[Radix] More on the Sichuan earthquake and the Oscars!

[Terry Cannon]

Dear all
sorry this message is so long, but clearly I think it is important!

China Sichuan earthquake 2008
A year ago I was asked to give a presentation at a conference in Brussels 
that was jointly organised by the Madariaga foundation and the Chinese 
Embassy to the EU. My talk was to be on the Sichuan earthquake, and as you 
may recall it presented significant challenges for me on how to both 
“engage” with the Chinese while not compromising on what I consider the 
shameful corruption that led especially to the collapse of many schools.

I got advice from some of you, which I much appreciated. Since then I have 
noted the imprisonment of the lawyer who acted on behalf of parents who 
were protesting about the unnecessary deaths of their children. Then a 
month ago, another lawyer who had campaigned with parents was sentenced to 
five years (but for a supposedly spurious other reason than that of the 
earthquake – see:
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/09/china-eathquake-schools-activist-jailed/print>http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/09/china-eathquake-schools-activist-jailed/print 


Women are leading the protests and are clearly being very courageous in the 
face of severe harassment and threats by police and officials.

This week the issue has emerged again with the Oscars. A documentary about 
the parents’ protests was nominated for an Oscar, and the Chinese have 
censored information about this:
China censors Oscar nom mentions Sichuan quake documentary omitted from 
official reports
By Jonathan Landreth, Hollywood Reporter, Feb 4, 2010
<http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i9f46c57380aa314f2bbf58ab59c035ef>http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i9f46c57380aa314f2bbf58ab59c035ef 


The film itself arose from the coincidence of two filmmakers happening to 
be in the country at the time. It was shown on the US channel HBO last 
year. It is available on YouTube, and I urge you to watch it, soon in case 
for copyright reasons it may be taken down.

The HBO website for the film is here:
<http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/chinas-unnatural-disaster-tears-of-sichuan-province/index.html>http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/chinas-unnatural-disaster-tears-of-sichuan-province/index.html 

HBO “China’s unnatural disaster: Tears of Sichuan Province” 39 mins

Two Chinese political scientists (from Hunter College, CUNY, New York 
State) were also involved in making it, and they are in another film noted 
at the bottom.

Clearly the issue remains very much alive as to how we should (or not) 
“engage” with a regime that is determined to repress legitimate protest, 
and what is the best way in which we can use our knowledge and skills (and 
campaigning capacities) to change things for the better.

Good wishes

Terry Cannon (now working as Visiting Fellow with International Institute 
for Environment and Development, Climate Change Group).


The film on YouTube in five parts, which is a nuisance, but not difficult 
to navigate. The parts are labelled in the top corner 01/05 etc:
1   10:43
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=026HsrgHjwM>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=026HsrgHjwM 

2   8:27
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH1JbqAx8h0&feature=related
3   3:55
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K_u2qzyEZk&feature=related>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K_u2qzyEZk&feature=related 

4   8:07
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tO8XdnBDj8&NR=1
5   8:12
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6psdfReC4e0&feature=related>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6psdfReC4e0&feature=related 


About the film (from HBO website)
Sichuan, China. In the aftermath of the massive earthquake that rocked this 
central region of China, several communities are in mourning for the 
children they lost. At Fuxin Primary School, where 127 students died, 
families place framed photographs of dead boys and girls in a makeshift 
memorial next to the rubble, burning incense and symbolic paper currency to 
honor them. A boy survivor cries, remembering his lost classmates. A father 
tells us how his son was the top student in four subjects. A mother wipes 
the glass on her portrait inside the memorial, explaining, "I have to clean 
your face before I leave."

