Leaving notes on trees

“The whole house was like a swing” — At the New Yorker, Peter Hessler’s Peace Corps students, introduced in his book River Town, report back from Sichuan province. Though the death toll has passed 40,000, Business Week has it that the quake won’t shake China’s economy. More quake coverage from The Financial Times, The Economist, The Guardian (and more), and a photo gallery at NPR.

A firmer hand — comparing China’s disaster response to Burma’s. From the Economist, “It has taken another catastrophe, this one in China, to show the generals who run Myanmar how better to respond to a natural disaster.” Naomi Klein sees the darker side of sovereignty: “If the Burmese junta avoids mutiny and achieves these goals, it will be thanks largely to China, which has vigorously blocked all humanitarian intervention in Burma. In China, where the government is going to great lengths to show itself as compassionate, news of this complicity could prove explosive.”

Group grief: NPR captures a nation mourning out loud, as sobs turn to cries of “Jia You!” ( “Add fuel! Go on!” ) On PRI’s The World, Alex Gallafent gives a cultural account of China’s naked emotions — “‘Little Bai Ling’s father has been found,’ the host revealed… ‘Wei?’ ‘Wei! Baba! Baba!’ … That sort of scene might come across as distasteful in the United States, but it’s OK in China.” ❑

Filed In Week In Review // On May 20, 2008 //

Sichuan Postcard: After the Earthquake - Former students report on the disaster

“The whole house was like a swing.” Peter Hessler’s Peace Corps students report back from Sichuan province. [Read]

By Peter Hessler // At The New Yorker // On May 19, 2008

Filed In Articles // On May 20, 2008 // Under Earthquake (May 12, 2008)