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From the Chinese press

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-27 07:58

Nursing home tragedy a warning

Media reports say a mentally challenged senior citizen died at a nursing home in a small town in Hubei province recently after staff members tied him up and left him shivering throughout the night. The tragedy reflects the poor state of such homes in China, says an article in China Youth Daily. Excerpts:

The administrator had told some of the employees to tie up the 68-year-old man because he had made several attempts to run away from the nursing home and defecated in the open a few times.

Investigations have also revealed that senior citizens in the charity home are often beaten up. Of the inmates 17 have no visitors.

The 68-year-old man's behavior was annoying but that was no reason for the administrator to have him tied up and thus caused his death. Investigations also revealed that the administrator had no formal training in nursing home management. In fact, he has received just four years of formal education.

The administrator in the small town of Hubei may be an extreme example, but the reality is that shortage of funds and qualified administrators has become a big problem for nursing homes across the country.

Technically speaking, the ratio of nursing assistants and caretakers to inmates at such homes should be 1:3. That means 10 million such nursing assistants and caretakers are needed in China. But there are only 220,000 of them, among whom only 20,000 are qualified for the job.

Some economists say that increasing funds alone will not change the situation. The government has to take measures to make nursing assistants as well as ordinary people aware that society's attitude toward senior citizens, especially the physically or mentally challenged, determines its level of civilization and social conscience.

Foreign words not threat

Some officials have asked the media not to use English abbreviations in Chinese TV programs and publications. But in this age of globalization, such a policy can only be seen as lack of confidence in Chinese culture, says an article on hinews.cn. Excerpts:

Languages develop and change with the times. One cannot interfere with the natural principle of languages because the power of conventions is stronger than policy documents.

In this age of globalization, foreign languages are influencing the languages of almost all the countries. No language can stay pure. In fact, a language cannot develop if it is rigid.

Moreover, the mixing of Chinese with foreign languages is the result of cultural exchanges, which should be seen as a good development. China should try and get closer to the rest of the world, not shy away from it. For example, the ISBN mark is used across the world for books, and China should not create its own label to prove it is different from the rest of the world.

China is rising as an economic power. It has to rise as a cultural power, too, which it cannot do by trying to be different in every aspect with the rest of the world. We should definitely be proud of Chinese culture and the Chinese language but not use irrational policies to highlight them.