Chinese toddler run over twice after being left on street

Telegraph ^ | October 17th 2011 | Peter Foster

[Cardhu]

A Chinese toddler was run over twice and ignored by nearly 20 passers-by in Guangdong Province in a case that has caused outrage around the world.

It is a story that has deeply unsettled millions in China, posing troubling questions about whether three decades of headlong economic development has left nothing but a moral vacuum in its wake.

It begins last Thursday when a two-year-old girl totters into a narrow lane in a wholesale market in the thriving industrial city of Foshan in Guangdong Province and is hit by a small, white van. The driver pauses, and then pulls away, crushing the child for a second time under his rear wheels.

It is not the accident itself, but what happens next — or rather doesn’t happen – that has left millions of ordinary Chinese wondering where their country is heading.

One by one, no fewer than 18 passers-by are seen on closed circuit television ignoring the girl as she lies, clearly visible in the road, haemorrhaging into the gutter. Not a single one of them stops to help.

The first is a young man in a white T-shirt and trainers. He walks on past the prone form of girl who is by now bleeding profusely, without a second glance.

Next comes a cyclist who wobbles slightly to avoid the dying child and then pedals on, turning his head back momentarily, as if to check he really did see a child dying in the street.

As the pool of blood spreads, a third pedestrian comes by, clearly sees the bleeding girl, but steps out into the small lane to give her a wide berth.

[MikeSteelBe]

Heathen is as heathen does.

I do not have a problem with God ordering His people to commit genocide on the Amalekites.

[momtothree]

When my husband was in China, he saw something similar. A car had hit a person on a bicycle. The car just stopped, drug the bicyclist out from under his car and drug him to the side of the road. People just walked by like nothing ever happened. IMHO, a culture that embraces death warps the true human nature of its citizens. Kindness, sympathy, empathy, and compassion are simply erased and replaced with coldness and callousness. IMHO.

[sam_paine]

It is a story that has deeply unsettled millions in China,

So, then, only troubled a few tenths of a percent of the population?

[Doogle]

..THAT’S BECAUSE most others have no means of contact with the outside world

[Doogle]

My grass needs cutting, hint hint. :)

..his light bulbs only sweep sidewalks

[4rcane]

I think its simply a poor choice of word. They meant to say, ALOT of ppl, but don’t know the exact number since not everyone have heard of this news

[driftdiver]

To your point this kind of behavior doesn’t seem to happen in small towns.

[silverleaf]

I come from a small town where a woman murdered her boyfriend and her mother helped cut up the body into fish bait

Mom was the butcher at the local Acme

These is no shelter from mankind’s worst traits in any town in the world

Ignoring a child being abused and tortured by its family- almost the norm for America. Just read the stories from social services after the children are abused and murdered. Almost always, “someone knew”.

Read about the case of “baby P” in Britain.

But ignoring a dying chld in the roadway would be extremely unusual for America or Europe, the norm for India, China, parts of Southeast Asia where life is short and cheap.

And mothers celebrating death and teaching children to kill other children and die in the process, in the name of religion...well, we know who does that

[semaj]

"I do not have a problem with God ordering His people to commit genocide on the Amalekites."

I'm sure God had a good reason. Didn't the Amalekites refuse to let the Hebrews pass through their territory, and also attacked them at some point? If I remember correclty, they also practiced human sacrifice.

[cripplecreek]

To your point this kind of behavior doesn’t seem to happen in small towns.

Exactly. I grew up in a small town of around 300 people. Shoveling snow off my great grandmother's sidewalk meant shoveling snow off the sidewalks of her elderly neighbors as well and it became habitual.

[MikeSteelBe]

The Amalekites sacrificed their children to Molech, just like America aborts children in the name of sex without consequences.

[cripplecreek]

I come from a small town where a woman murdered her boyfriend and her mother helped cut up the body into fish bait

Evil can exist anywhere but your example is a far cry from simply looking away. My little town had its first shooting in more than 20 years a couple years back. (estranged husband/wife/boyfriend thing)

[expat1000]

...three decades of headlong economic development has left nothing but a moral vacuum in its wake.

3 decades or even 300 years ago it wouldn't have been the same? I don't think so. It's got nothing at all to do with economic development. What is the logic in that?

[Chickensoup]

There was a picutre of a female baby in the gutter as Chinese people walked by, was on the net about ten years ago. I never new whether it was photoshopped or not. It was here on FR too.

[silverleaf]

Do people of your small town look away from participating in a political party, and having elected a president, that has consistently voted for taxpayer funded abortion even to the point of denying medical care to infants dying after being aborted?

I am not going to argue the nuances of evil
The China story is shocking, but it does raise issue of the shaky ground of relativism

[Chickensoup]

http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/china_total_dehumanization_images.htm

[cripplecreek]

Do people of your small town look away from participating in a political party, and having elected a president

Did you?

[silverleaf]

No

and THAT is why I am acknowledging that China is not the only culture stained by human evil and indifference and that American small towns are somehow immune

Are you?

[mikey_hates_everything]

Cantonese... I’m surprised someone didn’t try to eat her.