20,000 and counting...

I totally agree with the parents who question the officials' conduct in house building. In this earthquake, some building fell and some did not. It must mean some are well-built and some are poorly built. Very sadly, a lot of collapsed buildings are newly built public buildings such as schools. Cutting corner is a prevalent conduct among Chinese house builders. Most time it is done by bribing the government inspectors.

Woefully, those officials are more likely to be promoted for their after-quake relief effort than prosecuted for their pre-quake corruption.

TIC: This is China. Democracy might be a distant thing. But we could at least have some platform where the people could inquire the officials for their conduct.

If you ask me, quoting those grieving parents lashing out against the government was a shameless tactic designed only to generate attention by injecting politics into a tragedy. Of course those people are angry and upset and are going to denounce anything and everyone present, up to and including god if they even believe in one, but that doesn't exactly make it cutting social commentary.

We get it; China is not a first world country with a first world country's infrastructure for dealing with disasters. Making the focus of the story the fact that some people who just lost their children are blaming the government (among other things) seems a little irresponsible and sensationalist.

惨像已使我目不忍睹，流言尤使我耳不忍闻！
Despising who have Other attempt !

I have to take back some of my commend in the first post. Besides cutting-corners, the reason why most schools collapsed also includes that the classrooms have much larger span than ordinary apartments, thus making them much more vulnerable to the earthquakes. Those towns are also too poor to afford expensive school buildings since most of them are still under sponsorship of "Hope Project".

However, I have not heard any report of the collapse of government buildings and any casualty of the local government officials.

It is not the time to make blames. We should focus on the rescue. However, I do wish we could hang those corrupted officials who are responsible for poor public buildings later on. I do also remember some official even dared to embezzle the relief money during the giant flood in 1998.

To vespasianvs

They'll be charged. There is no way this can go easily out of people's memory, but now Iet's focus on the aftermath. For a disaster like this, it is not important that who are the people suffering and who are the people trying to help. I do believe those resecue workers are not trying to show anything to you, they are trying to help the victims.

No matter how much you and I dislike the CCP government. They are indeed generally not bad at traditional disasters relief, such as floods, land slide, and also earthqukes, though they did not cooperate with the west well in the past.

Before we blame anybody for anything, we must first realize that wood and bamboo structures of the good old days are very earthquake proof. May be that's why the aboriginals in Sichuan (the Yi, the Xuang, etc.) all build with wood and bamboo, and not brick and stone, and later concrete. We may be seeing the newer brick/stone/concrete buildings failing while the old wood/bamboo ones remain standing.

Earth movement during an earth quake is very complicated. It is not uniform over an area. And some buildings just have flexibility in one direction, and not another. Construction quality have a lot to do with whether a building stand or not, but not always the case. In any natural disaster, you can always see an odd building remain standing while the rest were in ruins.

I am so amazed at how quickly Chinese government officials came out and declared that the Three Gorges Dam was OK. I would expect a careful and thorough inspection of that huge structure would take at least days, if no months, to complete. And I would expect a study into the building quality (and building standards, inspection, permitting, etc.) will start in the future, and will come out with some recommendations in months ahead.

I agree that the priority now should be on rescue and relief efforts. If logistically possible, more troops should be used. China has the largest standing army in the world and faces no outside military threat.

Unfortunately sometines it takes a tragedy like this to bring out the shortcomings of government to add a man-made component to a natural disaster.

Also, you can understand the agonies felt by parents of families when their only children , because of the government policy, are taken away from them. Yet government officials and the rich can have multiple wives and offsprings

I hate Corrupt official ,but I still Consider the Majority of CPM are Being competent for the post ,就像Premier wen I am his fans now
Yesterday ,I am JAY's fans

To vespasianvs

As far as I know, there are also many government buildings collapsed in the quake, since in some towns, 60-80% of buildings fell. Although no exact statistics, I can imagine that the victims include local government officials.

It is not helpful to exaggarate the negetive factors from politics in this natural disaster, instead the government plays a very important role in rescueing work, and without them, it is for sure more people would die.

