Follow up
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/2054391/China-earthquake-Education-official-speaks-of-school-deaths-shame.html
Lin Qiang, the deputy head of the provincial education bureau, called on his fellow officials to accept responsibility for the collapsed schools, which killed thousands of children and teachers across the province 19 days ago.
In a moving and unusually personal interview in a Chinese newspaper, he announced he would give up his place on the Olympic torch relay as a mark of respect and contrition.
“I have witnessed an appalling tragedy,” he said. “It has had an enormous impact on my soul.”
“From the moment of the earthquake on, I have found I cannot bear the idea of passing the buck for the protection of life.
“With so many young lives taken away, so many families broken, we couldn’t count ourselves human beings, let alone educators, if we didn’t put the value of life before politics and bureaucracy, if we officials still tried to avoid responsibility and protect ourselves.”
Mr Lin described how he had been forced – the day after the quake – to look the tragedy square on when he visited Beichuan middle school, where more than 1,300 children and teachers died. There, he met a woman who had just watched her son die while waiting to be rescued.
He laid the blame squarely on corruption: not far away was a charity school whose backers had personally overseen its construction to ensure standards were maintained and money not siphoned off.
“It’s morally lazy to blame nature for human tragedies. The child could have survived. The school building could have stood upright.”