toddler run over

[clauemi]

Update: A piece of news: The toddler's situation is getting worse. Cannot breath herself. Almost brain-dead, but not yet.
Some photos: http://news.qq.com/a/20111020/000386.htm#p=1

• We did hear the thing a few days ago, and everybody around me, my parents, neighbors, and myself, felt it's just sometime terribly normal in China. I'm surprised that someone would cry for it. It's not happening only once, similar tragedies happen here every single day. If we cry for every such case, we could collect 10 tons of tear from the eyes of the people in my city, per day.
  
• Soon after the news is widely spread, many Chinese people doubted that the 58-year scrap recycler, Xian-mei Chen, saved the child's life only because she wishes to gain fame.
  
• Within an interview of the neighbors of the scrap recycler who saved the child's life, most people did not ask about how the toddler was, but how much money she was rewarded. When they heard she got 20,000 yuan (around $3,000, from the government, I presume), many exclaimed that she was getting rich.
  
• A few other interesting things:
  • A bus, with 19 passengers in it, fell into a river near the road, in Chongking, China. You-shu Jin, a 44-year-old farmer, jumped into the river and broke the window glass, saved the lives of the passengers. He got some problems in his lungs, since he sinked in cold water for too long. Later he tried to ask for assistance from the goverment, and no one cared about it. He borrowed some money to treat the disease, but eventually died after a few months for having no money for the cure. None of the 19 people he saved attended his funeral.
    
    
  • A women jumped into Xi-hu (a lake in Cangchow) to commit suicide. A female American tourist jumped in, and saved her life. More than a hundred Chinese people were standing near the lake, only looking at them, at the moment.
    
  • A woman was hit by a motorcycle, and the person driving it escaped. Nobody helped the woman, until 5 western tourists came and sent her to a hospital.
    A video, but in Chinese: http://v.ifeng.com/news/society/201110/8...082a.shtml
    
• In addition to the Peng Yu event mentioned in the report:
  An 68-year-old lady, Xiu-zhi Wang, was walking across a wide road (wide enough to keep 8 cars running, so probably 16 meter or more), in Tianjin, China. She tried to climbed over in the parapet in the middle of the road, which separates two sides of the road. (Of course, it's one million percent illegal and very very dangerous.) But she failed, and fell down. The driver of a car going on the road, called Yun-he Xu, stopped his card and helped the old lady to stand up again, and called the emergency telephone number to send she to a hospital. Good story at this point, huh? The old lady soon sued the driver who helped her, claimed she fell down because his car hit her, and, she won, even though it was proved that car did not hit the lady. The court claimed the driver should offer the old lady 100,000 yuan ($ 17,000) as compensation because the driver "scared the old lady and caused her to fell down", without a single piece of evidence.
  (If you don't have the intuition of a typical China person, here's the hint: The judge might be bribed. Bribing happen a lot in the courthouses here.)
  And, there are numerous cases when an old person falls down, one who helped him/her is eventually accused for pushing/hitting him/her down. I simply cannot recall how many times I hear this happening. Recently even a soldier was accused in this way when he helped an old women. (Actually, old women seem to enjoying suing people who helped them more than old men, so it's more risky to help an old women falling on the street.)
  Of course, the result is, many such cases now appears: An old person falls on the street, 20+ people standing around, calling the emergence phone number, but no one gives a hand to the old person before the police arrives.
  
• We do have the tradition that males are superior than females, but it's not the reason why nobody helped the toddler.
  
• The 18 people that walked by without helping the toddler might be very sympathetic people in daily life, but it's dangerous to help the toddler, indeed. They are not bad men, they just don't want to be sued.
  
• It costs my grandpa around $100 per day when he was treated in a hospital. He does have health assurance so $100 is not the total amount. So if you belong to lower class, or live in rural area, catching some serious disease, some thing other than cold or flu, almost means you should bear it until you die, somehow. The driver who knocked the child down could be sensible. If the kid was alive, he might need to pay more than ten times more for the hospitality of the toddler (200,000 yuan, basically $ 35,000). Beware, the yearly income of an average Chinese person living in the city is 14,000 yuan, or around 2,000 dollars, while the value for the rural area is around 2,000 yuan ($350). Yes, a human life have a price, and a died one is cheaper then an injured one. If a coal miner died in some sort of accident in your coal mine in China, paying 10,000 yuan ($ 1,700) is all enough.
  
• My advice is, your westerns, when you come to China for a trip and spot anybody fell down on the street, call the emergence phone number immediately (110 / 120), but double think before you touch him/she with your hands. He/she might be a swindler (yes, there are such swindlers in China), but even if he is not, he may still sue you. Old women is more dangerous than old men. If possible, look for somebody to prove you did not push the person. (Somebody else's advice is, put a paper of statement that you shall not be responsible for anything in your pocket and let him sign before you give him a hand. It's a joke, apparently.)
  If you are going to help him/her, at least pray before it. It seems God's hands cannot reach us, but may his hands reach you.
  

Wow that's amazing and really sad, I had no idea things like these were going on elsewhere. When you see someone that needs help your first instinct is to stop whatever you are doing and go help, not worry about how much it's going to cost you. Thanks for posting that!