[sparkscoffee] Re: A clear case where socilisim is better then captalism
- From: sblumen123@xxxxxxx
- To: sparkscoffee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 6 Jun 2013 14:05:56 -0400 (EDT)
RG
This is a repeat I already responded to, did you get it? I will repeat my
response with a bit add on.
I don't believe people were punished for openly complaining on this
dreadful event because the goverment itself publicized it including
the high numbers. This reminds me of the various times healthy
animals were killed, good fresh milk spilled, good grains burned
to bring up prices in captilist countries.
Comrade B
-----Original Message-----
From: R George <xgeorge@xxxxxxx>
To: sparkscoffee <sparkscoffee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thu, Jun 6, 2013 4:29 am
Subject: [sparkscoffee] Re: A clear case where socilisim is better then
captalism
Stan,
I know you are aware of the difference between garbage dumps which all cities
have and
16,000 diseased dead pigs polluting Shanghai's water supply. To make things
worse if anyone attempted
to draw attention to this environmental disaster they were interrogated and
detained by the police and
forced to hand over their cell phone and all other communication devices.
Ask yourself, what would you be doing if you lived in Shanghai. Would you be
speaking out against the
government's corruption as you do here in the USA or turn a blind eye?
RG
On 6/5/2013 5:21 PM, sblumen123@xxxxxxx wrote:
Confirming my view of the sheeple carrying a giant magnifying glass looking
for dirt. Would you invite tourists to view our city's garbage dumps?
Comrade B
-----Original Message-----
From: R George <xgeorge@xxxxxxx>
To: sparkscoffee <sparkscoffee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wed, Jun 5, 2013 4:10 pm
Subject: [sparkscoffee] Re: A clear case where socilisim is better then
captalism
Stan,
I understand why China is a popular tourist destination, where else can you
see 16,000 diseased dead pigs float down the river to the largest city in
China?***
RG
On 6/5/2013 2:40 PM, sblumen123@xxxxxxx wrote:
China is also a populer tourist destination
and not ashamed of it's exploited workers who have switched from
bycycles to cars, bullet trains, museums, theatres, modern hospitals,
circuses,olympics, flowery gardens and whatever makes a pleasant
society.
***Rivers of blood: the dead pigs rotting in China's water supply
Shanghai's drinking water is under threat after 16,000 diseased
pig carcasses are found in tributaries of the Huangpu river
Share
The Guardian, Friday 29 March 2013 12.09 EDT
A worker hauls up dead pigs found floating in the Huangpu river flowing into
Shanghai. Photograph: AP
Standing on the quay, Mrs Wu jokes that there are more pigs than fish in
Jiapingtang river. But she isn't smiling. The 48-year-old fisherwoman, who
lives in Xinfeng, a sleepy country village, recalls splashing about in the
river as a child on sticky summer days. Today it is inky black, covered in a
slick of lime green algae, and it smells like a blocked drain. "Look at the
water, who would dare to jump in?" says Wu. At her feet a dead piglet bobs on
the river's surface, bouncing against the shore.
This area of Zhejiang province, 60 miles from Shanghai, has become the subject
of public and media scrutiny after more than 16,000 dead pigs were found in
tributaries of the city's river, the Huangpu, a source of tapwater. As clean-up
efforts wind down, mystery surrounds the cause of the pigs' demise and their
appearance in the river.
As public concerns about water safety grow, what has emerged is a picture of a
rural region marred by catastrophic environmental damage, inherent malpractice
and a black market meat trade.
The first pigs were spotted on 7 March and were soon traced to Jiaxing through
tags in their ears. Early tests show they carry porcine circovirus, a common
disease among hogs not known to be infectious to humans. Shanghai's municipal
water department maintains that the water meets the national standard, but
hasn't said much more.
Official opacity has only embittered a public who are increasingly vocal about
environmental gripes. "A sluggish response, a lack of disclosure of official
data and muddled information has done nothing to quell our doubts," says Weibo
(a microblog) user diamondyangxiaowu. "In this environmental crisis China's
rivers are facing, there's no time to dally."
For Mrs Wu and her community it may be too late. Over the last decade she has
witnessed the near collapse of her livelihood as pig farming in this region has
prospered. Her house, a one-story breezeblock box, sits next to Jiapingtang
river. Ten wooden flat-bottomed boats with makeshift roofs of plastic and
tarpaulin are tethered to the quay. It is on these boats that Wu and her fellow
villagers head out on to Jiaxing's network of waterways, though these days they
are more likely to do clear-up work for local authorities than fish. A
fisherman doing cleaning work from 7am-5pm seven days a week can earn up to
10,000 yuan (£1,000) a year, with an extra 150 yuan (£10.50) a day for
carcasses.
