JayCee wrote:Anne, question for you - if you'd lived in China a decade ago and had a second child, would you allow the government to take it away from you and put it in an orphanage ready to die without a word of dissent? Or would you have happily gone and had an abortion at 7 months pregnant instead?
I think I already know the answer considering you'd be happy for your children to die in an incident similar to Tiananmen, but I'm just curious
The One child policy is, at best an altuistic act to prevent more deprivations in China and abroad. I could see when I was in China how overpopulated the cities were; even Wu Tai Shan was full of hordes of crowds - at rush hours on the hight street. At worst, there're forced abortions and I've heard of ghastly cases. There're orphanages but you'd be distorting the fact when you said the children are left to die. You really can't make the CCP to sound as if they're all that evil. Propaganda everywhere manipulates images and information - and politically, I never take sides but I support the common good when I'm sure it's good.
What can China do in the face of overpopulation? Look into documentaries of Manila today - ghettoes springing up everywhere, some families living for 3 generations of 16 people in one small room of 6 by 6 with a raised upstairs room they can only crawl about which again is divided into two rooms. I'd hate to see anyone having to live in such conditions and I would expect the goverment to deal with this. Besides, is it fair to bring a poor child into this world without the abiity to feed, educate and give them the basic needs?
The One child policy was fair enough - it was imposed on Han Chinese only and not the other ethnic minorities. That showed a pattern of altruism for truth testing, to me. However, the poilicy's amended to a 2 child nowadays, I heard. India doesn't have the one child policy and its population growth is overtaking that of China. I'd travelled India extensively for over a year - and it's not fair to put large families in slums and have children begging on the streets.
I admire China as a country that plans ahead and takes stock of what's going on. No one, not even me, would want the one child policy. But the alternative is a vicious cycle of poverty, unwanted children and starvation. In that sense, I'd rather have a child and be able to give them a decent life. The one child policy went through reforms, from making abortions (which I don't gree with), to the imposition of fines which is far preferable if they have the means to pay. Today, it's becoming a two child policy.
China is a country that had greatly suffered from famine and starvation throughout the centuries. The people who plan the one child policy live in that context and are doing something to prevent their people and country from further catastrophes. I've heard of cases where the law is flaunted by ingenious human means; but if a country's law is to be respected, it's to be followed. That or lawlessness. To me, what's another child for my own desire when the country is planning to avoid catastrophic disasters? Cannot one love the children of others as one's own? Isn't communism about communal life - but of course, privacy is crucial to one's own sanity as well. As far as I can see, the CCP is ensuring the best planning for their people though they're hampered by the bad eggs and corruption, which in Chinese culture, can be endemic.
You would know only parents can feel that profoundly for their children; but equally so, no good parents can go against the will of their own children. Do you want to prevent your children going to Afghanistan today-I'm pacificist and I'll try to persuade them against war, but equally I can't force them to respect my wishes. As for premature deaths, I wouldn't conjecture that and wouldn't invite such karmic consequences. I worked out that we might have about 50% control of our lives - 50% nurture and 50% nature.
What you say, that I'd be happy for my children to die in an incident like Tiananmen is completely distorted. I believe in free will and respecting the free will of others. We don't force people to change their minds in my family. We're well aware of control freaks.
You should have asked shouldn't I join my children in an armed uprising - and my asnwer is NO. I'm apolitical in that sense but would I join the resistence groups in fighting against the nazis or the Japanese in China , having witnessed first hand the uncalled for violence on innocent people - yes. In fact, I supported the women in Greenham Common against the deployment of nuclear power but that is way out of control today.
The bottom line is, most of us want a peaceful world where we and our children can live happy and purposeful lives but we can't control our individual destiny. When we have parents who plan for us, government that plan for the country, we feel that we know where we're going. When there're natural catastrophes the PLA is mobilized to help out, when ther're floods etc, the human resources are available to help out.
China's a country with immense needs at all levels.
), not there only for decoration purpose.
