Oil and the Moon (and Now Al Gore)
Posted on July 18, 2008 - Filed Under Gore, climate crisis
Yesterday Al Gore laid out an ambitious agenda to make the United States electric grid carbon free within 10 years. It is a bold and audacious plan and one that will require the full energy and effort of America if it is to be achieved. In outlining his plan, Gore called for the use of solar, wind, geothermal power, conservation and clean-coal technology.
Gore himself recognized the monumental task ahead of this country to achieve this goal. However, he noted that America, when challenged in the past, has achieved the unimaginable. Gore compared today’s challenge to the one President Kennedy presented to America in 1962.
This is wishful thinking, but perhaps Gore, or his aides, checked out Blogflict on June 21, 2008, when we wrote:
“Right now, it is pure fantasy to think that in a decade we could be self-reliant as a country for our energy needs. But in the past when our country needed to marshal our strengths and turn fantasy into reality, we did it. So why not do it again? In 1962 the idea of putting a man on the moon and returning him safely was science fiction, it sounded absurd, just as absurd as making American energy self-sufficient today. Yet, we found a way to do it.
On a sweltering late summer day in 1962, President John F. Kennedy declared, ‘We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.’
Now that Gore has put this issue out there for public debate, it is now up to the Congress and President to act. Only, they won’t. The US government won’t take this issue up until at least January of 2009 when a new President is sworn-in to office. By then, there is no reason to think that price of oil will have magically dropped down, or that our CO2 emissions will have plunged, or that the environment isn’t in even greater peril than it is today. But we must make sure that this is the last, final delay in taking action. There is too much at stake.
The New York Times, in describing the speech, noted, “Like a modern Jeremiah, Mr. Gore called down thunder to justify the spending of trillions of dollars to remake the American power system, a plan fraught with technological and political challenges that goes far beyond the changes recently debated in Congress and by world leaders.”
Theodore Roosevelt, one of America’s first true conservationists and environmentalists, once said, “The American people are slow to wrath, but when their wrath is once kindled it burns like a consuming flame.” Now is the time to light that flame and take action on our energy policy. Hopefully Gore’s speech is the kindling we need to get it burning.
Sphere: Related ContentWaterboarding and War
Posted on July 3, 2008 - Filed Under terrorism
There has been a large debate over waterboarding and if in fact it does or does not constitute torture and thus violates the U.S. Constitution. The technique, in which water is poured onto the face and breathing passages of a bound subject, elicits the sensation of drowning and imminent death.
Bush administration officials have shrugged off the idea that this interrogation method is in fact torture. While there has been a lengthy debate on both sides, the vast majority of people having never been waterboarded, do not know firsthand what it is like.
Christopher Hitchens of Vanity Fair magazine sought to find out for himself. So, with the help of trained personnel, he had himself waterboarded. Perhaps the title of his essay, “Believe Me, It’s Torture,” says it all.
Since you can’t and should not try it yourself, reading this article will have to suffice.
Sphere: Related ContentZambia’s Leader Calls For Zimbabwe Election to be Delayed, Not Cancelled
Posted on June 23, 2008 - Filed Under Zambia, Zimbabwe
iConflict contributor Henry Namwenda emailed us this report from Zambia:
PRESIDENT Mwanawasa yesterday called for the postponement of Zimbabwean presidential run-off elections slated for this Friday because of the volatile situation during campaigns. Speaking in his capacity as Southern African Development Community (SADC) chairman, Dr Mwanawasa told a Press conference at State House that the situation in Zimbabwe did not meet the SADC principles and guidelines and other African Union (AU) regulations on free and fair elections.
“It is, therefore, my considered view that the run-off election in Zimbabwe must be postponed to a later date. “I urge the responsible authorities in Zimbabwe to implement this postponement to allow for the establishment of conditions that are suitable for holding of genuinely free and fair elections in accordance with Zimbabwean law, the SADC principles and the charter and conventions of the African Union,” he said.
Dr Mwanawasa said the postponement of the run-off election had become imperative with the withdrawal of opposition - Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, leaving President Robert Mugabe as the only candidate.
He noted that only last week, SADC ministers responsible for peace and security had said they doubted the presidential run-off election would be free and fair given the situation on the ground.
“In view of the foregoing, I would be failing in my duties as chairman of SADC if I did not offer timely advice to our member state,” he said
He said that leaders should not, therefore, feel embarrassed to support the postponement because it was in the interest of Zimbabwe and its people.
