by Antoaneta Bezlova, IPS, Italy - The national mourning observed this week for victims of the Sichuan earthquake is the first public remembrance in modern China’s history ordered to commemorate ordinary people rather than political leaders. At 2:28 on Monday afternoon, exactly a week after the quake hit the remote hillsides of southwestern China, the country came to a standstill, mourning the 50,000 people estimated to have perished in the tragedy.