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I wish I were in China at this moment...
By
... to see first-hand how this story is being covered and reacted to:
The suffering after the Sichuan earthquake was so widespread and horrific, and the impression of rapid, heroic, all-out response was so important to the government, that the episode really had a "9/11"-style role in popular imagination. The Chinese people standing as one to help the victims of Wenchuan and other devastated cities; premier Wen Jiabao flying directly to the disaster site that very afternoon to oversee recovery efforts; People's Liberation Army detachments flooding in from every province to haul rubble out of school yards and pull survivors to safety -- this is what the Chinese public heard, saw, and was reminded of after the earthquake and ever since.*
The idea that the disaster could somehow have been induced, invited, or worsened by governmental action -- well, no one knows how this idea will be debated or allowed to spread in China, but the consequences could be profound. This is a placeholder note to say: watch this story carefully.
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* A new chapter in Postcards from Tomorrow Square, called "After the Earthquake," is about the different ways the disaster affected several villages in Sichuan province.
The idea that the disaster could somehow have been induced, invited, or worsened by governmental action -- well, no one knows how this idea will be debated or allowed to spread in China, but the consequences could be profound. This is a placeholder note to say: watch this story carefully.
____
* A new chapter in Postcards from Tomorrow Square, called "After the Earthquake," is about the different ways the disaster affected several villages in Sichuan province.
