Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Cruel humanity

You have probably heard about the story of a little girl in China who got un over twice by two trucks. The shocking part is that there were several passerbys who saw the girl laying on the road in a pool of blood, but did nothing about it. It wasn't until a homeless woman noticed her and pulled her away from the street and asked for help, then the mom took the child to the hospital, where apparently she died. After the video of the surveillance camera has hit the web it has caused some serious stir about human kind and morality.


The video was almost too painful to watch. And the worst part is that it's sad, but true - what's happening in the world and what has become of importance to people; and caring about other human beings is not one of them. Like a lot of people, after watching the video, we question what was wrong with the passerbys. What has society come to? Where is all the morality? Is there any morality left in us?

Lots of people blame the Chinese society, of how they have become so materialistic that they have lost any sense of human value. It's how the government has implanted in their minds that they have to work work work work like robots so they can earn money to buy buy buy buy. It's all about the flow of money. But to think about it, it's not just in China, it happens all around the world, and the Western world is no exception. This is just one story of millions of similar cases. Think about the last time you were hurt while being in a crowded place surrounded by strangers. How many people stopped and approached to check on you?

Personal stories time.

Hong Kong. 2009. Me, my sister and a few uncles and aunts were having lunch at a restaurant. My sister has been taking a few pictures during lunch. When we left the restaurant, my sister realized she didn't have her camera anymore, so she thought she might have dropped it at the restaurant. My uncle goes back, and ask people around if they have seen a camera. A couple said they haven't seen any camera laying around.  A lady suddenly shouts that the couple has kept the camera. That it fell on the floor and they picked it up, she saw them doing it. Then cried "they stole it. call the police!" My uncle even tried to bribe them with money, but they still refused at first. Then they finally got conviced by my uncle to give it back.

Friggin materialistic! Wonder if it wasn't because the other lady threatened them to call the police, how much money would my uncle had to offer till they give the camera back, if they ever want to. It's just a camera they can probably buy for very cheap in Hong Kong. They don't have to steal someone's camera with someone's pictures in it!

Blue Mountain, ON Canada. 2007. I went to a ski trip with my college people. I have been snowboarding for a while that day. As I fell going downhill, I realized that my jacket pocket was open, and I remembered that I had my phone in there and it wasn't there anymore. I was like, great, how can I seatch my phone in this massive mountain covered in snow. It could be like looking for a needle in a stack of hay. But I decided to go to Lost and Found, just in case. Turns out, somebody had turned in my cellphone. I was like OMG I COULD TAKE THAT PERSON TO HEAVEN MYSELF. I was soooo relieved! And I couldn't believe how nice that person must be. He or she could have kept that phone, or made long distance calls like crazy. But they just turned it in. At that time, I thought there was still hope in humanity.

I believe that how we are is very influenced by how we were taught. In kindergarden a kid could either steal something from the class or could be honest about something. That depends on how their parents taught them how to act. However, most of our actions depends on what we think is the right thing to do. For many of us, the right thing to do if we see someone laying on the street full of blood, is to immediately go to that person and check if they are alive or not and call for help or take that person to the hospital. For those passerbys who ignored her, they probably thought that the right thing to do is to leave the body alone because they may become liable for any injuries that happened to the toddler - cuz apparently China has some laws about that. Different cultures see different things, but I think that no matter culture, as human beings, the right thing to do, is to help the child.

I don't know if you recall, but I posted a video about a dog helping another dog who was run over by cars in the middle of the highway in Chile. Apparently, this dog has A LOT more morality than any of those passerbys in China. Shame on the human being.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Belly Full of Turkey

Whoopsies, how could I miss a posting about my second (real) Canadian Thanksgiving??! And I mean "real" because it was not planned by international students at university, second year in a row celebrating it with my boyfriend's family.

Unlike last year, where there were only three families at the dinner table, this year was so crowded with people. I would say perhaps around ten families. They had to extend the dinning table and make another one as well.

I love the idea about Canadian Thanksgiving. I don't know how it's different in the United States -well except for the fact that it's celebrated in October instead of November in the States. But the idea of family get togethers, talking to each other, doing fun stuff together, catching up on your extended family members' lives, saying the grace, having dinner, all the smiling and hugging...they are all so heart-warming! There's nothing like this in Costa Rica, maybe only Christmas. And growing up, I never get to do this because my relatives they all live so far away or the ones that live close they have their own plans with other people. We were all kinda like strangers who don't know what's going on with each other's lives or care to get to know about it.

On Thanksgiving, I was thankful for the wonderful weather we got that weekend to celebrate it, and thankful for having a boyfriend with great family.

My favourite part? The food, of course! How many chances you get to stuff your face with food in a year? Only a couple. The smell of turkey fresh out of the oven, the party of flavours in the stuffing, the sweetness of the cranberry sauce, the healthy taste of salads, and the great taste of pumpkin pies. So lucky. I couldn't take any pictures of my plate because I was starving and I just couldn't wait to eat it all. But I could take picture of my dessert plate because I was waiting for the dinner food to go down my belly.

 
white meat or dark meat?

 
Best of both worlds...apple and pumpkin pies