雅安地震英文报道
说明：文章内容仅供预览，部分内容可能不全。下载后的文档，内容与下面显示的完全一致。下载之前请确认下面内容是否您想要的，是否完整无缺。
_____ citing from CNN Lights stay on in temporary tents set up by the Red Cross Society of China in the Lushan county of Ya'an City in southwest China's Sichuan province on April 21, 2013 When a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Lushan county in southwestern China‟s Sichuan province on April 20, killing almost 200 people, the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) did exactly what you would expect of China‟s largest charity — it took to traditional and social media to solicit donations for those affected by the disaster. What was less expected was the unsympathetic reaction to the appeal. In the 24 hours after the earthquake, normally prime time for fundraising, the RCSC raised a paltry $23,000, small change compared with the $3 million raised by the One Foundation, a charity founded by movie star Jet Li. The problem was not that the Chinese public did not want to give money — the problem was that they did not want to give money to the RCSC. On the RCSC‟s official account on Weibo, China‟s Twitter-like service, the organization‟s post requesting donations solicited pages and pages of scornful responses. The disastrous fundraising campaign is the latest embarrassment in a long-festering public relations crisis for the RCSC. Founded in 1904 as a privately run organization, the RCSC was recognized by the international Red Cross federation in 1952, but since then has come under ever tighter government control — and with that has come growing distance from the public. Indeed, so close are the government ties that since 1996, RCSC employees have been technically regarded as civil servants. Vitriol against the RCSC has been festering for years, amid public anger over the organization‟s lack of transparency and rumors that the government officials who run the organization have had their hands in the coffers. So deep is the suspicion of Chinese officialdom in general that Hong Kong‟s legislature last week refused to vote an almost $13 million donation to the Sichuan authorities for relief in Lushan for fear the money would be misused. The RCSC received more than $700 million after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, but questions about how that money was used have lingered. Things came to a head in 2011, when a young woman who claimed to be a business manager at the RCSC began posting pictures to her Weibo account that documented her lavish lifestyle and luxury purchases. Guo Meimei‟s wardrobe included dozens of Hermes bags and other high-end pieces, which she displayed proudly while sitting behind the wheel of a Maserati or Lamborghini, or perched in first-class seats on airplanes. Vigilant netizens demanded to know how a midlevel employee at an NGO could possibly afford this type of lifestyle. Though the RCSC pleaded innocence and denied that Guo was even an employee, its reputation was left in tatters. Leading Chinese writer Bei Cun spoke for many when he wrote on his Weibo account, “I assert: the Red Cross Society of China cannot be changed, its credibility is bankrupt and it cannot change its ways.” He also drew attention to the fact that the RCSC is not operated by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, “just like Chinese PEN has nothing to do with PEN International, and the Chinese Catholic Church has nothing to do with the Vatican.” Staff at other charity organizations complain bitterly that the RCSC gives the whole sector a bad name. “I don‟t trust the Red Cross Society of China — for one thing, they are far too inefficient,” Yuan, a volunteer raising funds for victims of the Lushan earthquake, tells TIME. Since the earthquake, the 38-year-old entrepreneur from Chengdu, in Sichuan province, has been gathering donations and ferrying funds to the disaster zone quickly, a process he says his small group can handle more efficiently than the bureaucratic RCSC. 1 “From the time we receive the donations to the time we pass the funds over to the victims, it takes us only five hours,” says Yuan, who declined to give his first name because of the sensitive nature of the issue. “Can the Red Cross do that? Of course they can‟t.” Indeed, according to the RCSC‟s own figures, as of April 24, four days after the earthquake, it had distributed only 25% of the donations it received. The public backlash has been disastrous for the RCSC, but other charity organizations too are having to work hard to build credibility with a public that is eager to help but skeptical about how funds are being used. Raising money on the streets of Chengdu, Yuan says he faces intense scrutiny from those he approaches for donations. “Some of them even accused us of being cheats, but most of them, after we explained what we did and who we are, chose to trust us,” he says. On Sunday the RCSC‟s executive vice president, Zhao Baige, addressed the crisis of confidence in the organization. “If in two to three years we can‟t turn the image of the „black cross‟ into a „Red Cross,‟ I