Friday 7 October 2011

The Expense of Radical Development

The deadly crash of two a high-speed trains left 40 people dead in China Wenzhou July 23. Two months later, two subway trains collided in Shanghai on Tuesday injuring more than 270 passengers, 20 critically. The two accidents quickly become the most talked in China. The alarm bells are ringing again, telling us that in economic development we cannot ignore safety.

According to "Shanghai subway crash 'was human error'" on BBC News, today chinese government announced the findings of Shanghai subway crash. "Three officials have been fired and nine penalised over the crash, which happened on 27 September". A subway rear-ended the other subway with 35km/h (22mph) speed. "Investigators said the accident was caused by a series of errors, starting with a signal failure". "The signal system failed after power was lost on a line undergoing repairs. Dispatchers then issued faulty instructions that caused the crash".

Tow similar accidents prompt public anger and renew concerns about China's aggressive rail building plans. they say that increasing speed should not come at a cost to public safety. Now China's cosmopolitan business hub is in the midst of an ambitious subway expansion plan. The Chinese government keen on if their rail speed is number one in the world, they care only that data. Their rapid development of railway traffic, but it misses the point that to people's lives at the expense of development is ridiculous. I have read some comments from forum, people say "what happened in Shanghai tells us that the government has not served its people whole-heartedly and can't even learn from mistakes"; "the Shanghai metro has rear-ended, look at how the lives of the ordinary people are a joke".
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References
(2011, October 7). Shanghai subway crash 'was human error'. BBC News. Retrieved October 7, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15211362

2 comments:

  1. Waye,
    I agree with your opinion. We had the same tragic events as the expenses of radical development.After the fast development of the country, we had experienced several disasters caused by human errors from the middle of 1990 to early 2000, such as the collapsed bridge and department building in Seoul and the subway tragedy in Dau gu. We don't know exactly what kinds of mistakes we are making now which could be disasters in near future. Again, we will regret the past after those occur.I would like to argue with the government about the current hidden disaster; the mentally weak status of Korean people. I think that this problem is also the side effect of radical development.

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  2. I think we should remember that awful as these disasters are, they stand out as disasters precisely because things today are generally so very much better than in the past, in every way.

    Certainly, the lives of millions of Chinese people could be better, but in most cases, their lives are already vastly better than those of their grand-parents. And as they continue to get rid of Mao and communism, that progress will continue. I think that the ignorance inducing censorship of the suppressive Chinese government is perhaps the biggest threat to the Chinese people, but thankfully the Internet and globalization are making that more difficult to sustain.

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