'Shock of consciousness' sweeps China in wake of temblor

[iverglas]

Source: Globe and Mail, Toronto

MIANYANG, CHINA — With their expensive Mercedes-Benz sports vehicles, the wealthy members of the Chongqing car club are normally accustomed to tooling around town in their luxury cars and taking weekend leisure trips.

But this week they piled into their SUVs, filled up their vehicles with boxes of medicine and food, and drove 500 kilometres to the scene of the Sichuan earthquake. Nearly 100 club members raced to the disaster zone, in convoys of 20 cars or more, to bring relief supplies to homeless survivors.

“We didn't even think about it,” one of the club members said. “We definitely have a duty to help our brothers and sisters.”

... In the quake-damaged city of Mianyang alone, more than 9,000 volunteers, including hundreds from far-off provinces, have formed the Red Ribbon movement to help the quake victims. Thousands of volunteers are donating clothes or providing medical help at a sports stadium where 20,000 homeless survivors have been given shelter. The roads are so clogged with private aid convoys that the police have ordered many off the road to make room for ambulances and emergency vehicles.

Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080516.wchina17/BNStory/International/home

---

The events surrounding the earthquake in China are being regarded as indicating/heralding a virtual sea change in Chinese civil society -- in fact, the beginnings of a real civil society of the kind that is needed to support social progress. There are three major developments:

- wide-open media coverage of the disaster and the aftermath in Chinese media (including discussion of allegations of government corruption being a factor in shoddy school construction) and the extent of access granted to foreign journalists

- acceptance of relief assistance from foreign governments (Japan, Taiwan, Russia, South Korea and Singapore)

- mobilization of private resources in the public interest, at individuals' and non-profit foundations' initiative and expense


I'm not a fan of private charity as a substitute for public social security. But the emergence of social solidarity in a population is often manifested first in private charitable efforts (like the abolition movement and children's welfare charities in the 19th century in the west).

China (like Russia) skipped that stage of development: it had collectivization without solidarity at the grassroots. The speed with which Russia devolved into profiteering and organized crime after decades of collectivism, and the extent to which the people at the bottom of the economic ladder were abandoned, illustrates the problem.

This could be the start of a very interesting new phase in social evolution.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. As I was reading the first section,

I wondered how many of the CEOs of, say, petroleum companies would have done this if it had happened here.

[iverglas]

3. I'm a little reluctant to say it

But when I read the article in print yesterday, what I was wondering was why no one did it when it happened in New Orleans.

In China, a sports stadium with 20,000 homeless people ... and thousands of volunteers helping them.

In New Orleans, thousands at the convention centre and trapped throughout the disaster area ... and millions of people watching on television.

In China, people spontaneously driving hundreds of miles with all the supplies they could buy and carry, and renting and transporting excavating equipment, and doing the rescue work that needed doing.

In New Orleans ...?


I have never understood the reaction of the US public to Katrina.

[Glorfindel]

7. Racism - plain and simple racism

I live in south Mississippi and I KNOW that's what drove the US public's reaction to Katrina. Compare the actions of the citizens of New York City after the events of 9/11/01 when they helped their fellow citizens walk across the Brooklyn Bridge to safety, providing water, food, shoes - whatever was needed - to the repulsive redneck police thugs guarding the bridges out of New Orleans who prevented American citizens from fleeing the drowning city. I will never be proud of being a southerner again, and if I could endure the cold I'd move to the northeast.

[Xithras]

8. You need to re-read some of the old news pieces.

You know, the ones where the government agents turned away hundreds of people who tried to drive in with their boats to help. The ones where the government told people that they didn't need their food/clothes/supplies donations, and that they should instead just send cash to the Red Cross. The ones discussing how the government declared the entire region to be closed airspace during the height of the disaster, refusing to permit in private helicopter pilots who wanted to help pull people out of the flood areas.

The problem with Katrina wasn't that American's didn't want to help. The problem was that Bush and his FEMA cronies refused to let anyone. We were told to sit down, shut up, watch TV, and let the "professionals" with the government handle it.

