Probe into why close to 7,000 classrooms were destroyed begins; Day of reckoning to arrive soon

To blame the collapse of 7,000 schools / buildings / classrooms on individuals and threatening them with severe punishment at the beginning of an investigation is precisely the wrong approach.

When 7,000 school structures collapse, it is premature to say that it can be entirely blamed on corruption or incompetence by individuals.

Building codes and construction techniques should be, and always are, created with a certain safety margin in anticipation of shoddy construction, corrupt building inspectors and contractors, and other factors.

When that many structures fail not only in the epicenter, but further away, it begs the question as to whether there is not significant issues with the basic designs, principles of construction.

Without a doubt there will be corruption and shoddy construction found --- that is the case in almost every case where a event like an earthquake (or storm) stresses a man-made structure.

However, to crassly suggest executing the entire group of officials and contractors responsible is precisely the wrong response.

What that does is to encourage everyone to simply do their best to cover up and deny that they have any role in the disaster.

What is needed is a no-fault, honest, fair, and impartial examination of causes, and in most cases, without pinning fault on individuals, learn the lessons, repair and retrofit the buildings elsewhere that are still in use wherever possible, and to improve new construction.

No doubt there will be a few clearly egregious cases where officials and contractors were clearly responsible, and had they met even a minimum standard, the buildings would have remained standing. That is an argument for a few to be so punished to the full extent of the law.

However, a blame game, finger pointing, and failure to channel the people's anger (whether legitimate or not) is a fine way to ensure that this disaster repeats itself because Chinese engineers, scientists, and builders would not have learned valuable lessons unimpeded by the need to seek revenge.

For example, it is not enough to just build stronger structures. There is no such thing as an earthquake proof structure --- you can only build to certain levels of protection, and inevitably, the earthquake that hits will just be slightly stronger than you have designed for.

Indeed, Japanese studies after the Kobe earthquake found that their strategy of building extremely strong and stiff structures were actually a negative, because the stiff structural elements transmitted shock and energy and made buildings more likely to collapse.

On the other hand, American building codes in California specified structures there were more flexible, compliant, and weaker. While this may intuitively seem to be poorer construction than the Japanese way, in actual disasters, American structures were able to bend, sway, and absorb a large amount of the energy of the quake often by parts of the building failing (cracking, etc.) BUT the building remained standing long enough to allow the occupants to escape. On the other hand, when the stiffer Japanese buildings failed, they just collapsed --- killing and trapping everyone inside.

Most building codes do not build "collapse tolerance" into structures that even if it fails, have a failure mode that gives people inside a chance to evacuate, or provide known strong points in a building for people inside a building to evacuate to.

These are hard, and tough lessons, and the trade offs are just as hard to make in the absence of actual earthquakes to test the theories.

These are the kind of issues that need to be studied and where it is cost effective, implemented together with reforms in how contractors and building inspection is supervised.

Let our prayers and grief be expressed in a constructive manner, and let those 20,000 to 50,000 who died not die in vain --- which would be the case if all parties learned nothing and changed nothing from this tragedy.

Let the dead bury their dead.

Let those who want vengeance get it from heaven.

Let those who are living now do their utmost to help the survivors, and to rebuild newer, better, safer for the next generation.

Let the scientists and engineers be allowed to do their work to understand the tragedy, and let everyone, from officials to contractors, give them their full co-operation without fear from the blame game.

An eye for an eye will only extend this tragedy.

Chinese blogs, questioning why schools collapsed while other government buildings were still standing, have been swiftly removed by censors, because it ain't the official party line of praising army and the party/government leaders.

Allegations of crime, however, may not be universally valid.

It is, however, thoroughly possible that building codes were not followed, not necessarily out of bad intention, but may be because of lack of resources. Undoubtedly mistakes were made. A thorough investigation is absolutely warranted. It is important to learn from mistakes in the past in order to avoid mistakes in future.

And if there was personal gain involved in building shoddy structures, punishment is a must.

Generally, I think that public buildings should be the safest, most sturdy buildings, wheresoever.

China Daily were advertising a campaign recently, asking for donations for building schools in Gansu province. I was surprised about the small amounts needed to build a school. I hope this is not to create another set of doomed buildings.

History has just been made!

Please bronze the above comments for posterity.

A B just earned a constructive and potentially positive comment from the infamous nanheyangrouchan!

Oh my, and I didn't even shave my head and put on Monk grabs and started chanting!

Somebody call 911 and get that nan... a psychiatrist right away before he goes any further down this path!