The 'air' we breathe...
As I walked outside to get the paper from where the following article was taken, I couldn't help but not see the other side of Victoria Harbour only a couple of kilometers away. The other side is completely hidden, on a cloudless day, by unmitigated, foul-smelling, dangerous smog. Retreating inside to write this, as the previous post pointed out, will not help me avoid breathing this noxious brew.
Why is it so bad? Don't we read in the papers and on the news that the Government is 'doing something' to solve the problem of the rampant noxious pollution? Why are things only getting worse?
It helps if you understand where the pollution stems from. Particularly at this time of year, with a northerly monsoon, the Mainland pollution washes over Hong Kong like an ever-thickening blanket.
This article will help explain why things are only getting worse on the mainland. It may appear long, but it is worth the read.
Article in the SCMP Thursday December 13, Page A8
Beijing's edict lost in scramble for coal
Central Government safety crackdown is no match for Shanxi's corrupt mines
Last weeks explosion at the licensed Xinyao coal mine in Hongtong county killed at least 105 miners.
The central government has been ringing the alarm bell about mine safety for years, issuing laws, regulations and propaganda on environmental protection and sustainable development, and sending out scores of inspection teams each year to weed out illegal operations.
But the decrees crumble under the weight of local protectionism. The death toll from resource exploitationism escalates, polluting businesses continue to operate, and corrupt officials remain at large.
"If the operation of the Xinyao coal mine is fully licensed, it is licensed by the devils from hell," Li Yizhong, director of the State Administration of Work Safety, said on Sunday, slamming his fists down.
Beijing, he announced, would establish a taskforce to find out what caused the explosion, imprison those responsible and prevent similar blasts. "Linfen officials at all levels must seriously review what they have done this year and tell me exactly what is behind these three fatal incidents," he told China News Service.
Meng Xuenong, Shanxi's newly appointed acting governor, immediately submitted his apology.
And city mayor Li Tiantai said he would obey any central government decision with a "broken heart" and "shame". "As the head of the city, I haven't carried out my job properly and failed to live up to the trust that the party and the people placed in me. My responsibility for this cannot be shrugged off."
But as he apologised, a convoy of trucks carting coal from a mine 3km from Xintao paid fees at a secret toll station set up by Hongtong county officials on an uncharted highway covertly built by mine owners to avoid inspectors. The convoys continued despite Beijing orders for a halt to coal operations throughout the county until the enquiry was done.
Just a kilometer from the highway that leads to the Xinyao mine, an illegal coking plant fitted with 18th century technology ran as usual, spewing out flames and black smoke beside a dried-up river in Longma village.
And, in Zuomu village, residents complained about a four-hectare chemical plant that emitted "sweet and nauseous" smells that caused their hair to fall out.
"Officials from Beijing will never find the truth," said Ma Geming, a Xizhuang village farmer who has seen the tunnels of the Xinyao mine. "Coal mines don't hire locals. They don't do business with locals. So when someone dies, it can be easily covered up."
"In every mine there is a person whose job is dealing with accidental death with the heads. Taking care of an accident that kills less than 10 is a piece of cake," Mr Ma said. "Nobody has any idea how many miners die every year."
Government officials who were supposed to supervise mine safety were mostly bought off, Mr Ma said.
Some officials have even been mine owners. Cheng Yanping, director of the Hongtong county land and resources bureau, was once the owner of the Longma coal mine, one of the biggest in the Linfen area.
It is common knowledge in Hongtong county that an official needs to spend half a million yuan to buy a position in the county government, and more if he or she wants to move up to the municipal level.
As a result, government officials are motivated by money, creating a breeding ground for corruption. "After paying 500,000 yuan to the county environmental protection bureau every month, you can continue your business, even though on television they say it has been banned," a Longma villager said.
Chen Zhongquan, a former party sectretary of Hongguang village, summarised the coal industry this way. "Behind every coal mine accident there is corruption; behind corruption there is immense government power; behind the power there is one single party," the 70-year-old said. "Maybe it was a mistake to drive the Kuomintang to Taiwan, maybe we should welcome them back."
If you have read all this then congratulations!!
...the point here, broken down to it's irreducible essence, is that the stuff I can see out of my window, floating down from mainland China, the stuff I breathe every day, is not going to go away anytime soon.
Some pilots feel somewhat trapped here in Hong Kong by the seniority system prevalent in airlines today that, unlike many other professions, does not allow easy transfer between companies without loss of pay. It's hard to leave having invested so much time and effort.
Some have done the monetary versus environmental sums and simply cut and run anyway.
Some junior guys have an easier decision cutting and running as they do not have as much time invested in the airline for their long-term career elsewhere to be impacted greatly.
The question I always have to ask myself is, "When and if I, or God forbid, a member of my family, ever end up suffering from a disease attributable in some way to the pollution here, will I be able to look myself in the miror and say that my time living here was worth it?" It's a question we all have to ask ourselves.
Last edited by BScaler; 13th December 2007 at 09:59.
Reason: article reduced(!) for clarity