Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Cowards and useless bystanders.

I just taught a student who had her arm in a sling because it was fractured. She fractured her arm in a traffic accident. Riding her bicycle she was hit by a motorcycle that was carrying two men and traveling too fast. The passenger on the bike looked at her on the ground as the driver accelerated the bike as fast as he could to get away.

I often wonder about the character of many of the drivers here in Wuxi, especially those on bikes, tricycles, and in dump trucks. Those two on the bike were cowards.

But then the story gets worse. As she lay on the ground, the student was surrounded by bystanders who did nothing to help her. She told me this was because they were afraid that if they did attempt to help her, they would be asked to pay money, nabbed, as it were, into having to take the financial responsibility for the mishap. One man did ask her what was the matter....

The student had to pick herself up and ride herself home. The pain in her arm got worse. Her father eventually took her to the hospital.


The true meaning of Christmas? Because of the economic crisis, there will be less gift-buying. But, then Christmas was never originally about economics anyway, it was about the transcendence of it.

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