[iverglas]

10. I'm aware of what happened

I still find it difficult to believe that people allowed it to happen.

And I can't imagine anyone succeeding in "turning away" the kinds of numbers of vechicles and people that are flooding into the disaster zone in China, under the eye of the domestic and international media.

[femrap]

19. Michael Moore and a group of his friends

went as close as they were allowed to get...they were requesting boxes of supplies and provided an address. I sent 2 big boxes with all kinds of things to them.

I wasn't giving a cent to the Red Cross....I do not trust them one iota. I only send to local groups or people I know that are legit.

[annabanana]

23. Blackwater was there to help "turn them away".. as well as a few

heavily armed foreign nationals as part of various "private security" firms

[Hannah Bell]

28. Easy to understand: guns. Blackwater guns, among others.

The plan was NOT to save NO.

[Barrett808]

11. Indeed.

Funny that the Chinese government seems more accommodating to citizen action than the "leader of the Free World."

[aquart]

12. The Katrina perimeter was guarded, wasn't it?

Our government hassled people entering or leaving NOLA, didn't they? The reaction of the US public was what it should be: people stopped whatever they were doing and went to help. And got stopped at the bridges, the highways, the airports. Do you remember the doctors at the airport, forbidden to treat patients LYING THERE because their paperwork wasn't in order?

In my city, a private citizen rented some trucks and parked them by Lincoln Center. And the city came with clothes, shoes, linens, and underwear. (I heard one lady went to CostCo on the island and bought thousands of dollars worth of new underwear.) And people like me dropped off our bags and stayed for hours, filling the trucks and directing traffic. The trucks filled up so fast, they had to rent more trucks...and then they went to the Katrina-stricken area.

Didn't they do that where you're from?

[iverglas]

16. where I'm from?

Where I'm from, my government contacted your government as soon as there was knowledge of the extent of the disaster, and immediately put our military on standby to fly expertise and supplies and equipment to the disaster zone. Things like the DART thingy, the Cdn military's facility for purifying water for drinking, and search and rescue teams, and the like. We were not invited, at least not until several days later, when a Canadian Forces team went to St Bernard Parish once your federal government allowed them in, and our naval divers started operating in the port, and some British Columbia search and rescue experts went down on a direct state-to-province request.

I emailed my own party's representatives in Parliament and suggested that we disregard US sovereignty and fly in what was needed. Or at least indicate we weren't going to take "no thank you" for an answer.

Being on the other side of an international border and a couple of thousand kilometres away kind of limited what we could do directly.

When the ice storm of 1998 hit eastern Canada

http://archives.cbc.ca/environment/extreme_weather/topics/258/

I didn't have to do anything. Our military and civil protection authorities handled things. Evacuating where necessary, distributing food, transporting people to refuges ... Had there been any indication that this was not happening, I don't imagine I would not have headed out myself. (When Toronto got hit by that snowstorm the next year, I split by car a few hours ahead of it, although I had pneumonia, so as not to be trapped, knowing exactly how well Toronto would be handling snow, and laughed at Torontonians when their mayor called out the military to dig them out.)

When US air space was closed on Sept 11, 2001, I telephoned the line at my local airport to offer to take in a couple of families stranded when we accepted all flights diverted away from the US; it turned out traffic was being diverted away from my airport, and it fell to the people of Newfoundland to do most of that job.

I'm sorry, but the failure of the people of the US to respond to the Katrina victims is still incomprehensible to me.

I do appreciate the reminder earlier in the thread of the underlying reason: racism. It's something I tend to forget.


Meanwhile, something very important does seem to be going on in China, and I'm hoping we hear more about the fallout.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

18. "I'm sorry, but the failure of the people of the US to respond to the Katrina victims "

is still incomprehensible to me"

Our government failed Katrina victims but it is not fair to say the people did. Countless charity groups (established and ad hoc), church groups, individuals, etc went down there to try to help, as best as they could. Many wanted to help but couldnt get there, and I don't know of any church that didn't raise money for the victims. Cut us down all you want. But don't make blanket statements like that.

