39 killed and more carnage feared as Kenya mall attackers face off

Christ. It's still ongoing too. The article says two Canadians among the dead as well, but yeah.

The one was a Diplomat (Immigration Officer) who started on the job with a friend of our's husband. The mall is popular among the expat community there. The guys went in to target non muslims so this was a prime target.

BTW, our Department of Foreign Affairs does not give survivors benefits of any kind (pension or otherwise) to spouses of Diplomats who die while serving their country overseas. Her husband most likely was unemployed (would have left his job so she could serve hers) and basically will get his trip home paid for then be on his own. Most life insurance policies won't cover her either while she's over there.

Canadian and her husband named here:
http://t.news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/ca ... nked-group

hmmm, religion of peace at it again.

You gotta be kidding, right?
You send your Diplomats to a dangerous country and they just have to fend for themselves??

Foreigners and children were the specific targets. The mall was holding special events for kids.

You gotta be kidding, right?
You send your Diplomats to a dangerous country and they just have to fend for themselves??

If they get killed in that country yeah pretty much tough sh@t. When sent to the country they get housing and allowances for being there but nothing that will compensate if they or their spouse gets killed. Once we had our first kid we hunkered down and decided to get some good life insurance. Even though we were going to Brazil we were still told we would not be covered if something like this happened or say abduction or even from random crime violence. We were told by a number of companies they charge and pay out based on assessed risk to living in Canada. Its ok to visit other counties and get randomly shot on vacation and be covered, but not to live there.

As far as protection while at post it is post specific. When we were with DFAIT Kenya was mid range for risk / hardship which is not really that high. We'd get security briefs and such and told were not to go but as this was a rare type of attack no one had reason to avoid the mall. My understanding is that they had no more reason to fear going there than your average mall here in Canada save for more pick pocketing and petty stuff.

Now if this lady had been a Military Liaison and shot in the mall DND would have taken care of her husband.

Geniuses at CNN asked "are malls in the US safe?". Well, judging by recent history, going to work, school, a grocery store, to a movie, or out for dinner in the US can be kinda unsafe if you happen to be there when some nut who isn't a terrorist but just wants to make a high score decides to shoot a couple of dozen people. So by that bit of arithmetic, no, if you're there at the wrong moment going to the mall in the US can be potentially unsafe.

Where the fuck does CNN get these clods who think up these questions? They're well into the stage that they're so dumb now they actually manage to make FOX look good in comparison.

here's to a swift resolution of the hostage taking...

You gotta be kidding, right?
You send your Diplomats to a dangerous country and they just have to fend for themselves??

If they get killed in that country yeah pretty much tough sh@t. When sent to the country they get housing and allowances for being there but nothing that will compensate if they or their spouse gets killed. Once we had our first kid we hunkered down and decided to get some good life insurance. Even though we were going to Brazil we were still told we would not be covered if something like this happened or say abduction or even from random crime violence. We were told by a number of companies they charge and pay out based on assessed risk to living in Canada. Its ok to visit other counties and get randomly shot on vacation and be covered, but not to live there.

As far as protection while at post it is post specific. When we were with DFAIT Kenya was mid range for risk / hardship which is not really that high. We'd get security briefs and such and told were not to go but as this was a rare type of attack no one had reason to avoid the mall. My understanding is that they had no more reason to fear going there than your average mall here in Canada save for more pick pocketing and petty stuff.

Now if this lady had been a Military Liaison and shot in the mall DND would have taken care of her husband.
There was no Dutch insurance that would cover us when we just moved here either, we would have to take out a Canadian.
But, I wasn't sent by my employer, and not as a diplomat actually working for my country.
I wonder how BP or Shell does that with their expats?

Total count is 59 dead. Wow. My prayers to their families

I've been told I'm not 100% correct about what DFAIT would (at the time)do. Apparently they had some policy in place which said if your insurance would not pay out that the government "would consider" covering the price of the pay out. The fact it was not a rule but a consideration is still lame IMO however.

There are international insurers. We used Clements for car insurance once but it was kind of sketchy and I never felt comfortable that they would cover us. I was ready for an exercise in pulling teeth if I ever had a claim. Their life insurance would have cost us over 3.5 times what we pay here and when you look into things it would be about 3.5 times harder to get a pay out from them. In short we don't know anyone from any countries diplomatic corps who used them for life insurance.

I'm betting private companies like you mention cover their employees better. It would not surprise me. Being that this type of thing does not happen often with our Diplomats, and the coverage it is getting I'm hoping the government does the right thing and helps the spouse out in some way.

I've been told I'm not 100% correct about what DFAIT would (at the time)do. Apparently they had some policy in place which said if your insurance would not pay out that the government "would consider" covering the price of the pay out. The fact it was not a rule but a consideration is still lame IMO however.

There are international insurers. We used Clements for car insurance once but it was kind of sketchy and I never felt comfortable that they would cover us. I was ready for an exercise in pulling teeth if I ever had a claim. Their life insurance would have cost us over 3.5 times what we pay here and when you look into things it would be about 3.5 times harder to get a pay out from them. In short we don't know anyone from any countries diplomatic corps who used them for life insurance.

I'm betting private companies like you mention cover their employees better. It would not surprise me. Being that this type of thing does not happen often with our Diplomats, and the coverage it is getting I'm hoping the government does the right thing and helps the spouse out in some way.
I am with you on that!
She was only 29...

I've been told I'm not 100% correct about what DFAIT would (at the time)do. Apparently they had some policy in place which said if your insurance would not pay out that the government "would consider" covering the price of the pay out. The fact it was not a rule but a consideration is still lame IMO however.

There are international insurers. We used Clements for car insurance once but it was kind of sketchy and I never felt comfortable that they would cover us. I was ready for an exercise in pulling teeth if I ever had a claim. Their life insurance would have cost us over 3.5 times what we pay here and when you look into things it would be about 3.5 times harder to get a pay out from them. In short we don't know anyone from any countries diplomatic corps who used them for life insurance.

I'm betting private companies like you mention cover their employees better. It would not surprise me. Being that this type of thing does not happen often with our Diplomats, and the coverage it is getting I'm hoping the government does the right thing and helps the spouse out in some way.
I am with you on that!
She was only 29...

How can our government send someone out of country and not do insurance!!!!!! I can't even think of words to say how wrong that is on so meny levels!! The government "would consider"?!?!?! WTF If you are asked as part of your job to travel the world there should be some sort of insurance for that. One that will not break your budget. At the very lest the government should be getting a rider for the people out of country so there would be a payout.

SISIP always had extra insurance for deployments... just incase. I'm guessing they still do. Maybe the diplomats should ask to join SISIP

Excuse my ignorance. What is SISIP? At present Diplomats are spread over two for sure, possibly three different unions.

There is health insurance. Which in most part of the world will get you access to the best local (private) medical care. This only serves to highlight how poor our public system is here.

Basically last I knew there was no concrete policy on what happens after the body and spouse are re- patriated. Which means they can do pretty much anything. Hopefully they will man up on this one.