Monday 29 April 2002
Culture Shock's Edition
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The story we are about to discuss is not a pleasant one.
I have been thinking since the beginning of our publication
if we should talk about it. This weekend I came to the
decision that we should publish it. If we realize what is
going on, we probably can help one way or another.
In some cultures, men are considered prime creatures, and
families will be disappointed if their newborns are girls.
In China, you'll be considered a bad descendant to your
ancestors if you do not have a boy to carry the family name.
It's also a culture that when a girl is married, she'd move
to the groom's house. That makes parents prefer boys because
the boys are supposed to take care of them when they grow
old.
For hundreds of years, if poverty attacked because of floods,
droughts, famines, locust invasions, or anything... the
peasants in these areas, who were dependent on the land and
the crops, did the only thing they could think of to survive
under these conditions--they killed their female babies.
Since 1979, when the "One-Child Policy" was introduced by
the Chinese government to control spiralling population
growth (Couples are penalized by wage-cuts and reduced
access to social services when children are born "outside
the plan."), infanticide rates has rised dramatically. If
they'd be allowed only one child, it had to be a boy.
If the girls were not killed, they'd be abandoned. Some
were made crippled by their parents because, according to
the regulations, if the first baby was disabled, the
parents were allowed to have another baby.
This is sad that the government's planning has resulted in
a slaughter of the innocents.
Even nowadays, many of the girls were killed while still in
the womb -- the victims of ultrasound technology that
revealed the baby’s gender. Others, were starved to death
after birth or not treated when they became ill.
Since 1980s World Health Organization (WHO) is looking
seriously into this problem. And the Chinese government has
allowed couples to have a second child if the first born is
a girl.
Here're the facts from
http://www.dmcl.com/dying-rooms/HELP.HTM
- Every year there are around 30 million babies born in China.
- Many thousands, possibly even up to a million, of these new
borns are abandoned when they turn out to be girls.
- Many of those abandoned die of exposure. Others are picked
up by gangs and used for begging. The lucky ones go to the
State run Orphanages.
- Under-funded, understaffed, the levels of care in these
orphanages range from barely adequate to downright inhuman.
- In some Orphanages, death rates among the babies can be as
high as 1 in 5.
There are more to read if you are interested in the issue:
http://advance.byu.edu/bym/1997/97winter/infanticidenews.html
http://www.gendercide.org/case_infanticide.html
http://www.prolifeinfo.org/news031.html
And this one... It will break your heart...
Please don't go there if you are not tough enough.
The Site is called "The Dying Room".
Look for the link there for donation and things you can help.
This is an old issue, but the problem is still there.
However, I would also stress that not ALL Chinese are doing
this. My Chinese friend said it happens in only some parts
of the country where the people are very poor. Now that the
One-Child Policy is "relaxed", we just hope poverty does not
continue. How about this kind of cultures/beliefs? Should it
be discontinued too? How?
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More:
As a result of the 1979's "One-Child-Policy" and the killing
of baby girls, Chinese population at the age of 20s consists
of more men than women. It is said that to get a good girl
to marry nowadays, a man has to pay a good deal to the girl's
family. Now parents probably like to have girls already?
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