It took three days for America's National Guard to mobilize in response to the Katrina hurricane disaster which struck the Gold Coast in 2005; in Sichuan, it took the PLA less than an hour to mobilize and send in parachuting troops in and trekking on froot on inaccessible roads to do rescue work.
In the aftermath of the earthquake, the solidarity and cohesion of China's masses of peoples, government, the Communist youths, NGOs, volunteers, youths, students, and media have demonstrated how quickly and extraordinary China's 1.3 billion people can act and mobilize.
Thus far, it may not be completely without flaws, but given the circumstances, the efforts, from all walks of life, governmental or ordinary masses, have been impressive. What is truly astonishing is the almost total dearth of anti-social behavior including predatory looting or vandalism.
Chinese officials and central and provincial officials are meeting and coordinating efforts, setting up certain timelines and goals which they are working feverishly to achieve, with a coherent national mobilization plan, harnessing China's vast pool of citizenry, from all walks of life.
The suveyors, engineers, and planners have been dispatched to start the major infrastructural work which will be initiated pronto, without further delay.
Here's a sample of some of the set goals being set as achievable "benchmarks":
Within 30 days (1 month), the goal is set that 98% of those whose homes are destroyedm are displaced or without housing will be temporarily housed by emergency construction of styrofoam-made or other temporary huts, or by tents; there are some 5 million peoples right now which needs to be housed; and the massive mobilization and rebuild efforts have just been herculean and massive. And the rush to provide temporary housing is frantic and massive, with tent manufacturers working overtime to supply pronto:
http://english.sina.com/china/1/2008/0522/161780.html
Within three (3) years, it is being mapped and planned that Sichuan's damaged towns, cities, and infrastructures will be rebuilt and new towns, cities, and centers will emerge to replace the damaged cities, including Mianyang, Wenchuan County, and other major townships , counties, and cities devastated by the 8.0 earthquake. New cities will be sprouting up and these will be better built, better designed and better planned.
There are now over 4,000 orphans who are in deep of adopting parents, for nurturing; and China's masses are pouring their hearts out to adopt these children.
Consider the discipline, coherence, and solidarity of all of China's masses, the laobaixing, 老百姓,as they work and volunteer together to rebuild. The comparison between one site, the Mianyang stadium housing temporary refugees and what happened in in America 2005 in New Orleans Astrodome, with the Katrina Hurricane and New Orleans Flooding could not be more different.
Read on:
http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/05/22/1052482.aspx
