So, has the influx of natural disasters, increasing number of catastrophic events, graphic video games or bloody movies totally desensitized us to the fragility and need of humans in need? Recently China came face to face with its own weakness in that area. Could the same thing happen here in America? Perhaps it already has.
Below is an article and video of an unbelievable incident that happened in China not too many days ago. There are many facets to this story. Today I simply give you the facts.
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Chinese toddler ignored after hit-and-run dies
Full story HERE
Published - Oct 21 2011 04:33PM EST
In this photo taken Tuesday Oct. 18, 2011, journalists surround the unidentified parents of a two-year-old girl identified as Wang Yue in a hospital in Guangzhou in south China's Guangdong province. A video showing Wang Yue being struck twice by vans and then ignored by passers-by is sparking outrage in China and prompting soul-searching over why people didn't help the child.
BEIJING — A toddler who was twice run over by vans and then ignored by passers-by on a busy market street died Friday a week after the accident and after days of bitter soul-searching over declining morality in China.
The Guangzhou Military District General Hospital said that the 2-year-old girl, Wang Yue, died of brain and organ failure. "Her injuries were too severe and the treatment had no effect," intensive care unit director Su Lei told reporters.
The plight of the child, nicknamed Yueyue, came to symbolize what many Chinese see as a decay in public morals after heady decades of economic growth and rising prosperity.
Gruesome closed-circuit camera video of last Thursday's accident, aired on television and posted on the Internet, showed Yueyue toddling along the hardware market street in the southern city of Foshan. A van strikes her, slows and then resumes driving, rolling its back right wheel over the child. Over the next seven minutes, as she lay with blood pooling, 18 people walk or cycle by and another van strikes her before a scrap picker scoops her up as the girl's mother rushes into the street looking for her.
State media said the girl's father was tending the family's hardware shop at the time of the accident and her mother was busy hanging laundry. Both failed to notice she had wandered outside.
The Guangzhou Military District General Hospital said that the 2-year-old girl, Wang Yue, died of brain and organ failure. "Her injuries were too severe and the treatment had no effect," intensive care unit director Su Lei told reporters.
The plight of the child, nicknamed Yueyue, came to symbolize what many Chinese see as a decay in public morals after heady decades of economic growth and rising prosperity.
Gruesome closed-circuit camera video of last Thursday's accident, aired on television and posted on the Internet, showed Yueyue toddling along the hardware market street in the southern city of Foshan. A van strikes her, slows and then resumes driving, rolling its back right wheel over the child. Over the next seven minutes, as she lay with blood pooling, 18 people walk or cycle by and another van strikes her before a scrap picker scoops her up as the girl's mother rushes into the street looking for her.
State media said the girl's father was tending the family's hardware shop at the time of the accident and her mother was busy hanging laundry. Both failed to notice she had wandered outside.
Please NOTE: the video below is EXTREMELY graphic. It is from a closed-circuit camera on the street where the incident happened. The first few seconds are where the toddler was hit by the van. PLEASE BEWARE! Even I was not able to view the actual "hit" that the toddler took.
This particular video in its entirety was broadcast on a local Chinese news station (which I find incredulous). The main reason I am making this video accessible is to watch the apathy of the passers-by. It is chilling. Absolutely chilling.
How do we throw off apathy in our own lives? What is the answer to such an atrocity as this true story in China?
Why does apathy seem safer (to some) than action?
