I envision swarms of small children in seedy clothing hammering away at discarded scraps of electronic devices such as laptops and photocopiers in an attempt to disentangle from them anything useful for sale at nearby collection centres.

Complacent smiles linger on their pallid faces. It looks as if they have hit a gold mine. I wonder who will tell them that their young lives are in the grip of a man-eating monster - radioactivity that threatens to maim them for life or, worse still, nip them in the bud.

Another picture that looms large in my mind involves rows of coat-hangers on which hangs an assortment of second-hand clothes smuggled from abroad. Vendors are shouting themselves hoarse, touting for the style and quality of a medley of clothing articles. But mildew and dirt that can easily be detected on collars and cuffs lay bare their lies. Should the prospective customers be aware of the hard-core fact that these garments are merely throwaways or stripped from corpses, laced with a large variety of bacteria and viruses, they would gladly show a clean pair of heels.

China is still a developing country; most of its hinterland is still in the clutch of poverty and backwardness. But it should by no means be the dumping site for the industrial waste of developed countries.

In the case of toxic rubbish, countries all over the world are highly vigilant about its disposal because of the direct and adverse impact it may have on its soil and people.

A pauper's life is as precious as the life of a person of noble lineage.

In our country there are people obsessed with windfall profits and fabulous wealth. They show no scruples about defrauding their compatriots of their money, nor are they lenient towards the poor by exposing them to palpable dangers.

With heaps of toxic refuse dumped on our soil and scum seeking to profit from our ignorance, I think we can do nothing but look to our government to protect us.

(Shanghai Star April 18, 2002)