crazy talk?

'China's Unnatural Disaster: the tears of Sichuan province'

I happened to see this short documentary by HBO. The strongest shock was the fact that this kind of incident was so nicely covered up. Well, I was more disappointed than shocked, even though I knew...

I know that in this country, a lot of things have been covered up, like suicide incidents in universities. It's become a big taboo. In 2008, there was a girl in my university who jumped off the building i am now living in. She was an excellent student,loved softball, had good academic records; but she suffered from a lot of academic pressure from her advisor and so, and she was depressed at the time of her suicide. There had been some articles on the forum written by her classmates and friends, which provided some information about this girl to outsiders like me. She had been taking some anti-depression pills at that time, she couldn't sleep at night, then that one night, she 'decided' to kill herself. I doubt that. She probably had already lost control of her own behaviors, or she might thought death was the best way to end her life when she was traped in her depressions and confusions. Whatever it was, it always takes a lot more courage to end one's own life than to end it with one's own hands. Suicide just seems to be less troublesome.

However, discussions about this incident were soon blocked out on the forum. And soon there came some odd articles which 'disclosed' the conflict between the parents and school administration. It read like some ridiculous made-up online stories i never buy.

Well, it doesn't seem to be quite relevant to the documentary itself. What i'm trying to get at is the more the authorities try to cover up something, the more curious people become. What good can come from it? And when this happens, it leaves out some space for those who want to create chaos. Well, maybe the cover-up is not good enough I guess.

Back to the documentary itself, it was about some unrest in Sichuan right after the catastropic earthquake when a number of parents were protesting against the local authorities for the lousy construction of the school buildings which added up to the damages from the devestating earthquake. Had there qualified constructions, there probably wouldn't have lost their children. Surely American media could be biased, but it somehow satisfied our needs for the truth.

Surely, everyone in the world was shocked by the catastrophy brought by the earthquake. Following several unpleasant incidents during the torch relay, the nation became unprecedentedly united, at least during my lifetime, i've never seen people more united than that. People blamed those who built the 'vulnerable'school buildings, and at the time when people were concentrating on rescues and post-disaster reconstructions, investigations into the issues might seem infeasible. Well, my thoughts are drifting away.

So what i'm concerned is that in this social structure, there are too many corruptions and the government is very afraid of anything that might sabotage its image. Are they not confident in themsleves or the people? I want to believe that more transparency would bring us a big step forward. Well,I have a lot of complaints right now, cannot really elaborate on everything;Even though we've make huge step forward during the past 30 years or so, it cannot stop people from complaining. After all, there are people complaining everywhere in the world.

Back to the documentary again, it was nominatd in the Academy Awards for Best Documentary Short Subject. And major media had to cut this part out of the video they put online. I'm just wondering, what would happen if this piece actually won this award? Block out Oscar? Who knows.