List of Norwegians missing drastically shortened
Norwegian police and the foreign department worked hard all week-end to complete the list of missing Norwegians abroad (mostly Thailand) after the Tsunami disaster, and it was published on police web pages today. It was immediately revealed that the list had numerous errors and duplicates, and the number of missing persons have fallen from 275 to 150 people. The same morning, it was believed that 1,400 people were missing!
Sixteen Norwegians are now reported dead, but even this lacks positive confirmation. Earlier the number was 21.
It is of course very good news that the disaster has killed far less Norwegians than previously feared. It is not so good that the authorities have revealed massive incompetence in handling this disaster.
Yes, I have tried to cut them some slack earlier, considering they were like everybody else unprepared to handle a disaster of this magnitude. The blame game has well started, with the authorities blaming the travel agents, the police blaming the foreign department and the press blaming everybody.
Now the press reports that even some of the names on this twice-shortened list are not at all missing. Indeed, some of them weren't even abroad at the time.
PS: All the police needed to do to reduce the list further, was googling for the names. A number of the "missing" has been mentioned and pictured in recent newspaper articles as survivors!
PS 2: ...or just call the "missing" on their home phones, which the press is doing as we speak.
Update: Denmark experienced the same shortening of the list after it made it public. Sweden alone has refused to make the list public, fearing that unscupulous people will burglar the homes of the missing or exploit their identities (this happened after the Estonia ferry disaster). Sweden thus still operates with almost 3,000 citizens unaccounted for. Denmark has 69, and Norway has 150 (and declining). I dare predict that Sweden, too, massively exaggarates the number of dead. I also predict that the mounting pressure to make the list public will eventually succeed in Sweden, and that there will be a massive outcry when that happens.
Update 2: Latest update has reduced the number of missing Norwegians to 107. Newpaper VG says their research shows the real figure is below 100.
In Hordaland county, where I live, the official list from Kripos (aka central police authorities) have 17 missing. The local police have seven. They double-checked, and insist seven is the correct figure. Well, they live here, and should know.
Yes, it is still a national tragedy, but now we also have a scandal: the biggest disaster to befall Norwegians is now proven to be a fiction created by bureaucrats. A total mess in the foreign department (first and foremost) made us believe the number of dead Norwegians were above a thousand!
Some of the people reported missing on the foreign dept.'s lists, had never even been in Thailand! It's a coincidence I wasn't on the list, as I've been there twice.
4:57:49 PM 
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