Dr Mwanawasa said, as a member of SADC, Zimbabwe was a signatory to the regional body principles and guidelines governing democratic elections which it had, however, not adhered to.
“The conduct of free and fair elections is not simply judged on election day but from all activities and events prior to the day, on the day itself and thereafter. Those of you that may have observed the events in Zimbabwe during the run-off election ‘campaigns’ will agree with me that the current political environment in Zimbabwe falls far short of the SADC principles that I have just outlined,” he said.
He said free campaigns had not been allowed in that country as opposition rallies were being disrupted while Mr Tsvangirai had been arrested and detained, without justifiable cause, five times within a space of 10 days.
Dr Mwanawasa further noted that the MDC secretary general, Tendai Biti was currently in prison facing treason charges while generally there had been numerous incidences of political violence from both sides resulting in deaths of people.
“The opposition party had been denied equal access to the state media, hence denying them the opportunity to communicate their campaign messages effectively,” he said.
Dr Mwanawasa said that President Mugabe’s declaration that only God could remove him from office had created fear among the Zimbabwean voters.
Further, the Zimbabwean government had banned non-governmental organisations and other civil society organisations from carrying out their normal humanitarian functions on grounds that they were supporting MDC.
He quoted former United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan’s statement published in the Financial Times edition of June 18, 2008 which stated that the situation in Zimbabwe was having tragic consequences both inside the country and in southern Africa.
Dr Mwanawasa said his statement was an appeal to all the relevant parties in Zimbabwe to ensure that they took measures which would prevent the situation in that country from escalating into deeper crisis.”
Sphere: Related ContentA Loss For Zimbabwe
Posted on June 22, 2008 - Filed Under Africa, Elections, Zimbabwe
Change, real change for Zimbabwe seemed to be only days away. After years of running this once proud nation into the ground, President Robert Mugabe finally had a challenger worthy of the succeeding him. All that needed to happen was for a free and fair election to take place on June 27th. But now, that is not going to happen and as long as Mugabe is in charge, it never will.
Mugabe’s war veterans and stalwart supporters had already launched a campaign of violence against all persons affiliated with the opposition party and its leader Morgan Tsvangirai. The accounts of arrests, detentions, even murders are well documented. Last week the Mayor of Harare’s wife was killed. Her crime was her support for Tsvangirai.
On June 27th the people of Zimbabwe had a choice. Go vote and risk your life or stay home. It was going to be an arduous choice and there is no doubt that some would have died at the ballot box. Rather than force people into that terrible choice, Tsvangirai decided today he has seen enough and he ended his campaign.
This gives the Presidency back to Mugabe and his murderous corrupt regime. It would have been admirable for Tsvangirai to stay the course and challenge Mugabe on election day, but the outcome was already clear. Mugabe was going to steal the election anyway, so why risk the lives of so many when the outcome was a fait accompli?
Even in Zimbabwe there is political spin. One of Mugabe’s political hacks declared that Tsvangirai had quit the race because he knew he was going to be soundly defeated on election day. This belies the truth that yes he would have lost, but only because the election was to be rigged. In the first round of voting earlier this year, Tsvangirai thrashed Mugabe at the polls only to have his victory overturned by election chicanery.
So now what? First, the international community must come down hard on the tyrant Mugabe. He must not be allowed to share the stage with the international community like he did in Rome last month. He must be isolated, repelled and decried. It is doubtful his people will read about his actions in the newspaper or television since the state controls the media. In Zimbabwe you need a license to be a reporter.
Just how bad is it now in Zimbabwe? If you live in Zimbabwe you are a victim of hyperinflation by a government that is so mismanaged and corrupt it has eviscerated this once strong and proud economy. People walk around the street carrying heavy bricks of cash that are wrapped in thick rubber bands. If you want to buy a coke, it will cost you 30 million Zimbabwean dollars. On your way home from work you can stop off at your local supermarket and pickup a chicken for dinner (if there is even any chicken in the supermarket) for a mere $20 million. If your car is low on gas, the refill will run you about $1.8 billion.
Just before the first election, Mugabe quadrupled the salary for all government employees. Normally that would be greeted with much happiness, despite it being an obvious election tactic. It didn’t work. Even with the increase, their income was so low when compared to their expenses, that it didn’t cover bus fare to and from work.
