China: A Bottomless Glass

I came across this article, A bottomless Glass, from Chai Jing's blog, it is in prose style and written for a charity organization. Since Chai Jing is a reporter, the prose is probably the memories of her journalistic reports.

The metaphor of "A bottomless glass" is very accurate and powerful, it gives us reflection on the blooming charity works in China in the past few years. Below is a translation (it has lost much of the poetic and sentimental essence.)

A bottomless glass

1.

Shanxi's Xiaoyi.

He ran a factory with a capacity in producing hundreds of thousands of tons of petroleum products without any environmental protection facilities.

It is less than 50 meters away from the village, wrapped in smoke and could not be seen.

The air was filled with the smell of tar, with cancer causing substance exceeding average standard by at least nine times.

He put up a long face in front of the camera: "People just complain about environmental issue, but say nothing about my charitable deeds. Every year, I give 600 yuans to the village elderly. During the Lunar New Year, I even send them rice and flour.”

He sneered: "When my son did not love me as much. "

2.

Xi'an, Shanxi Province.

He doesn’t have any arm and was stripped to the waist, sitting in the street.

With his mouth he held a brush and wrote, blow Diaozhao write: "It’s as hard as iron to pass the Hero Gate…" (Translator’s note: Chairman Mao’s poem on Long March)

Passer-bys tossed some coins into the paper box in front of him.

I followed him back to where he lived, a tiny place where we could hardly enter. It was occupied by books, papers and brushes for him to practice the calligraphy.

He insisted on wearing a blue shirt before the interview and spent 10 minutes to put the shirt on with his teeth. I was waiting outside.

"I am a rural person," he said : "Disable people in the village have no job and no skills, I can only do this. "

"How old are you?"

“38”

"How can you live on in the future?"

"Don’t know."

"What do you need?"

He kept silent for a moment and said : "Help me to live in dignity."

3.

Henan Dengfeng.

I pushed in the door and asked the village secretary who was leading the way : "aren’t we in the wrong way, it seems that the place has been abandoned for a long time."

In such a cold winter, the court yard was full of weeds and rubbles. A column of the house had almost collapsed and there was not a single piece of furniture.

"It should be here" he was also puzzled and uncertain.

When we turned our back and about to walk away, a person got up from behind the door "What’s up? "

A 9-year-old little boy was sleeping behind the door.

In front of him was a broken pot, on top of a stone with some firewood.

His parents had passed away two years ago.

"Why don’t you go to school?”

The village head said "The school couldn’t take care of him and we don’t have any orphanage here."

"How much does the Civil Affairs give you per month?"

"30" he smiled bitterly, "that won’t be enough for buying instant noodles."

"How about the village, don’t they take care of you? "

"How can we take care of him? Who can take care of him everyday? " The village head pointed at the pot : “Even this is stolen."

The little boy lowered his head and did not say anything. He put his hands near the pot to get some heat from the fire.

The village head took a long breathe and said: "You CCTV is so powerful, people up there do donate money, see if you can make a public call for donation and the problem would be solved."

4.

Charity, of course, it is better than doing nothing. It does give a bit of pressure than doing nothing.

However, if we only talk about helping the poor without empowering the vulnerable groups to speak out for their rights, monitor the powerful and enjoy the same rights and opportunities… what we are doing is just like pouring water into a glass without a bottom.

Social justice is the bottom of the cup.

-------- If the cup is bottomless, how much water do we need to fill it up?

photo from Netream