Objection

Commenter Canchi objects strongly to the last sentence of my previous post. Here’s why:

…as a legitimate blogger, for Simon to have said what he said at this time, for this occasion, is blow below the belt …. After such tragedy, for such a solemn occasion, when Chinese people all feel the pain, for him to make political fodder of

A Ringing Silence in China

As I write, (14.28) it is exactly a week since the earthquake. China’s State Council has mandated a three minute silence in honor of the victims. They also ordered the sounding of all horns, air raid sirens etc during the period. You’ll see this on TV so I won’t put up video but it was eerie. All traffic on the usually jammed second ring …

The Remains of a School

This video is of the rubble that was once Juyuan Middle School, where at least 600 students died. The destruction of so many schools is one of the most depressing parts of this disaster. There is clearly a lot of anger from parents who lost their children, and it seems inevitable that there will be serious repercussions for the …

Meanwhile: Inflation and the Shanghai Bus Explosion

Obviously, the earthquake in Sichuan has dominated news coverage and the blogosphere since it happened Monday. A couple of events shouldn’t pass without being noted. Inflation hit 8.5 per cent last month, the government announced. This is bad and only going to get worse and is a very serious challenge for Beijing, as we’ve written …

Foreign Donations

There’s been some discussion in the comments about the relatively paltry contribution made by the U.S. government and wondering about donations by companies and individuals. The ever-insightful Tim Johnson of McClatchy Newspapers has a list for anyone interested on his blog, China Rises (proxy needed in China) of the substantial amounts …

More Terror For A Battered City

Just a brief follow-up to my previous post on Dujiangyan. Xinhua News Agency is now reporting that serious cracks have been found in a dam upstream of the earthquake ravaged city. It’s hard to imagine a place less capable of sustaining floodwaters right now.

20,000 and counting…

As the death toll rises to 20,000 or more, more focus will inevitably come to the quality of construction in the towns and villages in rural Sichuan. One of the things that the world is being reminded of in this disaster—and the United States, in particular, needs to be reminded of this– is that China is still a very poor country, …

Sichuan Earthquake Donation: More Info

A good number of people responded to the previous post with alternative ways of contributing money, including by Pay Pal and through outfits other than the Red Cross. Rather than reproduce it all here, I’d direct anyone interested in donating to the comments section of the previous post, which features a number of useful links and …

Sichuan Earthquake: How to Donate

Reader Nianqingri suggests posting information about how to donate. This comes courtesy of the shanghaiist website:

“For those who are looking to contribute to current aid efforts underway, you can now donate money to the Red Cross Society of China which has formed a disaster relief working group to be dispatched to the

Sichuan Earthquake: Response Time

I spent some time in the region where the earthquake hit worst last year on a story about pandas (the main panda breeding and research center at Wolong is near the epicenter) and fear that the casualty figures are bound to rise quite a bit. It’s a region of steep mountains bisected by narrow valleys which suffer from landslides even in …

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