News of Today
posted by Tremble at 11:46 AM
0 comments
Monday, October 30, 2006
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
It is our Mother River. Do you care?
See today's news about our Yellow River turning red by runoff polution from CNN.
As someone growing up by a beautiful, serene river in the countryside, I felt quite depressed looking at the kid's sad face in the news picture, and had an impulse to let a friend, a Chinese colleague who I consider quite an environmentalist with decent knowledge in energy and pollution, know about it.
But when I sent the news to him, his reply was "So what? I think Yellow River has aleaday been a river of no use", as if I were someone ignorant about all the price we have been paying for the solely money-driven economic growth for the last 30 years. But, as he was surprised I sent him the news, I was also suprised by the way he responded! Yes, it is not new that Yellow River is being polluted day and night for years -- people, including those who are drinking out of the River, are used to it. What about the pollution is, the bureaucrats talk about it on TV and radios; school children write about how they don't like it; folks living by the river curse about it (or move away); factories, still, continously contribute to it, diligently along the cycling procedures of being opened, closed, and reopened. Everyone is busy playing their own role, and nothing substantial has been changed since the Yellow River pollution was brought to the attention of the public some 10 - 15 years ago.
Yet, this is the most striking part to me, as I was yelling back to my friend: "But their viewpoint stays the same as 10 years ago! Simple. No regulations. No trading mechanisms. And no compassion!" We'd think the public will come up with more systematic and effective solution packages to alleviate the pollution as the country is getting richer, but even the few who recognized that situational fines were not enough only called for kicking that factory at issue out of the business. How useful that would be!
Like every other Chinese kid, I was being taught since elementary school that Yellow River is our Mother River and that it is the cradle for our two-thousand year civilization. For this reason, I feel close to it though I never got a change to visit its roaring currents. I hope that something can really be done, than be said, about Yellow River, like what we did to preserve Nu River 2 - 3 years ago. It is time to try out some real regulations like quota and trading that have been put into practice in many other countries. It may be also helpful if law makers can account for pollution problems while they are redrafting the property law for the 6th public reading. Sigh, who knows. We wait and see.
Some more about Yellow River.
P.S.
Thinking back, my whole babbling was not to the point. The actual punchline should be "This is bloody crime yet nobody sees it."
As someone growing up by a beautiful, serene river in the countryside, I felt quite depressed looking at the kid's sad face in the news picture, and had an impulse to let a friend, a Chinese colleague who I consider quite an environmentalist with decent knowledge in energy and pollution, know about it.
But when I sent the news to him, his reply was "So what? I think Yellow River has aleaday been a river of no use", as if I were someone ignorant about all the price we have been paying for the solely money-driven economic growth for the last 30 years. But, as he was surprised I sent him the news, I was also suprised by the way he responded! Yes, it is not new that Yellow River is being polluted day and night for years -- people, including those who are drinking out of the River, are used to it. What about the pollution is, the bureaucrats talk about it on TV and radios; school children write about how they don't like it; folks living by the river curse about it (or move away); factories, still, continously contribute to it, diligently along the cycling procedures of being opened, closed, and reopened. Everyone is busy playing their own role, and nothing substantial has been changed since the Yellow River pollution was brought to the attention of the public some 10 - 15 years ago.
Yet, this is the most striking part to me, as I was yelling back to my friend: "But their viewpoint stays the same as 10 years ago! Simple. No regulations. No trading mechanisms. And no compassion!" We'd think the public will come up with more systematic and effective solution packages to alleviate the pollution as the country is getting richer, but even the few who recognized that situational fines were not enough only called for kicking that factory at issue out of the business. How useful that would be!
Like every other Chinese kid, I was being taught since elementary school that Yellow River is our Mother River and that it is the cradle for our two-thousand year civilization. For this reason, I feel close to it though I never got a change to visit its roaring currents. I hope that something can really be done, than be said, about Yellow River, like what we did to preserve Nu River 2 - 3 years ago. It is time to try out some real regulations like quota and trading that have been put into practice in many other countries. It may be also helpful if law makers can account for pollution problems while they are redrafting the property law for the 6th public reading. Sigh, who knows. We wait and see.
Some more about Yellow River.
P.S.
Thinking back, my whole babbling was not to the point. The actual punchline should be "This is bloody crime yet nobody sees it."
posted by Tremble at 1:01 PM
1 comments
Thursday, October 12, 2006
About Me
- Name: Tremble
- Location: Unknown, Unknown, United States
My ultimate dream is to be a writer, one that writes books for children and those grown-ups who keep a kid's heart, and in the dream, those stories will be liked and read, time regardless.
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- "You asked too many questions."
- News of Today
- It is our Mother River. Do you care?
- They didn't have the guts and I didn't have the heart
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