Here are the major fatality regions in Tamil Nadu state as of this afternoon:

• Tamil Nadu (total) 6700+
• Chennai 200+
• Pondicherry 500+
• Nagapattinam (just south of Pondicherry) 3400+
• Cuddalore 500+
• Kanyakumari (Cape Coromin) 800+
• Karaikal 402+
• Kalpakkam 100+

These are official (India) government figures; local media estimates are much higher. And there are still thousands missing. Chennai suffered less than other parts of the state, but each morning's tide brings more tragic discoveries. It is in this context that I confronted for the first time the most grim duty a consular officer must face. Yesterday afternoon a local hospital called the consulate regarding a possible Western death. A female body had washed ashore 4:00am that morning at Marina Beach, and recovery workers delivered it to the hospital. The doctor requested us to attempt an identification (by this I mean whether or not it was a foreigner) before he disposed of the body. A US colleague, an Indian national who works at the consulate, and I went there to see what we could do. I won't go into the details, but since the body had been at sea for almost 48 hours, it was impossible to determine the ethnicity, much less the nationality. In cases like these, all we can do is obtain a DNA sample and/or dental xrays for possible future identification. We also had to photograph the remains. This is all done in order to make a potential match with any missing persons. If the authorities subsequently bury the body, we try to find out where, in case we need to make a future exhumation to confirm an ID, or to return the body to the US family, if they wish to bear the expense. In this case, none of that was necessary, because right before we left, the woman's family appeared and one of them came in and identified her, how I don't know, but he did. I'm guessing he recognized her clothes. It was a heart-rending moment, because this north Indian family had come to Chennai to enjoy a Christmas beach vacation. They lost a total of three family members, including this young woman in her early 20s. What really struck me was how important it seemed to her family to have an authority figure listen sympathetically to their story. Any authority figure. They began to tell me details about themselves, the woman, and the other deceased family members, even though I was there in my capacity as a US official. I listened and empathized the best I could, but I felt totally useless. The enormity of the tragedy overwhelmed local hospitals, including this one. They simply don't have proper facilities for such large-scale calamity, and they can only lay the dead out in the halls on the floor until the families come and claim them. Otherwise they have to dispose of the body, and a family somewhere can never have closure. This particular hospital received over 80 bodies. It was a scene of grief and despair I hope I never have to witness again. I don't dare imagine what it must be like in other locales where the numbers are so much higher. As bad as it is here, things could have been far, far worse. As it stands now, I don't think there are any US fatalities in Chennai, or even south India. But our consulate is literally deluged with phone and email queries from people trying to locate loved ones. Many times, they don't know exactly where the person is, or even in which part of India. That is why it is so vital for travelers to provide accurate information on their whereabouts to people back home, and to register with the State Department. What I don't understand is why more people here don't call or email back home word that they are ok so that their loved ones aren't frantic with worry. We are doing our best to cope, and we answer every inquiry. We've been pulling 24-hour shifts since Sunday, and this is all on top of normal, mundane consulate business that proceeds full speed ahead, well over 700+ visa interviews a day. For some people the Federal Government is a target of derision, but it is times like these that drive home the point of how few other countries are able to look after their citizens in such distant places. On my visit to Mamallapuram the day of the tsunami, I encountered a guy from Israel. He was staying far from the sea, and so was fine, and he told me how amazed he was to see a consulate going to that length to check on its citizens, sending someone all the way from Chennai. What he said took me a bit aback, because I had never thought of it in quite those terms. My main reason in seeking a foreign service career is a strong desire to do public service, and this is the first time I've actually felt like I am accomplishing that goal, small though my efforts are. Tonight for example, I went to the airport to meet a colleague stationed at our Sri Lankan embassy. Dozens of American tourists there have lost all their belongings due to the tsunami, including their passports. Since our embassy in Colombo has run out of replacements, it sent someone here for extras we were able to provide. I delivered them over, and the colleague went out on that same flight after it refueled. Now those stranded Americans will get home all the sooner. I know that doesn't sound like much, and in the greater scheme of things, it really isn't. But it is vital for me to feel I am doing something, particularly after how utterly helpless I felt in trying to console that family at the hospital's makeshift morgue. The consulate is doing its best to assist the Indian community as well. Besides collecting monetary donations, many of us have volunteered to pack disaster relief kits of food, water, and clothing for afflicted villagers further south, especially in the Nagapattinam area. If any of you can help, please consider making your own donation to your favorite charity. I fear the worst may be yet to come, if relief efforts fail to deliver adequate, timely supplies of food and safe drinking water to these poor souls.
