Pakablog!

It sounds like a giant feat: Beijing residents were again reminded to stop spitting in public, according to an Associated Press report.

According to Jin Dapeng, director general of Beijing’s municipal health department – “very soon you will see action to stop spitting” .

In Hong Kong spitting incurs a fine of HKD$1500 – here I hope the government will charge a similarly proportional amount. For years now the government has been promoting public awareness campaigns but, sadly, in these societies such programs have minimum affect and what’s needed is something that strikes where it hurts : the wallet.

The article cites residents claiming “the habit is a reaction to Beijing’s dirty, dry air.”. This is true in part but an over-simplification of the problem. I know friends who were taught by their elders to lodge a loogie first thing after waking up – as a way of cleansing the throat. That was in the day before pollution was even an issue, not to mention I don’t feel the urge to launch a wad of phlegm from my mouth now that there is pollution. It doesn’t explain why Chinese people spit abroad either, in places where the air is cleaner.

Radar puts forward a few interesting theories – that “manners declined during the revolution and in the post-revolution period”, namely the Cultural Revolution. But more importantly many people do not see spitting as a problem: it is for them, as Radar puts it, “the same as breathing”. And herein lies the problem.

It is clear the government and educated wish to eradicate this habit – but the problem is so deep rooted that change will not come easy. Fines will be a good first step.

It’s worked wonders in Hong Kong.

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Of the news pertaining to the now concluded 2007 NPC/CPPCC meetings, one that caught my eye was the proposed reforms on capital punishment.

This is actually nothing new – the death penalty in China has been quietly debated for the past few years, with local media reporting since 2004 that changes to the system were needed. At that time discussion was to institute reforms that would grant the Supreme People’s Court the final say in death penalty convictions – since 1981 provincial courts were given this authority. Now, it seems, change is finally in motion.

According to the China Daily, since January 1st the ‘Supreme People’s Court was given the sole power to review and ratify all death sentences to ensure they are processed with “extreme caution” ‘. According to the SCMP all existing sentences have been suspended pending a review by the court.

For human rights activists this is indeed good news – execution figures vary between 1500 and 8000 per year depending who you ask, but the generally accepted figure is that China accounts for some 94% of the world’s annual executions. This is astonishingly high.

As part of the new directives, the court has “come up with interpretations or guidelines with regard to the use of capital punishment” – which the China Daily then lists as including murder, robbery, rape, kidnapping, and other brutal crimes”.

Many would argue against the death penalty as an effective deterrent of crime – desperate people have little to lose, including their lives. I’m certainly not a proponent of it, and of the media rumours are correct, I look forward to it eventually being abolished.

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