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China Environment Ministry Calls Itself One of Four Worst Departments In World
hackingbear writes
"According to the Telegraph, 'Zhou Shengxian was quoted by state media as saying: "I've heard that there are four major embarrassing departments in the world and that China's ministry of environmental protection is one of them." Mr Zhou, an economist and veteran Communist Party member, blamed his ministry's malfunctions on "overlapping" remits, which confused the agency's role in handling issues such as carbon emissions and water monitoring. The minister made no mention of the other three most embarrassing departments but Chinese micro-bloggers were quick to weigh in with their suggestions.' Those suggestions including the navy of China's landlocked neighbour, Mongolia, Taiwan's foreign ministry, and China's petitioning department where officials are tasked with hearing and acting on the grievances of ordinary Chinese but can't handle/solve anything. Perhaps Zhou's department should be applauded for its honesty. What are your list of the other three most embarrassing departments in our world?"
Slashdot's User Interface Design Department
DMV would be number ONE!
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
Does such a department even exist?
In the end, greed ends humanity. Biblical or something.
DOD, DOJ, US patent office
Wow, a landlocked navy and a complaints department that can't do anything.
Glad to see that China suffers under the same bureaucratic crap as the rest of the world. Possibly even more.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
all the ministries own you.
Smivs on the intertubes!
Can we group the US government into one department, for the purposes of this exercise?
Does absolutely nothing that high schools can't (Drivers Ed and school nurses) except take your money and waste your time.
I found this paragraph particularly fascinating:
"The environment minister's admission came as a new study claimed that severe air pollution in northern China had slashed life expectancies there by more than five years compared to the south, potentially robbing 500 million Chinese of a total of 2.5 billion years of life"
Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
Zhou Shengxian was found dead by what Chinese officials are claiming is suicide
The US Departments of Commerce, Education and the -- what's the third one there? Let's see. ... OK. So Commerce, Education and the -- ... The third worst department I think -- I would have to say it's the Education, the ... Commerce and -- let's see -- I can't. The third one, I can't. Sorry. Oops.
Everything is better with chainsaws.
That would have to be the United Nations. A black hole when it comes to funds. A lot of pomp and circumstance, but very little action.
Ministry Of Funny Walks.
The Congress. While not strictly a Department, it sure as shit is embarrassing.
Perception is the thin dividing line between reality and fiction.
What are your list of the other three most embarrassing departments in our world?
Surely the Environmental Ministry cannot be as harmful as the Chinese Ministry preventing this quote from being carried in Xinhua, China Daily or any major news source in China?
Tell me about the uproar that must have erupted from North of the Huai River when it was announced that the lack of environmental compliance has reduced life expectancy on average by five years in the northern half of China. Show me the state sponsored news source that ran that story. Go ahead, compare that article with with this one. The latter makes it sound like it was second hand smoke as the primary source of limited life spans. It's like reading two completely different health reports!
Solve your censorship problem and you will solve a lot of your other problems. Just be prepared to see high turnover in your leadership -- something that has been needed for a very long time in China.
My work here is dung.
I found this paragraph particularly fascinating: "The environment minister's admission came as a new study claimed that severe air pollution in northern China had slashed life expectancies there by more than five years compared to the south, potentially robbing 500 million Chinese of a total of 2.5 billion years of life"
Why stop there when the original research paper is fully available to all*?
* For values of "all" outside of China where it's probably considered "disharmonious."
My work here is dung.
The chances of being in the bottom ten just decreased by 10%.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Obama's department of change.
Such an easy question. The USDA totally caters to huge corporate interests like Monsanto and Smithfield, helping to ensure that America's food supply is dominated by sugary junk food, GMO crops, and the cruelest factory farmed meat and egg products imaginable. And don't even get me started about the sham that is American's meat inspection system. Nearly everything that's wrong with the Standard American Diet can be traced directly to USDA policies, that sell out the interests of consumers, the environment, and farmed animals at every turn.
If the USDA doesn't deserve a spot on the list of the world's four worst government departments, I don't know what agency does.
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
...currently headed by a Health Minister who is doing his best to sell off as much as possible, close A&E departments, believes in funding homeopathy as a treatment using taxpayers' money, and who co-wrote a book describing the NHS as a "sixty year old mistake".
Sean Ellis
Follow OfQuack's antics on Twitter.
Step 1: Ignore spelling and grammar errors.
Step 2: Don't fact check
Step 3: Attach opinionated flamebait
Step 4: ??? (everyone uses ad block)
Step 5: Don't profit, sell the company!
DHS (Department of Homeland Security) - inept, invasive, expensive, and superfluous.
SEC (Security and Exchange Commission) - inept, impotent, and irrelevant. That or exceedingly corrupt.
DEA (Drug enforcement Administration) - ridiculous drug scheduling, over the top enforcement based on this poor scheduling, and representative of some of the most fixable problems we choose to litigate and prosecute rather than try and solve.
Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon. -- Susan Ertz
- POTUS, doesn't matter who's in there.
- Congress, doesn't matter which shade of purple is in there
- Senate, ditto
- DOJ, ditto
This one would be embarrassed but it can't remember what it idid last night.
The US SEC. Their utter failure to do their jobs wrecked the entire planet's economy. I mean, as bad as the Chinese are, they haven't managed anything quite that spectacular.
