HARDLY SURPRISING WHEN A SOCIETY THAT HATES CHILDREN...:

Beijing's silence hints at school coverup (Antoaneta Bezlova, 7/09/08, Asia Times)

Poorer places like Sichuan, where the May 12 earthquake struck, struggled to comply with Beijing targets. Local government coffers were not deep enough to pay for teachers' salaries and construct new school buildings just as children of the baby-boom generation were entering the classroom. Money was raised through bank loans and donations, creating a pile of debts.

The dearth of funds led to cutting corners in school construction and the so-called "three without" schools emerged in rural areas - classrooms built without standardized design, without construction supervision and without quality control.

"We have a saying in our industry that bridges are gold, roads are silver and schools are worse than scrap iron," said Chang, a construction engineer with projects in Sichuan province who wants only his surname used. "Contractors make very little money out of school projects and they often squeeze their profit from the construction material."

Seismologists and construction experts have pointed to the lack of reinforcing iron bars in many of the collapsed school buildings and the use of substandard slab floors.

...warehouses them in deathtraps.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 8, 2008 6:54 AM