On July 26 2015, 31-year old Xiang Liujuan and her young son were riding an escalator in AZG Mall in central China when the floorboards collapsed as they reached the top of the escalator. Xiang pushed her son out of harm's way before the floorboards completely gave way, pulling her in to the escalator shaft. She held on for a few seconds as two mall employees desperately tried to pull her out, before she was sucked in to the abyss by the escalator machinery. Despite a four hour rescue operation, Xiang was declared dead when firefighters cut open the escalator and found her body inside, killed by the grinding elevator gears. It was later found that the footplate that collapsed was held together only by screws, a shortcut taken to save money
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In 2011 two Chinese high-speed trains collided, derailing each other and both crashing in to the ground, killing 40 and injuring over 210. In June 2015 a Chinese boat capsized in the Yangtze River; out of its 456 passengers, only 16 are known to have survived. In July 2015 eleven workers died after a shoe factory collapsed. Despite the government announcing that they will shut down all faulty escalators until they are repaired, Chinese citizens, understandably weary of years of industrial accidents and empty promises from the government, have taken to extreme measures like riding the rails of escalators, tapping floorboards with their feet or an umbrella before stepping on them, or jumping over the floorboards at the top of escalators. Despite years of protest, years of cover-up, and years of apology, the government has done virtually nothing to tighten safety standards or punish those responsible for accidents. Though it took me a long time to figure out what we could possibly learn from such a bleak and depressing state of affairs, I eventually realized that this should be a wake-up call how dangerous corruption, especially bought-and-paid-for politics, wealthy lobby groups and donors, and powerful companies are to our democracy and the safety, health, and well-being of American citizens. This should be the ice cold bucket of water to the face that reminds us that before we can tackle any other problem, we must fix democracy first, and throw all our resources in to getting money out of
In 2011 two Chinese high-speed trains collided, derailing each other and both crashing in to the ground, killing 40 and injuring over 210. In June 2015 a Chinese boat capsized in the Yangtze River; out of its 456 passengers, only 16 are known to have survived. In July 2015 eleven workers died after a shoe factory collapsed. Despite the government announcing that they will shut down all faulty escalators until they are repaired, Chinese citizens, understandably weary of years of industrial accidents and empty promises from the government, have taken to extreme measures like riding the rails of escalators, tapping floorboards with their feet or an umbrella before stepping on them, or jumping over the floorboards at the top of escalators. Despite years of protest, years of cover-up, and years of apology, the government has done virtually nothing to tighten safety standards or punish those responsible for accidents. Though it took me a long time to figure out what we could possibly learn from such a bleak and depressing state of affairs, I eventually realized that this should be a wake-up call how dangerous corruption, especially bought-and-paid-for politics, wealthy lobby groups and donors, and powerful companies are to our democracy and the safety, health, and well-being of American citizens. This should be the ice cold bucket of water to the face that reminds us that before we can tackle any other problem, we must fix democracy first, and throw all our resources in to getting money out of