The events of today are the end of one campaign but should also serve as the catalyst for another - the international campaign against Mugabe. It’s a campaign that must be won, or Zimbabwe will be lost.
Sphere: Related ContentOil and the Moon
Posted on June 21, 2008 - Filed Under Elections, climate crisis
As the price of gas inches closer to $4.50 a gallon, its no wonder it has become a central issue in the Presidential election. The issue is how to best bring down the price. John McCain and Barack Obama have very different ideas on which is the best policy to pursue. They both miss the point. The oil and energy crisis will present the next President of the United States with an incredible opportunity.
The next President will have a strong and clear mandate from the public to do something about oil prices. All options will be on the table. But the boldest option of them all isn’t even being discussed.
John McCain wants to open up offshore drilling to the petroleum industry. This would increase our supply of available oil. Econ 101, more supply, lower prices. Obama is opposed to the drilling, fearful of the ecological damage it poses to the environment.
Attacking the supply side of the oil imbroglio is difficult. Saudi Arabia continues to show mild indifference to raising their regular production, drilling is an expensive and time consuming enterprise, and there is a fear that increasing the supply will only encourage people to use more, not less oil, so the net effect is negligible.
Attacking the demand side is just as difficult. By reducing demand, people would need to undergo a behavior change. Car pools, new light bulbs, new habits, new daily patterns to create efficiency would be needed. Most people don’t do change very well.
The drag on the overall economy has made this a challenging time for America. But what better time than for us to rise to the challenge. The time has come to think big and bold and to move this country forward with an energy policy that takes us into a new direction.
Right now, it is pure fantasy to think that in a decade we could be self-reliant as a country for our energy needs. But in the past when our country needed to marshal our strengths and turn fantasy into reality, we did it. So why not do it again?
In 1962 the idea of putting a man on the moon and returning him safely was science fiction, it sounded absurd, just as absurd as making American energy self-sufficient today. Yet, we found a way to do it.
On a sweltering late summer day in 1962, President John F. Kennedy declared, “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”
Barack Obama has said offshore drilling is a short term solution, not a long term one. But he is wrong. The petroleum industry lobby says that if we begin offshore drilling today, it will take approximately 7 to 10 years for the supply to hit the market. So by allowing the drilling to commence, it will do nothing to ease prices today.
If we are going to focus on a solution that would relief in a decade, why not throw out the playbook and do something different? Let’s declare it the goal of the United States of America to become energy self-sufficent in 10 years. Let’s invest mightily in alternative energy solutions. We won World War II in large measure because of public-private partnerships. Those same partnerships can help us win this battle over energy. Republicans will say its wasteful spending, Democrats will say it will take away from important government programs. They both will be wrong.
If we invest we will succeed, if we succeed, the geopolitical landscape of the world changes. No longer will American President’s need to come sat in hand to the King of Saudi Arabia, worry about ’strategic oil interests’ in the Middle East, nor worry about funding both sides in the War on Terror.
Just think what a different country we could be in 10 years from now if we succeeded? Does it sound like a fantasy? Sure it does. But so too did President Kennedy’s declaration in 1962. Yet 7 years later, it happened.
Let’s make it happen again.
Sphere: Related ContentChina’s Golden Moment?
Posted on June 17, 2008 - Filed Under China
iConflict reporter Shaun Skolnick met with people from all over the world to gauge their opinion on the Olympics being held in China. The motto for the Olympic Games is “swifter, higher, stronger,” which might be a more fitting slogan to the host country than to the Olympics.
One thing is clear the 2008 Summer Olympics will not be without controversy. What do you think?
Sphere: Related ContentA Moment for Zimbabwe
Posted on June 13, 2008 - Filed Under Elections, Zimbabwe
Most of the United States is focused on an election - the race for the White House which takes place in November. But perhaps now as the primaries are finally over and the general is in its early stages, its a good moment to pause to examine the June 27th run off election in Zimbabwe. The future of that nation is very much resting on the outcome of the run off between President Robert Mugabe and Opposition Leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
If you think prices have risen in the US, just imagine living in Zimbabwe where the disastrous economic policies of Mugabe have caused hyperinflation to hover around 100,000%. Want a soda? That will run you about 1 million Zimbabwe Dollars. The country is in dire need of economic reform.
