The Last Straw

After all we have seen, all we have felt sorrow for since the earthquake and tsunami last Friday.. all the suffering.. the countless dead and missing.. a helluva time to find that our guys in the British Embassy in Tokyo are a bunch of spineless b*&^*%ds.  How else are we meant to interpret their apparent unwillingness to allow the workers from the International Rescue Corp to work in Japan?  WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE!!??

I quote (thank you BBC website): Willie McMartin, operations director at Scotland-based International Rescue Corps (IRC), said: "The team has had excellent help from the Japanese embassy in London and the authorities in Tokyo but it broke down when they couldn't get the relevant paperwork from the British embassy in Tokyo..  This was the 32^nd world disaster we have been to and we’ve only had problems twice before with host governments in China and Afghanistan..  We have never encountered the position where the British Embassy, our own country, came up with a show-stopper”.

It seems they the Embassy staff are unable to “process” them because they couldn’t authenticate them as a bona fide organisation, and to sanction their permits would mean the Embassy would be responsible for their welfare.  This is a small point, but isn't it a part of an Embassy's remit that they be a point of contact and reference for their native citizens whilst they are in said country?  If not, what do they actually do?  Why have I ever bothered to inform the embassy of my whereabouts whilst I've been on holiday?  The team must be more than gutted.  What about their actions on the other 32 missions?  Could you really not find it in your hearts to shoulder this small burden for all those in need?  People are suffering and dying in a country which needs our help, and to which we have pledged our assistance, and now you’ve stopped their assistance and shipped them home because you didn’t get a ‘t’ crossed or an ‘i’ dotted!?  I make no apologies for this outburst.. Who are these w*%kers??

To the people of Japan.. “gomen nasai”.  It’s at times like this that I find this increasingly fastidious British obsession for accountability to be an almost unbearable embarrassment which makes me angry beyond belief.