Democracy in PRC, can SG vote to expell FTs? LOL!

[democracy my butt]

http://www.news24.com/World/News/Chinese-village-votes-to-expel-HIV-boy-20141218-3


Chinese village votes to expel HIV+ boy
2014-12-18 08:47

(Shutterstock)

Multimedia · User Galleries · News in Pictures Send us your pictures · Send us your stories
Related Links

HIV third leading cause of deaths is SA
Teens turn to texts for Aids advice in Zambia
As HIV rises, Uganda activist tries to stop Aids

Beijing - The plight of a Chinese boy with the HIV virus, reportedly pushed to leave his home by 200 villagers who signed a petition, sparked intense online soul-searching in the country on Thursday.

The case has highlighted the stigma attached to HIV in China, where many sufferers face widespread discrimination.

The boy's guardian, his grandfather, was among those in the southwestern Sichuan province who signed an agreement to expel the eight-year-old to "protect villagers' health", the Global Times reported.

The newspaper, with close ties to the ruling Communist Party, said the boy contracted the virus from his mother, and was diagnosed when he received injuries for minor treatment in 2011.

Previous reports said the boy -- who was given the pseudonym Kunkun by Chinese media -- was refused admission to local schools and villagers would avoid contact with him.

"Nobody plays [with me], I play alone," Kunkun said, according to a report on Wednesday on the website of the People's Daily newspaper, the official mouthpiece of Communist Party.

The website also said Kunkun was referred to as a "time bomb" in the petition.

"The villagers sympathise with him, he is innocent, and only a small child", Wang Yishu, party chief of Shufangya village, told the website.

"But his HIV and AIDS is too scary for us."

Population

The Global Times said the boy's mother left the family in 2006, while his father "lost contact" after Kunkun's condition was diagnosed.

The case sparked much debate on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo, where it was the most widely-discussed topic on Thursday morning, with many asking how people could be so cold-hearted towards the boy.

"Why was he ruthlessly neglected, it is so unfair to him", one poster said.

"This is because the Chinese population cannot get enough education, causing ignorance and panic," said another.

China's National Health and Family Planning Commission said earlier this month that by the end of October, a total of 497 000 people in China had been diagnosed with HIV/Aids since the country's first case in 1985. China has a population of 1.36 billion.

Discrimination against those with HIV/Aids remains an issue at schools, hospitals, workplaces and other establishments across the country, a factor that experts say hampers efforts to diagnose and treat the virus.

 

[yellowarse]

Voting Is Victory, At Least For Rebel Chinese Village
<time datetime="2012-03-03" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">
MARCH 03, 2012 7:58 PM ET
</time>LOUISA LIM

Residents of Wukan in China's southern Guangdong province fill in forms before voting in village elections on Saturday.

In southern China, a village that rebelled against corrupt Communist officials has elected the main protest leaders as its new village committee leaders. Reformers are hoping this could be a template for defusing unrest through grassroots democracy, but others say the experience of the rebellious village is unique.

With a flourish, polling opened at 9 sharp at a Wukan village school in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. The national anthem rang out, and the villagers of Wukan stood respectfully for the raising of the national flag. Just three months ago, the streets here were festooned with banners calling for the downfall of corrupt officials, and rallies of thousands of people filled the square, chanting in unison.

On election day, the banners hanging from the buildings called for China's laws to be respected, and villagers voted for their new village committee leaders, filling out pink ballot forms in makeshift plywood voting booths. The committee has real powers, in that it controls local finances and the sale and apportioning of collectively owned village land.

Protest leader Xue Jinbo was detained and died in
police custody during the rebellion. His daughter,
Xue Jianwan, ran in the following elections.

"I'm 40 years old," said voter Huang Meizhi, beaming, "and I've never held a ballot in my hands before. Wukan has never had a proper election before."

Free And Fair? Experimental Elections

"We've never had such an open election," said Zhang Jiancheng, one of the candidates. "In the past, the elections from the preparation to the election and the monitoring — all were already organized in backrooms."

This election is unusual in that it was born from a violent rebellion. But village elections in China are supposed to be exercises in grassroots democracy. The fact that these polls are gaining so much attention as a model of free and fair polls shows just how frequently the law is ignored. Even in Wukan's election, there has been pressure on one particular candidate, 21-year-old Xue Jianwan.

This young schoolteacher is a symbol of the cost of rebellion; her father, Xue Jinbo, was a protest leader who died in police custody in December. This was after he was detained, with several other villagers, in connection with protests in September, during which cars and the police station were attacked. His death led to the furious demonstrations staged by villagers during the 10-day standoff in December, when they chased out Communist officials and were blockaded into Wukan by paramilitary police.

Xue Jianwan is now standing for election against the wishes of some of her family, her employers and local officials, who argue that those working for the state should not stand for office.

"I haven't solved the problem of pressure from my family, so my mood is rather heavy," she told the crush of reporters who descended on her as she walked home from the polling station. "If I want to be elected, then it seems I have to quit my job. So I'm very conflicted."

A Lesson, If Not A Model

Protest leader Yang Semao was elected deputy head of the village committee. He denies the methods protesters used during their rebellion were extreme.

"We had no other choice. No one paid any attention to petitions, so the people got furious and there was some violence," Yang says. "I don't think it should be considered extreme."

As the ballots were counted in Wukan, a new election remained a fantasy just down the road in Longtou, also known as Longguang. Here, too, villagers have been protesting against land seizures for years. But so far, the events in Wukan haven't helped them.

"Now we don't think Wukan will influence us that much," says one villager, who asked for his name not to be used. "The government has dealt with Wukan, but our situation is still messy, and they're not dealing with us."

Another resident makes it clear that the lesson they have learned from Wukan is strength in numbers, saying if the government doesn't pay attention, they'll form a coalition of seven or eight villages.

"We're talking about it now. Then we'd be tens of thousands of people."

Who Should Own The Land?

But the peaceful resolution of Wukan's rebellion draws on many factors, such as its geographical location close to Hong Kong with its freewheeling media, and in Guangdong, with a liberal party secretary, Wang Yang, who's hoping for promotion to the Politburo Standing Committee.

Strong clan structures within the village were a factor in uniting the village, and organizing the rebellion, meaning that its experience may not be easily copied elsewhere.

The fundamental problem remains rampant land seizures across China. A recent survey by the Seattle-based Landesa research group found 43 percent of Chinese villages surveyed reported land had been taken by the state for non-agricultural purposes. In one-fifth of cases, there was no compensation.

Kicking out the village leadership and electing new leaders doesn't necessarily address that problem. Xiao Shu, an outspoken intellectual also known as Chen Min, believes real land reform is needed.

"The basic problem is the collective ownership of rural land. The thing is that the collective doesn't exist. Actually it's just disguised government ownership, or ownership by officials," Xiao says. "So the government should implement rural land ownership rights to make sure each farmer owns land."

Applause greeted the election results, as rebel leaders Lin Zuluan and Yang Semao were elected to the village committee. This model election is an experiment, which shows new flexibility from the local government, and a willingness to work with protest leaders, rather than arresting them.

But land rights is a hot-button issue in a country founded on peasant rebellions over land. It's not yet clear whether Wukan's land will be returned, and whether the village's experience will be ultimately be as a trailblazer, or simply — as its neighbors fear — as a high-profile exception.

 

[jw5]

Why does the table have a big square hole? :o

 

[yellowarse]

Why does the table have a big square hole? :o

To allow light to go in on dark winter days?

 

[jw5]

Ohhhhh................. I thot it's for the ballet box to go in so that it will not be so tall. :p

To allow light to go in on dark winter days?