You know,when you take pride in having thousands of years of history and tradition, you should also look at the baggage you are carrying. And in case of China how you are carrying it.
For growing so fast, China has a price to pay. It's environmental and humanitarian in nature, and it's extracted in small payments all over. The fact is that if you are small in China, you are next to nothing. The farmer on the field with his ass up in the air has his rights, as long as those rights don't intervene with progress or someone more rich. And seeing how the factories sprout up there are a lot of guys with more money.
Now the Chinese government has never bought land from me, so I can't speak for experience, but I've heard that the land is bought for a pittance or simply mandated. And I've seen farmers working on their fields directly in front of an elevated road construction - it's one of those situations where you can clearly see what's going to happen next.
It's not a complete negative - China needs the infrastructure, factories and business. And they do try to use unutilized land wherever they can. It's just that when you have so many people you cannot cater to every one. Especially not to the one not building a road to an industrial area.
The pictures below are taken from our company's warehouse window. You can see a farmer proudly lifting his arse up like they have done for a long, long time. Click on the pictures to view them bigger, you can see a large facility in the background of the second shot, with a 4-lane road being built behind the river. It's a small example, but don't think it's an isolated incident - just this time to road is close to, not on, the field.
I would like to make an overreaching point in the vein of "Think of the little guy in China" with this, but it would likely miss the mark in many places. I'll just say Taizhou, like other places in China, is one of the areas where you can see simple rice paddies next to a million dollar factory.
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Ewww factor --> the water from the river goes to the rice paddy. The water in the river has all the good and healthy things in it: heavy metals, industrial waste, chemicals, all the crap that people decide to throw in it and also human waste, definately. Plus, as said, there is a 4-lane highway coming next to the river. I'd say the rice might have a yummy side-taste. But thats just me.
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I partly admire the way China doesn't let humanity stand on the way of development. In western point of view this is very wrong in all possible ways, but it is not uncommon to see war veterans lose their childhood apartments to highways and shopping malls in Finland/Europe either.
ReplyDeleteThese kind of actions are good contrast to the oversensitiveness, acceptance and equality of the current European society. This "compassion" actually slowly eats the bread also from those who have the power for it. I don't fully support either total misantrophy, or total compassion, but there should be a healthy balance between the two - just like between life and death. Nobody worships death, but boy people do worship life, especially the eternal one. To me this is sick, apathy and life in denial.
Might makes right.