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To: RealMuLan who wrote (34946)	6/13/2003 12:45:20 AM
From: RealMuLan	Respond to of 74559

ASIA FILE China turns Sars to its good Barun Roy Published : June 13, 2003 Inside every adversity there’s always an element of good, if only one knows how to look for it and seize it to one’s advantage. There couldn’t possibly be a better example of this than post-Sars China. As the country battles the residue of the dreaded viral disease, its biggest public health disaster in recent history, the ground is already prepared to ensure that such emergencies don’t catch the system unprepared and helpless again. The biggest gain to come out of the crisis is a vast enhancement in the level of popular awareness of what it takes to maintain public health. People are now more careful about personal hygiene and public cleanliness. They are washing their hands and faces more frequently and covering up their noses before they sneeze or cough. Hundreds of thousands of booklets on public health precautions have been distributed across the country. In Guangdong province, said to be the source of the Sars epidemic, people volunteered to help clean up private residences and wash public facilities. Half the battle is thus already won as the government now seeks to stamp out spitting in public, a widespread habit among the Chinese — as among Indians — and a potent public health danger. In parks and malls, little white plastic spit bags are handed out to people with this warning printed on them: “Spitting on the ground is dangerous to your health. Spit contains infectious diseases.” Anyone caught ignoring the warning is slapped a fine, which varies from 20 yuan ($ 2.41) in Hefei, capital of Anhui Province, to 200 yuan ($ 24.1) in Shanghai. In Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, hidden cameras are used to catch spitting offenders. Public health is now a legislative priority in China and one of the objectives is to establish a quick response mechanism to deal with Sars-like emergencies. A regulation passed directly by the state council, rather than the ministry of health, and signed by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao himself, stipulates that all future epidemic outbreaks must be reported immediately to a national emergency headquarters. China still smarts from international criticism that it failed to report the Sars epidemic early and wants to ensure that such failures don’t occur again. The regulation also establishes a fast-deployment mechanism to enhance the government’s ability to handle emergencies and puts a heavier burden on the provincial authorities. More significantly, it gives individuals and organisations the right to report authorities that don’t perform their duties well or hide or delay information. If found guilty, criminal charges will be pressed against them. Governments above the county level must build up and maintain at all times reserves of materials, equipment and technology that might be needed in the battle to protect public health. Several other positive things have resulted from the Sars crisis. In the drafting stage is a plan for an effective medical system to deal with public health emergencies. Provincial and local governments have been asked to invest in facilities to form a nationwide network of disease prevention and control. And a massive survey is being made of the pattern of rural migration that is expected to help officials track the movement of epidemics across the country. The survey, begun on May 1 and undertaken by grassroots family planning workers, has already yielded some interesting statistics. It’s now known that in the first 15 days of May alone, some 2.35 million left Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Guangdong, which were among the worst affected Sars areas, while 3.318 million people had flowed into Anhui, Henan, Hunan, Jiangsu, Hubei, Jiangxi, Hebei and Guangxi provinces. The information was quickly fed into a special website, which helped government departments make timely adjustments to their anti-Sars battle plan. Above all, the Sars scare has spurred scientific research into the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. The Shanghai Academy of Sciences has initiated a project to find an effective cure based on existing anti-virus treatments. The effort finds an extra push from the authorities’ intention to turn Shanghai into the nation’s healthiest city by 2005. A report in the People’s Daily says at least 85 items of research on atypical pneumonia are being pursued in laboratories around the country. The objective is to find out how epidemics like Sars evolve and disseminate, how actual morbidity can be reduced, and how the preventive capabilities of clusters of people can be raised. All this proves once again that China is willing to learn from its mistakes and failures, and act on its decisions. This has been strength behind its recent economic success and will be its bolster for the future. Sars may have left the country badly scarred, but in the end it will emerge much stronger to deal with future emergencies. That’s the difference between China and many other countries, including ours. business-standard.com

To: RealMuLan who wrote (34946)	6/13/2003 1:36:04 AM
From: energyplay	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

The calculation of personal saving is done by taking an approximation of income and subtracting a proximation of expenses. An error prone proceedure at a minimum. The income approximations DO NOT count capital gains - so some one who made 80k a year in salary, 20 k in capital gains, and spent 76k gets counted as saving 4k, or a 5% rate. Capital gains have been an increasing part of compensation for years. So when you see that very low savings rate for the US - remeber it may not match reality...