Political cartoonists have taken on the Beijing flood, posting images on Weibo and blogs that crystallize the major complaints to arise from this natural-and-man-made disaster:
Cars stalled by the heavy rain Saturday were ticketed for parking violations. (Dashix)
—How come my house flooded, but yours is okay?
—Well, maybe you owe money for the sewers… (Pearl Forest)
Beijing’s drainage system was built decades ago, and has not been cleaned or expanded to keep up with the booming population.
Netizens are galled at the Beijing municipal government’s calls for donations to local charities. Many want to know why such a rich country has to “beg” for money. In Kuang Biao’s cartoon, a greedy red box sporting the five stars and bright red of the Chinese flag holds up a sign for donations, impervious to being egged.
A donation box. The hand is generously giving “my ass.” Calls on Weibo to “donate my ass” went viral yesterday. The meme is now censored from Weibo searches.
Parody of CCTV spin by Big Red Machine. Piranhas escaped into Guangxi’s Liu River earlier this month.
The propaganda machine has clamped down on news and online commentary on the floods, as well as the horrific Wenzhou train crash of July 23, 2011. (Peaceful House Pearl Shimao)