"I totally agree with the parents who question the officials' conduct in house building. In this earthquake, some building fell and some did not. It must mean some are well-built and some are poorly built. Very sadly, a lot of collapsed buildings are newly built public buildings such as schools. Cutting corner is a prevalent conduct among Chinese house builders. Most time it is done by bribing the government inspectors."

Right on. After the dust settles, the parents should pressure the government to investigate and punish the wrongdoers if any.

My fellow Chinese are only large in number and quite wimpy. I was outraged by a report that a retired construction CCP boss built $50 millions mansion after getting rid of 800 residents. How can his mansion be allowed standing in peace? Some mob justice is needed.

I don't know much about building construction and earth quake. But here is a picture of Wen Chuan city after the quake: http://photocdn.sohu.com/20080514/Img256851536.jpg

Look at the striking contrast between the school rubble and its surrounding buildings. I understand that a building might be vulnerable to some particular ground movements, but how can you explain that ALL of the buildings surrounding this school are standing???

@Hautamaki

It is a eyewitness report, not a commentary. 2000 thousands kids are under the rubbles of two completely collapsed schools. A lots of parents lost their only children and whatever they said and felt are newsworthy.

It's no school rubble..., just people taking refuge in the open space of a track field.

I guess it could be interpreted either way.

@1World

If the picture provided by you is real, I am so glad to see there are still so many buildings are still keeping standing.

Zhihua, I stand corrected. The picture is too small to tell, but another source does say those are refugee camps. Guess I did not expect to see so many standing buildings at the epicenter. It's a pleasant surprise for sure!

You can see other Wen Chuan pictures with comments from here:
http://news.creaders.net/photo/newsViewer.php?nid=343840&id=799705&aid=14

If the picture or your explanation is proved false, then that is really a shame, but I won't be surprised that somebody likes this type of trick, think about how CNN did a few weeks ago.

"It is not the time to make blames. We should focus on the rescue. However, I do wish we could hang those corrupted officials who are responsible for poor public buildings later on. I do also remember some official even dared to embezzle the relief money during the giant flood in 1998."

Hi, is Red Cross in China corrupted too? Does anyone know the track record of it?

My busband donated $300 and thought he was helping(he is a RQ). Even American Red Cross had some scandals. $300 might just be worth three bottles of waters after most of it goes to some filthy pockets. That was how I convinced him that difference between $300 and $500 might be two bottles of water.

@hypocrite
Thank you! $300 goes a very long ways in China.

The last time I checked, Red Cross is one of the best aid organizations. That's why Red Cross Society of China is one of the primary aid groups Xinhua News Agency mentions.

Can you please head over here and do this simple poll? Also, would be nice if you leave some comments as to why you decided to donate.

"Poll: Amount I have donated to the China earthquake and why"

http://www.thechinesecentury.org/2008/05/poll-amount-i-have-donated-to-china.html

We are trying to generate some "snowball" effect on this donation effort on the web.

Now the rescuring is the most important thing

1World I think you jumped to conclusion too fast with you statement per post 5-14 10:50 a.m. somehow implying only the school was built shoddily and collapsed, while the rest aren't. This was quickly corrected by Zhihua which you also acknowledged. To be honest, that's clearly not the case even if you take a cursory glance only at the picture. You can clearly see a track stadium, and your so called rubbles (looked like tents to me) were very orderly laid out with a clear straight line down the middle. Very Likely the adjoining building to the North with the reddish courtyard is the school, and there were no visble signs of collapse. Please do not take this as a hostile criticism, just that there are quite a few rush-to-judgement conclusions in these blogs/posts and finger-pointing. Unfounded rumours can get started without basis. Just a reminder to exercise caution before accusations in the heat of the moment. The tragedy is still unfolding. I think the soul-searching part of the "whys" should be left a little later. Let's concentrate on helping out where we can - such as publicizing the plight of the victims, and keeping our solidarity. I don't know if there is a way we send convey condolences on-line to the victims. Does anyone know?