The authorities there get all sorts of “gifts” to look the other way, same as in Thailand and a number of other countries.
Yes, you’ve completely nailed the meaning of my post. Your comprehension is amazing; it’s a wonder that you still have time to post here, what with all the awesome responsibilities people surely keep heaping on your massive intellect. We are all lucky to have you around to clarify things for us.
I guess either English is not your first language or you have some deep-seated animosity toward Americans.
The two aren’t mutually exclusive you know.
She’s describing the CHINESE system, and asking if we in America want to emulate it.
Like, you know, our Snowboarder friend said he wished we would do. I guess here in America we have the idea that China some sort of rigidly controlled system, and that anyone stepping outside gets smashed. But China is actually anarchic. You can get away with anything, if you have enough money or the right connections, or evade notice because the authorities are too busy or too lazy to bother. Or you can end up squashed by the arbitrary authority of someone with more juice than you have. Piss off the wrong princes and you get crushed, regardless of what you did or didn’t do, or who knew or didn’t know.
This disaster embarrassed the authorities, so the people in charge of the operation have to be punished, nevermind that many of these same authorities knew or should have known what was going on. It’s analogous to the Wells Fargo banking scandal, where the employees get punished because they responded to the implicit or explicit mandate to open fraudulent accounts. Again, not that the people being punished are innocent patsies either. And also, nobody died from the Wells Fargo thing.
Yes, that’s exactly what I said and meant. Your powers of perception and comprehension rival those of Ramira! How are we so lucky to have you both in this very thread?
So the above quote–that was you, right? It wasn’t somebody else sneaking in and posting as you while you were getting a cup of coffee?
You continue to astound me with your powerful perception and amazing comprehension skills. Clearly, nothing gets by you.
Jubus Christ, Snowboarder Bo meant the same zeal for punishing transgressors. Some of you really do have reading comprehension difficulties.
The problem is that, most of the time, that zeal doesn’t happen – and, when it does (usually because something truly embarrassing has happened that cannot be hidden) it tends to be aimed towards scapegoats: Individuals high enough in the hierarchy to be noticeable and to arguably have had something to do with what happened, but not high enough to actually belong to the true elite. Quite often, the parties truly responsible for whatever happened are in very high places and, thus, untouchable.
Now – zeal in punishing transgressors, if properly applied… I can get behind it. Zeal in punishing transgressors, “Chinese style”… I cannot.
The problem here is that the model being put forward by Snowboarder Bo (that is, China) is a very bad example of “properly applied zeal when punishing transgressors”. And that colors the perception of Snowboarder Bo’s comment.
The problem is that the Chinese legal and political system does not provide any comfort that the actual people who are punished are in fact the “transgressors”.
Violations happen (frequently) and, if sufficiently embarrassing, punishment happens. The connection between the folks actually responsible for the violations and those who suffer the punishment, however, tends to be questionable.
Here’s how the system in China works:
Boss: “Minion, put a chain across those fire doors. Can’t have the workers sneaking in and out.”
Minion: “Yessir.”
Authorities: “Ohmigod, there was a horrible fire but the fire doors were chained shut. Let’s zealously find the transgressor and punish them!”
Boss: “My minion chained the doors shut.”
Authorities: “Then let us sentence the minion to death by torture as an example to all those who would transgress the rules.”
Minion: “It’s a fair cop.”
Jealous Westerners: “Wow, if only we had a system that punished those who transgress the rules as zealously as China! That minion sure got what he deserved, unlike here where they’d probably try to blame the boss or something ridiculous like that.”
So you think that Yu Xuewei, the chairman of the warehouse company is a “minion”? Sounds rather boss-like to me.
I get Bo’s sentiment, but perhaps he expressed it badly. There is a case here in GA where a man strangled his girlfriend, admitted to the murder, was sentenced to death, never appealed the verdict or sentence, doesn’t want it appealed and still it has been over 15 years and the sentence has not yet been carried out. There has to be some middle ground.
Did they get the right chairman? It was Li Liang 15 months ago.
The key point here is that “transgressors” are not those who bribe officials to overlook safety violations, or officials who accept those bribes, but those who embarrass the leadership.
China’s toothless regulatory system and corruption are infamous. Citing that as a envious system to copy is absurd.
I think it was more the publicity of who many of the victims were, firefighters. Of course, had (a) the firefighters been better trained and (b) the hazmat storage company followed regulations, then the loss of life would have been much lower if not zero.