Should we tell the truth all the time?

When I was young, sometimes if I did something wrong, I will try to say a lie to cover my mistake to avoid penalty. However, when I am growing up, as I witnessed more about people’s lives of success and failure, especially two huge events happened to my country; I realized that we need to be honest all the time though the honest will leads some negative effects.

First of all, being honest can save people’s lives. The 2008 Sichuan earthquake, which measured at 8.3 magnitudes, became one of the most tragic disasters for China. The earthquake not only caused nearly 90,000 people dead, but also left 4.8 million people homeless. Although Chinese government realized that the seriousness of the disaster in the fear that other counties’ companies may stop investing in Sichuan, the government insisted to publicize all the details about the earthquake to the domestic and foreigner media soon after it broke out. Just 90 minutes after the earthquake, Premier Wen Jiabao flew to the earthquake area to oversee the rescue work; only within four hours of the temblor occurring, Rescue parties arrived in the afflicted region. Its "openness" during the media covering of the Sichuan earthquake led public to know the situation in Sichuan clearly. Fortunately, many domestic and foreigner organizations came to Sichuan to help homeless people step out of the plight. The honest saved lots of lives in this disaster.

On the contrast, telling a lie may cause worse result. SRAS, one of the most disastrous pandemic in 2003 in china, is the best example to support my opinion. SARS caused more than one thousand deaths in China in nearly half a year. At the initial stage, the government tried to conceal from the world the seriousness of this virus in the fear that foreigner tourists would change their plans visit to China. So the reporters’ voice was prohibited and all the news about the gravity of this fair was blocked officially. For instance, in early 2003 the number of patients who infected in Beijing was publicized as 37, in the fact the true number was more than tenth of that. As a result, the public didn’t regard this dangerous pandemic seriously but thought optimistically that the circumstances would be better spontaneously. Unfortunately, citizens, lacking of adequate information and unaware of the serious pandemic, were infected and even died due to such fake “optimism” of the Chinese government. The problem was soon out of control when increasing number of cases was found.

If the government was honest to the public, we solved the problem as quick as we can, otherwise the disaster was enlarged. Compared the different behavior China did and the oppsite results we got when China faced these two disaster, I conclude that we need to be honest all the time though we will be punished.