A thought occurred to me when I was walking along Fuxing Lu today. I looked up and saw this dirty giant yellow truck with two hatches from which two men were peering. What is this truck? I couldn’t work it out. Why are their men inside looking out of the hatches. Nobody else seemed concerned and yet it reminded me of people trafficking. OK so the chances of them being trafficked is pretty slim but what if they were and people just went about their business and turned a blind eye to it.
Lots of people don’t like to get involved in things – even when they should. Earlier in the morning near the same place I saw a crowd of people gathered around a woman on the floor who had fallen over (or been hit by a car – not sure). A policeman on a motorbike happened to be passing so he stopped but the others were standing around her looking without doing anything.
It was almost like a spectator sport. I didn’t take a photo because I things it’s immoral to take a photo of someone in a predicament like that. But I remember in Nanjing finding a dead man on the pavement (he had jumped from a window). People were standing around him looking on curiously and two men were videoing him – getting close in to capture his features in detail.
What has happened to society? I hate to say this but it’s true – people are not as community-minded or socially responsible in China as in other countries I have lived in. There are plenty of stories of people (westerners and Chinese alike) suffering and in need of help and people just standing by watching.
Returning to my human-traffickers – if anyone can tell me what the lorry please satisfy my curiosity.