Development

Editor note: This article, originally published in inmediahk.net, tells how a small company can turn into giant enterprises through the mysterious network and relationship with officials.

Abstract

A startling 13 young workers attempted or committed suicide at the two Foxconn production facilities in southern China between January and May 2010. We can interpret their acts as protest against a global labor regime that is widely practiced in China. Their defiant deaths demand that society reflect upon the costs of a state-promoted development model that sacrifices dignity for corporate profit in the name of economic growth.

Blogger, doubleaf has created a google map about cancer village in China based on the official data collected by Deng Fei. (via Micheal Anti's twitter)

During a recent trip to San Francisco, I was asked to comment on China's threat to global environment by a local student regarding the fact that China is now the top country in greenhouse gap emission.

10 days ago (Oct 14, 2007), a mother took her two children's lives by throwing them out of the window and killed herself by jumping from the public housing high-rise. Almost every year, similar family strategy happened in Tin Shui Wai, a new town at the northwestern end of New Territories. Now the town is called “the town of sorrow”.

Have been reporting about the Queen’s Pier preservation campaign but seldom put my own voices in my highly subjective and bias citizen reports. Tonight, I am going to camp at Queen’s Pier and wait for the police and construction workers to clear the site -- as it is the government planned D-day. Want to write down my reasons here before I leave for the pier.

The preservation campaign at the Queen's Pier has already become a miracle in Hong Kong history. The activists have occupied the Queen's Pier for more than two months to fight for in situ preservation, and the whole campaign has lasted for 7 months since last December. For a pessimistic and materialistic society like Hong Kong, the campaign is really incredible and hard to imagine. Last night, on the big day of 10th anniversary of reunification, it set another record in creating a mass civil disobedient act.

Editor notes: Yesterday, a ritualistic demonstration took place at the Queen's pier to show people's determination in preserving the pier via civil disobedient act.

Around thirty participants, with crown on their heads, drank wine together and cried the following slogans:

1. The government officials have forced the people to resist
2. We will fight with determination (direct translation would be "We will fight till we die")
3. Preservation for Queen's Pier
4. Please give us a hand (or we still need your hand)

Some said there is a "nail house" in Guangzhou again. But Pan Weiye, the protagonist of this incident, refuses to be classified as "nail". He argues that what he wants is an apartment of the same area in this district.

Pan Weiye's home is a house in Xiguan, an area famous by the wealth class in the past. It was located in the western side of the inner city of Guangzhou, a district for foreign trade in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Pan's house is a historical building and his family has been living here for three generations. There were five families before eviction but now only a family of seven members stays.

March 18 is the last Sunday before the selection day of the Chief Executive in Hong Kong. The Civic Human Rights Frontier and some other civil society organizations decided around a month ago to have a joint mobilization to strike for democracy.

However, as ESWN pointed out, the mobilization was far from successful. Although 60% of local citizen supports universal suffrage, only 5,000 came out. Roland provided some explanations, including discontent about party politics and messages of the rally were too diverse.