At Hanwang Primary School, 317 students died. Standing amidst the ruins, a 
father still hasn't found his daughter: "After ten days I haven't seen her 
face." Another man explains that local leaders said "we weren't hit hard, 
we can handle ourselves." Young voices that cried out from under slabs of 
concrete are silent now, as heavy machinery tread lightly on the ruins to 
avoid dismembering bodies. Back at Fuxin, parents remember hearing how the 
buildings were unsafe, but nothing was done. "Who inspected and built the 
building?" asks one. "Where is the government?" In a field behind their 
home, the parents of a victim show pictures of their son, and visit the 
mound of soil where they were forced to bury him. "We want justice to 
prevent future tragedies," says the mother. "This is a lesson of blood." 
Even more children - 438 - died at Xinjian Primary School. A woman shows 
off a class photo with some 30 or 40 students. All but one student and the 
teacher died. Parents here rail about the school building's "shoddy 
construction," complaining that the mortar and concrete did not meet 
standards. Likewise, in Hongbai Schools, where 430 children died, questions 
about the quality of building construction are raised over the sound of 
sobs. China has a strict one-child policy, and most of these parents lost 
their only child.

In Mianzu City, protesters vent their complaints with a director from the 
Board of Education. "Where did the school money go?" asks a man. Next to 
the wreckage we see an intact warehouse building that survived the quake; 
it used to be a school, and students would have been safe here. Instead, a 
parent shows us an official letter of compensation: $317 for each dead 
child. A father plays us a song his daughter recorded on his cell phone. He 
and his wife show us the forest in which they buried their child, along 
with many others. Back at Fuxin, parents examine the fallen building's 
bricks, dumbfounded by the lack of cement on them. "If children are the 
flowers of our country, is this where you plant them?" asks a mother. The 
lack of response from local officials has caused parents here to begin a 
70-mile march to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. They start off full of 
resolve, jostling a Party Secretary and breaking through a line of police 
officers. Chants accusing officials of negligence and wrongful deaths 
abound. One woman recounts how, after being denied use of an overcrowded 
crematorium, she was forced to personally carry the body of her daughter 
home, first by motorcycle and then (when the bike stalled) by foot.

Eventually, parents are pressured to board buses to a nearby government 
office in the regional capital of Deyang. After officials promise to visit 
the Fuxin school the next day, parents return home to await government 
inspection. Inspectors and engineers from the Architecture Institute 
finally arrive, as promised, with some admitting that the construction of 
the school was faulty. Eventually, officials shoo away most of the 
onlookers and camera crews, explaining that "Starting tomorrow, only a 
select group of parents can be here." Eventually, the government bans 
gatherings of more than three parents at school sites, warning villagers 
that protesting is unpatriotic. One protesting mother is berated by other 
villagers, who remind her that the Communist Party has done a lot of good 
in the wake of the disaster, and who lecture her for speaking with foreign 
filmmakers. She returns to her farming, which had been neglected in her 
grief, and laments how she'd hoped her daughter would be cultured and 
highly educated. It turns out that compensation is tied to a pledge to 
"obey the law and maintain social order." With the implication that the 
protests will cease, parents are offered $8,800 per dead child. Later, 58 
parents from Fuxin Primary School file a suit seeking additional damages 
and a public apology. Their lawsuit is rejected.

CREDITS: Directed by Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill; Produced by Jon 
Alpert, Peter Kwong, Michelle Mi, Matthew O'Neill & Ming Xia; Edited by 
Adam Barton; Editor & Colorist: John Custodio; Cinematography & Audio: Jon 
Alpert and Matthew O'Neill. For HBO: supervising producer, Jacqueline 
Glover; executive producer, Sheila Nevins.

Film about the making of the film 9:33 mins
Prof. Peter Kwong (Hunter College, CUNY), and Prof. Ming Xia (College of 
Staten Island, CUNY), lead a post-screening discussion on their involvement 
with the documentary, and first-hand account of the disaster area. Chinas 
Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province looks at the devastating 
aftermath of the 2008 earthquake that killed nearly 70,000 people, 
including many children who were crushed by school buildings. The film 
follows parents coming to terms with their loss and challenging government 
officials to explain the inadequate construction.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2WZqoX9rqA&feature=related>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2WZqoX9rqA&feature=related 


There are plenty of Chinese videos on Youtube as well, but I cannot 
understand Chinese so cannot comment. At least one of them seems to have 
taken up the HBO film:
Chinese film – “Children died in tofu construction”
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMgdMCSoYn8&feature=related>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMgdMCSoYn8&feature=related 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.ecie.org/pipermail/radix/attachments/20100310/91b86ed3/attachment.htm