What's Happening to Us?

<em>"...watch the woman prop up the child and not help her..."</em>

Through the Chinese subtitle, I was able to read it and understand that the woman was unable to carry the heavy child. So she dragged her off the road and propped her up. The child was still breathing but in critical condition. Then she was hollering around in the neighborhood, (that's when she disappeared from the camera) looking for the parents or anyone who can come help the poor girl. If you continue to watch the video, the parents later met the helping woman. They were on their knees, and in tears, thanking the woman for saving their child.

The point of this video is to show the cruelty of 18 passer-bys, drivers and riders, who saw the child in a pool of blood without doing anything, before the nice woman discovered her.

The way I see the video (I grew up in Europe) is that the lady who pulled the toddler aside and propped her up was helping and was looking around to find someone to her and probably to find the parents of the child.

There have been so many videos released of people watching other people in distress rather than stepping in, so it does not surprise me.

It has been my experience that this happens in every country and culture. I have been living in the US for 20 years and have observed disregard for life, being human or anmial, on numerous occasions. It saddens me and I would not know how we can change it, besides of my refusal to participate. I will stop in the street to assist a fellow human being or an animal, no matter what time or what location. I have been observed people to not even pick up their oh-so-loved cell phones to call for help. Never will I understand this, but I can only point out that each and every one of us has to contribute to make this world better every day and every time we encounter an uncomfortable situation like this.

Absolutely, Amen.

I grew up in the US during a time when Emmett Till was killed, Black men were lynched, tarred and feathered even staked like a pig and roasted alive. I did not understand that anymore than I understand this. I cannot believe the spirit that must be embodying these people especially the person who just picked her up and laid her on a pile of bags! We are numb nuts indeed. I want to know what is doing this. What causes people to be so numb that they have NO empathy for a BABY!! If there is a comet coming close to this earth that might cause cataclysmic incidents, I can understand why. If this is the kind of energy we are sending out then this is what we will get in return.

Omg, this is the most shocking thing I have ever seen on film!
I can't even say this is a accident, as the van didn't give a sh%t..
Where in the world can this happen, and nobody care about this little baby!!

How come the parents where not watching there child. What kind of parents are they and what kind of human, or Subhuman can run over a baby and leave her there, as many others also did..

Isn't there any regard for Human Life?

As for "toddler Ignored".
Stop with your Christian talk. This is Not about any Religion, and your Christ Saving this poor baby..
Many good people are Not Christian in this world..Get a life.

Is this in China? I understand a little of the Cantonese (my parents are from Hong Kong), which is not the predominant language in China... The woman who propped up the girl seem to be saying that she didn't know what to do, that she was shocked that so many people just ignored her and she couldn't find the child's parents.

I'm not a particularly religious man but I do agree with you that we are getting closer to the end of the world. You can almost feel it all around. But I will say a prayer for the little girl, the driver, the people who walked on by, and for the human race in general.
How did it all get to this?

My heart aches and tears fill my eyes as I watch this. I know God is comforting that sweet little lamb...I pray the same for her parents. God help us!

Hi there, if you understood the dialect being spoken, (or language of the subtitles for that matter), you will realise that the lady who moved the body to the side of the road was the very one who went to look for help and also the girl's parents.
it's a pity tho that she didnt see the girl earlier if not the girl would have gotten help earlier...

I would like to explain the reason (I think) why those passersby didn't stop. I'm not making excuses for any one, just trying to shed some light.

There is a famous court case in China from a few years ago, where a woman fell and hit her head on the sidewalk getting off a bus. It was a crowded bus, and one of the people who got off right behind her tried to help her up. She then sued him for pushing her and causing her head injury. I have no idea whether he did push her and then defended himself by saying he was trying to help her up AFTER she fell, or whether she knew he didn't push her but did it to get money for the surgery she needed, but in any case, this was a widely covered incident and it absolutely scared everyone away from helping strangers. Can you imagine trying to help someone, and then they say you hurt them? There is no good samaritan law in China. When the law does not protect you, you're more likely to think twice.

There was another incident where an old man was lying in the middle of the road for hours (did not get hit by cars), and the only people who came to help were two foreign (Western) girls. One of the comments under the article that I read suggested that it was because they, as foreigners, hadn't head about the woman who sued the guy who tried to help her, otherwise they'd be scared too.

So, I don't think it's simple callousness; the Chinese are not indifferent to strangers; they're as human as anyone else, but they're afraid of getting in trouble for trying to help. I bet we would see a marked difference in their behaviour if there were a good samaritan law in China.

I found an article that better explains what I was trying to say: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1071621--did-chinese-laws-keep...

And I was wrong, it wasn't a head injury, it was a broken leg.

Thanks for sharing this! its sad and Global News Toronto reported the reason the Van driver didn't stop is because he was talking on the cellphone another reason for drivers to STOP using cellphone while driving.

On our daily news we watch such events every day in the middle East. In war children -and families - are slaughtered with impunity or without regard. There is little humanity in war.

This sickening incident with the toddler- (she is a girl child which might have some bearing on what happened.) serves to alert us to how indifferent we have become to each other.

China - not at open war- may well be the next Big Power and there will be many such casualties as history tells us.
Thank you for alerting us to our human callousness. We can do something about it.

Dr Kim - I am distressed by your statement, "how we've become a society". !!!! "We"? "a society"? This is not us, and it's not "a" society. This happened in China, not here, and even within China there are various societies or cultures. This is not one world, or one "society".

Have you ever heard of anything as awful happening here? The only incident I can recall off the top of my head is the case of Kitty Genovese. This was probably around 1961 or thereabouts but maybe my memory is not 100% Your older readers will know the name.

In Winnipeg not too long ago a prisoner who'd been beaten by the police was tied to a hospital bed, face bloody and mouth parched, begging for water. A hospital employee not a nurse or doctor came along and tried to clean his mouth out with mouthwash and was soon arrested and only allowed to have her job back after a big flap and investigation. The patient/prisoner himself said she had done nothing wrong but of course they wouldn't listen to him. What a fallen and stupid world!

Wasn't it only a few years ago that an official or nurse, drowned a newborn in a puddle, in China, because the parents went above their "quota" of offspring? The large amount of abortions, not only there, but here in the western world, as well, somehow have an effect on the public mindset, I believe. Hopefully we can return to true values, and save every child.

The child has died from her injuries.
RIP

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-10/21/c_131204564.htm

...you have made a very good reply. After thinking about things for awhile, I came to the same conclusion. If while driving your car you come across a crashed car with motionless people inside, would you try to remove them? No, you would correctly and innocently assume that "someone in authority" is on their way. However, this was a tiny child lying in a pool of blood. I don't want to judge the passersby too harshly. I don't know what to think for sure now that I've considered this topic a little while instead of knee-jerk responding.