The ruling regime is insistent on retaining power at any cost. Yesterday, Mugabe announced that war veterans are prepared to fight should the opposition win the election. He also told supporters that the opposition movement is funded by the British and is a political party for white people. Earlier in the year, Mugabe was more subtle in his posturing, now he’s just outright making wild accusations with no evidence.
But evidence was never a strong suit for Mugabe. This past week he had an opposition party member arrested for suggesting in March that they had won the election. He has been charged with treason. The punishment if found guilty - death. Tsvangirai has been arrested 3 times already this month, although no one is sure why.
The MSM and people living outside of Zimbabwe should care greatly about the outcome of this election. A stable Zimbabwe, with a healthy growing economy, would have the ability to lift millions out of poverty and steer the country on the path to prosperity. With a tyrant in power, obsessed about holding on to it at all costs - the country can only fall further into the abyss of chaos. Yet its doubtful you will see a story on the evening news about Zimbabwe or about the importance of its upcoming election. Its too bad, because elections that can truly alter the course of a nation are a rarity.
This is what Mugabe had to say yesterday about the prospect of losing the election: “We shall never, never accept anything that smells of … the MDC. These pathetic puppets taking over this country? Let’s see. That is not going to happen,” he said. “We are prepared to fight for it if we lose it in the same way that our forefathers lost it (to British colonial rule).”
By early July, Zimbabwe will either be well on its way to economic reform, or embroiled in a civil conflict. Only then it will be too late to raise awareness, because by then the country will be at war.
To read up on iConflict’s continuing postings on the Zimbabwe conflict, click here.
Sphere: Related ContentWhy Now Obama?
Posted on June 2, 2008 - Filed Under Clinton, Obama, mccain
There is something unique the American Presidency that makes people want to believe in something good.
8 years ago, a poor farmer in rural Bangladesh, trekked on foot to hear a US President speak. ”For me, the most memorable event in my life was the day I walked seven miles and almost saw Bill Clinton,” he later said. Due to security concerns the visit was called off shortly before it was to begin.
It is doubtful that this rural villager knew much about the politics of Bill Clinton. He wasn’t a democrat, in fact he probably didn’t know what meant to be one. He was there to see a symbol. A symbol of something good and hopeful.
But 8 years later, in a world transformed by terrorism and preemptive war, and in the age of American hubris and unilateralism, the image of the American President no longer conjures up symbolism of something good and hopeful. If you have traveled abroad since March of 2003 (the start of the Iraq War) then you know what I am talking about.
The 2008 election is a chance to fix what has gone astray. The Republican presumptive nominee, John McCain, understands that he can’t be tied to the Bush policies as they are widely considered an epic failure. McCain recognizes a new path is needed in Iraq, for our security, for our economy and for our environment. But we’ll leave talk of the general election for another day. Before we turn the page on this historic democratic primary its worth reflecting on it.
It wasn’t supposed to go this way. It wasn’t supposed to go this long. Every political pundit and junkie was convinced that the democratic primary would be over by February 5th. Hillary Clinton said so herself. But something funny happened on the way to February 5 - something changed.
How did we get here, to this strange moment in American politics, where the sure fire front runner fell by the wayside? It started in Iowa, that turned out not to be a blip on the screen, but a harbinger of things to come. Barack Obama did something that no other candidate has ever been able to do - he got young people out to vote. He got the disenfranchised out to vote. He got people to register to vote. Campaign after campaign there is always talk of motivating and engaging the youth of America. But its never happened, until now.
Obama is the first ‘Internet candidate’ in the same way that JFK was the first ‘television candidate.’ Maybe Obama’s ‘1960 Debate Moment’ came on youtube, in a video that was released by artist Will.i.am. Over 5 million people have watched it. The cost to the Obama campaign, $0.00. Around the same time that was released, Hillary Clinton bought one hour of TV time on the Hallmark Channel to host a town hall meeting, that amounted to an hour long commercial costing around $40,000.
Without the Internet, Obama would not have raised $200 million dollars and certainly he would not be the democratic party nominee. That distinction would have gone to Mrs. Clinton. But there is an Internet, and like we opined on Blogflict in December, the candidate that can harness it, can win the 2008 election.
New mediums of technology eventually find candidates who can use them to communicate effectively. Franklin Roosevelt did it with Radio. John Kennedy with Television. Now, Barack Obama joins that pantheon of communicators who used a new form of communication for political success. By November, we’ll find out if he’ll follow them to the West Wing.