I want to add - our government failed ALL of us in how they treated the victims of Katrina.

[aquart]

32. Thank you for trying.

When a government decides to kill its own people, very little can be done from the outside.

New Orleans was, and I hope will be again, a unique and precious resource for my countrymen and for the world.

[iverglas]

33. I'll tell ya

I felt pretty stupid saying those things in the email to my party caucus person (we are acquainted). (I felt even stupider when I accidentally forwarded it to a client I was not acquainted with instead of what I meant to send.)

But seriously. When a state does decide to kill its own people, however it does it, sovereignty has been forfeited. And I still think we should have flown in from up here without being invited.

[1monster]

13. There were thousands of volunteers for New Orleans. They were turned away and

their help was refused.

Remember the flotilla of private boats, fishing, pleasure, et als, that went to New Orleans during the flooding when people were trapped on their roof tops? They were not allowed in.

Many others who made their way to Louisiana to help were turned away, as well as disaster relief made available by US citizens and other countries around the world.

FEMA claimed they had it all under control.

[InkAddict]

14. One of my ex-bosses, a MD solo practioner, paid his staff

to mind the "store" for ten days while he was called-up w/his DMAT unit to Biloxi/NOLA. He didn't convoy w/his unit, he flew in a few days after the unit departed. As part of that unit, he is paid as a commissioned officer in the military while called up, as a Lt. Major, if I remember correctly, and I am quite sure he would shoot Americans, if ordered, triage victims according to military criteria as so ordered, immunize the population with whatever (junk) was provided at the sites of biological, natural, or man-made disasters if so ordered. He really got into the whole "law enforcement volunteer" thing and even brought his "piece" into work on range-qualifiying day. As a joke, he "held up" the office via the intercom system one day--not funny!

Though most don't see a hugh problem, dual loyalties IMHO really test the integrity of the individual who swears the Hippocratic Oath!

[AndyTiedye]

15. Some Tried. They Were Turned Back by FEMA

I was wondering was why no one did it when it happened in New Orleans.

[crikkett]

5. As I read the first section I remembered New Orleans

and believe me it's going to be a long time before I forget it.

And for the other respondent to your comment: FEMA turned away private relief. TURNED IT AWAY!!

Policemen stood at the foot of bridges on roads leading out of New Orleans and turned desperate refugees away AT GUNPOINT.



:argh:

[dipsydoodle]

2. Sounds just like New Orleans

:sarcasm:

[iverglas]

4. I got sidetracked while composing ...

and you slipped in, in the interim.

I'm glad I wasn't the first to say it.

[Dogmudgeon]

6. "... the beginnings of a real civil society"

That's a keen set of observations.

China is strongly motivated to take up democracy (the real kind, not the Washington-approved kind) in spite of its corrupt leadership. Nobody forgot Tienanmen Square, and there is widespread sympathy for Tibet as well as the Uighur/Muslim peoples in West China. And they've enjoyed over a decade of liberalization and affluence. That's usually the catalyst for democracy.

But Russia had been broken in spirit for decades. They never had the cultural revolution they needed to take them out of the mind-set of serfdom. They got a brief period of openness after the first revolution in 1905, and another short-lived period during the liberal social reforms of the 1920s -- then came Stalin. When Russia's awakening does come, the Maffiya and Putinists are out. Give Russia a few years of affluence, and it will be unstoppable.

My real fear is for US. The American (and much of the European) "sense of society" has become extremely brittle. A prolonged economic bust triggered by the effects of a post-peak-oil crisis could send us into a long and self-consuming decline. I do not look forward to this with the attitude that a lot of people have expressed that it's well-deserved punishment. Governments may deserve retribution, but People, never!

--p!

