Jan 4, 2005 - 12:52 pm 5. Duke:

I posted this in the comments on Diplomad as well as my own blog. What Five Star Hotels are the UN people staying at? What are their menues? Etc. etc. etc. I know a guy in a news org that is dying to release stuff like this and he says they can’t find a single UN official staying in any Five Star Hotel. He says their people see very few Blue Hats, all are Aussie and American. Copters can’t carry heavy loads into the mountains because the higher copters go the less lift they get from their rotors. Some people are so high up that a copter is limited to a few hundred pounds of aid. Should you doubt my source, ask Roger if I didn’t have the name of the Rather producer days before it broke. Just show me the money.

Jan 4, 2005 - 1:01 pm 6. John Lynch:

Duke,

I believe the comments thread answered that question on the hotel. Diplomad, being somewhat circumspect, refers to others calling it the “UN Sheraton”

I suspect an exxageration on the five-star business, as I don’t think of Sheraton as a five-star, however, I have no doubt Diplomad didn’t actually check Michelin’s ratings before his post.

There is also a post from a New Zealand newsreport similar in tine and content to Diplomad’s post, url in the comments stream of Diplomad.

Jan 4, 2005 - 1:09 pm 7. John Lynch:

Question:

Why is aid needed “so high in the mountains that copters lose their lift?”

This is a coastal, low-lands issue, and while some may have retreated into higher grounds: did they retreat so far that they are “so high in the mountains?” Or are we subsidizing aid to people not affected by the tsunami?

Jan 4, 2005 - 1:15 pm 8. ambisinistral:

Duke,

I gave you some advice over there, albiet under a different screen name. Tell your reporter there is this new-fangled invention called a telephone. It allows peopkle to talk to each other over great distances. Seeing as you are in touch with ace reporters, they might be surprised ot learn asking questions often yields answers.

BTW, the UN has a web site. You’ld be surprised what you can find on it.

Jan 4, 2005 - 1:19 pm 9. BigFire:

Re: John Moore

One quibble ’bout your description of Bonhome Richard being a converted Vietnamese War era ship. LHD6 Bonhome is a state of the art sea helicopter launching platform build from the grounds up. You might want to check the official history page of various US Ship that has the honor of using this name: http://www.lhd6.navy.mil/_files/history/frigate.htm as well as the modern iteration: http://www.lhd6.navy.mil/_files/rev_gator/revgator.htm

Jan 4, 2005 - 1:31 pm 10. Duke:

The term UN Sheraton was satirical. No matter what everybody says, nobody has come up with the Five Star Hotel containing any UN people. BTW try phoning a country after they are hit by a disaster like this. Those logs on the ground with wires on them? They are telephone poles. Most of the time the cell phones don’t even work. I hate the UN as much as anyone, but I’d like to have hard facts.

Jan 4, 2005 - 1:39 pm 11. Peg C.:

In a shockingly short amount of time I have become positively addicted to The Diplomad. It has joined a growing folder of favorites that I MUST visit daily. I’m so glad you, Glenn and others are highlighting TD’s great work and wonderful writing.

Jan 4, 2005 - 1:49 pm 12. chuck:

Peg C

In a shockingly short amount of time I have become positively addicted to The Diplomad.

I think we are all starved for information. The news shows us the glossy brochures put out by self interested organizations, so it is refreshing to get something from the horse’s mouth.

I have been thinking about the consequences of the diplomatic corp being more open with we, the people. After all, they are our servants and eyes in the field, should they not tell us what they know and think? On the other hand, the nuances of diplomacy would certainly be lost and one loose cannon could undercut the whole interprise. Interesting conundrum.

Jan 4, 2005 - 2:18 pm 13. legion:

Duke, if you are suggesting that victims of this disaster are living above 12,000 feet in altitude, I think we all can make our own judgments about your veracity.

As for 5-star hotels, I have some experience with the luxury-loving ways of UN officials and certain NGOs. It’s not a pretty picture when juxtaposed next to the rotting bodies and people dying of diarrheal illnesses.

Jan 4, 2005 - 2:22 pm 14. Joe Schmoe:

Duke-

I’ll tell you up front that I don’t know anything about the situation in Sri Lanka/Indonesia/Malaysia. However, I used to know some diplomats (both UN and NGO) and can tell you that they ALWAYS travel first class.

