Edward Moran (1829-1901) Statue of Liberty Unveiled
Flags around the world,
French, American.
She reveals from the clouds.
Children, enlightened.
Sun peaks on
Victory, liberty.
Freedom shines
with world gathered for the great moment,
Motivated.
Like I said in class yesterday, it is great to be back to America, where freedom and democracy are floating in the air. I didn't mean that I was in prison in China, but no access to any news media made me want to get a ticket and fly straight to the United States. A lot had happened this summer: Libya, Israel, another possible recession, hurricane Irene, Japanese prime minister etc. It seems that troubles always surround the world. One of the biggest news/tragedy that happened this summer in China was the crash of two high-speed train. Thirty-six people died from the crash, official said. Put the technical reason for this accident aside to another discussion, I was surprised to see so many "rumors" sprang from Renren (a social network like Facebook that is popular in China) and Weibo (Chinese version of Twitter). I called them rumors because they are different from what the official said and some were even denied by the officials. I, a 19-year-old who reads the news on the newspaper and the rumors from the internet just like everybody else, could not differentiate what is the truth. Is there even a truth to tell? I believe that they were more people died in the accident, not just 36, but I don't think the rumors of "the government made this happened" or "the government officials buried the parts of the train and lots of dead bodies". A common sickness of the society in China is that because of power and benefits, experts and officials do not speak the truth. They become the origins of lot of lies and rumors, which result in a untrusted society. Putnam's social trust no longer exists. Therefore people not only won't trust the experts but also won't trust the government because they always hide from us.
Sometimes it really is hard to distinguish the truth, especially when we get such extremes. I really like when you asked "Is there a truth to tell?". So often perspective can skew the simplest truths, and when it comes to a tragedy like that one interests collide, and the facts become ensnared in the wills of those involved.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't help but thinking of Dan Rather's talk last year discussing the importance of reliable news media. By no means am I saying that America's media is the best by any means- we have our share of sensationalists and downright untruths, but the first step in the right direction is a free media. At least that's my opinion.