They will also go on their knees when they are desperate, if someone is pointing a gun at them, for example, and they are begging for mercy for their loved ones, or a person might kneel and beg for a bowl of rice if they are starving.

So for this woman to kneel before these officials shows how desperate this woman and those residents she represents feel about the increasing pollution and the deteriorating state of the river, which poses a serious threat to their life. They would not have sent this woman as their representative and she would not have kneeled if they felt they had any alternative.

Even in imperial times, a local official was supposed to know that it was his responsibility to address the concerns of residents and try every means possible to solve their problems. Our society is supposed to be a civilized modern one, in which government officials, no matter how high their rank, are civil servants, paid to serve the people. They should feel ashamed if they fail to fulfill their responsibility to serve the people.

The local environmental protection bureau director may not have enough authority and power to stop the polluting industries from discharging pollutants into the river and neither may he and his bureau have the authority to allocate the funds necessary to clean up the river. But as an environmental watchdog he has the obligation and responsibility to report the situation to the higher authorities and press them for action. However, it is obvious he has done nothing of the kind.

And it is simply inexcusable for the district leader to say that he knows nothing about the pollution. When the river, which is a major one in the district, has been polluted to such a degree that the local residents are so desperate they have to resort to such an act, his professed lack of knowledge about the pollution proves nothing but his lack of concern for the well-being of residents and his dereliction of duty.

So rather than the woman kneeling before these officials and begging them to clean up the river, it is the environmental protection bureau chief and the district leader who should go down on their knees before the residents begging forgiveness for the bad job they have done.