China Wants Extra Compensation For New Zealand Earthquake Victims

Tragically, natural disasters happen through no fault of any one person or government entity. It seems Mother Nature has been cruelly working overtime these past few years, what with the huge quake in Haiti, the recent one in New Zealand, followed shortly thereafter by the mega-earthquake in Japan. Government's have no control over Mother Nature, other than making sure that the houses and buildings in their lands can withstand a major seismic shift in the earth plates, by meeting certain standards. Other than that, there's not much they can do, but they are often held accountable, that's why New Zealand has a special insurance policy to prevent liability.

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To prevent people from suing the government, New Zealand provides a no-fault accident insurance plan that covers all NZ citizens and visitors to the country. The Accident Compensation Corporation compensates people who suffer personal injury and death. In this case, as a result of the recent earthquake, people have been entitled to a certain monetary sum. But according to the Chinese government, it wasn't enough compensation for the parents of the 7 students who died in the 6.3 magnitude quake, and the 24 who are missing. Unfortunately, these students had been studying at an English language school when the quake hit. The tragedy, for the Chinese families, is heightened as a result of China's drastic one-child policy, which means these poor families lost their only child.

Cheng Lee, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in New Zealand said: "You can expect how lonely, how desperate they are, not only from losing loved ones, but losing almost entirely their source of economic assistance after retirement." Lee claimed the amount wasn't enough to support the parents during retirement. But why should New Zealand pay these families "extra" compensation for what amounted to an act of God? And it's not New Zealand's fault that China forced these parents to have only one child. China should bear the responsibility for taking care of the parents when they retire, but they are looking to New Zealand to provide for these families. But New Zealand isn't having it.

In spite of the Chinese Ambassador, Xu Jianguo's demand for more money, New Zealand has refused the continuous requests, other than promise to help ship the bodies back to China.

The amount isn't much, approximately $3,340.00, enough for funeral arrangements, and some extra money for surviving families, but not for parents. New Zealand officials claim they can't make exceptions for certain people, nor should they.

What happened in New Zealand is as tragic as any other country that has suffered, but blame Mother Nature, not New Zealand.

Source: Earth Times