Run To the Hills

I'm sure you're heard by now about all the stuff going on in the Mid East, i.e. WWIII. Most of it is going on in Lebanon, and there are citizens of many countries presently there. Some are workers and some are tourists.

So, those citizens' respective countries are working to get them outta there before the shit really hits the fan, whatever that may mean. For the most part, people are being shuttled to the island of Cyprus, and from there being airlifted to their native countries or the next best thing. Some interesting stories have been popping up regarding this process.

The Swedish government went through telecom companies to locate all of their citizens in Lebanon. And then they sent text messages giving them directions on where to go and what to do. How in the hell do you send a text message when a word has the little circle over the 'A'? I wonder. In a four-day, grueling around the clock operation, they quickly evacuated 5,000 people using text messages. LINK

How do you think the US reacted? They started evacuation on Tuesday, and they're still working on it. Plus, they're going to charge citizens for the evacuation! There are reportedly as many as 25,000 US citizens in Lebanon, and about 8,000 want to leave. Those who want to leave must sign a note before boarding any kind of ship (boat, helicopter, plane) out of Lebanon pledging that they will reimburse the US government for $200. The thinking behind this is that the money will cover the cost of a normal commercial flight from Lebanon to Cyprus. If evacuees don't have a way out of Cyprus once they get there, they will be charged for that flight as well. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D) made a good point when she said if we can provide more thatn $300 billion for a war in Iraq, we can provide free flights to evacuate our peeps in Lebanon. Fuckin' a. LINK

My favorite evacuation? Yes, this is a top three list. My favorite evacuation was when Bruce Dickinson, singer for Iron Maiden, and licensed pilot airlifted 200 British citizens back to London yesterday. He did so with a Boeing 757. LINK