German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche tells us that truth is only a matter of perspective. Certainly, this seems to be true for Shenzhen's water department officials and people who have the misfortune to live near the heavily polluted Shenzhen River.
A deputy director of the department raised a few angry eyebrows recently when he proudly told the city's congress that the notorious river had finally been cleaned up.
'The stink is gone,' exclaimed the elated bureaucrat. 'And the river will soon be filled with clean water again.'
Yes, he is talking about that smelly black river whose odour infiltrates the homes of thousands of nearby residents, even though they always keep their windows tightly shut.
Only a few weeks before the deputy director's proclamation, some village residents had complained to the media about the stench, which they said was getting worse. Just this year, some 200 families had to move out of their village because of the unbearable smell.
A news website recently conducted a tongue-in-cheek opinion poll asking how the deputy director had reached this astounding conclusion. The poll went like this: had the official caught a nasty cold and lost his sense of smell all together? Had he just been told the news from other bureaucrats? Or had the smelly river really become cleaner?
