Voices

Beijing grass always greener underfoot

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-21 07:58

Beijing grass always greener underfoot

The 9,600 square meters of lawns beside the Tiananmen Square will reportedly get new grass. The news reminded me a picture online with a caption saying that some tourists disregard the signs reading "keep off the grass" and traipse across the lawns beside the square.

To keep off the grass has long been a social code. But still some people cannot resist the temptation of the soft grass. We cannot place all the blame on them.

From the day of their appearance in the West, lawns were supposed to serve people and pets. In other countries, there is almost no lawn that keeps people from entering. People, for example, are often seen playing and relaxing on the lawn in front of the White House.

City planners in China, however, have been building lawns with grass that look good but vulnerable to trampling. People can only appreciate the grass from a distance.

Fortunately this will soon be changed. City planners have finally realized that lawns should be used. The Beijing municipal planning commission has said that the capital will build lawns open to the public. In the future, people can sit and lie on the grass and enjoy the nature.

I suggested that the building of open lawns start with those beside the Tiananmen Square. Tourists clearly feel that there is no other good place around the square for them to take a rest. So why not open the lawns to them?

Excerpts from a comment in Beijing News

Police should follow the letter of the law

The public security department in Qingxi town of Dongguan, Guangdong province, made public the photos of two women suspected of prostitution. In the picture carried in Southern Daily, the two women were in the street, barefoot, two hands tied together by a rope.

I can hardly believe my eyes, were the policemen parading them through the streets?

Days ago there was other news. The police bureau in Wuchang of Hubei province caught a group of people suspected of being involved in the illegal sex trade. Notices bearing their names were placed around streets in the district.

Prostitution, no doubt, should be dealt with harshly, but the question is, is it proper for the police to publicize suspects' pictures and names?

The police department should carry out their duties strictly in line with laws, including the campaign against prostitution. According to the law on public security administration punishments, those who prostitute, or visit prostitutes, should be detained between 10 to 15 days, plus a fine of less than 5,000 yuan. Those with minor offenses should be detained for no more than five days, plus a fine of less than 500 yuan. There is no such punishment as a street parade stipulated in the law.

The law also stipulates punishments should be carried out openly and justly, the police should respect and protect human rights, and protect citizens' dignity. The women who are suspected of prostitution still have human rights and dignity as citizens before they are deprived of the citizenship right.

The local police department has obviously infringed upon the suspects' human rights and dignity parading them on the streets and publicizing their names.

Such a practice should no longer happen when we are striving to build a citizenship society ruled by law.

Excerpts from a comment in Beijing Times