Category: Social

Over the weekend I saw a rare appeal article by Liushen Leilei asking the relevant parties not to demolish the Jin Yong Library in Jiaxing City, and it reminded me of a “Save the City Trees” notice I saw on the street a few days earlier.

It said that the city government of Norrköping had approved the cutting down of four large trees in the city center to make way for a new five-story building and open space. In response, a certain environmental group will hold a demonstration somewhere, sometime, and they hope that more people will join them in the fight for the city’s trees.

In addition to the notice, a banner was hung that was so prominent that passersby stopped to look at it and take pictures. It seemed more visual and vivid than the SFI lesson on “Democracy and Society” and reminded people from afar that this is how we deal with things.

When I finished reading the message with Google Translate, I could hear Leung Man-tao’s voice in my ears:

“It doesn’t guarantee success, it doesn’t always work, but it’s a spiritual light that illuminates the world.”

Two months ago, the apartment building next to the water tower made the headlines on Swedish national television because of an explosion. When I woke up early that day to work on my laptop, I suddenly heard a loud bang, and then I just vaguely felt that more cars than usual were passing by the building, without really thinking about what had happened.

It was only after dawn, when I saw the police cordon on the street, that I remembered to look it up online, and the familiar scene appeared in a video report on STV. There had been an explosion in the apartment building across the street from the stadium; no one was injured, but the door of the building and some parked cars on the street were damaged. Police are questioning residents and waiting for technicians to examine the scene.

It took less than 40 minutes from the 4 a.m. explosion for an official news report to appear online. Three days later, there was a follow-up story about the arrest of two suspects on charges including general vandalism and violating laws regarding flammable and explosive materials.

In retrospect, I was probably one of the few people awake at the time. But more importantly, were those holding the microphone still sound asleep when the incident occurred?

The first news about the Beijing dust storm came from a promotional text message from an air purifier brand: “Sandstorm is coming! ……”

This is very reminiscent of the little story of “selling cloth on a sunny day and umbrellas on a rainy day”. It is not only about a mindset, but also shows that each event can have a different impact on different industries, companies, and individuals.

Another example is the “longevity risk” often mentioned in the insurance industry, which may come as a shock to those hearing it for the first time. But both insurance companies and Social Security are paying more for pensions and health insurance as people live longer, so longevity is a risk for these organizations.

When bad weather or disaster strikes, businesses that provide essential goods and services help people get through it. We cannot blame them for profiting from national disasters just because they have a tailwind.

The question is whether it is fair trade, i.e., whether companies are using disasters to monopolize markets, raise prices, or otherwise profit by improper means.

Before watching a movie yesterday, I stumbled across a Swedish pocket edition of Lonely Planet: Beijing (2009 edition) in a second-hand bookstore. Here “Beijing” was the real Beijing.

Between the foreword and the table of contents was a bustling Wangfujing Snack Street, with a banner in the photo reading, “For your safety, please do not take unlicensed taxis.

Flipping through the pages, “Three Guizhou Men,” “Old Bookworm,” “The Bearded Artist Who Helped Design the Bird’s Nest”-this guide from over a decade ago felt more like an archaeological find or an elegy. My guilt for buying it for three yuan (and thus depriving it of one or more potential Swedish readers) gradually faded, as the ever-changing Beijing doesn’t wait for a publication to catch up before it moves on.

Not everything changes, of course. As the book concludes, “Beijing remains a challenge for all people with disabilities… Although most new buildings and some major attractions have become more ‘accessible,’ there is often little difference.”

We shouldn’t let a sense of nostalgia prevent us from acknowledging long-standing problems. After all, the road we’re on now is the same road we’ve traveled step by step in the past.