Consider this. On the Republican ticket there has been a Bush or a Dole for every national election since 1976 (that’s before this author was born). Since 1988 we have had: Bush, Clinton, Clinton, Bush, Bush. The outcome of the last quarter century of American presidential politics hasn’t exactly been a call for change. Yet suddenly now both here and around the globe there is a palpable clamor for it.
Somewhere in an impoverished country a world away from the United States, someone is reading in a newspaper, or perhaps even browsing on an XO Laptop, about what is happening in race for the White House.
And already you can hear those thoughts creeping into the back of their heads, dreaming about the day they walk mile after mile to meet the man who could be the next American President.
Sphere: Related ContentOnly 3% of Media Stories Cover Iraq and Afghanistan
Posted on May 26, 2008 - Filed Under citizen journalism, media
Back in February of 2007 while iConflict was just a business plan in rough draft, we noted that something was wrong with the current state of media. In a month of important news events on issues from the climate crisis to Darfur and Iraq, the mainstream media was fixated elsewhere. First, on the death of Anna Nicole Smith, and then two weeks later, on Britney Spears who shaved her head.
This past weekend on my way to a meeting with iConflict investors, I watched Alisa Miller’s TED speech on this very same topic. She is President and CEO of Public Radio International and oversees the development of some 400 hours of programming a week. Ironically, her TED talk examined the failings of media to bring us global news coverage, and as her case study, she looked at, of all dates, February of 2007.
Then today, came this interesting news from the Project for Excellence in Journalism. News coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan now represent just 3% of the total news that is covered by the mainstream media. How can that be?
When responding to this figure, Bill Keller, the Executive Editor of the New York Times wrote, “There is a cold and sad calculation that readers/viewers aren’t that interested in the war, whether because they are preoccupied with paying $4 for a gallon of gas and avoiding foreclosure, or because they have Iraq fatigue.”
The mainstream media seems less and less inclined to cover any news story that isn’t local. But paradoxically, the world continues to shrink and events abroad are just as important, if not more important than ever before in our increasingly intertwined global village. The recent earthquake in China and Cyclone in Myanmar accounted for 13% of all news stories recently. In those two events, over 190,000 people died and millions more instantly became homeless. In October of 2007, the California wildfires destroyed 1,500 homes and claimed the lives of 9 people. Yet, this story received triple the news coverage. Why?
One reason is cost. It is a lot cheaper for the media to cover a domestic story since so many foreign bureaus have closed over the years. Second, there is a perception in the media that Americans care more about the lives and losses of other Americans, despite polling evidence that suggests the contrary.
The good news is that today consumers of news have options. They are no longer tied to the passive constraints of the mainstream media and can look for alternative sources of news. iConflict, and other citizen journalism sites, allow for users to submit and share news that is of interest to them. This is not a pitch for our site, but rather it is a warning to large media companies that times have changed and will continue to do so. If you insist on putting Iraq and Afghanistan on the back burner, someone else will come in and fill that void. If people truly care about the stories missing from the headlines, then they will go someplace else to find them.
Since citizen journalism sites rely on people, not reporters, to send back video, images and news tidbits from remote areas, there is no cost efficiency consideration to be made, no budget to be reviewed, and no approval process to be authorized. Instead, we just report the facts, which, is what the mainstream media was supposed to be doing in the first place. But that’s before news became a business, before conglomerates were formed, before profits were put ahead of the pursuit of journalistic excellence.
News is changing, and it is now more empowering, more democratic, more open than ever before. While there are many pitfalls in this new era, there are many opportunities as well. For those who recoil at the notion of changes in journalism, for those who believe this new path is dangerous, for those who are aghast at empowering people to report on the news, just remember that 3% figure. If that doesn’t make you believe change is not only necessary but it is needed right now, than nothing will. 900 US soldiers were killed last year, 52 last month, and so far 18 in May. They deserve better. You do too.
Sphere: Related ContentA Report From the Earthquake Zone in China
Posted on May 23, 2008 - Filed Under China
iConflict contributor Eguda sent us the following dispatch from an area affected by the earthquake in China. His firsthand account is a fascinating read and sheds light into how different people are coping with the aftermath:
Sorry for that rumor, the PLA airborne soldiers have not fallen during the parachute task. This news has been confirmed, the first 15 airborne soldiers all landed successfully. Still, some rescuers sacrificed their lives in the frequent mudslides.
