New Figures

I've been thinking whether I should post about all the bad news I read from China after all or not. But this one I will share with you.

In Zhuhai, at the town of Baijiao (Guandong province,) a truck driver allegedly had a row with the police over traffic violations and swore revenge. This is not for certain. But what is for certain is that the truck driver ran intentionally in to a group of highschool students leaving school, killing 4 students, a parent and injured 20 others, some severely. Three are still critical or in a coma.

I haven't reported here of the recent landslides, with bigger numbers attached to them. But the volume of bad news isn't going down at all. I'm actually starting to understand the Chinese Government's idea of the freedom of press. If the press, instead of neutrally reporting all news flocks like a pack of vulture to the scene only if there is a carcass involved shouldn't someone push them away? I hope the news actually give the same courtesy as other countries would have. 

When a tragedy occurs in a Western country it is reported and then followed up by articles of the grief work the involved. It's closure and I can imagine it worth a lot for the people reading of their life in the news. But no so much in foreign news about China. Unless it's a total disaster, the news reports a figure and swoops after the next corpse. 

I've in the past critqued the Chinese news about their attitudes. But in a case like this, it's the Chinese news who follow up and bring up angles to the news, other than a casualty figure. 

Me reading news to you is getting old, I believe, but it's partly me trying to form a reasonable view for myself, between the mistruths and slanted opinionated news. 

See for yourself if you think this is reasonable and sufficient coverage of the issue. This is an updated article, but they only bothered to update it since the numbers grew.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081106/wl_asia_afp/chinaaccidentschool