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December 2, 2013

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Home » Opinion » Opinion Columns

Woodpecker column to batter away at pests and problems

By Ni Tao | December 2, 2013, Monday | Print Edition

ONE doesn’t have to be an ornithologist to know how woodpeckers work.

In bursts of head-pounding pecking, they ram their beaks into trees, rip open loose bark and eat the larva of longicorn beetles and other insects.

And this battering-ram approach to dinner does not cause brain damage.

Woodpeckers contribute mightily to pest control in forests. Partly because of its exceptional tenacity at work, the woodpecker is my favorite bird.

Starting today, this new column — inspired by the head-butting bird — will pursue the journalistic tradition sometimes likened in China to a woodpecker, which exposes wrongdoing and tackles it head-on.

All around us there are many such woodpeckers. An example is the 12345 hotline handling complaints from Shanghai citizens about every aspect of their lives.

Complaints can be lodged against pollution, unfair workplace treatment, or bad after-sale service. Complaints are registered and classified, before they are sent to the proper authorities responsible for working out a solution.

Indispensable channel

Just like woodpeckers, nicknamed “doctors of forests,” the hotline is an indispensable channel — and often the only effective one — through which people can air their woes and hope to receive some official attention.

However, that woodpecker has not always been successful. The Xinmin Evening News last Monday reported that months after residents’ complaints to the 12345 hotline, many of the heavily polluted rivers in the suburbs remain as polluted as ever, or even more so.

As of October 15, the hotline has registered 703 calls urging cleanup of polluted, murky and foul-smelling rivers and brooks.

Quite a few of these desperate appeals have been met with indifferences.

For instance, according to the news report, a pig farm was found to have built its cesspool dangerously closely to a river in Huinan Township, Pudong New Area.

Pig feces can overflow into the river in rainy season, adding further waste and toxins to the already rank, algae-covered water.

The complaint was first received in May, but there had been no thorough action against the cesspool until last month when a villager called 12345, and the owner of the farm promised swift changes. Again, who knows if the promises will be honored?

We have heard similar stories over and over again. Bold official pledges are often followed by bureaucratic stalling and buck-passing.

A few months ago I tuned in to a radio program on AM990.

It mentioned a suburban town in Shanghai that had suffered persistent low voltage, which left residents without air-conditioning throughout the most sweltering days this year.

When the anchorman called the official overseeing local power supply and asked him to comment, the man was evasive and said he would “go back and study the problem.” He proceeded to study it at length, throughout periods of extended low voltage, without any results. Doing his job appears to be very difficult and time-consuming,

Lack of official accountability is the scourge of Chinese politics and governance, and much as people loath it, it is unlikely to go away.

But as long as there are woodpeckers like the 12345 hotline, there is a channel for the public to call attention to their plight, and embarrass the feckless individuals who do nothing to fulfil their pledges.

Direct appeals to the authorities often mean a long, fruitless wait.

Just like woodpeckers cannot catch every pest holed up inside trees, there’s no way the hotline can ensure that all the requests will be addressed and problems resolved.

In spite of its imperfection, people need it; without it, the last ray of hope for redress would disappear.

This column, together with other speakers on behalf of the public interest, is hopeful that although the vermin are endemic, and more often than not our advice is ignored, we woodpeckers will continue to batter our heads against problems.

Let’s hope we’re not battering our heads against brick walls. Maybe I should wear a crash helmet.

 

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