I won't reply to political posts or posts decribing me negatively here, as it's rediculous and very tasteless to be so cynical. This is above all politics.
This disaster has affected my country heavily (Sweden), as there were 20,000-30,000 swedish tourists in Thailand when it happened (very famous resort for swedes). It affects you a lot more when you can relate to it from something.
Earlier today one of my friends called me to tell what happened to his boss down there. He had went to Thailand with his whole family, wife and two daughters, and he was on the beach when the tsunami surprised them. The whole family got separated in the waves, and he got knocked out. He woke up in a hospital, and directly decided to search for his family. The first thing he saw when he got out of the hospital was his wife hanging dead in a tree, and his daughters were lost in the waves. So he has come back home to Sweden now without his family. A major tragedy of course. Several kids have come home alone, because their parents have died. I don't think you should compare tragedies, but of course the people of Sri Lanka, and India will suffer even more, as many more of them have died and they can't get help to any kind of recovery from their countries.
1,500 swedes have not yet reported back to any government authorities, and most of them are believed to have died as they stayed in Khao Lak, which was one of the most devestated resorts. There's no end to this tragedy. The only thing that's "positive" about this must be that it's not a terrorist attack.
Polyester: Of course it happens but it shouldn't be accepted that they didn't have a warning system. So many lives could've been saved if they were warned. But now it's only to accept it's happened, but it'll take a long time to recover.
My government is being heavily criticized they didn't send planes themselves, they relied on the travel agencies, which is really sad as I expected more from my government in these situations, but now planes are on their way.
The count is at a staggering 60,000 now. 60,000 doesn't say you much as none of us can relate to that massive amountof people. I will actually quote the awful Stalin "One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is statistics". Unfortunately he was right about that. But no sane person can look at the situation and say who cares, as this is one of the most awful tragedies we've seen for many years.