- posted by Prince Roy @ 12/30/2004 12:35:00 AM| |

 
We are both OK. The tsunami never reached our home yesterday. We are about a mile from the ocean. The earthquake at 6:30am didn't even wake us, though it did a few of my colleagues. There were several aftershocks, but we didn't feel those either. The consulate called to check on us at around 10:30am. I didn't even know what was going on, but I quickly turned on the local Tamil station. They were already providing live coverage. At first, it didn't appear too serious: the streets out by the beaches just looked flooded like after a heavy rain, but the water was no more than shin deep. Apparently the first wave swept in about an hour after that earthquake, and almost as quickly as it arrived, the waves went back out to sea, all in around 15-20 minutes, all in the blink of an eye. Tamils are early risers and they like to take morning constitutionals. People who live near the beaches take their walks there, but no one can outrun a tsunami moving at close to 500 miles per hour, and very few could swim, especially the children. Initial reports indicated 5 dead, then 16, then 23...the numbers kept rising, but we had no idea how serious it was at this point. Indian television is not squeamish about the macabre and I saw several bodies lying in the streets. The consulate called again after 11:00, and asked me to come in. We had to try and account for the many US citizens living here and in the other affected areas in our district. It was chaos at first because power/phones were down in the beach areas, where there are many wealthy subdivisions inhabited by expats. And of course, cell phones were unusable because the networks were swamped. We couldn't contact hardly anyone for the first half hour or so, but by around 1:30 we started to reach people. Most foreigners live far enough off the beach that they were ok. But we had no idea what the situation was further south. I took a car and drove to an area of Chennai called Besat Nagar, where we knew US citizens lived. When I got there at around 2:30, it didn't appear the area had sustained any discernible damage at all. There was very little rubbish on the beach, the roads were not flooded, and tide levels looked normal. I then drove further south, to Mamallapuram (also called Mahabalipuram) around 60 kilometers from Chennai. South India is by no means a tourist magnet for most Westerners, but many that do come here go to Mammallapuram, because it has several fascinating oceanside temples. There is also at least one US expat living there, so the consulate wanted to make sure she was alright. The road going that way is called East Coast Road, or ECR. Once out of Chennai I could begin to see the aftermath. The highway itself meanders about a quarter mile off the ocean. I witnessed that areas as far as 500 meters from the beach still had noticeable flooding. I also observed scores of poor villagers lining the sides of the ECR, with battered, stuffed suitcases and water jugs. Some even carried their TVs and dressers---I think these were people who lived farther from the shore, and whose homes were largely spared, but were afraid of subsequent tsunamis. The rumor mill ran full-bore all day of imminent giant waves. Many more had nothing but the clothes on their backs. These people lived by the ocean in slum dwellings, many in thatched huts. The ocean swept their homes away, they had barely escaped with their lives, and they were afraid to go back, other than to salvage whatever they could carry. I arrived in Mamallapuram, but the town is far enough from the water that I did not see any debris, flotsam, or other evidence that the tidal wave had reached the main town center. I asked several foreigners I saw walking around what their situation was, and they were all in good shape. I did hear that the temples along the beach were basically submerged. The police station confirmed that there were no Western casualties or serious injuries in the area. I managed to track down the US citizen who lives there, and she told me that although one of her Indian friends lost her home, she was unaware of any foreigners in trouble. I got back to the consulate a little after 6:00pm and it was only then that the true nature of the disaster began to take shape. The death count in Tamil Nadu totals over 1700 2700, with 131 151 of those in Chennai. As far as we know, there are no US citizen casualties. It is difficult to comprehend the sheer magnitude of the death and devastation. Over 22,000 50,000 people lost their lives in a matter of minutes. Like most disasters in this part of the world, by far the majority were the impoverished living in shanty towns, thatched huts, and other makeshift dwellings. The most tragic thing of all is that there was more than sufficient time for most of those poor souls to reach safety, if only these countries had adequate civil emergency warning systems. The waves didn't arrive for an hour or more, and all it would have taken was a 15 minute stroll. Now the survivors are left to grieve, having lost homes, possessions, loved ones, and all they can hope for is the 1 lakh (100,000 rupees, or approximately US$2200) that the Indian government will provide to those who lost a family member. IMPORTANT: For any US citizens reading this, I hope the catastrophe imparts the necessity of registering with a US consulate or embassy if you will travel or reside in any foreign country. For more info, go here, visit the US embassy/consulate website of the country you plan to visit, or email me. At the very least, provide a detailed itinerary, including hotel contact information and your passport number, to a loved one before you leave. This will facilitate our providing you with assistance should an unforseen event occur. Many of these countries simply don't have the emergency response capabilities of the developed world, and if we know where to find you it could make a huge difference.