Jason, Kushh, Qiulin and other friends, thank you for all your e-mails, which bring me strenghth.
Sorry for having made no preparations and having no digital camera this time, I went to Chengdu with the notion of a dustman in Sigil that every body should be treated well as they past away. But after my blood donation they sent me back cause it was becoming dangerous to collect the rotten corpses underneath the rubble and there is no way to arrange me into the Wenchuan or Beichuan from Chendu, they burn the bodies on-site.
I came back last Friday as one of volunteers in www.Tianya.cn the NGO, we helped to subscribed more than 30 tons all kinds of goods and materials(most important the medicine and medical tools) for Sichuan from Guangzhou and other cities in just 3 days . You can see it in this website.
http://cache.tianya.cn/publicforum/content/no04/1/702899.shtml
My roomie of college era is now working in Mianyang as a Homer Simpsom, his family live in tent these days but he’s still doing what he can do to help others in the Jiuzhou stadium with his bicycler-team. (He is the thinest one in the picture with blue socks.)
http://xc.2000y.net/614825/index.asp?xAction=xReadnews&newsid=4190
One of his neighbour jumped off their apartment building, commited suiside in Tuesday, no one knows the reason.
I will go to the Jiuzhou stadium of Mianyang in Sichuan again this week, as a Psychosocial Supporter of NGO for I have the psycho-assistant experience five years ago.
Jason, this time I will bring you pictures as possible.
I think the news from The New York Times, LAT, Newsweek, BBC, AFP and ect. , even from CNN, are all-round, objective and with justice. You ask me to bring more pictures last week, but I think the pictures from west agencies is much enough and good enough.
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/05/19/world/0519-CHINA_14.html
And some vidoes you can see in the following media :
Phoenix TV ( itv.ifeng.com) It’s an independent media based in HongKong, Beijing and Shenzhen, with a little government background, my favourite TV in chinese. http://phtv.ifeng.com/
the news
http://news.ifeng.com/special/0512earthquake/
all videos
http://itv.ifeng.com/topic.aspx
topic video about the earthquake
http://itv.ifeng.com/topiclist.aspx?id=0020-0026-0009
and
http://itv.ifeng.com/
TVB (HongKong; Pearl) In cantonese and english.
http://breakingnews.tvb.com/chinaquake/?row=11&video=http://vdo.tvb.com/g/20080519/20080519170822669-0519_14_01_01.flvℑ=http://img.tvb.com/g/20080519/20080519170822669-0519_14_01_01-0000.jpg
ATV (HongKong TV in english language; chinese blood, irish heart) It’s been banned in my internet and I don’t know what’s the stupid reasons. I can only see the news in some video websites, but I can watch the TV freely by television, it’s wierd.
http://www.hkatvnews.com
http://www.56.com/w80/album-aid-1468480.html
And the local TV in Sichuan also did very good job this time, the 24-hours show is very impressed and helpful. If you are interested in, you can reach it by PPlive software or other p2p tools. But any of the local TV is in chinese.
And if anyone are interested in boring news, repeated videos, useless chats, you are welcome to cctv. Even HunanTV is much better than it.
But anyway, cctv-4 is in english.
Jason, although I haven’t take any pictures this time, I think you may be willing to see these following pictures from Chinese agencies:
From pheonix:
foreign assistance (the American Heart-to-heart Team in Beichuan )
http://news.ifeng.com/photo/200805/0515_24_542449.shtml
foreign reporters
http://news.ifeng.com/photo/200805/0518_24_547501.shtml
and … Chen Jian …
http://hi.baidu.com/kuontherun/album/item/d868c33bac9e74f914cecb50.html#IMG=bdfc19f9dfdac54a242df29c
… Chen Jian, a normal name as his normal life, he buried in the debris, pressed underneath 3 cement walls.