A girl I dated had a father who was a high-ranking diplomat. He was REQUIRED to fly first class when travelling internationally. He wouldn’t be reimbursed for coach-class tickets. And get this — the same rule applied to his family and staff. If he brought his wife, two kids, 1-2 assistants, bodyguard secretary, and housekeeper on the trip, they ALL travelled first class. And first class travel to Third World nations can get really expensive. First class airfare from Washington, D.C. to the Congo, for example, can easily cost $10,000 per head. A trip for the whole entourage could easily cost to $75-$100k.

Yet he was REQUIRED to fly first class. His employer actually believed that coach travel was beneath the station of a senior diplomat. Personally, as an American I find that notion appalling. However, having travelled on third world airlines, I must admit that there may also be something to it. A TACA flight in coach from Los Angeles to El Salvador bears little or no resemblance to a Delta flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta. The world-weary passengers look like they stepped from the pages of a National Georgraphic pictorial (even though they are Americans) and come with these huge cardboard boxes secured with twine, full of consumer goods for their relatives back home. The noise level in the cabin is like 300 decibels. If passengers could bring livestock on the plane you’d have chickens and goats running up the aisles. It’s not a bunch of bored businesspeople typing on laptops like we are used to.

Also, heads of state in the rest of the world really are super class-conscious. I have in-laws in Mexico and Nicaragua and they are uppity like you wouldn’t believe. You have to wear jacket and tie to a lot of resteraunts in Mexico City. Well, you don’t have to if you are an American (they can tell just by looking) but regular Mexicans can’t. The rich down there have servants, bulletproof limousines, mistresses — it’s almost feudal.

So the UN’s penchant for first-class travel, while wasteful and an outrageous abuse, is not egregious cheating. If most Americans and I were to fly first class on our clients’ or employers’ dime, we’d think that we were taking advantage of them. But the UN types come from an environment where first class travel is considered their birthright, and they don’t see it as padding the expense account. Also, the world leaders they deal with have the same worldview and would look down on them if they were to take the Greyhound and stay at Motel 6.

Personally, I think they should take Greyhound and stay at Motel 6 anway, since my tax dollars are paying for these things. And if the third world elites have a problem with it, they’ll just have to adjust.

This is especially true when people desperately need food, water, and medical assistance. In a situation like that, the UN officials can sleep in the damn mud until the relief system is set up.

Anyway, while I do not agree with the UN’s penchant for first-class travel, it does exist as a general rule and I strongly suspect that the same is true in the areas affected by the tsunami.

Jan 4, 2005 - 2:34 pm 15. ambisinistral:

Duke,

Please tell me you’re kidding. The five star hotel is not the story. It may be a hook into the story, but in and of itself it is of no interest. Diplomad is stating that the UN is doing very little useful work during this disaster, rather they are flying about and conducting meeting after meeting and then holding press conferences in which they claim credit for the work of other organizations. That’s the story.

You might dismiss Diplomad’s blog as nothing but the rantings of a UN hater except for some curious facts. We have seen photos and videos of the relief operations, primarily being conducted by the US and Australians. The US has said, while making no mention of the UN at all, that it was coordinating its relief efforts with a coalition including the US, Australia, India, Singapore and Japan. Your reporter friend seems to support a minimal to non-existent UN involvement when he says he can find plenty of Aussies and Yanks, but virtually no UN Blue Helmets.

If you had gone to the UN site I mentioned and clicked around a bit you would have found — along with finding telephone numbers of phones with standing telephone poles — this curious claim, “Indonesia: The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is starting an airlift on Sunday of 400 tons of shelter and other emergency supplies for an initial 100,000 people in Aceh province, among the worst and most inaccessible disaster zones. A UN joint logistics centre will be set up at the central level and in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital and a FAO emergency coordinator and a fishery expert have been sent in.” (source).

The US is saying it is coordinating the airlift with its coalition while the UN claims it is coordinating the airlift. That’s the story. One or the other organizations is either taking credit for, or denying credit to, the work of the other. I’m guessing the ratio of Yanks/Aussies to Blue Helmets pretty much answers that question, but your reporter friend might want to look up phone numbers and give a call to both sides asking them to clarify the situation. By the way, if it turns out the UN has claimed rather more credit than they are due in the airlift, on their site they have a whole list of accomplishments they claim which might bear double-checking.

