chinese earthquake
Troops dug burial pits in this quake-shattered town and black smoke poured from crematorium chimneys elsewhere in central China as priorities began shifting Thursday from the hunt for survivors to dealing with the dead. Officials said the final toll could more than double to 50,000.
-The Associated Press
I am convinced that the reason for such fatalities in the chinese earthquake is due to widespread practice of constructing buildings too quickly and carelessly. I have been generally very suspicious of whether China is actually becoming a first-world nation, or it’s just really good PR. I hear stories from my parents about how Koreans always check trade shipments (like sea products) from China because they are notorious for stuffing cargos of Crab shipments with blocks of lead (to increase weight). And then I hear about poisoned toys shipping to America.
I think the Chinese are trying too hard to seem like a first-world nation without actually doing the hard work. Most of the nation is still in poverty, and there is massive corruption in their government. Plus, from what I can gather about the general culture of the Chinese people, image and PR gets priority over actually improving the country itself. (This is actually generally true for Asian culture, maybe except the Japanese. But I think the Chinese have it the worst.)
I can just imagine the Chinese constructing these large cities as quickly as possible, with very little safety standards in place. And now, their carelessness and borderline deception has come to bite their own ass – in the form of 50,000 casualties. Of course, the flip side is that the world’s sympathies will be with them – right on time for the Olympics. Couldn’t have wished for a better PR outcome, especially on the heels of the Tibetan protests.