"A decade ago this village was prosperous and we lived a comfortable life,"
says Wu. She is dressed in a leopard-print padded jacket and black wellington
boots – her work gear. "We paid for our houses by ourselves, sent our children
to good schools and supported the elderly. Now things are a mess."
The pig industry blossomed in Jiaxing in the 1980s. Last year China produced
and consumed half the world's pork, about 50m tonnes. One village, Zhulin,
which is at the centre of the scandal, earned the nickname "to Hong Kong" for
its steady supply of meat to the territory. Most families in Zhulin keep pigs;
the village's ample fields, which in March are covered in yellow rapeseed
flowers, yield hundreds of squat concrete barns holding dozens of squealing
hogs.
This upsurge is one explanation for the carcasses, though officials are
reluctant to say so. "We have seven dead pig processing plants. Each is 100
cubic metres large and can gather thousands of dead pigs," says Chen Yuanhua,
party secretary for Zhulin. According to a 2011 report by Zhejiang province's
environmental protection bureau, 7.7m pigs are raised in Jiaxing. With a
mortality rate of 2-4%, up to 300,000 carcasses need to be disposed of each
year. "We have some difficulties with the growing number of pig farms and a
lack of funding and land to build more plants," Chen says. He concedes that
some farmers throw dead pigs into the rivers "for convenience".
There could be another, murkier reason behind the pig manifestation. On 23
March, state-run China Central Television (CCTV) exposed how illegally
processed pigs have been making their way into markets for years. While farmers
are required by law to send animals that die of disease or natural causes to
processing pits, black market dealers intercept the chain, butchering the hogs
to sell as pork. Last November a Jiaxing court sentenced three such butchers to
life in prison. The offenders had processed 77,000 carcasses, making almost 9m
yuan (£1m) profit.
Because of the crackdown, black market traders have stopped buying the dead
stock and farmers have resorted to dumping. Pan Huimin, a Zhulin resident who
is in custody on suspicion of dealing in dead pigs told CCTV there was "a 100%"
correlation between his arrest and the dead pigs incident.
News of this illicit meat trade doesn't faze the residents of the Jingxiang
fishing commune, a few miles from Zhulin. The trade is considered not ideal,
but normal. Inside the common room, bare lightbulbs illuminate a poster of Mao
Zedong on the wall, as a group of elderly residents play mahjong in the corner.
There used to be 250 fishermen here, but because of the rampant pollution the
60 left mainly clean rivers.
One resident, Mr Li, says his community has been complaining since 2003.
"Things changed in the early 2000s when more pig farms turned up and their
waste water, manure and carcasses poured into the river," he says. "Though
we've been petitioning for years, rather than an improvement the situation has
deteriorated. The local government's slow responses always pass the buck."
Such negligence exacerbates the serious water quality issues China faces.
Greenpeace East Asia estimates that 320m people in the country are without
access to clean drinking water. A 2011 study by the ministry of environmental
protection found that of 118 cities, 64 had "seriously contaminated"
groundwater supplies.
Yang Hanchun, of the Chinese Association of Animal Science and Veterinary
Medicine, says China has comprehensive laws for the protection of the
environment against animal husbandry, but authorities often fail to uphold them.
Protests quashed
Over the weeks since the discovery of 16,000 pig carcasses in Shanghai's water
supply, authorities have consistently worked to quell public outcry,
reiterating that drinking water is safe. While there have been reports and
discussion of the incident in state media and on the country's rollicking
microblog network, which is curtailed by censors, attempts to organise protests
have been swiftly quashed.
Pan Ting, an outspoken Shanghainese poet, was detained for questioning by
police after she posted a call for a mass walk along the Huangpu, the city's
central river, on her Sina Weibo account. The post, which went out to her
50,000 followers on 14 March, called for a "pure stroll" without banners or
slogans. Soon afterwards she was asked to "drink tea" with the police – an
idiom used to describe interrogations. On her other Weibo account she later
posted: "I feel very disappointed. You even shut out a voice concerned about
local pollution and your own lives. I will see how long you will shut me out.
At least uncle tea said to me: I understand where you are coming from."
As news about Pan's detention spread through Weibo, prominent users voiced
support. "Just because a young woman said a few honest words about the dead pig
issue, she was detained, banned and forced to hand in all of her communication
devices," said Li Minsheng, a well-known writer. "She was even 'missing' for
three hours! Her only request was: 'Please do not come ring my doorbell early
in the morning or in the middle of the night to scare my mum.' As a big city
that has hosted the World Expo, why can't Shanghai tolerate a poet? What law
has Pan Ting violated? Please respond to the whole nation, Shanghai!"
Additional reporting: Xia Keyu.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/29/dead-pigs-china-water-supply
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