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Impatient Phuket

Posted by Lance Powers

by Phil Macdonald

A number of letters to the editor to newspapers last week - mainly from people with businesses in Phuket - complained about the "sensationalism" involved in the tsunami coverage from both the local and international media, with one letter even suggesting that the coverage was way over the top considering only a couple of hundred people perished on the island.

How it is possible to "sensationalise" an event of this magnitude, which as one of the great natural disasters of all time, is by definition "sensational".

Would this mean the media is sensationalising the sensational?

Businesses argue that damage from the tsunami in Phuket only extends a few hundred metres inland and that is only in certain areas. The vast majority of buildings remain intact and most business remain open and are operating as normal.

The Thai and global media are ignoring this fact, they say.
If you want to measure damage in concrete and steel rods, then these businesses are right.

But they are missing the point.

Perhaps the media and others look and see damage in other ways: In the piles of bodies in makeshift morgues; in the weariness of volunteers in their necessary but ghoulish task of searching for bodies; on notice boards in Phuket Town with photographs of missing children; in the people who lost their loved ones; or in the desperation of those who are still searching for them.

How anyone can feel comfortable taking a holiday in Phuket at this time under these circumstances seems as strange - even a little bizarre - as certain businesses encouraging them to do so while blaming the media for the visitors not showing up.

These letters were coming in a little over a week after the disaster.

Businesses say that this "sensationalism" will cause irreparable damage to the tourism industry in Phuket. And while tourists will eventually return, it will take many years, if not ever, before their numbers reach the same as before the tsunami hit.

That's what they said about Bali after the bombings in 2002.
That's what they said about the effect of SARS.
They were wrong.

The media attention will linger for a while yet, simply because of the scale of this natural disaster. The disaster becomes even more exceptional because of the large numbers of foreigners from around 40 countries who perished in Thailand. This increases media interest.

But, as always, this news event will be eventually overtaken by other events in other countries and media interest will dissipate.

Phuket was headlining the disaster and its aftermath in the first days following the tsunami because it was the easiest place to access. The focus has since switched to Aceh and Sri Lanka now that CNN and other US networks are "on the ground" in these places after hitching rides on US military transport planes.

In a few months, the "southern Thailand recovers after devastating tsunami" stories will begin being churned out.

The world will be told that the damage has been repaired, Phuket is just as it used to be: "So you can all come back now."

Some friends were due to holiday in Phuket in the middle of January.

The hotel they planned to stay in was not damaged, but they cancelled.

They didn't cancel because they were stupid enough to think another tsunami was going to hit.

They cancelled because they thought it might be a little disrespectful enjoying themselves in a place that only a few weeks ago was the victim of such a tragic event.

You wonder about the motivation behind these letters because they arrived so quickly after the event.
If the impatience to scribble these objections to media coverage was curtailed for just another week or two, then maybe they would be valid.

But to read these letters in newspapers so soon after the event smacks of self-interest.

Source: farangaffairs.com