Residents are still waiting for a convincing explanation from authorities about the pig carcasses found in the Huangpu River, an event which has haunted the city for more than two weeks and prompted unprecedented fears about water safety.
Another piece of news that caused heated debate this week was the announcement that 23 world champions and their coaches will enjoy lifelong subsidized medical treatment at Huashan Hospital under a joint plan with the Shanghai Sports Development Foundation, which is under the auspices of the Shanghai Municipal Sports Bureau.
The policy drew fire from the public, who pointed out that these famous figures are hardly in need of such gifts when so-called loser athletes are far more deserving of such help. Under pressure, the Shanghai Municipal Sports Bureau on Wednesday told media the reports were "exaggerated," but I doubt the public will buy this explanation.
Another news story this week informed us that society still lacks the kind of brave people who are ready to stand up to violent criminals.
The official microblog of the city's police bureau recorded that on Monday a bus driver saw a man stealing something from a fellow passenger. The driver stopped the bus at a nearby downtown intersection, locked the doors and dialed 110 to inform police. The police arrived and the thief was arrested, but the name of the Good Samaritan driver was never made public.
This spontaneous good act is typical of one aspect of such cases. Everyday, we can see inappropriate behavior on show, such as metro ticket-dodging, jay walking, and pick-pocketing. Sometimes we see bullies intimidating people who are weaker or older than them. But how many of us are brave enough to jump in on the side of those wronged? On this score alone, the bus driver deserves the warmest of praise.
A second aspect of these stories is that the police are sensitive enough to prevent any revenge attacks on drivers by not disclosing their personal information to the public.
Previously, when someone carried out such a good deed, swathes of media exposure would follow. And if it's the case of a drowning person being saved, or of people being pulled from a burning building then I would say that such public praise is fine.
But we always need to think about protecting the Good Samaritans in these high-profile cases.
So why do we dare not stand up to support justice? It's because we are afraid that we too might be attacked for doing just that. And even if the police did intervene to protect us, who could guarantee our safety once we had left the police station?
You may criticize me for my seeming cowardice. But we have to admit that such fears are representative of the majority of people.
Here, I should also point out that monitoring equipment on buses also plays an important role in such situations. The city fixed surveillance cameras on almost every bus prior to the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai to better guarantee public safety. And the bus network has assisted police staff in providing clues and evidence when a crime is committed. The aforementioned thief could hardly deny his crime, when the whole escapade was caught on camera.
And this reminds me of a similar experience that happened to me 18 years ago.
One Sunday my boyfriend and I took a bus from Shanghai Railway Station to my university campus in Hongkou district. It was crowded and we were in different parts of the vehicle. At one point I saw the hem of my boyfriend's coat being raised. I shouted to him to watch his pockets, panicking the man stood next to him who then exclaimed: "Oh look, there's some money on the ground."
No harm done, and the money was returned. But so certain was I of the man's guilt that I accused him of as much. I was in my 20s at the time and hotheaded. I had no evidence to denounce the man, as my boyfriend and the other passengers pointed out, telling me to be quiet and to forget the matter. I was made to feel like the typically irrational woman who was making a fuss out of nothing.
This incident upset me for a long time, but in hindsight I have come to see that they were right all along. Buses had no cameras back then, and without evidence the man could have sued me for slander, or even exacted revenge on me in more violent terms.
In comparing these two bus incidents, I would offer the following advice. If you are going to expose a crime, you need two "weapons" - the first is to be warmhearted and brave enough to stand up to a perpetrator; and the second is to have cast iron evidence that what you are accusing him or her of is actually true. Advances in technology should hopefully guarantee the latter.
We are lucky that Shanghai is now a safer place to fight and expose the bad guys; and for that we should all be grateful.
The author is the managing editor of Global Times Metro Shanghai. fengyu@globaltimes.com.cn
