Can you make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear? ( 窮 山 惡 水 出 刁 民 )
On the road not far from the factory is a fair chunk of empty field planted with sugar canes, the kind with a dark purple skin. When I was a young lad in HK, it was a favorite winter pass time, a short chunk was bought from vendor with a pushing cart, and we chewed it, we had good teeth to go with the task then.
These days out mouth are worth a few bucks considered all the dentures , implants installed in them. So when I saw these little stalls popped up against the back drops of the field. I was intrigued as who would be the customers.
Well, this field is on a corner lot of an intersection with traffic lights, and well marked lines for pedestrians, cyclists, and people riding those menacing electric assist bicycles.
It was the people with private cars who just mindlessly stopped their vehicles, wandered over the stalls, leisurely purchased their favorite pass time.
All the while, traffic flow is interrupted; cars are being squeezed from three lanes into two. Drivers honk their car honks continuously to announcing their position, my friend said,” People honking their honks meant nothing personal, just survival, with all the tinted windows; it makes “making eye contact with other drivers next to impossible”.
Even with clear regular windows, drivers here do not have a habit of shoulder checks, or mirror checks, all I observed is “ all drivers staring straight, smoking or talking on the cellular, or have their children playing with the steering wheel while waiting at the intersection.
Driving a private car here is considered a status symbol, you do not see people shopping with a basket anymore, you most likely will see ladies on a electric bike, a kid and a basket wedged between her feet. And most people driving solo in rush hours are a norm.
Anyways, two days ago, in a southern city, a two year old lass while out with her mother on an errand, wandered out onto the road, and was ran over by a truck, apparently serious hurt but not fatal, the upsetting part was, while motionless and lying on the road, she got ran over again the second time by another truck moments later. Both trucks left the accident scene.
Cities here has people, there were a lot of witness, but apparently no one thought of giving the little girl a hand, either by lifting her out of harms way, or stop the on coming traffic. Finally, an old lady walked up to the lifeless little girl, and lifts her up, and lay her down on the side walk.
Stranger here do not interact in the public, people react and interact much better on TV shows being interviewed, or on cyber space. Five thousand years of history sometimes does not amount to a pile of beans, as is in this incident.
The little girl, as I understand, died from her injuries, and the two culprits were soon arrested, thanks not for people phoning in the suspect vehicles’ licenses, rather they were arrested because road side security camera had the images of the accident on tape.