Throwing good money after bad

Neither the American basketball player who scattered cash nor the students who jostled for it should be blamed for the incident in the poor county of Hunan. More to the point is that local officials should not have squandered taxpayers'money by organizing such an expensive match, says an article in Yangcheng Evening News. Excerpts:

Last month, a US basketball team, which was invited by the sports bureau of Jishou, Hunan province, for a game, visited a local middle school. Before the team left, a player suddenly tossed some cash out through the bus window. This led to an unseemly scramble by the nearby middle school students.

The incident has stirred an intense debate among the public. Some feel ashamed of the behavior of the students and regard it as an insult to our national honor. Others blame the American basketball player for deliberately humiliating the Chinese people by throwing currency notes to make them jostle for it.