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	---> MORE Thai Proverbs: _________________________________ Keeping your head down Standing the World on its Head Beware of Appearances Keeping Your Head Down When the Cat's Away You've Got to be Stupid Before You Get Wise Measuring Someone's Footprint Be compliant! Snake Snake Fish Fish Bid Tong Lang Phra - To do good by stealth The Menacing Tiger Little birds nest according to their size Keeping Your Head Down The Chameleon That Lost Its Head Out of Pride Wisdom come from Stupidity Follow the old, and the dogs won't bite you LOOKING AT THE TSUNAMI DISASTER Measuring Someone's Footprint One drop of honey Keeping Your Head Down Avoiding Victory Blame and Responsibility Beware of Appearances When the cat’s away, the mice play Water, water everywhere…

LOOKING AT THE TSUNAMI DISASTER

Our Thai ancestors have known a thing or two about the disasters of history, as our stock of proverbs show.

What would they have said, given this tsunami disaster, and the government's expressed determination to set up a task force to deal with the situation should it occur again? Ten to one they would have said, wua hai, lom kork - which comes out as ‘building a cattle pen after the cows have been stolen'. Of course, that's, ‘Locking the stable door after the horse has fled', in the English version. This is all the more apt, since late last century, the permanent secretary of the Department of Meteorology warned about just such a situation, but was more or less shouted down.

In particular the tourism industry in the South criticised him severely for undermining confidence in tourism and damaging their businesses, and refused to have anything to do with the protective measures he was advocating. Now, of course, those who were shouting loudest before are silent, while others are hammering the government for the action they didn't take, and insisting they now take it.

Wua hai, lom kork exactly.