. . . actually discourages the act of being a good samaritan?
Well, a few I'm sure, but mainland China sure takes the prize this week. Every story I've read about the little girl that was run over — twice! — by a pair of trucks in a Foshan market just wrenches my heart. I've yet to watch the surveillance video, and probably never will. The still frames in stories like this are enough ( http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2050438/Yue-Yue-critically-ill-run-twice-ignored-18-people.html ). To think that this kid laid there in plain sight, crushed and bleeding out for several minutes, while a further 18 passersby — not to mention the occupants of various open-air businesses that line the street — willfully ignored her just sets the blood boiling. One shopkeep, reportedly, stooped so far as to tell the old woman who did finally attend to the girl to mind her own business. Unreal. And people say the 21st century belongs to China? The 22nd . . . maybe.
One of the drivers, before he surrendered, all but illustrated a core problem with the mainland Chinese system: "If she is dead, I may pay only about 20,000 yuan ($3,180). But if she is injured, it may cost me hundreds of thousands of yuan.” According to the Daily Mail story above, he also tried to buy off her father.
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1071621
Yes, I know, my country ain't perfect, nor is our neighbour to the south as so many other cultures love to point out, but love North America or hate it this kind of thing would never happen here. Not this way. I've no doubt that many a North American has wilfully ignored the plight of another, especially if they're uncertain whether that person is truly in dire jeopardy or just some vagrant passed out (again!), but eighteen consecutive individuals would not, and never would a toddler be left for dead in a pool of her own blood in the middle of the road because citizens have been conditioned to fear lawsuits from her family or fines from the government for simply trying to aid a fellow human being.
It is heartening to know that the Chinese "netisphere" or whatever they're calling it this week is lit up with conscientious people joining the global condemnation of both the bystanders who ignored such a desperate case of human need as well as the governmental system that all but encourages it. According to this article, even The Party is acknowledging the problem:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/leaders-admit-chinas-cultural-development-is-lagging/article2205465/
Then again, they probably have little choice with such concrete evidence staring them in the face and the enmity of the world and millions of their own people upon them.
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In brighter news, gazillionaire Li Ka-shing, from Hong Kong, visited Toronto today:
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1072218
Well, a few I'm sure, but mainland China sure takes the prize this week. Every story I've read about the little girl that was run over — twice! — by a pair of trucks in a Foshan market just wrenches my heart. I've yet to watch the surveillance video, and probably never will. The still frames in stories like this are enough ( http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2050438/Yue-Yue-critically-ill-run-twice-ignored-18-people.html ). To think that this kid laid there in plain sight, crushed and bleeding out for several minutes, while a further 18 passersby — not to mention the occupants of various open-air businesses that line the street — willfully ignored her just sets the blood boiling. One shopkeep, reportedly, stooped so far as to tell the old woman who did finally attend to the girl to mind her own business. Unreal. And people say the 21st century belongs to China? The 22nd . . . maybe.
One of the drivers, before he surrendered, all but illustrated a core problem with the mainland Chinese system: "If she is dead, I may pay only about 20,000 yuan ($3,180). But if she is injured, it may cost me hundreds of thousands of yuan.” According to the Daily Mail story above, he also tried to buy off her father.
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1071621
Yes, I know, my country ain't perfect, nor is our neighbour to the south as so many other cultures love to point out, but love North America or hate it this kind of thing would never happen here. Not this way. I've no doubt that many a North American has wilfully ignored the plight of another, especially if they're uncertain whether that person is truly in dire jeopardy or just some vagrant passed out (again!), but eighteen consecutive individuals would not, and never would a toddler be left for dead in a pool of her own blood in the middle of the road because citizens have been conditioned to fear lawsuits from her family or fines from the government for simply trying to aid a fellow human being.
It is heartening to know that the Chinese "netisphere" or whatever they're calling it this week is lit up with conscientious people joining the global condemnation of both the bystanders who ignored such a desperate case of human need as well as the governmental system that all but encourages it. According to this article, even The Party is acknowledging the problem:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/leaders-admit-chinas-cultural-development-is-lagging/article2205465/
Then again, they probably have little choice with such concrete evidence staring them in the face and the enmity of the world and millions of their own people upon them.
I hope YueYue pulls through and that she can one day thank the old lady who did what she could to help, preferably while standing in front of all of those who did nothing.“The Central Committee knows there’s something very, very seriously wrong with the Chinese value system. Officially, they say that they do have a socialist value system, but no one knows what that means,” said Bo Zhiyue, an expert on Chinese politics at the National University of Singapore. “No one believes in Marxism any more, Confucianism is not being revived, and the so-called Western universal values are not being accepted.”
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In brighter news, gazillionaire Li Ka-shing, from Hong Kong, visited Toronto today:
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1072218