Questions of Beijing flood not answered yet
The most popular topic for Beijingers now is not London Olympics, but the flood caused by a heavy rain on July 21. As more stories are discovered and circulated, some important questions are waiting for answers.
First, Beijing residents are seriously lack of basic knowledge or training on how to save themselves in floods. One 34-year-old male driver was drowned to death in his Hyundai Tucson on his way home that evening after trying for at least 20 mins to break the window from within the car. CCTV, China's national TV network, broadcasted the rescue work. So his death catches national attention.
Although many people point fingers at slow reactions of official rescuers and the less developed drainage system of Beijing, the driver should be responsible for his own death first.
Distance is the most effective protection for people against natural disasters. Yet, the flood in Beijing proves Chinese capital residents are not trying to keep themselves from danger at first, but elbowing into dangers themselves, because they are basically illiterate about self-protection and self-saving in case of floods.
Second, the government fails to react timely to warn the villagers living in mountainous areas of the approaching mountain flood, which is fatal and fast. Most of the 77 deaths occurred in Fangshan district, a mountainous region in southwest Beijing. Since the rain had been on for at least eight hours before it caused flood, relevant authorities should take the blame for wasting time and failing to tell local people to run away. The traffic management system did not close the entrance of ring roads and express roads in the heavy rain, even if there were already floods formed in low places on the roads, which caused great troubles for drivers not knowing how to deal with floods. Many SUV drivers drove crazy that evening splashing waters to passers-by, believing their big vehicles can protect them from the rising floods. They do not bother to consider what the roads are like ahead.
Third, State-owned media in Beijing should also learn their lessons in how to report and set the agenda. Honestly, they did not do a good job. Most channels of Beijing TV Stations were broadcasting normal programs, except the News channel. The anchors of this channel appeared nervous and lack of preparation before the camera. She did not provide enough timely and badly-needed information for audiences, but jumped the gun to praise the Beijing Spirit, a slogan invented by Beijing municipal government to improve moral standards, of the volunteers in the rain.
And she repeatedly emphasized the glorious actions of "Beijing ren", people with Beijing hukou, residence permits, without realizing that at least one third of permanent residents in Beijing do not have hukou. The data released by Beijing authority later indicates many these non-Beijingers are the most vulnerable victims of the floods. More than half of the deaths in downtown are migrant workers, who were drowned or electrified in their basement homes. Further reports also exposed that many migrant workers were well-organized and formed civil rescue teams voluntarily that night saving drowned drivers. I think if BTV could have known how serious the flood is and millions of non-Beijingers are endangered by the flood together with their Beijing counterparts, they would not have aired like that. In face of life-and-death crisis, there is no difference from person to person at all.
Fourth, many Chinese netizens criticize the drainage systems of Beijing. I think the it is only one cause of the flood, and not the main cause even, because only one death aforementioned out of 77 is caused by the flood under an overpass. Beijing's population explodes since early 1990s. It is believed more than 30 million people live in the city today, four times that of 15 years ago. No city in human history has to cope with such sharp rise of population within such short time. Some compare modern Beijing's drainage system with that of ancient Beijing, Paris, London and Qingdao, a former colony city of Germany. I think it is unfair, because different cities have different history and locate in different climate and geographic zones. Beijing is a typical inland city with continent climate conditions. The population of London or Paris only accounts for a small proportion of Beijing, a city grows so fast that no city can be compared with it in the history of city development all over the world.
This flood is like a baptism for Beijing government, residents and media. How to manage the fastest growing largest city in the world is not only a challenge for Beijing, but also the other populous developing countries. And all residents of the city should have the awareness that they are the owners of the city and should play active roles in city managements. The authority should be open and supportive for the public's involvements.
The Last Kung Fu Monk
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