Before I slept last night I watched the news. Yes I know, stupid idea to watch horror shows before bed. What I saw was beyond horrific! There was a story about a 2-year-old chinese girl walking outside a market when a van ran over her. The van driver paused, then continued on, running over her again with his back wheel. She lay there in a pool of blood as 18 people (Yes, 18) walked past her without helping her and another van ran over her. All of this was caught on tape by a security camera. Finally, a woman passing by (19th person) moved the child to the side of the road and found her mother.
The Chinese people have expressed, online and in the news, their disgust at what they have become. People are so afraid of prosecution that they would not help this little girl in fear of getting into trouble. There was a case in 2006 of a man who helped an elder woman who had fainted. He ended up having to pay her compensation when she accused him of being the reason. It’s no excuse… People could have called the emergency services to at least alert them of the accident.
I remember reading in a memoir written by a British Indian man where he wrote about visiting India when he was a child to see his family. He recalled walking with his father in the streets of his home town when they passed by a dead girl laying in the ground. His father told him to walk on and leave her or he might be accused of killing her. But the girl in China was alive and bleeding out. .. Maybe they thought she was dead… maybe they feared prosecution… But either way, it scares me what humans are capable of.
We can be conditioned to do anything to anyone. We can have the empathy and humanity beaten out of us with out anyone actually laying a hand on us. We can be desensitized and demoralized to the extent that the sight of a 2-year-old girl laying on the street bleeding is something we can ignore. I say we because the Chinese are no less human than we are, they were just conditioned to be that way.
I just keep going over it again and again and I cannot imagine it happening the way it did… but it did. And this isn’t the first time… It’s terrifying what we are capable of.
The shock and horror the Chinese people are expressing on their websites, television channels and newspapers is clear. One man called the incident “The shame of the Chinese people”. Maybe it takes a horrific accident like this one to realize something has to change.
The little girl is in a coma and Dr.’s say she is ‘brain dead’.
yamaamaa.com 
Thnx for sharing your thoughts…can’t believe how inhuman humans have become…
When I was trained in CPR in Saudi Arabia, I was cautioned to get permission from a family member before I performed this life-saving action on anyone in Saudi Arabia or I could be imprisoned for touching someone, especially someone of the opposite sex. What a sad state of affairs. I would be devastated if I had to stand by and watch someone die when I could have helped them, but I would do so rather than risk my personal freedom.
How interesting and strange, never heard of that. Will have to ask a Saudi paramedic I know. It’s interesting because who would imprison you? And what for? It would be wise to explain to someone what you are doing in a conservative country and maybe in areas where they don’t know what CPR is since a man putting his mouth on a woman or his hands on her chest area is obviously not done here or a woman putting her mouth on a mans who isn’t her husband. But I doubt you would have been imprisoned. Were you ever stopped from saving someone?
No, I have never been in a position to use CPR, alhamd’ allah. I was warned that the touching of another without permission could be misconstrued by others and, therefore I should be careful.
This Girl died yesterday according to latest updates.
Remember Fatimah? who died in Jeddah beach after she was walking and talking pictures in the water and crossed a current of a sewage pipe ,and the current pushed her deep into the sea and she didnt know how to swim..
while people were watching her drifting into the water,there was a lebanese diving instructor who wanted to rush and help her out,but the police did not allow her because she is a woman,and insisted that they wait till the coast guard come and save her.
It’s so sad…
I remember that story… It’s horrible. I don’t know all the details about it but I heard the same and then I heard because the water was so polluted they didn’t let anyone in but the coast guard who all had to have tetanus shots. unfortunately all places have these stories… China is no more or less human than the rest of the world and neither are we. The difference is in China this was the action of a community, in Jeddah it was the action of one person. Or in the tragedy of the Mekka school, of a few evil men. having said that, someone should have done something in both situations…
Again, this world scares me sometimes. The human race is disappointing. We have to teach our children to help others no matter what and to speak out if they see something unislamic. God knows all these stories are unislamic.
The video is something I can’t unsee. Unbelievable! A child!
I don’t know how I’d act in their position but I would rather have helped the girl and be prosecuted than to live my life knowing I left a helpless child to bleed. A couple of months ago, I saw a cat with an obvious eye infection as I was heading to an interview, I chased the cat hoping I’d find a collar or take her to a vet myself. Turned out to be the neighbors cat and she was already being treated. I fortunately made it to the interview in time, but I wouldn’t have regretted being late.
How can anyone be so callous? How can someone have the time to think of their own future as they see a bleeding child?
Humanity is beyond saving. If I wasn’t Muslim, I would’ve offed myself sooner than later.
I sound pompous by mentioning the cat incident, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to sound like I would know how I’d act when I see an injured child, but I can only presume from my limited interactions with the world.
I’m actually selfish, as I only helped the cat cause I knew I couldn’t handle the guilt of not helping her.
Thanks for the comment. You didn’t sund pompous, you were judging what you would do by what ur usual actions are. It is horrendouse what happened.
As for doing good because it makes you feel better that’s a whole other argument (which I had with one of my best friends when I first got to know her in London) might write a post about it.
This is the saddest thing. I can’t believe people could have walked past that. 18 human beings. It’s the most awful, horrible thing to think of a 2 year old girl suffering in that way and nobody helping her. What a horrible world we live in, I sometimes think.