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I just saw on CNN that the US Navy Ship Mercy, a 1000 bed military hospital ship, is now on its way to the Indian Ocean to help the tsunami victims. The only problem is that it will take a month to get there. This raised several questions in my mind:

1. Is the USS Mercy the only ship that could respond to this crisis? The US Navy already has several ships (the Reagan and the Bonhomme Richard, among others) helping out, but I haven't heard anything about the navies of other countries (or is this just because that's all the US media is interested in covering?)
2. What about the huge fleets of commercial ships that operate in those waters?
3. And what about the cruise lines with all of their floating beds? I took a look at the websites of several cruise lines that operate in Southeast Asia and found little. Princess had a "How you can help" link to various charities, but nothing about what they were doing. Same with Crystal. Same with Radisson Seven Seas. What makes this pertinent is that their ships stop in various ports in the area, taking advantage of whatever tourist facilities they have. Yes, I know it isn't fair to pick on one industry, but this seems like an obvious source of aid to the area.
4. Isn't it time for the nations of the world to realize that we are all exposed to all kinds of natural and man-made calamities, and to preposition emergency resources at various places all around the globe. Perhaps this could be done under the auspices of the UN. A good model for this idea is the prepositioned supply ships that the US military has at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.