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Almost 80 years after it was written, Lu Xun’s work, “In Memory of Miss Liu Hezhen” still stands as an important symbol of the ongoing struggle between the Chinese people and their rulers.
HONG
KONG, Dec. 16 -- At first glance, it looked like a spirited online
discussion about an essay written nearly 80 years ago by modern China's
greatest author. But then again, the exchange on a popular Chinese
bulletin board site seemed a bit emotional, given the subject.
"In
Memory of Ms. Liu Hezhen," which Lu Xun wrote in 1926 after warlord
forces opened fire on protesters in Beijing and killed one of his
students, is a classic of Chinese literature. But why did thousands of
people read or post notes in an online forum devoted to the essay last
week?
A
close look suggests an answer that China's governing Communist Party
might find disturbing: They were using Lu's essay about the 1926
massacre as a pretext to discuss a more current and politically
sensitive event -- the Dec. 6 police shooting of rural protesters in
the southern town of Dongzhou in Guangdong province.
In
the 10 days since the shooting, which witnesses said resulted in the
deaths of as many as 20 farmers protesting land seizures, the Chinese
government has tried to maintain a blackout on the news, barring almost
all newspapers and broadcasters from reporting it and ordering major
Internet sites to censor any mention of it. Most Chinese still know
nothing of the incident.
[...]
At
Kdnet, a large bulletin board site based in Hainan province, users
flooded forums with more than 30,000 messages of protest and sorrow in
the days after the shooting. The site deleted almost all of the
messages Sunday night, but a top editor felt compelled to post a note
pleading for forgiveness.
[...]
Even
after the purge of messages on Kdnet, people continued expressing their
views on the site by disguising their comments. More than 140 notes and
poems were posted in one forum on Lu Xun's essay, for example, almost
all of them without any explicit reference to the shooting in Dongzhou,
a coastal town about 125 miles northeast of Hong Kong. ( full article)
The
country of Sri Lanka had the second-highest death toll of all the
countries affected by the 2004 South Asia Tsunami. According to
Wikipedia, in Sri Lanka alone the tsunami killed an estimated 38,195
people and displaced approximately 573,000 people. It is
important to note that due to the scale and scope of the disaster,
casualty figures still vary from source to source.
Shortly after last year's tsunami, I made contact with my Internet
friend Sameera in Sri Lanka to see how he had fared. At that
time, he shared with me that he was okay and that he had not lost any
of his family, but he added that many people throughout the area were
anxiously awaiting word from their family and friends. Over the
days and weeks that followed, Sameera shared articles with me from
regional news sources including sites like Tamilnet.com.
Sameera’s correspondence and the selections from local news agencies
helped me to develop a better understanding of the situation in Sri
Lanka. I recently asked Sameera to share his thoughts on how
things stand in Sri Lanka one year after the tsunami.
As many of us likely recall, the Bush administration proffered an
embarrassingly low $15 million in aid immediately following the
tsunami. The US eventually boosted its aid to more respectable
levels and many, many other countries contributed to the relief efforts
over the course of the moths that followed. Organizations like Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières
(MSF) also provided much-needed services throughout the region,
including Sri Lanka. However, some recent news reports speculate that
as little as 25% of tsunami aid has been utilized, with much of the
remaining aid caught up in planning for projects or bureaucratic red
tape. Even some relief organizations seem to have considerable
difficulty in determining how to proceed with aid disbursement.
For example, ABC News (US) recently reported that the American Red
Cross has only released a total of $180 million in tsunami aid out of
the $560 million which they collected.
Sameera notes that some humanitarian organizations have done good work
in selected areas, but this is generally on a very small scale when
compared to the massive need for medical treatment shelter and other
types of aid. He suggests that some kind of centralized and coordinated
effort would have dramatically improved the delivery of vital services
to affected areas. He also notes that the absence of a strong
presence by the government likely contributed to the ability of certain
groups to take advantage of the residents who were already reeling from
the disaster. Most notably, there has been an increase in the
exploitation of orphaned children in affected areas.
Government bureaucracy and political intrigue have eliminated the
possibility of a quick recovery for the hundreds of thousands of Sri
Lankans in affected areas. Sameera writes that it is clear that
there is no comprehensive government plan in place for reconstruction
and that most recent efforts focus on token development projects that
are intended to curb mass anger. He adds that the two ruling
parties generally avoid severe criticism of one another when it comes
to tsunami recovery efforts, as if to avoid calling attention to their
shared deficiencies on the matter.
The imminent threat of a renewed violent conflict looms
as well. According to Sameera, the underlying political tensions
between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) are reaching a critical point. On June 24, 2005, both
sides agreed upon the Post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure
(P-TOMS), but the political issues that existed prior to the tsunami
have persisted and open fighting could resume between both sides in the
near future. Recent news reports from the area indicate that the
government is now blaming the LTTE for a series of attacks on police
and that in the midst of this turmoil, cease fire agreements are
crumbling.
The relief campaign that was spearheaded by former US Presidents
Clinton and Bush continues to trumpet the purported progress brought
about by American aid and initiatives. But some of the figures
cited by western organizations are more than a bit problematic when
compared to dispatches from local organizations and eyewitnesses.
During his recent visit to Sri Lanka, Bill Clinton indicated “Ninety
percent of children are back in school, epidemics have been prevented
and transitional shelter has been provided to almost all internally
displaced people.” However, reports from the government of Sri
Lanka place the number of reconstructed at somewhere between 868 and
3,200—and remember that over half a million people were displaced.
This is obviously more than a simple
discrepancy. Other reports indicate that only a small
fraction of schools have been rebuilt since the disaster.
Sameera sums up the frustration felt by many: “Nearly a year
after Tsunami one doesn't require anything more than a tour in those
affected areas to see the actual status of the work. It is acceptable
that such a construction takes time, but to build up a plan and
initiate work, I think 12 months is more than enough. But the majority
of victims either live in those temporary camps or have found their own
solutions. Nothing to speak about health and education in those areas.”
It is true that some have benefitted through relief efforts and the aid
of humanitarian organizations, but a variety of factors have resulted
in the protreacted needless suffering of many in Sri Lanka, Much
work remains to be done in Sri Lanka, but it is unclear who will lead
the way in developing a cohesive and aggressive recovery plan.
The
South Asia Tsunami of 2004 killed an estimated 194,000 people and
displaced approximately 1.5 million people throughout the region.
Over 51,000 people are still listed as missing. Few disasters in
human history have been so far-reaching and so devastating.
Through
my work on a variety of Internet projects, I have been fortunate to
correspond regularly with individuals from all around the world,
including parts of South Asia. At the time of the tsunami, I had
been corresponding with several people in India and Sri Lanka and I
thought of them as I watched the first news reports from the
region. Much to my relief, I was able to make contact via e-mail
with all my friends and acquaintances in South Asia shortly after the
tsunami. Over the course of the days and weeks that followed, each of
these individuals generously shared their own candid opinions regarding
the disaster and its aftermath. Their collective insight
contributed to my understanding of the tragedy itself as well as the
underlying social and political issues throughout the region.
With
the one-year anniversary of the tsunami approaching, I have again asked
my friends from India and Sri Lanka to share their thoughts regarding
the impact of the tsunami on the people of South Asia. Over the
course of the next few weeks, I will share their reminiscences and
reflections in a series of articles on our weblog.Further Reading: 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake (Wikipedia article) The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog
