China in Mourning

Today was the last of the three days of mourning here in China. In a move unprecendented the government declared that extra ordinary measures be taken to recognise and mourn the losses in Sichuan province with the earthquake.

Still the numbers are not known, but there are some 5 million people who have lost their homes, and many their jobs and family members.

It is a tragedy of amazing proportions.

At entrance to our college, flags of many nations are in display each day, and it is hard to look at the lone Chinese flag, at half mast on the flagpole.

The sadness is felt by all Chinese, and we know that people all around the world mourn with them.

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The world news were critical of the US Govt response...

Submitted by huttriver12 on Wed, 2008-05-28 19:19.

their political affiliation should be immaterial.

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This may be true -

Submitted by djbtol on Thu, 2008-05-29 09:01.

but the fact that the world was critical of US response, does not mean it was valid response.

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So, why did the Chinese

Submitted by djbtol on Wed, 2008-05-28 10:39.

respond so quickly?

Elly said:
Government officials have already been punished for their ineptitude and there will be more who will be punished.

Could it be that they expect their leaders to perform and believe that actions have consequences?

Not to get down on my own country, but it sometimes seems that we mix ineptitude with a little positive spin and call it good. Wrong, wrong, wrong!

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Natural catastrophies

Submitted by djbtol on Thu, 2008-05-22 10:45.

on such a huge scale would challenge any country. I wonder how the people and leaders of China, as well as the world perceie that the government of China is doing? What are their expectations for government assistance in this crisis?

Will their be allegations that the government response was too little, too late?

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I doubt it djbtol

Submitted by Elly on Thu, 2008-05-22 22:28.

as the Chinese government acted really quickly - much quicker than the Myanmar government did for their recent tragedy, and the US Government for the tragedy around the Mississippi a few years ago.

While I know we see a lot of "propoganda" here, I am staggered at what the Chinese government and people have done in such a short time to rescue survivors, treat the injured and get the communities headed on a road to recovery.

Government officials have already been punished for their ineptitude and there will be more who will be punished.

I don't think there is any other country in the world that has had such a disaster, and moved so quickly!

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You make reference to

Submitted by djbtol on Wed, 2008-05-28 10:50.

Hurricane Katrina. There has been lots of bad press about the response there. (Bear in mind that democrats control the mainstream media.) It would be curious if someone could hypothetically transpose Chinese emergency response on to that situation and see what the outcome would be.

To say that the response was not good, now that we are looking back on the situation, is certainly true to some point. There was a lot done, but I am not sure what the comprehensive grade would be. I suspect that political fighting and posturing between the local democrats (governor and mayor) and the Bush administration (republicans) is also a factor.

Just this weekend I heard mentioned in a sermon that the night life was still pretty normal in New Orleans on the Saturady night before the anticipated Monday morning hit. The call to evacuate had already been given.

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