(May 3, 2009)
[quote]A crowing rooster (jiao ji gong) refers to 1) a person who deliberately makes trouble or 2) a person who is always keen to complain.
— Quoted from "A glossary of local dialects in Yunyang county," Yunyang County Annals[/quote]
Chapter 3: A flood of troubles
(May 3, 2009)
[quote]The new dam shines like a bright pearl,
Its power sent everywhere.
But we peasants suffered when the floods came
And washed away our land.
The prefecture issued documents on the problem,
The hydro station gave money to help us.
But corrupt, greedy officials stole the funds,
Leaving victims of the disaster mired in misery.
– Folk song for the flood victims[/quote]
Chapter 2: Down to the grassroots in Shanyang
(May 3, 2009)
"A huge rock lies across the heart of the river like a dragon,
The sound of waves can be heard night after night.
Can we ask what you are complaining about,
And why the resentment has not waned for thousands of years?"
– Dragon Back and Waves in the Night, by Qing dynasty poet Li Yingfa
Chapter 1: Leftover problems of the Dahe Dam
(May 3, 2009)
"Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the state has allocated a great deal of money to build more than 10 hydropower dams in Sichuan province, and the number of affected people has now reached 224,000. For a long time, problems have lingered as a consequence of dam construction, largely due to a low standard of compensation and shortage of available land in the resettlement zones.
Introduction
(May 3, 2009) By: Dai Qing – Strange and ridiculous things can happen in today’s China, and here is a good example. A purely academic work, a sociological study of the impacts on about 20,000 people of a small dam built 30 years ago in southwest China, was published in a modest print run of 7,000 copies as part of the Harvard-Yenching Institute monograph series and, within six months, was banned by the Chinese government.
The Story of the Dahe Dam
(May 3, 2009)
Many of the farmers uprooted for the Dahe dam, built 30 years ago on a Yangtze tributary in what is now Chongqing municipality, are being moved again for the Three Gorges project. "To learn more about what goes on behind the scenes in China, this book about the ruinous consequences of one small dam is an excellent place to start," Dai Qing writes in her introduction to the translation of this important work by sociologist Ying Xing. The original Chinese version of the book, published under the title Dahe yimin shangfangde gushi (A Tale of Migrants Displaced by the Dahe Dam), was banned in China in 2002, but is available on our Chinese site. The on-line publication and translation of this book have been made possible by the Open Society Institute.
Dissident At Large
(May 7, 2009) From Red Princess to Communist spy to death-row dissident, China’s Dai Qing has always gone her own way, enraging Communists and democrats alike. On a recent trip to Canada, China’s most famous iconoclast tells Kelly Patterson her story.
Aiding is Abetting
(April 30, 2009) Dambisa Moyo’s prescription for economic sustainability in Africa—which includes cutting off all aid within five years—might seem insane if the statistics weren’t so grim: despite one trillion dollars in western aid over the past sixty years, the economic lot of the average African has only gotten worse.
Beijing to build, expand 13 water plants by 2014: city official
(April 29, 2009) Beijing plans to build and expand 13 facilities by 2014 to process water from the Yangtze River, with combined capacity of about 1 billion cubic meters annually, an official with the city government said Wednesday.
Environmentalists worried over impact of Mekong damning
(April 27, 2009) Environmentalists have warned that the damning of Mekong Rivers will have a significant trans boundary impact on countries which share this river, including Burma but accessing information on the issue in Burma is limited.
Expert warns against dam projects
(April 27, 2009) International environmental experts warned this week that hydropower dams to be built on the Mekong River will have serious and long-term impacts on the environment and livelihoods of millions of people living along the river, especially those at its lower reaches in Laos and Cambodia.
China’s secret death toll
(April 25, 2009) Nearly a year after the deadly earthquake, relatives and others who ask questions are harassed, spied upon and arrested.
Top fisheries scientist wants upper Yangtze dams scrapped
(April 24, 2009) One of China’s top fisheries scientists has warned that further dam construction on the upper Yangtze will drive the region’s rare fish to extinction. Professor Cao Wenxuan, a Sichuan native and senior researcher at the Wuhan-based Institute of Hydrobiology, says government officials ‘know only how to eat the fish and don’t bother about protecting them.’ He wants the government to scrap its plans for more dams and remove those dams already under construction on the upper Yangtze.
The False Promise of Gleneagles: Misguided Priorities at the Heart of the New Push for African Development
(April 24, 2009) The Gleneagles Summit, for all its good intentions, gave rise to unrealistic expectations. The heavy emphasis on aid and debt relief made Western actions appear to be chiefly responsible for poverty alleviation in Africa. In reality, the main obstacles to economic growth in Africa rest with Africa’s policies and institutions, such as onerous business regulations and weak protection of property rights.
HidroAysan rechaza denuncia por concesiones mineras
(April 23, 2009) La eléctrica dijo que la firma que trabaja en la línea de transmisión hizo las solicitudes como medida de precaución.
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