China introduces 'one-dog policy'

Often, I think I know China well. However, just as often, it occurs to me that I don't really know what I thought I knew. The visions and experiences collected and stored in my mind while I am awake are gone after I have slept. Reasoning and understanding seem to last only for a few hours before becoming illusory: the images and meanings disappear one by one, stolen from me by apparitions and secreted away, never to be returned in their original form. The understandings that I have assiduously acquired are nothing more than banal when bound together to try and shape the oldest continuous civilization on earth. Experience, learning, and proudly possessed knowledge, gained from many sources and from interaction with its people, are taken from everyone who thinks they know China and passed on to others who share them smugly, use them with confidence, reverently broadcast them as Gospel for a few praiseworthy moments. "I know China." Then, time and circumstance mangle them until they are beyond comprehension. These ,too, will be passed on and shared as truth, only to be proved wrong again. The enigma is this: China never changes, but China always changes. Its people beset by burden, affected with melancholy, inured to bewilderment, and suckled on uninterrupted millennia of incalculable hopelessness and sorrow. "There is chaos under heaven and things could not be better", said Mao Zedong. This is the real truth: "China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese" - Charles De Gaulle. China: don't ask, it is what it is... ,,,,,,,,W.D. Box

11/11/2010

China introduces 'one-dog policy'

Shanghai officials have reportedly introduced a new 'one dog policy', mirroring the country's one child policy, in an attempt to free up living space.

A new draft dog law would limit each household to just one canine, citing Shanghai's population of 20 million people and limited living space, the official China Daily reported.

The government said tighter regulation was needed due to rampant barking, unscooped waste, and the growing risk of dog attacks, which affect the city's environment and sanitation, the report said.

Under the policy, dog owners also must give their pets' puppies to eligible no-dog households or to government-approved adoption agencies before the puppies reach three months, the newspaper said.

Dog ownership has grown alongside China's fast-expanding middle class with official estimates putting Shanghai's pet dog population at 800,000 – although only a quarter of that number are registered, the report said.

Read more at The Telegraph

Nov 11, 2010 8:52:31 AM | Animals, Current Affairs

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