1) I do agree that China needs a serious review of many of their internal and external policies. Things that worked great in the old days (improper food handling, no government regulations, no proper standards of hygiene that are enforced, no real quality control or oversight) seem great when populations are small and stakes are low but wind up causing serious issues when populations grow.
This is an old issue, I think of it as a "shitting in the streets" sort of problem. When there are very few people in a location, shitting in the streets is not a big issue. Once you pass a critical mass of people living in an area then doing so starts to spread major diseases. Which is why you have "governments" formed to outlaw shitting in streets and why you then have people jumping up and saying "I always shat in the streets and I will defend my right to shit in the streets to the death" or whatever. Thus forms the first political parties :-)
Note: This is not unique to China. Check out the recent spate of problems in the US with vegetables being contaminated with what appear to be human feces. This is an interesting problem. My theory is that in the old days illegal immigrants picked the vegetables and being experienced learned not to shit in the fields. When they were removed and replaced by less experienced domestic laborers these new employees did not recognize the importance of not shitting in the fields and.... shat in the fields. This can be fixed with proper training, field port-a-potties, and breaks to shit in a box however that will drive up labor costs. Such is life.
2) Anytime one says "I'm not a (whatever), BUT" the addition of the word "BUT" tends to invalidate the first part of the sentence. It's a cheap and pointless way to try and say you're not an "X" while saying something that could be construed as support of "X". Just say the statement and be done with it.
So just say "Given what's happening and what BLB posted (live rat eating), I thing that China has got to do a thorough house clean-up and get their act together ASAP..." and be done with it. :-)
I agree with both sections of your post.
About (1), I have many Chinese friends and I know (they've told me) many things about their society and culture. You are summarizing some issues nicely in your post. We saw a similar thing happening in the Soviet Union when the race against the west was more important than human rights. We also see it in countries like China where there's poor hygiene, unsanitary living conditions, and bad practices in regard to processing, selling and eating animals that can be dangerous to humans. I hope that this serves as a wake-up call for them to sort things out, learn from it, and establish laws and regulations that help prevent such incidents from happening in the future.
As for (2), it's just me being over-analytic in what I said. There are things that someone might say that could imply something that isn't true... Kinda like the #no-homo tag we add to something that could be taken the wrong way... Hope it's now clearer.
I don't understand.