[iverglas]

9. yes, as the west devolves

The ongoing rises in the GINI index in all major industrialized western nations -- the growing concentration of income in the upper percentiles of the population, and the diminishing share of income being received by the lower percentiles -- is the clearest indicator of the problem, and the problems it causes.

Income disparity has been shown to be a good indicator of homicide rates, for instance -- the bigger the gap between rich and poor, the higher the homicide rate. It isn't poverty itself that is the big contributing factor in many social problems, it's the relative poverty of the poor. "Deprivation" is the new catchword.

China has obviously been developing a huge gulf of that nature. The very fact that there is a class of people with the kind of wealth and disposable income that enables them to engage in this kind of charitable effort, while others live in virtually medieval poverty in some rural areas, indicates this. The different trajectories of our societies make it difficult to compare or predict, though -- what is happening in China is the kind of rise of a middle class that happened in the west generations before, and preceded the social safety net, rather than coming after it. It's a fascinating thing to watch happening; an alternate version of history, in a way.

Meanwhile ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality

(Those are 2005 figures; recent figures are worse, and worsening.)

(click on the "GINI index" column -- I think 3 times rather than the 4 it says, until Sweden is at the top of the list)

Canada's GINI index, at 32, is way higher than it was a few years ago. As is the United States' at 45 -- the US being the weird outlier among western industrialized nations, as it is in most ways, of course. And China at 46.9. Not exactly the picture of a socialist paradise these days.

I hadn't looked at rankings in a while; the US is now "ahead" of Russia, although it hasn't caught up to South Africa yet. Norway has pulled away from the other low to mid-20s Scandinavian countries, with its new economic policies. The rest of western Europe remains below 30.

So many things about the situation in China are at play in those figures -- the urban/rural divide making it hugely different from the west, for instance. For one thing, the people loading up their SUVs with relief supplies have probably never seen how people outside the cities live. One disaster alone isn't going to build the kind of social solidarity that all societies need, but it's going to be interesting to see what lasting effects these grassroots efforts might have.

[Jemmons]

17. The Gini index could be quite important to a country

It seems to me that the US has just as high productivity as we do here in Scandinavia, but as you have no unions and corrupt banks only a few at the very top gets anything out of your highly efficient industry. In many cases you might be spending almost the same amount of money - keeping "the economy" in high gear - but a big part is borrowed money instead of salary. This makes for a sort of financial slavery where you dont have any choice but to work the low paying jobs for long hours and with almost no vacation. If you wanna see how much your system is screwing you for, then make a comparison between the US and any Scandinavian country with regards to minimum salary (US:5.85$/h DK: 20$/h), healthcare (DK: free for all), Education (DK: free for all, government student loans for all), vacation (DK: 5 weeks/year), prison population (US 701/100k; DK: 64/100k)

http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimumsl%C3%B8n
http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/ib234
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/r234.pdf

[iverglas]

20. heh

Don't be pointing that finger quite so close to me. ;) Canada's GINI index is getting worse, but it's still not as bad as the US's; I'm Canadian, but still disgusted to see how income disparity is growing here, under both the previous Liberal and the present Conservative government.

I had a fascinating article a few years back, out of an Australian university, actually, comparing the approach that Sweden and the US had taken to wages, and characterizing the US as engaged in the race to the bottom, of course. The link I had bookmarked disappeared, but it's not an uncommon analysis. Disputed by right-wing economists, of course.

By making a policy decision to keep wages high, Sweden ensured that it would maintain and create high-skill, high-productivity jobs to justify the high wages. The US did the opposite, and created a vast pool of low-skilled labour.

Interesting that you raise healthcare too, for example. The GINI index doesn't reflect things like how healthcare is not an out-of-pocket expense in Canada or Sweden or all of the other low-GINI countries -- so the lowest percentiles of the US population are not only splitting a shrinking share of income, a share that is lower than in the other western industrialized nations, they have to pay for things like healthcare out of it (if they're not covered by medicare, for the poorest) that people in equivalent circumstances in the other countries don't.


