Two trucks collided on the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Expressway in Yueyang, Hunan Province. While local firemen worked to rescue the drivers stuck in their vehicles, people from a nearby village arrived on the scene to loot watermelons that had fallen off of one of the trucks. A video of the bystanders’ fixation on the watermelons and apparent indifference toward the injured drivers sparked outrage:
Selected comments from SinaWeibo:
mimizu2: Although I feel that the idea of people’s inherently good nature is a joke because there originally was no difference between good and evil, people like this who grabbed the watermelons really leave me speechless... These people, from the beginning, are the dregs of humanity...
添糖使者: When we were young, no matter how poor or greedy we were we never behaved like these people. Not only did this drove of people profit from others’ misfortunes, they looked like they were celebrating a festival... I dislike them with all my heart
maliujia2008: A lot of these truck drivers have been given repeated orders not to overload their trucks, drive over the speed limit, or drive while fatigued. Who takes it seriously? It’s other people who have accidents. Some drivers are equally reckless hauling loads of coal, steel, or cement. Some of them speed up and run people over. Everyone has a family and possesses human empathy, but I think that is the situation these days.
chenzhengyi1984: Things like this happen more often in backward areas in the countryside. It’s clear that education is a major factor. But in China, the money we spend on schools and legal education in poor areas is less than what we donate to Africa. What a sad story!
icecoldtee: This is all the evil of the dual economic system. If we want to put an end to this kind of thing, we have to provide farmers with education, employment, social security, housing and urbanization!
世界人民团结起来: Villagers don't think this is stealing. Instead, they think they are enjoying a free pie falling from sky. The villagers aren’t villains, they just display a lack of acculturation.
落泊情感: If their annual income were over ten thousand RMB, would they steal the watermelons? Look carefully at the man squatting there eating watermelon. Would a rich man do that? I am not helping them, but... it is hard to explain, you have probably never lived a poor life
SUN7老乐头: Do we have to malign the peasants? They have a tough life. It is an pity to see them eating watermelon like that. What could they have done to help? It just would have been chaos! It is detestable to despise the peasants. Without them, we’d have nothing to eat!