Daily Lesson from Life 13 December 2008

** Horror of Horrors - I weighed in at 77kg this morning!! The result of fine food dining in the last 5-day with no exercises to burn off the excess food!

So I went for my 9km jog this evening and it felt so good to be able to jog again! Got to bring it down to 75kg soon!! **


"China arrests dozens after riot over worker's death Workers thought there should be more compensation paid for the death of a local man. -Sat, Dec 13, 2008 Reuters

BEIJING, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Police in northern China have detained dozens of people who rioted because they were angry about the compensation paid for the death of a local man, Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.


A local agricultural company in Wangjia village in northern Shanxi province paid 10,000 yuan ($2,176) for the funeral costs for Ren Shoufu, a 61-year-old security guard, after he died of an apparent heart attack in the company's gate-house, Xinhua said.

On Friday morning, Ren's foster son "led more than 150 people wielding wooden rods to block both gates of the company. He said more money should be paid for Ren's death," the agency said.

The impasse ended after two hours when police detained 77 people.


Xinhua quoted police as saying the detainees were mostly from other provinces, and had allegedly received 100-200 yuan from the foster son to threaten the company. They had been brought to Wangjia on three buses from Taiyuan, Shanxi's provincial capital, and then given wooden rods, police added.

Police were looking for the foster son.


The Xinhua report contradicted an earlier report from Hong Kong-based rights group Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy which said the riot was triggered by alleged vote-buying in local village elections.

Two local officials had denied the rights group's report, Xinhua said."

Well, which version is the correct one? If it is the former, then the foster son need to be found and questioned on why he felt the Yuan10k compensation if not sufficient or reasonable or legitimate? If he cannot provide a good basis for instigating this riot, he should be brought to justice and dealt with properly. It is important to preserve the peace in this turbulent time of economic stress. The cause of death does not indicate any wrongdoing or exploitation by the company so I am not sure if the foster son is doing the right thing here!

If the riot was due to 'vote buying' for a local election, that is a totally different story!

In China, that is the biggest issue: credibility of the sources of information! I think this even applied to the closely watch economic numbers that kept churning out from the local and provincial governments to the Central Government for statistical compilation.

Lessons for me are:

1. credibility of the sources of information must be strong and beyond doubts. When in doubt, there is an open and transparent mechanism for independent validation work to be carried out by 3rd parties;

2. taking the laws into your own hands when you did not agreed with the laws is dangerous act to perform. Unless there are absolutely no clean and credible government offices for you to lodge your concerns or complaints, such an act must be avoided. If the act described in the press by the foster son was true, it could have sparked an even bigger riot that will bring the stability of the place into disarray. Constructive dialogue and clean and transparent intervention by the proper legal authority must be allowed to perform it's duties;

3. democracy bought by money happened in 'new emerging democracy'. This is especially true with small community where one or two wealthy folks literally owned the local public security and others mechanism! This even happened in established democratic societies like Taiwan and Thailand. So, it is conceivable that the fraud occurred in this small village in China. It will take a lot of will and a lot of policing, with the right attitude and behaviors, before democratic election is clean from 'vote buying'! Come to think of it, why would anyone bothered to buy votes IF he or she is sincere in serving the people and the people understand that intention well and clear!!

May China progresses beyond the doubts on credibility of sources of information and slowly on the democratic election process!