http://www.bullog.cn/blogs/buchong/archives/138123.aspx
When the reporters and rescuers found him, he told to the reporter before he has been pulled out, ” My wife is going to give birth to our baby, I can’t just go away … … the cement walls pressed me … … I didn’t eat a rice for whole 3 days, only drinked a little water but my opinion is, it is saying … … I’m a tough life, since I didn’t die in the big disaster, I believe I can have late fortune then. My mood is stable, I can stick to it … … I can’t give up anyone of my family, so I have to stick to it … … for all my family members did for me for the love they gave me. You guys should do so, don’t be afraid in front of any troubles. ”
http://www.ce.cn/xwzx/xwrwzhk/peoplemore/200805/20/t20080520_15541861.shtml
After 6 hours rescue work, he has been pulled out, he told the people around him” thank you ” , after the team was sending him to the hospital, 10 minutes later, he dead for acute renal failure. The death remembers me how weak the life is, how impossible to foresee it, how short a real man’s time is, just 73 hours and more 10 minutes.
There are too many touching stories we should remember in this disaster. I wanted to tell you but I can’t. There is no fake stories as I know, all are real cause they are my familiar Chinese country-fellows.
There is a series of pictures
http://wangzhentian1982.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!109C03C55940B00E!395.entry
Those pictures are introduced by chinese language, I can translate it roughly:
No.1: Two cute little girls’ smiling faces, the hope of tomorrow.
No.2: The girl’s name is Deng Qingqing, she keep reading by electric torch under the debris cause she can defeat the dark and fear by this way. “It’s dark all around, I’m terrified. I’m cold and hungry, can only overcome it by reading.” Her honestness impressed the rest of us as her toughness.
No.3: The three survived girls kept studying in the refugee camp like other kids, they are the future of our people, the pillar of our country.
No.4: A young pioneer boy with an indebeted heart. His left arm has been broken.
No.5: It’s a story about sacrifice. The fate cute baby’s mother donated her life to protect her baby. When the rescuers cleaned up the debris and found the mother , they also found the sleeping baby under the mother’s overarched remain. The doctor found a cellphone with a message in the screen, “Dear babe, if you can keep alive, you must remember I love you.”
No.6: The lady is Zhang Furong, her husband Tan Qianqiu was a dean of the Dongqi middle school in Deyang. He sacrificed his life to save his 4 students during the disastrous earthquake.
No.7: Yuan Wenting, teacher of the Democratic Central element school, in Shigu town, Shifang city. She ran into the classroom time by time to save her shockened children. When the last time she ran into the building, her beautiful youth stopped at 20 years old. –We Chinese have a title for all the great teachers,” People’s Teacher “.
No.8: The angel for the trapped one.
No.9: The doctor who have no time to compare his just-borned wife.
No.10: Policewoman Jiang Xiaojuan from Jiangyou county, is nursing an orphan.
No.11: We call them the most lovable ones. They always came whenever and wherever the disasters happened.
No.12: ” Take our life jacket! ”
No.13: ” I beg you to let me save one more! ” the crying soldier is struggling to get into the dangerous building again during the big aftershock in the second day.
No.14: A texi driver, volunteer in Dujiangyan city, free to carry all the injured ones.
No.15: Chen Yan, an experienced rescuer from Dongguan, Guangdong province, has been called ” hero ” by others. He seccessfully saved 20 survivors in 70 hours without pause and rest.
No.16: One person’s wedding in Nanjing’s hotel. The bride named Qiu Yuanyuan, she insisted on the schedule without the bridegroom, air captain Rao Xin, ordered to rescue in the frontline. The bride donated all their handsel to Sichuan.
No.17: The 60-year-old beggar, donated RMB 105 to Sichaun, who is richer than most of us.
No.18: Zhao Pu, the only guy who work in cctv I’m well disposed to.
No.19: Li Bingbing, a celebrity whom I’m also well disposed to as her donation efforts and that longtime bow.
No.20: Wen Sir. The Prime Minister from now on.
No.21: Lanzhou city, the mourning night with 512 pray-candles. Young generations will grow up with mercy and sympathy, with strength and solidarity, with whom we can creat a brighter world.
( I heard the author Zhang Yihe said,” I shed my tears in sadness. Again and again I asked myself: It’s that our government and citizens to rescue the refugees and save the victims only? No! Refugees and victims are rescuing our government and saving us also.– let the power get closer to humanity, let the hearts know clemency again. “)
Monday was the seventh day since the earthquake, “TouQi (the first seven)” as old chinese said, we believe the loved ones will come back to see us again in the day before they go to the heaven, all over the country were in silence and morned in the time, and the first time we have three days for national mourning and found something we lost since long time ago.
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