Dream 3 of 4

My mom and I were watching one week-old news reports about new government offices being built in Beijing. A crowd, including government officials, was gathered around the base of it as about 40 construction workers were harnessed to the sides, bringing up slats on pulleys, hammering, and riveting away. Suddenly, we were in the crowd and watching when an earthquake began to shake the area. The tallest, narrowest tower of the building began to shake violently. My worst fears materialised when a worker fell off the side onto the second-story roof. The crowd gasped in horror as we waited for things to stabilize.

Then, without warning, workers began to jump off the building several at a time. The reporter guessed it was similar to 9/11 where their choices were being crushed to death or falling on their own. However, as they began to jump in concert, it became obvious they were doing it on purpose. One slow-motion, close-up clip showed one worker doing an acrobatic backwards leaping somersault over the railing before falling to his death. Fortunately, none of the impacts could be seen. It somehow became known that it was a pre-organized protest of the blue-collar/white-collar schism of Beijing. All I could think about was how horrific it must be for the workers' families to sacrifice so much for what was unlikely to be major political changes.

I now understood the rumors that were circulating the net that such an incident was suppressed by the Chinese government (not that I read any such rumors in real life). As a dozen workers remained, police began dropping down on them from helicopters to bring them to safety. The workers each transformed into spiderman and began fighting the policemen for their right to martyrdom. A few managed to free themselves and fall, but most were "rescued." As the aerial camera pulled back, it became a news infographic with little animated skeletons representing the impact sites of the fallen workers. I felt sick.

posted by Larry at 10:39 AM