Interests-rules
It's year-end. All restaurants have become extremely busy, with every available parking space around them occupied. Toasting each other at the huge round tables in specially reserved rooms are government officials and company managers with blank checks prepared to "entertain for business purposes".
The practice, known as "feasting on public money", is common all year round but banquets abound especially at year-end because this is the time for public relations.
You have to invite officials from organizations at the higher level to a meal, as they may make it easier next year for your department to get the annual fund allocation according to the size you hoped for. You also need to invite people from other departments at your level or those that have frequent business relations with your office or company, because mutual support is essential.
And even within your own work units, leading cadres need to meet for a year-end conference, at which a "get-together meal" is an essential part, because it will help create a harmonious atmosphere within the unit.
Nevertheless, whatever the excuse, it is the expenditure of public money for a feast for a small number of people, who mostly hold leading positions. The public resents the practice, though they have become accustomed to seeing it.
When the media revealed that hundreds of billions of yuan was spent each year on "feasting" everybody (many of whom were the banquet-goers themselves) expressed shock and indignation at the squandering of public money. Most, however, could do nothing but shake their heads and say "meibanfa" (nothing can be done). And they continue to attend these banquets, either happily or reluctantly.
There are two reasons for the tolerance of feasting on public money.
First, having meals together to enhance personal relations is part of China's traditional culture of officialdom and business partnerships. Declining an invitation to a meal will be regarded as being against human nature.
Second, feasting on public money is no longer a serious matter in many people's minds. They think eating one meal on public money is simply alright, as compared to embezzling public money or taking bribes.
It is true that people do not particularly go to such banquets to satisfy their craving for good food, but to establish or consolidate relations. They are fully aware that these relations help to take advantage of or even the loopholes in State policies and provide cover for each other in their efforts to dodge laws and regulations.
Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that these dinner tables often nurture corruption. The harm such dinners may cause to the nation far exceeds the price of the meal.
The corruption of people's minds is far worse than the corruption of human relations. It is time we took the problem seriously before public servants and managers of State-owned enterprises no longer have any sense of shame about feasting on public money and when the public does not react positively to the problem.
We should no longer remain indifferent. Feasting on public money must be dealt with seriously. It is no different in nature to embezzlement. Legislation must be introduced to outlaw it.
Iran -- Iran and Malaysia signed a $16 billion agreement to develop two Iranian gas fields, state-run television reported Wednesday, describing the deal as the largest energy contract in Iran.
Iran's Pars Oil and Gas Company managing director, Ali Vakili(R) and Syed Mukhtar al-Bukhari(L) of Malaysia's SKS, exchange a signed agreement in front of Malaysian Ambassador to Iran Datu Munshe Afdzaluddin(2ndL) and Iran's Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari in Tehran December 26, 2007. [Agencies]
Iran's Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) and Malaysia's SKS Ventures signed the multibillion dollar contract to develop Golshan and Ferdows gas fields in southern Iran.
The contract was formally signed by Ali Vakili, director of POGC, and Mokhtar Al-Bokhari, director of SKS Ventures, in the capital Tehran on Wednesday, according to the report.
"This contract worth $16 billion. Some $6 billion is for development of offshore and $10 billion for development of onshore gas fields for a period of 25 years," Vakili told the official IRNA news agency.
Iran's Oil Minister, Gholam Hossein Nozari, said the deal was a vindication of his country's efforts to counter pressures to isolate his nation.
"This is the biggest investment contract in the country's energy sector," the official IRNA news agency quoted Nozari as saying.
Nozari said an economic boom in southeastern Asia has sharply increased its need for imported oil and gas and that the contract with Malaysia has to be seen in that light.
The reserves at the Golshan gas field, 65 kilometers from the southern port city of Bushehr, is estimated more than 50 trillion cubic feet of gas and it is expected to produce 2.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.
The Ferdows' gas reserves is estimated at around 10 trillion cubic feet and it would produce more than 880 million cubic feet of gas on a daily basis.
But the hospital staff were bound by the agreement which ultimately cost the lives of two people, including the baby. It was the only possible choice of the hospital staff, for otherwise, they would have to bear responsibility for the consequences.
The husband was reluctant to sign the agreement because of the legal meaning of the signature. He knew he would have to bear all costs and the risk of the operation once he signed.
This tragedy typically shows the impact of legal concerns that arise in hospital-patient conflicts that occur frequently today. The increase in the strict obedience of the law, no matter the circumstances, is the result of efforts to make more people aware of the laws in recent years.
In the past, Chinese people would follow their ethical intuition in this kind of situation; but now they have become more "cool-minded" (or rather, cold-hearted).
The development of the understanding of laws in society is certainly a mark of social progress. However, there must be something wrong with the understanding of a particular law if it is followed so rigidly that a human life has to be lost. If the law itself states so, then it should be thrown into the dustbin.
Our problem is that over many years our efforts to promote knowledge of the laws, and the media reports about law-related cases, have been too focused on judicial responsibility. It prompts people to worry: "What kind of legal consequence will I face."
What kind of slogan have we used most in promoting knowledge of the laws? "Learn to protect your rights by legal means." People's understanding of the laws today is more an association between legality and interests. In a certain sense, our people have been misled.
Laws, in their original sense, requires people, in the first place, to observe certain rules so as to ensure that society gets along in an orderly and harmonious manner. It then punishes violators of the rules and regulations. In other words, for citizens, abiding by the laws to maintain social order is of primary importance, while avoiding violation of them, which incurs punishment, is of secondary importance.
Here the first thing is a legal obligation to maintain social justice while the second is to protect one's personal interests. People, however, intentionally or unintentionally, limit their understanding of law on the latter.
If anyone among the doctors, officials and policemen in the pregnant woman case had a correct understanding of the true meaning of law, someone would have said: "Put the legal responsibilities aside. Start the operation now."
----------------------all from chinadaily corpright
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