Shedding Exhaustion

Lifeweek
July 22

Many people are now suffering from professional burnout. This condition will inevitably harm people's physical and psychological health and bring about serious social consequences.

In simple words, professional burnout relates to emotional and physical exhaustion caused by mounting work and frustration.

According to a report on professional burnout in China released by China Human Resources Development Network in 2004, at least 40 percent of those surveyed suffer from professional burnout. In striking contrast to this high percentage, there are only around 400 certificated psychotherapists in China. Most people regard professional burnout as a private problem caused by low work efficiency and weak willpower and won't share the heavy psychological burden with family members, colleagues or psychotherapists for as long as they can bear it.

Gaby Cora, a well-known psychologist majoring in career psychology, suggests that to get rid of this disease, people should first exercise at least 30 minutes every day and develop healthy hobbies. They should keep themselves off from work when having dinner or on vacation, while sometimes they can turn off mobile phones as well as stop refreshing e-mails. And they should deal with their work in the order of urgency and avoid doing multiple tasks simultaneously. In addition, people should not be ashamed of turning to professional psychotherapists for help.

Environmental Law

Xinhua Daily Telegraph
July 30

Recently, the draft of an amendment to the Environmental Protection Law, which was published on August 31, 2012, launched its second round of asking for public comments. How to ensure the law to be enforced effectively becomes a hot topic.

Take wetland conservation for instance. Many experts hold that some wetland parks are not environmentally friendly. In many cases, emphasis has been put on the park over the wetlands. Park managers spend most of the money constructing tourist facilities, but utilize very little for research into and protection of wetlands.

The burning of straw stalks is another example. Because the price of straw is so low, farmers are not willing to spend gas money to take them to collection centers, and end up burning most of it. To deal with this problem, many local governments simply impose a fines. But this has never stopped such behavior.

Such fake environmental protection activities serve only short-term purposes. In the long run, it will only harm the environment.

Phony Masters

People's Daily
July 30

Qigong is a traditional Chinese system of deep breathing exercises that help adjust blood circulation. But now some frauds practice deception under the cover of being so-called "qigong masters."

Wang Lin, 61, is one such "master" in China. Over the past two decades, he has duped numerous people, including government officials, wealthy business people and celebrities both at home and abroad.

According to an anonymous source acquainted with Wang, since the early 1990s, he has been a favorite among some local officials in his hometown in Luxi County, Jiangxi Province. He first became well-known for producing a snake from an empty basin, later self-proclaiming himself an omnipotent qigong master able to cure all diseases as well as predict luck. By fooling people, Wang has made a huge fortune and built a huge villa in the county.

Currently, Zou Yong, a businessman who once formally acknowledged Wang as his master, is suing the latter over a housing contract dispute that involved more than 30 million yuan ($4.8 million). Local authorities have also kicked off an investigation into Wang regarding his alleged illegal medicine practices.

Why could Wang hoodwink so many people, even officials? How did he make so many friends? Undoubtedly, what the "master" really do is making money by fraudulent means as well as worsening social morality, while delaying the treatment of patients.

Polluted Water Processing

Caixin Magazine
July 22

In the past seven years, the Chinese Government has invested 500 billion yuan ($81.5 billion) in processing polluted water. It appears that China's polluted water processing has achieved remarkable results, but in fact, although money has been spent, pollution remains a problem.

The reason is that China's polluted water processing lacks a key procedure—processing polluted soil left after polluted water is processed. Most heavy metals and microorganisms in polluted water remain in the soil, making it poisonous.

However, in China, 80 percent of polluted soil has not been effectively processed. Caixin reporters have found that even in Beijing, a large amount of polluted soil is transported to farmland on which corn, peanuts, fruit and vegetables are grown in surrounding suburbs and the neighboring Hebei Province without being properly dealt with.

The first reason behind it is high cost. The cost of processing polluted soil accounts for 70 to 80 percent of that of processing polluted water. Second, the result of processing polluted water is easily seen, while that of polluted soil processing is invisible. Some local governments are therefore unwilling to pay for invisible results.