- posted by Prince Roy @ 12/27/2004 11:25:00 PM| |

 
Intrepid Traveler Zhang Baoju We watched a good documentary tonight on one of the Chinese channels we get here, Phoenix TV. The name of the program is 冷暖人生 [The Vicissitudes of Life] and tonight's episode was 老太太三百美金游美国 [An Old Woman Sees America On $300 Bucks]. Zhang Baoju is a retired middle-aged cadre from Henan Province who all of a sudden decided in 1998 that she wanted to see America, even though she didn't know a soul there and didn't speak a word of English. People told her she was nuts, but she noticed all the foreign backpackers in China---they didn't know Chinese and didn't have much money, yet they still traveled all over China. Why couldn't she do the same in the USA? The more people told her it was impossible, the more she wanted to do it. A friend of hers had a cousin in New York who agreed to write her a sponsorship letter, and off she went to the US embassy in Beijing. To everyone's surprise [and to my shock], she managed to get a visa, and the visa officer only asked her three questions: 'Why do you want to go to America?', 'What does your husband do?', and 'How much money does he make?'. With a backpack of her own and $300 dollars in her pocket she landed in New York City. After seeing all the sights there, she realized she'd need to get a job, because she wanted to see the entire country. She went to Chinatown and soon found work as a nanny. She worked a few months, saved her money, and off she went. And that's what she did for an entire year. She would visit a city, go to all the attractions, and then find a job with a local Chinese family as a nanny to earn the money for her next destination. She traveled the country by Greyhound Bus, and even today she is not sure of all the places she visited, because she only learned three English phrases her entire trip: "I don't know English", "Hello", and "No". After a year, she wound up back in New York City and from there she returned home, bringing with her not only memories and photos, but $10,000 she saved working as a nanny. Her friends there were very surprised when they found out she made ends meet as a baby-sitter, a profession they considered demeaning for someone of her status in China, but she said the thought never crossed her mind---she needed to work in order to travel. I still can't believe she got a visa, especially since she was traveling alone, with no solid travel plans, money or relatives in the US. I guess it was her lucky day, because she is practically a textbook slam-dunk refusal. Hers is the classic profile of someone going to work in the US, in the Chinese case usually in a restaurant or as a nanny, particularly since she didn't know any English. The fact that she had to finance her travel by working illegally in the US would automatically be grounds for a refusal. And of course, the people who hired her to watch their children were in complete violation of US law. She also ended up staying for over a year on a tourist visa. While not technically illegal, DHS usually frowns on anyone staying in the US longer than 6 months on such a visa, because many times it indicates employment activities, which are a definite no-no. But the other side of the coin, and an important one, is that she did return to China. She was a legitimate traveler in the sense that she had no intentions of abandoning her residence there. True, she did work unlawfully in the US, but how many other Western travelers in her shoes do the same in Asia, teaching English at cram schools or other under the table work? So I've got mixed feelings on this one. She is a remarkable lady, with a lot of gumption and can-do spirit, and I'm glad she made it to America. But I would never have issued her a visa. She says she'd like to visit Europe or Australia next. Who knows, maybe we'll run into her there in a couple of months....
