From the Readers

Attitude toward law blase

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-08 07:50

I'm a US citizen working as an English teacher at Zhaoqing University in Guangdong province. A new building is being built on the campus, right in front of and very close to my apartment complex. Sometimes the construction work continues till as late as 12:30 am (only to begin again the next day before 7 am).

I, and my colleagues, have complained to the administration but to no avail. I have even obtained a copy of Guangdong province's construction regulation, which states that all construction activities should stop at 10 pm. I have given copies of the regulation to administration officials without any visible effect. I have distributed copies to neighbors, too, but the response has been a shrug and the attitude that there is nothing that can be done about it.

Students also seem to have a blase attitude toward laws and their enforcement: laws exist, but they are meaningless, and there's little that can be done "until the government gets serious about it". Why do laws seem to be so meaningless to Chinese citizens? Don't people have any recourse? We have similar laws in the US, but they are enforced.

James Morgante,via e-mail

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(China Daily 04/08/2010 page9)