疯狂的人

Every morning at 6am the Cai's neighbor starts playing his revolutionary music.  He starts with one song memorializing the conquest of the communists in the early 1950's.  He likes this song so much he plays it 3 times at full volume.  It's loud enough to wake up the tenants in the whole apartment building.  The playlist grows a little more varied after that and continues for an hour before closing with the same song it began on.

Two weeks ago Mrs. Cai was trying to get over a cold and needed to be able to sleep in, so her husband found the power switch for their neighbor's apartment, disconnecting his ability to disturb the whole neighborhood.  When the perpetrator of the racket discovered what had happened he wrote death threats all over the area to ward off further disruption of his electricity.  The Cai's contacted the police about the noise violation but they were told that since the man is mentally ill, he can do whatever he wants.  He reportedly used to spend his days throwing bricks out the window at passer-byes who happened to wander near his apartment.  The police admitted that they are afraid of him and refuse to put a stop to the morning music.

They know the man is insane and therefore exclude him from prosecution, but there aren't enough facilities to house the mentally unbalanced, so he remains in public housing, free to do whatever he pleases.

When my friends first told me about their annoying neighbor I dismissed it as a laughable story without cause for too much concern.  The news today made me reconsider my first position.

Twenty-eight children were stabbed in Jiangsu province when a mentally unstable man went into a kindergarten with a large kitchen knife and began attacking students and teachers alike.  This is reportedly the second of such attacks recently and demonstrates just how serious of a problem it is when the mentally ill receive no treatment and have no access to professional help.

It's time for officials realize the enormity of the problem and take action to adequately treat and restrain, if necessary, the millions of mentally ill people in China.  Too much time has already gone by without anyone taking charge.

"Politicians and diapers should be changed often and for the same reasons."

-Mark Twain