- posted by Prince Roy @ 12/22/2004 01:10:00 AM| |

 
双流脚患者 We went to a colleague's outdoors Christmas party last night. It was great fun, and I enjoyed myself much better than I normally do at these things where I don't know practically anybody. They decorated their entire backyard and a local five star hotel catered the event with all kinds of delicious grilled kebabs. The host provided his very generous full wet bar. Around a hundred people showed up, most of them from outside the consulate. A DJ played music (most of it 1970s and 80s, a bit too much disco for my own taste) and several people danced, most notably Spicygirl, who began not long after we arrived at 8:00pm and didn't stop until shortly before we returned home at 2:30 in the morning. As you can see, she danced barefoot, on a tiled dance floor they put in especially for the party. I have no idea what was on those tiles that made the soles of her feet turn so black, but whatever it was, determined scrubbing could not remove all of it. But that was not the worst of her problems: she danced so much that she had a very difficult time walking around today because her legs are so sore. And tomorrow she has yoga at 6:45am. On Thursday December 16, I conducted visa interview number 15000. The previous day marked our 8th month to the day in Chennai. In two months we will take our one allotted R&R (rest and recreation) vacation. We've decided to spend three weeks touring Australia and New Zealand's South Island. We have friends in Melbourne and Sydney, and so will spend around two weeks in those places, followed by a five-day driving tour in New Zealand. I can't wait to go, and Spicygirl is heavily involved with planning the entire itinerary. Good thing, too, because left to my own devices I probably wouldn't get any farther than the Gold Coast and surfing/scuba lessons. Any readers out there native to or familiar with these two places, feel free to offer your sightseeing suggestions. Local cuisine recommendations especially welcome.
- posted by Prince Roy @ 12/20/2004 01:50:00 AM| |

 
I've been down for the count. I had an infection of my outer left ear which became inflamed. In response, the lymph gland below the ear swelled to the size of a large grape. I went to the doctor and he prescribed a week's regimen of oral antibiotics and a steroid cream for the ear. I also had three day's bed rest. It took over a week before I began to feel normal, because of side effects from the antibiotics. It's always something here. Thankfully, I've faced nothing more serious than the flu and a few bouts of 'Delhi Belly' until now. A colleague of mine had an infection of his inner ear which was a good deal more severe. He eventually had to return to the US for a month to recover. Well, I hope this is the most 'exotic' Indian health issue I will face. There are far more sinister ones around, but the worst I've heard anyone from our consulate come down with is giardiasis. In more pleasant news, I've found a beer which just might see me through to the end of my tour: Kilkenny, from Ireland. It arrives in India via Australia. How, I have no idea, and I'm not asking any questions. It is canned, but has that little gas container inside that breaks when you open the can. Some of you who have never been to India may have tried Indian beer abroad, and so you may be wondering what the big deal is. Trust me, you haven't really had Indian beer, because they brew it to different standards for the export market. The first time I tried domestic stuff, I realized it tasted strangely familiar. It wasn't until the next morning's headache when it dawned upon me that I was the unwitting victim of the formaldehyde hangover, just like so many times before in Taiwan after a night of Taiwan Beer, in the bad old days when the ROC government didn't permit foreign competition. Or is it glycerine? Whatever, it imparts a distinctively awful aftertaste, and the only way I can get past it, is if the beer is extremely cold. It doesn't matter which of India's several beers you try; they all have that unsettling chemical flavor, whatever it is. You can get foreign beer in most Indian bars, but the taxes are outrageous. In Tamil Nadu there is a 70% added tax on all foreign beer/wine/spirits. For example, let's examine the bill from my visit to the Park Sheraton's Westminster pub yesterday afternoon. I had three canned pints of Kilkenny, at 230 rupees each (45 rupees=US$1). To that, add the 70% foreign tax and the 5% service tax. The bill should be 1207.50 rupees: almost US$27 for three pints of beer. But hope is not lost. I am a member of the Sheraton India club, which entitles me to an immediate 20% discount on drinks at any Sheraton establishment in India. Also, as a US diplomat in Tamil Nadu, I am exempted from all added taxes. So my total bill is a much more tolerable 552 rupees (US$12.50). Sometimes, a little diplomatic immunity goes a long way...
- posted by Prince Roy @ 12/12/2004 02:10:00 PM| |