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Avoiding rush to judgment on ragman
By Lena Zhang |
August 16, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A FOUR-minute video clip showing the clash between an elderly rag picker, a male passenger, and the female driver of the No. 82 bus in Pudong on August 6 caused quite a stir in China's cyber community.
The clip has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times and numerous comments have been posted. The majority of online opinions seem to favor the rag picker while condemning the actions of the other two parties involved.
Now that the passenger has walked away, the driver is pretty much left to take the full brunt of the blame. She's been not only suspended from her job but also placed under enormous pressure from all sides, including her own teenage son who refused to speak with her after the incident.
The rag picker's unique status has led the cyber debate since he appeared to come from a rather under-privileged group of citizens who have to eke out a living by selling rubbish, not to mention at such an advanced age. My heart also goes out to him.
However, the bags he carried onto the bus were over the size limit, reportedly stinky, and might indeed pose potential health and safety hazards for other passengers.
It was the male passenger who not only lashed out at the elderly man but also displayed physical aggression by snatching a bag off the bus and ripping it open in the process, leaving "stinky" rubbish scattered all over the place, thus compromising his earlier claim that one person's actions shouldn't violate the rights of others.
On the other hand, I suspect that the actions of the female driver may have mainly stemmed from a sense of duty that bus regulations should be followed to the letter. Her attitude was not appropriate but neither was that of the rag picker. He was seen repeatedly challenging her and the male passenger to call the police, as if he knew he had the upper hand in these situations.
I wonder what the police would have done if they were really called upon the scene. We all know that laws recognize no age barrier and can only give limited consideration to personal circumstance. Should regulations then, however insignificant, be observed by everyone but an elderly rag picker?
The online opinions would certainly have taken a drastic turn if there had been a hazardous substance in the rubbish, such as an inflammable liquid (as is often the case), which then caught fire and threatened or claimed lives as in the Beijing-Zhuhai express bus explosive combustion on July 22, in which at least, 41 people were killed.
Let's not forget that most regulations are there for a good reason. And accidents are often the result of minor violations and seemingly trivial offenses.
Questionable silence
And interestingly, whoever videotaped the clash in questionable silence and later sensationalized it on the Internet has received virtually no critical attention. It will probably remain a mystery why he or she chose not to interfere to help ease the tension, if not to stand up for justice - instead of behaving like a completely indifferent bystander to the confrontation.
Yet this indifference soon turned into a cyber war of words that denounced the driver, whose reputation is now undoubtedly and irreversibly in ruin. I believe that careful consideration should always be given in cases where a person's reputation is at stake, regardless of whether the subject in question is a prominent public figure or an ordinary member of society.
In this incident, surely a softer approach would have been a lot more appropriate on the part of all three involved. But apart from having raised her voice, the driver has done little to deserve so outrageous a public outcry.
To require a bus driver to think on her feet of an ideal solution to balance the rights of one versus the rights of many in such a delicate matter is probably a little too demanding.
It's also a little worrying to see the widespread popularity of Internet use give rise to a variety of ways to exploit and manipulate public emotions, especially when the public is at the height of its predisposition to side with those seemingly less fortunate, with no reservations whatsoever.
Catching people unawares on videos and then posting their pictures indiscriminately on the Internet is probably a morally debatable issue in itself, unless there are extraordinary circumstances to justify the actions.
All kinds of indifferent or cowardly bystanders in reality could join the ranks of anonymous, righteously indignant denouncers at the click of a mouse.
The author is a reader of Shanghai Daily. Her e-mail: lena828-newspapers@yahoo.com
The clip has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times and numerous comments have been posted. The majority of online opinions seem to favor the rag picker while condemning the actions of the other two parties involved.
Now that the passenger has walked away, the driver is pretty much left to take the full brunt of the blame. She's been not only suspended from her job but also placed under enormous pressure from all sides, including her own teenage son who refused to speak with her after the incident.
The rag picker's unique status has led the cyber debate since he appeared to come from a rather under-privileged group of citizens who have to eke out a living by selling rubbish, not to mention at such an advanced age. My heart also goes out to him.
However, the bags he carried onto the bus were over the size limit, reportedly stinky, and might indeed pose potential health and safety hazards for other passengers.
It was the male passenger who not only lashed out at the elderly man but also displayed physical aggression by snatching a bag off the bus and ripping it open in the process, leaving "stinky" rubbish scattered all over the place, thus compromising his earlier claim that one person's actions shouldn't violate the rights of others.
On the other hand, I suspect that the actions of the female driver may have mainly stemmed from a sense of duty that bus regulations should be followed to the letter. Her attitude was not appropriate but neither was that of the rag picker. He was seen repeatedly challenging her and the male passenger to call the police, as if he knew he had the upper hand in these situations.
I wonder what the police would have done if they were really called upon the scene. We all know that laws recognize no age barrier and can only give limited consideration to personal circumstance. Should regulations then, however insignificant, be observed by everyone but an elderly rag picker?
The online opinions would certainly have taken a drastic turn if there had been a hazardous substance in the rubbish, such as an inflammable liquid (as is often the case), which then caught fire and threatened or claimed lives as in the Beijing-Zhuhai express bus explosive combustion on July 22, in which at least, 41 people were killed.
Let's not forget that most regulations are there for a good reason. And accidents are often the result of minor violations and seemingly trivial offenses.
Questionable silence
And interestingly, whoever videotaped the clash in questionable silence and later sensationalized it on the Internet has received virtually no critical attention. It will probably remain a mystery why he or she chose not to interfere to help ease the tension, if not to stand up for justice - instead of behaving like a completely indifferent bystander to the confrontation.
Yet this indifference soon turned into a cyber war of words that denounced the driver, whose reputation is now undoubtedly and irreversibly in ruin. I believe that careful consideration should always be given in cases where a person's reputation is at stake, regardless of whether the subject in question is a prominent public figure or an ordinary member of society.
In this incident, surely a softer approach would have been a lot more appropriate on the part of all three involved. But apart from having raised her voice, the driver has done little to deserve so outrageous a public outcry.
To require a bus driver to think on her feet of an ideal solution to balance the rights of one versus the rights of many in such a delicate matter is probably a little too demanding.
It's also a little worrying to see the widespread popularity of Internet use give rise to a variety of ways to exploit and manipulate public emotions, especially when the public is at the height of its predisposition to side with those seemingly less fortunate, with no reservations whatsoever.
Catching people unawares on videos and then posting their pictures indiscriminately on the Internet is probably a morally debatable issue in itself, unless there are extraordinary circumstances to justify the actions.
All kinds of indifferent or cowardly bystanders in reality could join the ranks of anonymous, righteously indignant denouncers at the click of a mouse.
The author is a reader of Shanghai Daily. Her e-mail: lena828-newspapers@yahoo.com
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