Parents' Grief Turns to Fury in China

The next day, the parents directed their ire at Jiang Guohua, the party boss of Mianzhu. When his answers proved unsatisfying, they began their march to Chengdu. Jiang dropped to the ground several times and begged them to stop...Three hours later, the police tried to intervene. During the ensuing struggle, the broken glass from the pictures of dead children left several parents bleeding... A few parents said they had been approached by teachers and told they would be well compensated for their loss - about $4,500 per child - if they would stop their increasingly vociferous public campaign.
"We're not asking the government for money," he said. "We just want them to tell us why they died."

www.iht.com...

Protests in China over alleged shoddy construction of schools. The Education Ministry is promising to "severely punish" those responsible for cutting corners during construction. I would expect the government to rightly be focused on meeting the needs of the survivors as opposed to investigating, so we'll see how this plays out.

I read the news of the earthquake everyday. I read about the grief over the loss of their children. A feeling of desperation overwhelmed me, I was all welled up with emotions. Many people all over the world are sharing the feelings of desperate parents, we can't help you much but we definitely shed tears and could imagine your pain. I cry as I follow the news of what is going on in China.I can feel your sorrows, I don't have to be in your position but I have two children and I can imagine how it is like to loose your beloved child.

I pray that peace will be with you and time will ease your pain. May all of you out there, find solace and strength. Your children are safe and in good hands up there with the Lord. Take care.

Sal
Ca., U.S.

i saw some angry scenes on tv also.bereft parents demanding a thorough investigation of those collapsed school buildings,i believe there must be some wrongdoings behind those crappy school buildings and people who are responsible for this must be brought to book.i m a little big radical on this issue,although i agree things should be done by the law.for those culprits,a special law should be made and capital punishment should be applied to them.

I suspect this will happen after some sense of normalcy is returned to. I'm just not sure this is the time to start the head hunting.
In what part of China do you reside? Hope all is peaceful there.



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I'm somewhat disappointed in the response to the thread. I suspect if I had called it something more inflammatory like "China Values Kids at $4500" I'd have had a better turn out.

similar thread is in another section. I will just repost one of my post from there.

One of my hope is, is that the school children killed in this disaster will not die in vain, and that the Central government could take this rare opportunity (which I wished never occured) as a way to reform the local governmental structures at the country-side. Strictly enforcing building codes (which apparently does exist in China, but loosely taken seriously) could be a way to sweep out corrupted officials (and constructors/developers etc). Similar like how the Shanghai clique was being check-mate, because of the 2003 SARS. For the longer-term this might be a positive light and the reforming of the whole governmental body might step into a new phase.

Will the parents be allowed to have another child?

I hear in China they can only have one kid.

Originally posted by sarcastic

Will the parents be allowed to have another child?

I hear in China they can only have one kid.

Yes for sure, and I heard exemption will be given to the victims.

For your information, the epicenter happened at an autonomous region, with a lot of minorities (Tibetans mainly). They are already exempted from the one-child policy. Peasants at rural areas, like in most of the affected disaster area, are appliable for special rules and already allowed to have a second baby if the first one is a girl.

thank you for the concern,i live in beijing,my hometown,the earthquake although was massive,it only affected a small mountainous aera in southwestern part of china.

Good to know. I thought maybe you were from an area closer like Hunan, or near our other friend from the Shenzhen-Hong Kong area.

Originally posted by sarcastic

Will the parents be allowed to have another child?

I hear in China they can only have one kid.

Dang this whole situation must be tough on those parent who lost an only child. It must suck even more for the parents that are too old to have another child. I wonder if there won't be questions about the whole "one child" policy after this mess.