As a foreigner, living in Beijing is to be exposed to extraordinary contrasts almost on a daily basis. One gets used to the excellence of the transport system, the availability of all but the most obscure of home comforts and a standard of living unsustainable at home. At the same time my work brings me into contact with those at the bottom of the economic ladder, who are those whom, in any society, struggle for recognition, but as residents of the Chinese countryside are not even guaranteed a place on the first rung; I speak of the handicapped, and the disabled, those who can be abandoned at birth here as being of no value, but whom the Irish language refer to graciously as “God’s People”. Recently, I came across a group of Sisters offering the possibility of a life to these children whom society has rejected.
At first it was supposed to be a straight forward visit to an orphanage. The Sisters would be gracious, the children winsome and the decisions made about cooperation reasonable. The Sisters were indeed gracious, the children more winsome than I could have expected, but I left with an overwhelming sense that the home was stuck in a rut, offering barely basic care to “God’s People” when even I could see that more was possible. It was hard to see a child of 10 denied a cleft palate operation because he was also severely mentally disabled and therefore was “less in need of the surgery” or to see a crippled child not get an education because he could not be brought to school. It was deeply disturbing and part of me wanted to shout at those dedicated women for their lack of imagination and for neglecting the children whom God had put in their charge.
Of course to do so would have been grossly unfair. I would be shouting at them for being as poor as their neighbours and for having horizons narrowed by that poverty. These dedicated women love the children; it is not their fault that they have not been introduced to the advances in professional care which we take for granted. So I did not shout, and I hope I avoided communicating some of my frustration at the unrealised potential of this group of God’s People. After all, I will get into the transport they provided and drive back into my shiny Beijing world, while they have to continue to care for these children as best they can, depending on handouts from neighbours as poor as themselves. Every week a new child will arrive and they will try and care for him or her while I will write a moving article about it from my air-conditioned office. From this elevation one can see so clearly the needs of this or that child, but the Sisters clean up after them and share their very humble lifestyle. I could not do that and the three hours I spent there was long enough, thank you very much.
The Olympics is about the potentials of the most physically able women and men on the planet and the government has built beautiful temples to display their prowess. It is an achievement to be proud of. The potentials of “God’s people” in rural China are more modest, and the temples built by the Sisters are more ramshackled. Still, were there justice in this world, some of accolades showered on athletes and organisers alike would be going to the countryside, to “God People” and those who are care for them, even if the achievements seem, in comparison, very modest indeed.
Tags: Beijing Diaries, bricks, no child left behind, olympics, people with disabilities