This seems a simple and common sense thing for a reporter to do when such a discrepancy is noted. Ask questions and let the chips fall where they may. Ask your reporter friend why those questions never occurred to him (or her), and if they did why he never asked and reported on the answers? It is the gyst of what bothers many of us about MSM reporting. That is, if he didn’t delve to deep because the UN are the “good” guys then he is doing advocacy reporting. I prefer reporters giving me the facts.

Jan 4, 2005 - 2:44 pm 16. mwalls:

Am I the only one that looked at ‘assessment teams’ and saw ‘appeasement teams’?

Jan 4, 2005 - 3:26 pm 17. Skookumchuk:

Joe Schmoe:

But the UN types come from an environment where first class travel is considered their birthright, and they don’t see it as padding the expense account. Also, the world leaders they deal with have the same worldview and would look down on them if they were to take the Greyhound and stay at Motel 6.

Very, VERY well put. I once had two mining transport consulting jobs going in the same year – one in Idaho and the other in Peru. Talk about your cultural whiplash. On the whole, I’d rather be in Boise.

More to our point is the fact that many if not most of these guys have zippo technical qualifications. And being in a feudal system, they can’t get their hands dirty. No trips to Home Depot for them. The disconnect between their world and the world of the little people who actually do things (and have the experience) is vast. And the little people who actually do things and know things never move up. Never.

Sooo, who would you rather have coordinating the movement of your disaster supplies? A Yank or Aussie Army major who worked his way through college driving an 18-wheeler and who rose to night foreman at his trucking company, or some upper class twit in his Mercedes?

Jan 4, 2005 - 3:36 pm 18. jerry:

There is a very unreal, postmodern quality to the UN efforts to “help” the disaster victims. You have a bunch of pontificating UN Bureaucrats [and Democratic party/MSM operatives] bleating about only the UN has the moral authority to lead a coalition in disaster relief. Now, when it comes to war and peace perhaps the UN might have a case, however, the only moral authority needed to give aid is the willingness and ability to show up with people and materials required to help people survive. The UN has no such ability, hence what ever moral authority they might claim is meaningless. On the other hand, the coalition of the able led by the United States, Australia, Japan and India have absolute moral authority because they are on the ground deliver food, medical care and shelter to the homeless.

It is time to put the UN out of its misery: Get the US out of the UN and kick the UN out of the US.

Jan 4, 2005 - 4:53 pm 19. richard mcenroe:

Maybe we can revise the Woody Allen meme: Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach; those who won’t, work for the UN…

Jan 4, 2005 - 5:13 pm 20. PeterUK:

The UN was designed to prevent another World War,it was designed to slow down action,to hold meetings,get sides together,have votes,pass resolutions,make proposals,have conferences and backroom dealing,it was designed as a bottleneck and it does that superbly.

It just was not designed to do anything else and it doesn’t.

Jan 4, 2005 - 5:33 pm 21. Terrye:

I remember reading an article about Afghanistan a couple of years ago in which some Afghani was complaining about the UN. He said they drove up property values beyond that which the locals could afford and drove expensive vehicles. He had not a lot else to say.

I just love how the US can managed to get criticized for being unilateral and too hesitant to step up to the bat all at the same time.

Truth is you need a military to get to these places when the roads and bridges are gone and the UN is more designed for dinner parties. Their idea of dangerous duty is overseeing elections. That sort of thing is easier for them and is more what they were intended to do.

Jan 4, 2005 - 5:51 pm 22. Bill:

I translated “dudprvy” as suspect

Jan 4, 2005 - 6:25 pm 23. chuck:

Terrye,

that was John@ in one of the comment threads here at Roger’s. Go look at the Toyota Taliban posting at WindsOfChange to find a link.

Jan 4, 2005 - 6:27 pm 24. Steven Mitchell:

This topic finally made me register with TypeKey!

Every time this kind of UN behavior arises, I wonder why we don’t start taking aid money out of what we give to the UN? Need a few more million in Iraq? Sorry Kofi, got something productive to do with the funds. Tsunami? Oops, there went that money we pledged to the UN NYC parking ticket fund.

Jan 4, 2005 - 6:37 pm

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