I am officially gone from
...Italy was left out of the competition, as no one would have taken even the consolation prize...
...the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security?
Yes. It's real. No. I shit you not:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Affairs_Minister_of_Israel
Though not as embarrassing as the following list:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lists_of_government_ministers_of_Israel
cant be all that bad, there must be thousands of departments of anything out there not admitting they have a problem
TSA, NSA, CIA, FDA.
In the end, greed ends humanity. Biblical or something.
Yes, this gets predicted every day going back to the invention of language. Alas, it never happens. We continue to lurch and stumble forward into the future like the large group of incompetent boobs that we are...
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
Now, I haven't RTFA, but I don't see how:
"I've heard that there are four major embarrassing departments in the world and that China's ministry of environmental protection is one of them."
is the environment ministry calling itself anything.
This is just a statement about what this individual has heard others say.
Wow. a landlocked navy and a complaints department that can't do anything.
Glad to see that China suffers under the same bureaucratic crap as the rest of the world. Possibly even more.
Actually I expect great achievements in the field of bureaucratic crap from the Chinese. They practically invented bureaucracy so they should have at least a couple of thousand years of experience with red tape production over bureaucratic novices like us here in the west whose ancestors (as my Chinese friends never tire of pointing out) continued to live in wooden huts and dress in animal hides for many centuries after the Chinese had built a high tech civilisation. We really must do more to close this capability gap with China, it is becoming embarrassing.
The US Congress is useless for anything other than a waste of time and money.
You need to read more. The Dept. of Education? It is a political punching bag and not much more. Dept of Commerce? They are just redundant, as most the government works for the forces of commerce.
The worst isn't a static thing:
FEMA wins for 2006. (you don't need department in your name)
Interior Department. Especially before the BP oil spill (and it's no better today.) They are captured by the industries.
TSA. EVERYBODY complains about the TSA and their illusion of security since it's inception- and more so since they became pedophiles.
FCC: A public resource management dept beating a dead horse when LITERALLY millions said to STOP media consolidation. Not many years passed and here we are again... but without public comment.
FDA. Captured by industry, must be near the worst of the captured (or undemocratic, you pick.) You have to prove many people died to take something off the market; NOT prove it is safe before putting it on the market. They also don't even test things but let the corps do the testing-- EVEN when people died... There was a recent news story on just that common practice. Unfit shit used to be sold to the world at their risk, but now we accept more risk... the EU can test it out on us, unless it's cheap then it can go to Africa...
NSA. it's in the news. Effective? yes. worst by another measure.
The State Dept. could be considered the worst depending on what you mean by worst... effectiveness? no, they are most effective. evil? Worlds biggest corporate lobbyist... In that case they'd be near the top all the time. They task things to other depts too, set policies - they make decisions that make others look bad.
The Military / Pentagon Depts since WW2 when it changed from the "Dept of War" to "Dept of Defense" and ever since. "military intelligence" is a wide spread joke! Losing billions in their budgets every year... multiple overlapping sub-depts / branches... etc. Not to mention the corruption...
CIA. It's charter is solely about processing information for decision makers but it deviated so far one could say it is the worst - because it doesn't follow it's job description. Plus they also made some big mistakes in recent history (or just took the blame.)
IRS: Always resented. People will imagine new ways to hate them.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Next time I grope someone and they ask why I'll say "cause you're an incompetent boob".
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
Given that the Stafford Hospital scandal occurred in a public sector hospital, there's no rational reason for assuming that the public sector will provide better health care than private contractors. The core value of the NHS is high quality health care that is free to the patient. The rest is decoration. And of course given that most GPs surgeries are privately owned by the GPs, most NHS care is already private.
Israel's still there; that's their primary role... The bombs have stopped going off in the buses and cafes.
The House of Representatives
The Senate
The Presidency
including the navy of China's landlocked neighbour, Mongolia
I chuckled, it's right up there with the tank-battalions of Sealand and the Eskimo Intelligence Agency.
Would be one ... for the other two:
US patent office
FIFA
Wearing pants should always be optional.
I'm sure we'll get it right soon. Just give us a few more decades...
~Anguirel (lit. Living Star-Iron)
QA: The art of telling someone that their baby is ugly without getting punched.
The entire European Commission seems eligible to me, but it was not the most active offender in the building of current EU crisis. All European Union governments seems also good picks. And we should not forget the European Central Bank.
The Pentagon
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
... is one of the three major embarrassing departments in the world.
Finnish police license "department"
TSA
They've done nothing to promote any of those three things.
Tell me about the uproar that must have erupted from North of the Huai River when it was announced that the lack of environmental compliance has reduced life expectancy on average by five years in the northern half of China. Show me the state sponsored news source that ran that story.
Here's the official xinhua news story: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-07/11/c_132533452.htm
And the same in chinese for comparison: http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2013-07/12/c_124997416.htm
Go ahead, compare that article with with this one. The latter makes it sound like it was second hand smoke as the primary source of limited life spans. It's like reading two completely different health reports!
You sure got that right, the xinhua story you linked is based on a different report, different researchers and all...
Solve your censorship problem and you will solve a lot of your other problems. Just be prepared to see high turnover in your leadership -- something that has been needed for a very long time in China.
Never pass up a chance to bash China, spoken like a true sockpuppet...