Dam The People

One of my favorite things to read about these days is the building of the Three Gorges Dam in China. When completed the dam will the world's largest and will free the Chinese people from the perils of the ravenous Yangtze River which has for years been a pox on the lives of those who lived near it.

The dam is not without its doubters. Naysayers ranges from environmentalists who claim the dam will fill up with silt and overflow, to geologists who are concerned that the dam is being built on a fault line to Amnesty International who is upset with how China is "moving" citizens out of the dam area.

They all may be right in their concerns but the one that sticks out to me right now is the issue with how China is treating the peasants living near the dam area. On the outside the government is claiming they are being careful and considerate with moving their citizens but what is happening is not the case. People are being forced out without compensation, some violently, and there is very little that can be done about that.

Or maybe not. The link in the article reads about how peasants are starting to fight back. Despite being outgunned and outmanned they are definitely no longer going quietly into the night.

This does not bode well for the "other China." The China we read all about talks about how the economic growth is something we have never witnessed in our lives. While that maybe true there are in fact two China's. The one we read about and the one that lives in almost medievel conditions. The fact that the second China is rising up and demanding better treatment is alarming to the overall stability of the country. There are a lot more poor people then well off people in the country. If the poor continue to fight back it might become even a bigger issue.

Hawk's View: I think that China's problems with their poorest citizens is the elephant in their room of progress. Yes they have a gifted and industrious society. But they also have what amounts to a new age feudal system and that does not sit well. Look for the issues to get much worse before they begin to get better. And also look for the dam to be an environmental nightmare.

www.threegorgesprobe.org