The Olympics don't have any meaning, says quake survivor

As onlookers cheered the torch as it snaked through Guangan in Sichuan yesterday, the big event for the province proved distant for thousands of survivors trying to make ends meet in the hardest-hit quake zones.

More than 2 1/2 months after the disaster, many people in remote mountainous areas are still cut off from the outside world and few even know of the torch relay or the media fanfare surrounding the Olympics.

Many of the televisions that made it through the May 12 quake were destroyed by the series of aftershocks, one of the strongest of which came last Friday - a 6.1 tremor jolting the border area between Beichuan and Pingwu counties.

In places such as Beichuan's Chenjiaba, residents still live in darkness at night. Television isn't even an option as there is no electricity in the makeshift shelters where they are still living.

'We just don't know what happens outside because we live in such a remote area. Nobody cares about us,' said Zhao Yiming , 45, a farmer who lives in a shelter at a resettlement area in Chenjiaba. 'Even though some of us want to see the Olympics opening ceremony and the Games, I don't think we can as we don't even know when we will have electricity.'

Upon returning to his house and clothing shop, reduced to rubble by the quake, 50-year-old Du Caiwen was full of anger when he found everything in his shop had been looted. 'How can I have time to watch the Olympics? This is my home, I have nothing left.'