Civilized behavior

People need to queue up because only when everyone behaves this way will everyone get what they want (as counter-intuitive as that sounds). The government should budget more money to educate citizens and hire more officers to enforce civilized behavior. Leaving people to their own devices (through lack of enforcement) will not solve the problem.

Crossing road junctions any- where in China, even in "civilized" Shanghai, can be hazardous because drivers (including public transport drivers) always seem to be able to "turn right on red" without heeding pedestrians. Also at road junctions, right-turning vehicles compete head-on with oncoming traffic for use of the junction space. Why can't China have a traffic light system where time is allocated specially for turning traffic instead of having these two kinds of drivers competing head-to-head for space on the road? China has so many smart people in government, surely this flaw should be apparent to everyone.

Alvin Confused foreigner

Via e-mail

Aging problem

Comments on "Most people free to have more than one child" ( China Daily, July 11).

The essential problem with our population now is not a "population surge", but the aging of the entire society. Just imagine that maybe one day in the future most of the population would consist of old fellows tottering on the streets!

Jazzboy

On the China Daily website

We still have a long way to go before the whole nation is reasonably well protected by a social security system, which depends as much on individual contributions as the performance of the economy.

Without such a safety net, it will be impossible to convince poor farmers that they can live through their sunset years without at least one son taking care of them.

And let's not forget the ancient belief that only the son carries on the family name, or the blood-line. Call it part of our Chinese heritage if you will because it has little to do with one's upbringing and even less with wealth.

Only people who have led a dehumanizing existence for so long that a normal family no longer makes any sense to them can afford to ignore their generational duties. Whether most of them do so is another story.

What really scares me is not over-population or a gender imbalance, but the fact that we are already showing signs of becoming an aging society when we are at least a couple decades short of being capable of dealing with the problem gracefully.

Jim

On the China Daily website

The new regulation is useful just to city people, not to the rich or to poor people in the countryside.

Without the regulation, some Chinese people would have more than one child.

The government should solve this problem.

Free

On the China Daily website

Readers' comments are welcome. Please send mail to Letters to the Editor, China Daily, 15 Huixin Dongjie, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100029 China. Send faxes to (86-10) 6491-8377. Send e-mail to opinion@chinadaily.com.cn or letters@chinadaily.com.cn or to the individual columnists. China Daily reserves the right to edit all letters. Thank you.

(China Daily 07/17/2007 page11)