To help, or not to help?

foreignchinese (Malaysia)

I was in Jilin one rainy evening, walking with my wife to a nearby restaurant, and suddenly we heard a big bang. We saw a motorcyclist who had skidded underneath a parked taxi. The man was in pain and no one came forward to help him. Against my wife's advise for fear of been accused, I approached the man and asked whether he would like some assistance. With hands clasps and grimaces of pain on his face he managed a few words asking if I could help pull him to the side of the road, which we quickly did. We waited for him to call home on his mobile and moved on after we were certain that he was safe and his family was coming to get him. My wife bumped into the same guy two months later and he had recovered with a slight limp. He wanted to thank me for being there in a time of need. My wife told him that he would need to buy an air-ticket and travel 7,000 km to do so since I was back in my country.

The Chinese legal systems has flaws, allowing opportunists to take advantage of good Samaritans. Now it has a society caring only for itself. It will take awhile before someone sees that the legal system needs a serious revamping to protect good Samaritans from crooked opportunists.

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