I know vastly not enough about China at all. This little phenomenon should spur me to pay more attention -- evolution of social consciousness in a country with fairly extreme income disparity, an aspect I do find fascinating.

[Jemmons]

21. Ups - sorry. Wasnt really targeting you but rather what you

refer to as the "race to the bottom". We have it here too - rising inequality - but not at the scary level of the US. And I do find it worrying that what is arguably the greatest nation in some ways just slides deeper and deeper into delusion, decadence and decay.

[Hannah Bell]

30. You're just a decade behind, is all.

The plan is the same for all. You can see it happening in Europe.

[Hannah Bell]

31. "Canada's GINI index is getting worse, but it's still not as bad as the US's;"

The trajectory is what matters. It will get worse. Sweden too. Every country in the west is on the same path.

[Regret My New Name]

34. Assuming things are going way down in the West, as said (not edumacated enough to argue either way)

What happens to China when that happens? Or everywhere else for that matter?

[List left]

22. This is a fantastic outcome to a horrendous disaster

This could truly mark a new era in China. In China there has been a fear of helping people in need. Besides many cases of scams based on getting people to help someone, there was one incident that received a great deal of publicity. A woman was pushed in a crowd and was seriously injured (i believe hit by a vehicle) A man helped her taking her to the hospital. She later claimed he must have been the one who pushed her. The court ruled him guilty as there would be no reason for him to help her if he was not.

Hopefully this new narrative will trump the old.

[iverglas]

25. It certainly is

And we all know that "development" in its various forms really does depend on people having disposable income, so it's understandable that this would happen now and not before.

One of the marvels of Stonehenge is that the society that constructed it was apparently sophisticated enough, economically, that it could spare the huge amount of highly skilled (not slave) labour that it took to construct the monument.


The court ruled him guilty as there would be no reason for him to help her if he was not.

Yikes. That would be pretty hard to reproduce in future, one hopes. It's trendy to be public-spirited now!

[ckramer]

24. Maybe this is the way the angry chinese god told them

---> don't run the western game called Olympics.

Stick with Taichi?

[HamdenRice]

26. Sorry, but the author of that article is hopelessly ignorant about Chinese society

Sorry, but to write, about "the beginnings of a real civil society ..." beginning with this earthquake response is bizarre to the point of sounding insane. I guess he just hasn't studied Chinese society very well, or is using a very narrow definition of civil society.

China has had a form of what most western social scientists would call "civil society" for hundreds if not thousands of years. China was extremely well organized in the Imperial period, through the years of anarchy, then the revolution and through today.

Civil society was nearly destroyed during the worst years of the Maoist period, but has been very robust. In fact, from Imperial times through today, the state's biggest fear has been civil society being out of control of state power.

There have been various religious temples, exercise societies (like Falon Gong, but the overwhelming majority are non considered illegal), business associations, societies to pay for the education of "scholars" to take civil service examinations, student groups, networks of herbal practitioners, peasant associations, tongs, and on and on.

They are somewhat different from western civil society organizations in two ways, though: they have been more likely to be closely tied to extended family connections, and they have been coopted into the state at certain times, most notably during the Maoist years.

I think that the journalist is confusing the fact that many organizations were coopted during the height of the communist era with the idea that they never existed.

[iverglas]

29. an interesting perspective

Too much to consider or address briefly, and I've already admitted being inadequately informed myself. ;)

On a couple of points ...

I'd see Falun Gong as evidence of weaknesses in civil society, myself. Just as the child-abusing religious cults in North America are. I didn't mean to say that western civil society was the peak of perfection, believe me. Individuals are exploited and abused by non-state but public organizations (i.e. associations open to the public, to which individuals belong by choice rather than by definition) that are able to exploit and abuse them, in part because of the absence of non-exploitive, non-abusive alteratives to fill the need many people feel for such association, and in part because of the absence of organizations to assist victims of such exploitation and abuse. Falun Gong exploits those vacuums just as child-abusing megalomaniac cult leaders in North America do.

