“FOOD FIGHT!!!”
Posted on 11/26/2010 1:27:17 PM PST by llevrok
Generations of British children could sympathise with the impulse to riot over school dinners. But the Chinese teenagers who rampaged through their cafeteria this week were protesting at the rocketing prices of meals rather than the quality of the food.
While British students took to the streets to demonstrate against rising tuition fees, those at a school in Guizhou trashed the dinner hall after learning that the cost of dishes had gone up by an average of 0.5 yuan (5p).
The south-western province is one of the poorest in China, with more than 5.5 million people living in poverty – 15% of the country's total, according to the state news agency Xinhua.
The incident underscores the government's concern that rising food prices could lead to instability. Last week Beijing announced it would sell commodities from its reserves and ordered local officials to take measures including clamping down on speculation, increasing vegetable planting and offering subsidies to low-income households.
"This is the second price hike at the cafeteria. Students were discontented and agreed to smash it," a pupil named Chen told the Guizhou Metropolis Daily. A local newspaper said 1,000 students rioted but headteacher Fan Guoqing told AFP that "only 10 to 20 students took part while many others cheered them on". The incident ended when police arrived.
"The prices have returned to their original levels. The operations of both the cafeteria and the school have returned to normal," a local official told the Global Times. "Those students are mostly from poor families and they will be not be held legally responsible."
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
This might have something to do with the One-Child rule giving rise to pampered, spoilt brats.
Don’t repoen the cafeteria. Announce a bring-your-lunch policy.
Or the trillions the ChiComs are sitting on. Without “thou shalt not envy” being prevalent, riots are what’s left.
Ahh so. Food fight. Wait til they start rationing and they’re so hungry they are going for each others throats...
“FOOD FIGHT!!!”
Envy a la French Revolution? They’ll get mowed down by the authorities if they take that step.
***Ahh so. Food fight. Wait til they start rationing and they’re so hungry they are going for each others throats...***
Bring back Mao’s food credits. So much work = so much food.
Price controls!!! Yeah, that will do the trick.
Food shortages start in ...3...2...1...
It does no good whatsoever to know that the price rose “.5 yuan (5p)” without knowing the original price.
Was this a 0.5%, 5%, 50%, or 500% increase? Are the students forced to pay for the meals, or can they bring their own food?
Where is the “this is important news worth wasting ink on” ‘hook’?
Yank there chop sticks.
Additional.
“Last Monday night, students who went to the cafeteria after classes found prices had jumped by almost 50 per cent on a range of items.”
No, it has to do with an unbelievably poor Chinese countryside. The cities we are used to seeing are not as prosperous as they look, and the situation away from them is very bad. BTW, by 12/31 I will have been to China 3 times this year.
China? This sounds like the U.S.
(poor misguided yutes).
Yuan Guozhong blamed price hikes on soaring food prices. “Some students” are “from low-income families,” he explained, and are very price-sensitive.
So much for that ...and to each according to his need" stuff they were always bragging about. :-)
Contrary to what I may choose to post, the simple fact is, if a thread topic is of sufficient interest I will open multiple tabs doing searches for things of relevance. Sometimes I can get fairly tangential. That is where having a copy of this can come in handy.
Bigheadfred's Incomprehensible and Incoherent Rantography
It is still in the beta version. But I expand it all the time. I occasionally have the help of fellow FReepers.
Reference
I include The Comedian in this ping because he seems to know about China's deeper troubles. And I find (some of) his posts to be inciteful.
I include SunkenCiv in this ping just in case he feels the need to testify. ;-)
I was fearful that by not qualifying the remark you would get a bighead....
And I appreciate you qualifying yours. Fauning over me is, well, I’m not EVEN a moslem...
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