The tragedy in China...

[rumpel]

I just wanted to share an e-mail my friend received yesterday, as the region is still shaking daily with earthquakes measuring around M 5...
While I was waiting for approval to post the e-mail here through my friend, I noticed this post in LBN.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3314869

While I am utterly upset about the Chinese Government about Tibet and the contaminated merchandise, let me just be hopeful, that there too, changes will come from the bottom up.

Hi, Jane:

Thanks for the hard work you must be doing. I just want share the following
thoughts with you.

In my opinion, this week's outburst of altruism in China comes from a
backfire of constant social indoctrinating of materialism over the past decade.
Forgotten until a week ago by the Chinese people, humans have a need to give and
share. (Yes, the Chinese do share and give, a lot more perhaps, but only
among friends and relatives and hardly strangers). People had been willingly
committing suicide in this egotistic materialism until, again, a week ago when they
were suddenly shaken awake by the Earthquake. Yes, people have more money today. But having money never translates into wanting to give the money away. There has to be something more to that.

In addition to the above mentioned need to give and help, this nation-wide
movement of altruism is also a powerful response of the Chinese
people to their government for leveling with them and allowing them such
unprecedented, extensive, and direct news coverage. A major event like this would only have been seen as a national disgrace, as in the case of the 1976 Tangshan Earthquake. But not this time. And the Chinese people responded to that wholeheartedly. If there were a message from the
people to the government today, it would be: Thank you for covering, but not covering up, at
least this time.

I was in a cab yesterday. And the cab driver, a woman in her late 30s, kept
on telling me how she had just donated money through her work unit and how
she was shocked that she would want to give money to "strangers" so badly.
Obviously, for her, the idea of "giving" has so far in her life been among
friends and family only. She also became tearful talking about how the "TV
people" did such a great job. "I have never seen anything like this on our
TV," she said. When I got off the cab, I told her that I did not have a work
unit myself and did not know where to donate my money. So, I gave her a few
hundred yuan and asked her to help me donate through her company. The woman
CRIED as a another stranger would entrust her with money to help the
victims. She kept on promising me as I walked away from her cab that she
would match my cab fare with my donation money.

Many people say the Chinese government has tried too hard to achieve
too much through the upcoming Olympics. And it backfired on the
government in many ways. I share that opinion myself. However, this
week's spontaneous
altruism, ironically also a backfire in its own way, has done exactly what the Chinese government
has wanted to do through the Olympics: to show the world today's China.

So, in the most poignant way, the dead has awaken the living. Let's
all pray that my country keeps going in that direction, forever.


> All the Best,
>
> Daxing

[aquart]

1. They're surprising themselves, but not me.

We can't control earthquakes or tsunamis, only how we react to them. And this is what they will take away from this horror: not what happened, but what they did when it happened. That's the knowledge that makes us strong.

[Romulox]

2. The Chinese are a wonderful people

and I have hope, that through the present tragedy, we may see glimpses of what Chinese society might become...