will resign,” she said. In a sign that public sentiment may be improving, the organization also said it now accounted for almost half of all donations to the quake-relief effort. As the RCSC is painfully discovering, trust is one of the most valuable endowments of all. This article fails to mention that, while donations may have got off to a slow start, RCSC had, as of May 1 collected more than 666 million CNY (108 million USD) in cash and in-kind donations. It is completely inaccurate to say that RCSC has come under ever tighter government control in recent years. While it is true that many but not all of its staff are civil servants, since the mid-1990’s, the RCSC’s relationship with the government has actually evolved from one in which it formed part of the Health Ministry structure, to one in which it enjoys a large and growing measure of operational independence. 2 _____citing from China daily Quake prompts disaster preparedness discussion BEIJING - Experts are urging the government to create more effective measures to promote public preparedness in the event of a natural disaster in the aftermath of the Lushan earthquake. "Years of research show that self-rescues have a significant role in saving lives when natural disasters occur. Ninety percent of survivors are saved by themselves or fellow victims," said Wang Shaoyu, a public security planning and risk management expert at the Harbin Institute of Technology. A 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Lushan county in southwest China's Sichuan province on April 20, leaving at least 196 people dead and tens of thousands injured. More than 30,000 rescue and relief workers were dispatched to quake-hit areas, rescuing 475 people. In Baoxing county's Lingguan township, which was cut off from rescuers for 33 hours due to obstructed roads, local residents used shovels and pickaxes to rescue two survivors within three hours. When rescuers did manage to arrive at the township, rescue efforts had already been completed. Liu Xuancai, a deputy squadron leader from the fire department of the city of Ya'an, said each of the city's six counties and two districs have professional rescue squads to respond to disasters immediately. "Most residents of Taiping township know that they should not return to their damaged homes to collect their belongings, but should stay out in the open," Liu said. "The government has improved disaster preparedness and enhanced citizens' ability to rescue themselves since the devastating Wenchuan quake in 2008," said Qu Guosheng, vice president of the International Emergency Management Society. However, researchers say there are many areas for improvement in terms of disaster preparedness. "Even with years of practice and experience, the public's awareness of self-protection varies greatly," said Li Chang'an, a professor of earth science at the China University of Geosciences After the 2008 quake, which occurred in Sichuan's Wenchuan county, risk prevention and disaster reduction training became compulsory in local schools. Emergency evacuation, fire prevention and earthquake rescue exercises are regularly held in schools. During the Lushan quake, 3,800 students at the Mingshan First Middle School escaped safely with no injuries. However, students at the Lushan Middle School reacted in a more disorganized manner as a result of differing disaster preparedness training. Li said disaster preparedness and first aid training should be compulsory not only in Sichuan, but around the country. "If a devastating earthquake happened in Yunnan, Xinjiang or the North China Plain, I doubt residents there could respond and reduce its impact as quickly as Sichuan's people did," Li said. Experts are urging the government to create a system that can help people in different areas to cope with different natural disasters. "China's southeast coast is vulnerable to typhoons and floods, while the west is more likely to suffer landslides and earthquakes. People should know how to protect themselves under different circumstances," said Qu. He said police officers, school principals and company managers should all be trained as "first responders." Netizens have been busy posting articles online detailing methods for escaping earthquakes since the Lushan earthquake occurred. However, some of the articles are incorrect or misleading. Qu said the government should establish professional institutions that can offer training courses and promote disaster preparedness knowledge. "People can only learn the skills they need to survive and stay calm during disasters by participating in repeated drills," Qu said. This article mainly introduces the magnitude of the earthquake and how much harm, then how government officials immediately rushed to the scene to command the rescue work, through the Wenchuan and Ya'an earthquakes, discusses how to improve the people’s prevention consciousness through the earthquake disaster, and how to improve the ability of disaster prevention. 3 本文来源：https://www.wddqw.com/doc/41d5616625c52cc58bd6bebd.html