1:20 pm Thursday, May 10, 2007
Would you step up?
On the topic of good samaritans... the other day my colleagues and I were walking back from lunch. While waiting to cross the traffic lights in front of Pearls' Centre, we noticed a tall lanky guy looking dazed, standing on the pavement opposite. His body started wavering, and to our horror, he began to cross the road amid the speeding cars. A double-decker bus bore down on him, luckily slowing down enough to miss him.The guy managed to reach our side of the road, but stood on the tarmac at the cross junction. One of my colleagues, whose handsome face was frowning intensely, walked up to the guy, and whispered almost nonchalently "Hey come up to the pavement, it's dangerous here." The guy looked up, his eyes blank. Having someone take the lead, I waved to him to come over. Heng ah! He grunted and finally stepped up to the pavement.To our frustration, when the green man came on, he crossed the road again. We stood around to see if he would attempt to cross back again when the red man appeared. He didn't, and walked away in another direction.I was very impressed with my colleague. If you were there, would you have tried to help the man? I hesitated, only to watch on in horror. But if I was the only one there, I would have gone forward. What's the difference, and why? Guess it's the notion of diffused responsibility, where people in a crowd would wait for one another to take action. Was rather disappointed in myself, so tried to analyse why.Maybe I was afraid that my interference might provoke him and make him run even more into the path of traffic? Then I would be the sinner! Or is that just an excuse, and I was actually afraid that he might react violently and drag me along? What if no one had stepped forward, and something really happened to him because of that?Labels: Being Random
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