China resorts to methods from the Cultural Revolution to fight the virus
 
The SARS has become the new enemy and the foremost threat to the government.  Appeared in La Nación.

The new rules include rewards for those who denounce people who have symptoms of the fever Doctors and nurses are the new "communist martyrs"

PEKIN (EFE).- China is resorting to some of the most efficient methods from the Cultural Revolution and traditional communism to win its battle against the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which endangers the ideal of "modestly comfortable society" expressed by ex president Jiang Zemin.

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Since there appeared the first credible figures of this epidemics, which is harassing Beijing, especially in the rural areas, the government has started to return to the communist vocabulary from Mao Tse Tung's time, only with new revolutionary saints: doctors and nurses.

"Angels in white" or "communist martyrs" are some of the names the media call them, while people benefit them with millionaire donations for their "sacrifice for the homeland's sake".

Their families conform the new privileged class, as were the children of revolutionary martyrs, killed in battle, in times of the most exacerbated communism.

Privileged class

According to what the media said recently, doctors' and nurses' children will have priority to be admitted in the best universities of the country, provided that they satisfy the minimum requirements.

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The benefits are even greater: doctors and nurses will not pay taxes while the epidemics lasts, their salary will be risen, some banks will not penalize delays in the payments of mortgages and they will receive money and electronic applies from donations made by individuals and companies.

For some, however, these rewards are not enough, bearing in mind that they are "in the first firing line" and that "among them is the largest number of casualties".

According to the World Health Organization, at least 20% of de contagions in China have been among medical staff, and the percentage rises among other analysts to 40 or 50.

"They are risking their lives for our sake and deserve our gratitude and respect. Money, privileges, it all seems little for someone who endangers their life for me", says old Mrs. Wang.

The Chinese government, led by a "young" Hu Jintao, head of the fourth generation of leaders and who replaced Jiang Zemin last November, has turned the struggle against this illness its top priority, because China cannot afford to jeopardize its economic development.

More than 1300 million Chinese trust that the modernization and opening process launched in the 70s can become established in the "modestly comfortable society", which seems now a little more distant from the current situation, due to a new enemy: SARS.



   May 12, 2003.

For reading the complete article (in spanish), click here.