Let’s protect the foreigners and forget the locals

This is Beijing, covered by dust as a result of a massive sandstorm which struck the capital on Monday. The sandstorm has left homes, streets and cars in brown dust and left the skies a murky yellow.

The government admits that this was the worst pollution in years. Reports said that desert winds dumped 300,000 tons of sand and dust on Beijing, forcing residents to wear surgical masks.

However the Chinese officials are confident nature would not disrupt plans to host environmentally "green" Olympic Games in 2008. As it is the government has initiated plans to reduce the pollution level in the capital during the games.

It will reduce the number of vehicles in the city and stop construction works throughout the duration of the games. In all the government will spend US$13 billion to clean up pollution during the games,

Today there are 8,000 construction sites and more than 2 million vehicles in Beijing – and both these figures will increase in the next few years based on the rampant Chinese economic growth. As it is there are 750 new cars in the city each day. Somehow I don’t see the pollution abating in Beijing.

I also fail to understand why they have to wait till the 2008 Olympics to clean the city of pollution. It is as though you need to clean the city and keep it green just because thousands of people will be coming in during the games. More interestingly, this interprets to mean the Chinese government only cares for the health of the foreigners, while giving a hoot about the locals.

A Chinese friend said that there are two systems of governance in China – the capitalist system on economy and the socialist/communist rule on politics.

This is how these two systems work in China - the Chinese government wants a clean capital so that foreigners will bring in tourism revenue. Any local who dares to ask why nothing is done today to clean the pollution will most probably find himself be persecuted.