I guess some defining of terms could be useful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_society

There are myriad definitions of civil society. The London School of Economics Centre for Civil Society working definition is illustrative:

Civil society refers to the arena of uncoerced collective action around shared interests, purposes and values. In theory, its institutional forms are distinct from those of the state, family and market, though in practice, the boundaries between state, civil society, family and market are often complex, blurred and negotiated. Civil society commonly embraces a diversity of spaces, actors and institutional forms, varying in their degree of formality, autonomy and power. Civil societies are often populated by organizations such as registered charities, development non-governmental organizations, community groups, women's organizations, faith-based organizations, professional associations, trade unions, self-help groups, social movements, business associations, coalitions and advocacy groups.

This bit might express the qualms of my own I referred to:

On the other hand, others see globalization as a social phenomenon bringing classical liberal values, which inevitably lead to a larger role for civil society at the expense of politically derived state institutions.

They are somewhat different from western civil society organizations in two ways, though: they have been more likely to be closely tied to extended family connections and they have been coopted into the state at certain times, most notably during the Maoist years.

I do think that's what everyone is talking about -- the form of association you cite is essentially private and definitional rather than public and voluntary; while the concept of "civil society" I at least have in mind involves organization that is both public/voluntary and non-state.

[iverglas]

27. some other interesting news and commentary about the development

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1578093/

May 19, 2008 (Xinhua via COMTEX)

... Enterprises and celebrities have long been criticized by the virtual community in China, which has played an increasingly important role in public opinion, for being unwilling to take on philanthropic activities.

... Xiao Mingchao, another netizen who had valued highly Formosa's donation in his blog, said that Chinese companies were swift in response to the May-12 earthquake.

... Chengduese, a blogger based in Chengdu, provincial capital of Sichuan about 160 km south of the epicenter Wenchuan, said that companies' generosity in donation this time indicated a favorable change in the environment of China's charity undertakings.

... In a comment posted on www.tianya.cn, one of the country's leading online communities, a netizen nicknamed "howl wolf" said that donating cash or goods should be seen as a humanitarian act no matter how much donors give and why they give.

... In a controversial blog entitled "the richer, the more inhumane", Zhou Bin, a Guangzhou-based media man, named and blasted several multinationals and big Chinese companies, which he said had pocketed huge profits in the mainland over the years but were mean in their donation for quake relief this time.

And the fraud that creates the distrust referred to earlier in the thread:

http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUSPEK299150

People across China have opened their wallets to give earthquake aid -- and fraudsters have swung into action to capitalise on the burst of generosity.

Police issued a warning after a flurry of text messages hit mobile phones, soliciting disaster assistance in emotional appeals, only asking that funds be deposited in private accounts.

"My family was in the earthquake. Dad and mum urgently need money. Send whatever money you can. Deposit it in our friend's account," read one text in the southern province of Guangdong proven to be fake by local reporters.

Chinese web chat rooms, which have been full of sympathy and grief for the quake's victims, exploded in fury.

... Domestic donations in both cash and goods to the quake-stricken areas reached 1.3 billion yuan ($186 million) by Thursday, the Ministry of Civil Affairs announced.

[Javaman]

35. Oh does this mean they will stop shooting monks in Tibet?

oh sorry, that was last months news.

:eyes:

[ohio2007]

36. Colors Seen 30 Minutes Before China Quake (cell phone video)

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3e5_1211368435


..but its 450 miles NE of the epicenter ??? ...... 1st guess;
What factories are nearby spewing what type of pollutants into the sky?

2nd guess?

Hello Dali's earthquake machine ;)

Colors Seen 30 Minutes Before China Quake - Post Media Reply
Bizarre colorful (luminous/glowing) cloud phenomenon in the sky was observed about 30 mins before the May 12, 2008 Sichuan earthquake took place. This was recorded in Tianshui, Gansu province 450km northeast of epicenter, by someone using a cell phone.

Website address for map locations: