Wang,Jun: Reflection on the two snows in New York,U.S.A.
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Date: 1/14/2011 6:20:42 PM
Sender: Wang,Jun
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Wang,Jun: Reflection on the two snows in New York,U.S.A.
Chairman of China Democracy Party
Proprietor of “China Democracy Journal”
Wang,Jun
On Dec 26, 2010, N.Y. started to snow.
People always feel only the white Christmas has festive spirit, and the silver Christmas, at dusk on the 26th, the wind finally sent snow to northeast part in the U.S. A few hours later, the wind got stronger with heavier snow, fleeting cars on roads gradually turn to reptiles. On the morning of 27th in New York, only the major roads were clear, there were no cars on roads, and the mass transportation was paralyzed. Some people were trapped in subways, some passengers stayed up to seven hours with no water, no electricity and no heat, even ambulances were trapped on the way……
The snow in New York this time had more than ten inches, and was the sixth biggest snow in N.Y. history, but the damage caused was far worse than imaged. Four thousand households had no electricity, no one came to collect garbage, no one delivered mail, and there were no ambulances. The snow disaster kept for two days, buses finally opened on the third day, but far from ordinary level. Snows not cleaned for several days made garbage piled up, 200 ambulances were stuck on roads. 911 received over 5o thousands calls on the 27th, but emergency calls had to wait three hours to get through.
Picture 1: On Dec 26 to Dec 27, NY experienced the sixth snow in history (Taken by Wang,Jun).
Picture 2: On Dec 26 to Dec 27, NY experienced the sixth snow in history, the whole NY transportation was paralyzed (Taken by Wang,Jun).
Picture 3. On Dec 26 to Dec 27, NY experienced the sixth snow in history, many streets were covered by snow(Taken by Wang,Jun).
Picture 4. On Dec 26 to Dec 27, NY experienced the sixth snow in history, cars were buried by snow (Taken by Wang,Jun).
Picture 5. On Dec 26 to Dec 27, NY experienced the sixth snow in history, many buses in NY were stuck on roads(Taken by Wang,Jun).
Picture 6. On Dec 26 to Dec 27, NY experienced the sixth snow in history, many buses were trapped in the snow(Taken by Wang,Jun).
Picture 7. On Dec 26 to Dec 27, NY experienced the sixth snow in history, roadblock trucks were stuck on the road and unable to work(Taken by Wang,Jun).
Why was that? It’s heard that the situation was caused by passive work slowdown of government employees.
N.Y. government didn’t clean snow in time and caused the city virtually paralyzed, NY citizens were very angry with government’s ability to clear roads, and NY mayor Bloomberg was forced to apologize because of that. City council held the first public hearing which titled the December Blizzard of 2010: Evaluating the City’s Response on Jan 10, 2011. Sanitation Commissioner Doherty, Emergency Response Commissioner Bruno, Deputy Mayor Goldsmith and Fire Commissioner Cassano all committed improper handling of the snow storm, and officials had to apologize to NY citizens, “We didn’t do things NY citizens expect us to do, we let NY citizens down.”
The focus of the hearing was why there was no preparation before the snow forecast, why no announcement of “Snow Emergency” like Boston, Philadelphia, and New Jersey? The mayor’s office and OEM reported six factors of improper handling of the snow disaster, including no announcement of “Snow Emergency”; lack of understanding for street situations; lack of enough equipment to clean the snow and delay of the cleaning; no hiring of private resources to clean roads in time; lack of communication between governments and citizens; improper handling of emergency communication and response.
The hearing was held under great pressure of public opinions, and because of that, three days before the public hearing, NY had another snow, NY mayor had enough preparation and claimed there were very few places to clean, and the streets accumulated sea salts. The snow started to fell on the morning, but turned smaller in the afternoon, and almost stopped at 2:00 pm, up to the noon, the snow had only one inches, but 1700 snow removal trucks and 365 wagon for spraying salt were stand by, city government also dispatched observant vehicles with video cameras to patrol roads and make sure officials know the first-hand information. They government even put GPS on 50 snow removal trucks in Brooklyn to track them down and let them inform the situation first hand. He also expressed, all snow removal trucks will be equipped with GPS if needed.
The mayor worked very hard which because his support rate was hit in the earlier snow storm, according to the new public opinion survey, only 37% interviewees praised his work, and the number was 50% last year. During the interview, 71% expressed discontent for the work after the snow, and 21% expressed recognition of his efforts.
Picture 8. On Jan 7, 2011, NY had the second snow. Image showed snow removal trucks (Taken by Wang,Jun).
Picture 9. On Jan 7, 2011, NY had the second snow. Image showed small snow removal truck on streets (Taken by Wang,Jun).
The two snows in NY let me to think about democratic politics.
Firstly, democratic politics is better than autocratic government to correct wrongs. This is because the power originates from voters, not granted by upper levels. Therefore, the democratic government can serve the public, and the autocratic government only appeases leaders.
Secondly, though the Chinese government is not elected by people, I hope the Chinese government can keep pace with the times, and learn from democratic countries, thus it can guarantee improvement of people’s lives.
According to my observation, governments elected by voters are more likely to behave properly, not only restricted by votes, but also afraid of lawsuits by citizens. Because the American government has separation of powers, so judges do cases separately under judicial independence. This is not because judges are selfless but to prove the power and justice of judicial system and check of other government agencies. In addition, the judicial system also is supervised and restricted by public opinions and media.
Chinese people are very laborious, I believe that, if China can have democratic system with separation of powers, China’s development is like adding wings to a tiger, which allows fast and peaceful advancement for the rising of China.
At present, the third snow in this winter already fell in NY, and test ability of the democratic system. I also believe NY will qualify for that! Just like U.S. Defense Secretary Mr. Gates expressed before his visit to China, many countries in history underestimated America’s versatility. He warned, if CCP leaders think U.S. turns to a weak country because of the financial crisis, they are wrong. He claimed, “I have heard the decline of U.S. two or three times, the 1970s was the worst time, but my advice is, no matter domestic or overseas, those who think U.S. is declining and underestimate U.S. will be disposed to garbage.”
In my opinion, versatility of U.S. lies in deep-rooted democratic system. The depth of the system made the U.S. which relies on voters’ will not support China ruled by CCP.
If Chinese government really knows this point, it won’t take the same disastrous road as Germany and the Soviet Union, and can avoid untimely death of its rise.
01/11/2011
New York
U.S.A.
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