John Ray from the Guardian reported children beggars’ living condition in Beijing and he is worried about how China will “clear the streets of the thousands” before the 2008 Olympics. But China refuses to say.
Nature Has not been kind to Gao Zhou Zhou – though not as cruel as other human beings. Her back is bent and bowed; her legs fold uselessly beneath her. She gets around using a homemade skateboard. Her arms, legs and face are very, very dirty. She doesn’t know her age – she looks perhaps 15 – and she cannot remember her real parents. But she knows the pain of life on the streets of Beijing. ‘When I first came here they beat me so hard I nearly died. They beat me and they beat me,’ she says.
It was three years ago when a man she calls ‘uncle’ came to her village. There was a cash transaction with her stepfather, who was promised the equivalent of ¬£150 in instalments. In the land of the rampant capitalist, this was just another business deal….[Full Text]