I saw the same show, Alan - pretty disheartening. This on the same day there are news reports of orphaned children being stolen and taken for the sex trade makes me think that all the monetary aid in the world won't be helping some of the wounds in those countries. Between civil war and child slavery... I don't know. I hope the influx of foreign aid workers helps to uncover more of these problems, if they are there. Sometimes all it needs is to be shown in the light of day for change to happen.

There's a proportion of people (a minority, usually) in every country who are just scum. We deal with ours by having open institutions and freedom of the press. They are then embarrassed enough (one hopes) to try to hide their tendencies. In other countries, unfortunately, there are more opportunities to indulge and less instances of punishment.

My $0.02, anyway. (But I'm a cynic...)

There's a proportion of people (a minority, usually) in every country who are just scum. We deal with ours by having open institutions and freedom of the press.

True too, but the story doesn't surprise me, knowing the background and history of that country.

Oh, my opinion of Indonesia itself is pretty darned low, too. They refused to accept a British contingent of Gurkhas to help out in this humanitarian crisis. Why?

In the early 1960s, Indonesia tried to take some land off the newly independent Malaysian Federation. Britain sent in the Gurkhas and the SAS to show them what's what and sent them back to their side of the border with their tails between their collective legs. (This was a common policy of theirs -- they then took East Timor in 1974 when Portugal was giving up control.) In 2005, they're apparently still holding a grudge.

(Sri Lanka still wins, though, in that area, having refused an Israeli contingent for fear of upsetting their Muslim minority.)

I supposed that just as many idiotic bureaucrats and religions fundamentalists survived the tsunamis as did decent folk. Shame, that.

More to regret from the Indonesian government:<blockquote class="smalltext">International aid groups and foreigners in the province no longer have free access to communities and areas affected by the earthquake and tsunami. Military chief Gen. Endriatono Sutarto says armed forces personnel must accompany and monitor aid groups on all missions outside the provincial capital of Banda Aceh and the town of Meulaboh. "We do not want these foreign aid workers to go to unsafe areas because we are detecting that rebels may try to disturb this humanitarian mission. I do not want any of their team members to be killed by the rebels. Therefore we limit their humanitarian work to around Banda Aceh and Meulaboh," he said. The restrictions have been imposed, says the military, to protect groups against attacks by the Free Aceh movement, which has been waging a separatist campaign for decades. The aid organization International Crisis Group disputes the military's motives, saying the rebels have no interest in attacking foreigners. It says the Indonesian army is seeking to reimpose its rigid control on Aceh province, while it still has the chance.</blockquote>