中国黑心食品

中国又传出食物受污染事件，这一回的黑心食品是乳制品，已造成四名婴孩丧命，另外六千人患病。

对于这起事件，中国老百姓又和往常一样，把矛头指向地方政府：这是地方官员的错，不是胡爷爷、温爷爷的错。

令我不解的是：中国是一个极权国家，地方官员全数由共产党委任，为何胡锦涛和温家宝会管不到？中国政府在奥运期间，禁止北京一半的汽车上路，成功解决空气污染问题，为何对黑心食品却束手无策?

日本最近也发生白米受污染事件，农业部长已引咎辞职。美国前总统杜鲁门 (Truman)，在他的办公桌上放了一个牌示，上面写着一句很有名的话：

The bucks stop here!

很明显的，中国人还不明白这句话的意义。

China’s Food Poisoning Scandal

China is again hit by food poisoning scandal. This time, the food that has been contaminated is the dairy products. Four babies have died from consuming contaminated infant formula, and another 6,000 have fallen sick.

As usual, Chinese blame the ‘local governments’ for the incident. Their general reaction is: This is the fault of the local governments. It has nothing to do with Grandpa Hu and Grandpa Wen.

What puzzles me is, China is a totalitarian country. All officers at local government levels have been appointed by the Communist Party. Why do Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao have so little control over them? During the Beijing Olympic 2008, Chinese government ruled that only half of the vehicles in the city could go on road on any day, thereby successfully solved the air pollution problem. Why, then, can’t the central government handle the food contamination issues that repeatedly pop up?

Japan was also hit by rice contamination scandal recently. Agriculture Minister Seiichi Ota has already resigned. Late U.S. President Harry Truman had a sign on his desk with an inscription that read:

The bucks stop here!

Apparently, Chinese still fail to appreciate the meaning of this phrase.