This is a debate because it’s China, not the US or other non-communist nations. China is pretty brutal towards the individual, both from the position of being the communist state that it is, and culturally… my admittedly very limited exposure to China, via Discovery channel specials and the like, is that they don’t have a lot of time or patience for people in need, whether due to genetic misfortune of crappy choices. There seems to be a kind of “tough shit for you if you can’t participate” attitude.
So, while the guy who did the pushing obviously committed a crime and was reported to be medicated for mental disorders… wasn’t his act kind of in keeping with the general “collective” mentality of communism?
So. Insensitive bastard or righteous protector of the collective’'s time and resources?
Actually the OP fits in with my theory that Jeffery Dahmer was a product of the “eat the poor” attitude of the modern capitalist government in the United States.
OMG that’s great! If we had a policy of pushing jumpers rather then tying up public roads and emergency workers they might eventually find a cheaper way of “crying for help”. Go angry grandpa!
Push a regular Joe and it’s assault. I don’t think you should lose your rights because you’re at your wits’ end and just can’t hack it anymore. Leave those sad cases to the professionals and let’s keep our hands to ourselves, eh?
I put this in the same category as “We don’t negotiate with terrorists”.
It seems apparent that people were using the bridge jumping threat as some sort of political platform (pun intended)and were not, as such, really at the end of their miserable ropes. Even if they were, the several hour decision making period makes me wonder about their commitment to their chosen course of action. If the bridge gets the reputation for “jump or get the hell out of the way”, the truely suicidal will find another avenue, or move it along.
I have crossed that bridge on foot many times and know it well. It is (I think) the oldest bridge in Guangzhou (and quite ugly I might add). Guangzhou has many modern and beautiful bridges but this is really ugly and badly built.
Yes, the Chinese, like most Asian cultures, I believe, have less consideration for the individual and consider social solidarity more important. Personally, being western, I don’t like it but it is a fact.
But America, when compared to European countries, is also a culture where society does not feel much obligation to help the individual in need and respect for human life is not so great either. In that sense America and China have something in common: the view that if you do wrong you deserve what you get, even if it is something which other cultures might consider disproportionate. They are also cultures which both see the death penalty as normal.
So it is just a matter of culture and I do not think one can say it is right or wrong.
The bridge is not high above the water and I doubt anyone would be killed by the impact. The filth in the water is something else though. You’d probably get all sorts of diseases in that water.
Once, two or three years ago, on that same bridge, I saw some conmotion and people surrounding a scene. A cop was talking, sort of arguing, with a barefoot woman. It seems she was threatening to jump or something. The scene looked like Andy Griffith, with the cop arguing with the woman. I thought to myself than in America the woman whould by now be on the ground and with the cop’s knee on the back of her neck. In the end she was sent off somewhere in a taxi.
So it seems like a popular place for people with problems to call attention. They must not be entirely stupid though because I think that jumping from the Haizhu bridge entails less risk than jumping out of a second story window.
Mm. More a Confucian sort of thing. That said, I’d feel a lot more amused by this if the guy had been pushed onto a fully inflated airbag, instead of a partially inflated one.
OK, I talked to my girlfriend who has more details and had seen the video. As usual the reporting leaves a lot of important stuff out.
It seems the pusher had been held up by the traffic mess on his way to the hospital to get his medications. On the way back he saw the situation was still ongoing and somehow got through to where the man was with the intention of talking him into just coming down. So he started talking to him but I guess he lost his patience when the man wouldn’t listen and then he just pushed him knowing there was an air cushion below. As I mentioned the pusher is mentally disturbed.
So I cannot see how this is representative of anything at all. On any given day you can see in the news in America things which are much more violent and people who are mentally disturbed are everywhere.
Of course, regular Joe isn’t clogging valuable resources and manpower because he’s feeling down in the dumps, nor is he drawing attention to himself by threatening to kill himself in such a public manner. If he really wanted to kill himself, why didn’t he do it in a less attention-grabbing/spectacular way that wouldn’t have negatively affected everyone around him? And killing yourself over debt? Really?
Ha! There was a guy threatening to jump off the Bay Bridge here in SF a few years ago. He tied up traffic for miles and miles back for a few hours. People were pissed. And no, he never jumped. So, I get where this guy was coming from.
Also, what kind of idiot jumps from the Bay Bridge. The Golden Gate is much nicer and just a few miles away.
I don’t understand why you would use this as an example of state-brutality toward an individual…apparently the state had taken great pains to protect the wanna-be suicider, stopping traffic for hours, calling out the emergency team, and putting a big old cushion underneath in case he fell onto the bridge.
While I don’t disagree that China can seem cold or odd, this ain’t an example of it.
The pusher’s behaviour was that of an impatient bystander off his meds, or perhaps just a practical guy who thought the gubmint was dilly dallying too long.