Orange uniforms a new badge of honor

The sudden snow last week that blocked roads, snarled traffic and shut schools in Beijing caught residents off-guard. The weather station said both the precipitation and the low temperatures broke records from the past four decades. However, I was stunned to learn one near-tragic aspect in the aftermath - a street sweeper fell into coma after working almost non-stop for four days.

Wang Changrong, 48, was believed to have had a brain hemorrhage. He regained consciousness after four days in a coma but can barely speak and may be left partially paralyzed.

Wang's plight merits our attention. The city's orange-uniformed cleaners are seen on the streets year-round. He was not alone in having had little rest last week, many other city workers had a similarly difficult few days because of the snow.

The record-breaking snowfall might be blamed, but it is no excuse - we could have lost a life.

In the Beijing News report, a colleague of Wang appealed to people to clean the snow from their own doorsteps.

Born and raised in Northeast China, I remember that each time it snowed there, my classmates and I would each take shovels from home to the school to clear the campus. And every family would clear snow from their doorsteps. It was the natural thing to do.

We could have avoided this near-tragedy in Beijing if everyone had pitched in to ease the city employees' workload. We owe them our deepest respect for the hard work they do on our behalf. Their efforts ensure traffic flows and a clean environment for us.

A cleaner has reportedly complained that it's impossible to get a taxi ride home after they finished their work at 1 am. "Was it because of our mud-stained orange uniforms?" he asked.

(China Daily 01/11/2010 page27)