50,000

Grant Gaska

I. China quake toll 'to top 50,000', BBC news, chosen May 15, 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7402460.stm
II. The Chinese government was warned the death toll would surpass 50,000 after the death toll was reported at 19,500. There are about 10 million people who were affected in the Sichuan province directly. Millions probably through family ties and others were indirectly affected which is an enormous number. So far there are 60,000 people who were rescued. Also the Chinese have reached all areas were affected, even the most remote areas by soldiers who parachuted down to the areas. There is still much work that needs to be done such as some areas that were ignored because of the lack of man power and for that reason the Chinese government plans to dedicate 30,000 more troops to reach that area. It has been said by the ‘distraught’ families and the soldiers there that they need more tools such as: hammers shovels, cranes and rubber boats. Also many more people will die without more advanced medical equipment and the Red Cross and other relief companies have issued emergency aid requests to help the many homeless and hurt.
III. a. This article relates to the AP world theme, Impact of technology, economics, and demography on people and the environment. This is because of the need for technology and money to pay for the ever mounting cost of the incident.
b. China is an always has been an isolated area but it is prone to huge death tolls when an earthquake strikes because of their isolationist nature. When the earthquake it a few days ago they needed to drop soldiers out of planes to reach some of the areas that were effected. Now china’s opening their doors and is calling for aid.
c. This article is most likely written by a male who is an outsider probably from the UK based on that BBC is based in the UK.
d. You should approach this article with caution because he is an outsider who knows little about the incident itself. Also the author implies that some of the relief workers were making things worse. This is very hard for a relief worker to do.
e. One point of view that would be useful would be the point of view of one of the survivors of the incidents. To see what it was like to have to survive such a traumatic incident.
f. I think this issue is much worse then it had to be. The first mistake would be that there are 10 cities almost on top of a fault line which is not a good place to live. Also maybe if other countries didn’t have to ask permission to come to help many less would have died.