通通識 Editorial

A German volunteer who has long taught "leftbehind children" (whose parents work in citiesand who live alone or are looked after by theirrelatives in their villages) used to keep a blog and writeabout his thoughts. Last year CCTV interviewed him.

Some days ago he suddenly shut his blog down. Thevolunteer reportedly said he could not endure "theconsequences, responsibility and stress". Many thinkhe has been warned because he has revealed that"left behind children" are not adequately looked afterand, for that reason, he cannot but keep a low profile.

Eckart Loewe, the volunteer, who was born in1968 in Germany, once pursued his studies in China.

For more than ten years he has taught in a poor villagein China and looked after "left behind children" there.

According to an All All--China Women's Federationsurvey whose findings were published in May last year,there are more than 300 millions minors in China.

There are about 58 million left behind children in ruralareas, of whom more than 40 million are under 14. Thesurvey shows left behind children aredelinquency delinquency--prone. It can be imagined that suchchildren, deprived of parental discipline, may do poorlyin school and are liable to go astray.

Loewe has indeed described poverty in ruralChina. He has directly helped impoverished families. Ifmore people are aware of what he has seen, more willlend children in rural areas a helping hand. Chinesepeople ought to have offered the foreigner from afartheir sincere thanks. However, Loewe's blog has beenshut down. It can thus be imagined that officials incharge of such matters do not think so. They may thinkLoewe has unveiled an inglorious aspect of China.

They may fear people may ask why the governmenthas taken no measures to help the several ten million"left behind children and whether planning officialshave made mistakes.

The Chinese authorities are hostile towardsoutsiders and non non--mainland non non--governmentalorganisations (NGOs) that help Chinese people. LastFebruary, an urgent circular was sent purportedly fromthe leading Party group of the Ministry of Education totertiary institutes. It said that Oxfam Hong Kong ran itsuniversity student volunteer programme on themainland with bad motives and that its top managerswere leading figures of the opposition. Tertiaryinstitutes were told not to have anything to do with theNGO. Oxfam Hong Kong immediately suspended theprogramme.

Though the NGO's case is not entirely similar toLoewe's, they point to the mainland authorities' ideaabout voluntary work - that foreigners and foreignNGOs are welcome to do anti anti--poverty work in China,but they must confine themselves to poverty alleviationand they have no business to concern themselves withwhether China's policies are unfair. Anti-povertyworkers help those in the lowest social stratum.

Nevertheless, those people are poor most probablybecause the government's welfare policy is misguided,resources are unfairly distributed, citizens' rights arenot protected or local officials are corrupt and prone toabuse their powers. For example, left behind childrenhave problems because the authorities have pursuedtheir policy of encourage people to work elsewherewithout providing them with adequate support. Theblame rests on the authorities.

Provincial and municipal governments should notbe paranoiac. They should earnestly make an effort toimprove the people's wellbeing instead of trying torepress welldoers or to prevent foreign groups frominfiltrating into China under the guise of NGOs orforeigners from exposing the dark side of rural areas.

明報英語網「雙語社評」

english.mingpao.com/critic.htm

千萬「留守兒童」欠缺照顧 內地不應逼義工噤聲

一名德國籍義工長期在廣西貧困農村學校教育「留守兒童」（父母皆到城市打工，被留在農村獨自生活或交親友照顧的兒童），把箇中體會寫上網誌，去年更獲中央電視台專訪；但近日網誌突然關閉，更寫上該義工自稱承擔不了「後果、責任和壓力」的字句，外界估計他因揭露內地對留守兒童照顧不足而被警告，被迫「低調」行事。

該名德國籍義工盧安克（ Eckart Loewe Loewe）， ），1968 年生於德國，曾於中國留學， ，10 10 多年來一直在中國貧困農村當教師，並照顧當地的留守兒童。

根據全國婦聯去年55 月公布的調查，中國有33 億多未成年人士，約有5800 萬是農村留守兒童，其中4000 多萬是14 歲以下的小孩，即是說，上千萬個家庭都面對留守兒童的問題。調查更指出，部分留守兒童已成為青少年違法犯罪的高危人群。可以想像，這批兒童沒有父母管教，書讀得不好，也可能會學壞。

盧確實是點出了中國農村困苦的一面，並身體力行地服務貧困家庭。他的所見所聞讓外界知悉，只會讓更多有心扶助農村兒童的人伸出援手，中國人應向這位遠道而來的「老外」誠心道謝才是。但從盧的網誌被關閉就可以想像，主事官員並不是這麼想。他們也許認為，盧揭露了中國社會不光彩的一面，更甚的是，外界同時會質疑，為什麼政府沒有相應的政策協助這批數以千萬計的「留守兒童」，負責規劃的官員是否有過失等等。

中國政府對外地前來施以援手的人士及非政府組織（NGO NGO）抱有敵意。今年）22 月，內地突然流傳一封署名「中共教育部黨組」向全國高校發放的緊急通知，指香港樂施會在內地舉辦的大學生志願者計劃「用心不善」，又指樂施會負責人是「反對派骨幹」，要求學校斷絕來往，香港樂施會旋即暫停相關計劃。

樂施會事件雖然與德籍義工盧安克的情况不盡相同，卻反映了內地政府的同一個思維，就是雖然歡迎外地義工或NGO 到中國扶貧，但只限於扶貧本身，政府政策是否不公平是絕對不能碰的。但弔詭的是，扶貧工作對象是社會的最低層，他們貧窮的原因往往涉及福利政策欠周詳、資源分配不公、個人權益不受保障，甚至是地方權貴貪污濫權等。就以留守兒童為例，明顯就是中國鼓勵農民出外打工政策的配套不周而造成，政府負有不可推卸的責任。

各地省市政府與其天天疑心生暗鬼，把精力用於防範外國勢力假借NGO 之名入侵中國，防範老外義工把農村的陰暗面曝露於人前，忙於打壓好人，不如切切實實把精力用於改善人民的福祉吧。

明報社評 2010.05.24