THE STRAITS TIMES
saturday, may 17 2008
China to come down hard on shoddy work
Everyone by now, should have read about the massive earthquake in the Sichuan province of China which has killed thousands of people, mostly children.The 'one-child policy' has been contentious inside China as well as out. The government says it has prevented an additional 400 million births. But critics say it has also led to forced abortions, sterilisations and a dangerously imbalanced gender ratio as local authorities pursue sometimes severe birth quotas set by Beijing and families abort girls out of a traditional preference for male heirs.Parents lost their one and only child leaving them alone through their years.
Personally, i feel that it was not the earthquake that killed the the people but actually the poor infrastructure of the buildings that led to destruction. China, known as the" sleeping tiger" has been advancing rapidly in terms of economically and their technology. It has also been a major field of global power and strength that even the Americans are weary of China. The earthquake allowed me to have my second thoughts of China, as looking closely, China is a huge country and there are bound to be corruptions. Humans are drawn to greed, thus that led to the slipshodiness. Only when the disaster happened, the government realized how this little mistake could actually be the cost of thousands of people's lives. The minister also said that school buildings were not the only serious infrastructure casualties, despite media reports of several thousand schools toppled in the earthquake. This is to show the amount of people whom died from the toppling of buildings. The government in China has even launched an investigation into the buildings that had collapsed on the tragic Monday afternoon, but i feel that it is all too late of that now. Even if they found the culprits of the slipshod foundations of the buildings, lives has already been taken away and many people are suffering from the lost of their love ones. Therefore, China should now be taking precautions for such inevitable natural disasters.
My heart goes out to all of them, either those who've died, the children who've lost their lives and the pitiful parents. I feel so lucky, compared to those children. I think being buried alive is one of the most painful thing. This is a lesson learn for all.
saturday, may 17 2008
China to come down hard on shoddy work
Everyone by now, should have read about the massive earthquake in the Sichuan province of China which has killed thousands of people, mostly children.The 'one-child policy' has been contentious inside China as well as out. The government says it has prevented an additional 400 million births. But critics say it has also led to forced abortions, sterilisations and a dangerously imbalanced gender ratio as local authorities pursue sometimes severe birth quotas set by Beijing and families abort girls out of a traditional preference for male heirs.Parents lost their one and only child leaving them alone through their years.
Personally, i feel that it was not the earthquake that killed the the people but actually the poor infrastructure of the buildings that led to destruction. China, known as the" sleeping tiger" has been advancing rapidly in terms of economically and their technology. It has also been a major field of global power and strength that even the Americans are weary of China. The earthquake allowed me to have my second thoughts of China, as looking closely, China is a huge country and there are bound to be corruptions. Humans are drawn to greed, thus that led to the slipshodiness. Only when the disaster happened, the government realized how this little mistake could actually be the cost of thousands of people's lives. The minister also said that school buildings were not the only serious infrastructure casualties, despite media reports of several thousand schools toppled in the earthquake. This is to show the amount of people whom died from the toppling of buildings. The government in China has even launched an investigation into the buildings that had collapsed on the tragic Monday afternoon, but i feel that it is all too late of that now. Even if they found the culprits of the slipshod foundations of the buildings, lives has already been taken away and many people are suffering from the lost of their love ones. Therefore, China should now be taking precautions for such inevitable natural disasters.
My heart goes out to all of them, either those who've died, the children who've lost their lives and the pitiful parents. I feel so lucky, compared to those children. I think being buried alive is one of the most painful thing. This is a lesson learn for all.
6 comments:
i feel lucky too. haha. am i glad im living in singapore where there's minimal corruption, a good government, and most impt, buildings with strong foundations :D i think the one child policy is lame too. if there are no females, how do the males get married and have children to continue the family's name? luckily im leaving in sg if not i think im gonna be a bachelor forever :(
There are many lessons to be learned by nations and individuals. For such a huge country like China, changes will come, but probably at a slower pace.
Let me just give an example on learning from lessons: Singaporeans
are confident with the country's building and infrastructure, why? It is because the Government has spent so much time, money and effort to pass laws to ensure that no contractors will get away scot free for cutting down on building materials. We have to look at the problems that we had encountered in the past as well, our Hotel New World collapsed in 1986 and Nicol Highway in 2004. From these incidents, the authorities will learn from the lessons and continue to improve on the current systems and procedures.
Thus, like i mentioned before, for China to improve and change, it will definitely take a longer time Also, I believe that China's leaders are doing their best to wipe out corruption, it is never easy to govern such a huge country and population afterall.
I must say that it is really heart breaking seeing the amount of deaths increasing. There was even a guy who tried to stay alive just to be saved but as there was too much rumbles covering him, it took 4 hours to finally rescue him but he died at the end. I guess now all we could do while we are here in singapore is to pray for more survivors.
Yes, it is definitely not easy to manage such a large country amid all the developments and improvements, and especially during the run in to the Olympic games. Nontheless, I would think that the leaders have already done a great job after this tragic disaster. The scenes of Premier Wen visiting the survivors and encouraging the aid workers are indeed heartwarming.
An interesting point to note is also that the media was given direct and free access to the disaster zone this time round. There were live streaming of images right from the beginning and this was very unlike the old China, whereby the state authorities had to approve of the files before they are shown to the masses. This already shows a great leap in China's growth.
And regarding your post itself, you may want to organise your points better so as to achieve more coherence, since it is rather random now. :)
i dont get what you mean by your "since its rather random now"
As in the points that you raised, though valid, were not very clearly linked to each other during the first read, at least for me.
Just my two cents worth.
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