Why are only 2 flies allowed in toilets in China? Reading between the lines….

Where else but in China can you expect to hear, see and experience the bizarre?

I just read the new ‘rule’ issued by the Chinese government that there should be no more than ‘two flies’ in the public toilets of Chinese cities!

Start of the BBC article :

End of of the BBC article.

Did you just say, “huh?” 

This reminds me of the draconian and horrific ‘Four Pests Campaign’ initiated by Mao Zedong in 1958 who decreed that rats, mosquitoes, rats and sparrows be eliminated all over China.

I reproduce the wikipedia description of that movement here:

“The campaign against the ‘Four Pests’ was initiated in 1958 as a hygiene campaign by Mao Zedong, who identified the need to exterminate mosquitoes, flies, rats, and sparrows. Sparrows were included on the list because they ate grain seeds, robbing the people of the fruits of their labour.

The masses of China were mobilized to eradicate the birds, and citizens took to banging pots and pans or beating drums to scare the birds from landing, forcing them to fly until they fell from the sky in exhaustion. Sparrow nests were torn down, eggs were broken, and nestlings were killed.

Sparrows and other birds were shot down from the sky, resulting in the near-extinction of the birds in China. Non-material rewards and recognition were offered to schools, work units and government agencies in accordance with the volume of pests they had killed.

By April 1960, Chinese leaders realized that sparrows ate a large amount of insects, as well as grains. Rather than being increased, rice yields after the campaign was substantially decreased.

Mao ordered the end of the campaign against sparrows, replacing them with bedbugs in the ongoing campaign against the Four Pests.

By this time, however, it was too late. With no sparrows to eat them, locust populations ballooned, swarming the country and compounding the ecological problems already caused by the Great Leap Forward, including widespread deforestation and misuse of poisons and pesticides.Ecological imbalance is credited with exacerbating the Great Chinese Famine in which upwards of 30 million people died of starvation.”

End of Wikipedia citation.

Now, sparrows and flies are certainly not the same, and I’m not sure what benefit flies provide to the world and its citizens. However, I do know this:

Bizarre, unconventional, illogical and let me add, stupid rules are typical of the China government.

It reflects their ‘state of mind’ – that the entry and exit of flies in a public toilet should be controlled.

The Chinese government treats its citizens like flies. They control their movements, their actions, their words and deeds and pass rules and regulations and laws that make them obey.

Given the four to five years I spent in China intermittently (starting, establishing and selling Mobile2win China), I have experienced that country’s hostility towards ‘freedom’ of any sort, in close proximity. 

(A set of mini stories of my personal experiences is produced as a link after this blog)

How does a rule like this get regulated? 

Are public health inspectors supposed to visit public toilets in China and count the number of flies inside? So, if a toilet is dirty and smelly or clean and welcoming, is the focus to be on the number of flies? 

If they find three flies, what will happen?

–       will the toilet cleaner get charged with treason and be imprisoned?

–       will the flies also be arrested and locked up?

Chinese government rules are purposely bizarre and stupid because that allows them to be interpreted in any which way that ‘they’ want.

Is this ‘two flies’ rule ‘good’ by law?

I don’t think so. If a toilet cleaner has to defend himself in a court of law, what will his defense be? That the flies did not ask him permission to come in?

(Please do read the link of additional stories made available after this blog for real life examples) 

This is a bold, covert message that China is sending out.

This is a typical indirect yet highly emboldened message that the Chinese government is sending out to the world.

In my mind it reads, ‘If we can control the number of flies in China, then we can control our currency, the line of control (LOC) with India, the banishment of the Dalai Lama, the bloggers and journalists in China, the do’s and don’t of our citizens’ freedom (human rights be damned), our influence over North Korea, our supply of nuclear arms to countries that want to buy them, our production of Olympic games medal winners and how we behave in the global world.’ 

Ha! 

And you thought, this was about flies in a toilet?! 

**** 

Essential reading that substantiates all that I have said about China: 
China – The Den of Thieves, Crooks and Scoundrels (6 mini stories)