This is why, says a Chinese driver, he ran over a toddler TWICE...to make sure she would be good and dead in case he got caught and had to pay her parents for killing her.
Oh but this is just the beginning of the story.
In China it is a fact of life that you are always being watched. Of course, CCTV caught the act, but the video continues to roll.....to reveal no fewer than 18 people looked at the half dead whimpering bleeding child and kept right on walking. After 7 minutes of passers by casually walking by, the child is hit by a second truck who probably honestly didn't know the crumpled mess in the road was human. It was after that time that a bag lady pulled the limp body out of the gutter. And then the mother comes on the scene, screaming for her baby.
There are so many elements to this story that seriously upset me. How come it took the mother at least 8 minutes to arrive on the scene? Where the hell was she? Why was this toddler crossing a busy street alone? Why did at least 18 people (on the camera) pass her by, looking right at her, without at least pulling her out of the road...or calling the police or an ambulance for that matter? Why did the first driver hit her, stop, and then run her over a second time with his back wheels to make sure she was good and dead, preferring to consider his wallet over the life of a young child?
China news reports say she is alive in critical condition. Outside news agencies have proclaimed her brain dead and not likely to survive. It's amazing she is not already toe tagged, and a tribute to the incredible resilience of babies... but even so, it's hard to imagine her little body ever fully recovering.
As a parent (and a pregnant one at that), I have so many emotions...anger, mostly, but also fear for the safety of my family. What if something happened to my husband while he was wandering the streets with my baby and no one helped him or my child (who of course couldn't help much himself and would be in danger as well without an adult watching him)? And a deep deep sadness and feeling of despair for humanity in general.
Because in all honesty, I can't say for certain this would never happen in the US, or anywhere else, that this is purely a Chinese problem. I remember my Freshman year in college in Social Psych class learning about the Bystander Effect whereby the more people witness a horrific event, the less likely anyone will actually help a victim, as everyone simply waits for someone else to do something. With 7 billion people in the world, that's alot of witnesses doing nothing at all. But then, in philosophy class, I was told humans created a social contract to live together in order to protect themselves, seeking safety in numbers. Are we as a human race safer alone or as part of a community?
Many psychologists claim that one of the reasons mental disorders are on the rise is because we have become too isolated, even as we are more connected by the internet. Yet the more we live with each other, the less likely we are to connect with each other. Humans are full of paradoxes and nonsensical behavior. I fear this incident, horrific as it is, is probably well known only because the Chinese Big Brother always has his eye on the masses, and so these events are recorded for others to watch and feel horrified. I earnestly believe there are millions of people who died because their murderers would rather deal with a dead body than an injured one. Who died in front of others who simply couldn't be bothered to step in and save them.
Go ask Shanda Sharer, Kitty Genovese, any German over 70 years old.... the list goes on and on.
The Horror. The Horror.
* Update: Oct 21, 2011: Little Yue Yuem, 2 years old, has passed away. Shame on China. I hope you do a lot of soul searching and honor her memory by treating someone else with more compassion.
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