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Today is my first day of the work, I stayed up late yesterday for IEM final (which I loved btw, sOs is really a damn genius, it's no wonder why so many players voted him as the one to take it all) and so today I didn't really have enough sleep but I managed to freshen myself up and go off all excited and nervous like a boy going to the first prom ever.
Then after around 5 mins of walking, I saw someone lying on the street.
At first I thought it's just a person drunk or just some dirty cloths and then I confirmed it's not.
The person probably jumped from a building (not a tall one), he looked peaceful.
there weren't a lot of blood and it didn't even look like blood, it was a sort of weak purple colour probably due to the dark grey pavement colour.
The only thing that gave it away is his ankle, which was completely broken and snapped off and that he wasn't breathing anymore.
The first thing that comes to my mind is not how shocking the scene is to me.
I was surprised at how calm I am.
And equally surprised to see everyone in the area reacted the same way I am, confused and just......moved on.
I guess what I am trying to say is that sometimes we watch so many dramas, movies, books etc that whenever someone died, or you see some dead person unexpectedly, you would go ape crazy.
But today I learnt that I don't, and the majority of Hong Kong people didn't either.
Male, Female, Asians, Westerners all reacted the same.
Was it because the pavement is not blocking anyone's way?
Maybe, the only people who stayed around and bothered by it were the people there to deliver office water supplies and the body happened to be right next to the entrance.
It's crazy how emotionless we can feel when someone we don't know is dead right in front of your eyes.
When I walked away, all I could think was:
Am I too heartless?
Am I growing up or just grown to stop caring?
Should I even feel guilty or question my moral?
10 mins later, I took out the bread in my bag and ate away without a care in the world about what I just saw.
20 mins later I started reading extremely difficult scholar journals.
11 hours later, + Show Spoiler +I came back home and saw IM just lost their pl match
  
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With a life expectancy of 40 to 50 million minutes, there isn't enough time to cry for everyone. I think suicide is more an indictment of how living people treat each other.
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The last sentence made me wonder if your story is some sort of metaphor. :s
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You just walked by? Was there anyone else calling the police/ambulance or whoever who has to take care of the body? Not doing anything about it seems kind of inhumane.
Maybe it's a testimony of how senseless we have become about violence.
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On March 17 2014 22:32 herMan wrote:
You just walked by? Was there anyone else calling the police/ambulance or whoever who has to take care of the body? Not doing anything about it seems kind of inhumane.
Maybe it's a testimony of how senseless we have become about violence.
I think the water delivery people called the police since they asked everyone to stay away from the scene.
I guess I just felt I couldn't have done more and moved on.
There was another time when I saw a drunk lady fell out from a tram when she tries to get off and broke a lot of teeth.
That time I felt more motivated to do something until I realize everyone was thinking the same.
Maybe it's not that I am heartless, maybe just that I don't know what I can do and just wanted to move on.
And I have to say, if this hasn't happened to me and someone wrote the same blog, I would have written the same reply as yours
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On March 17 2014 22:32 herMan wrote:
You just walked by? Was there anyone else calling the police/ambulance or whoever who has to take care of the body? Not doing anything about it seems kind of inhumane.
Maybe it's a testimony of how senseless we have become about violence.
What? We've gotten less violent over the years by such a large margin it's crazy
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Seeker
Where dat snitch at?37043 Posts
1/5. You spoiled the IM vs CJ results T-T...
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On March 17 2014 23:12 Seeker wrote:
1/5. You spoiled the IM vs CJ results T-T...
There 
or maybe i am really just heartless
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I remember once I was on a Skype call with a friend, and she suddenly heard this really loud sound outside, like a gunshot. Later found out it was someone jumping...I think it shakes you up even if you don't know the person.
I think you could have at least alerted the police/an ambulance about it.
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On March 17 2014 23:24 FuRong wrote:
I remember once I was on a Skype call with a friend, and she suddenly heard this really loud sound outside, like a gunshot. Later found out it was someone jumping...I think it shakes you up even if you don't know the person.
I think you could have at least alerted the police/an ambulance about it.
he said people were already doing that.
I dont think you're heartless OP, i think its like when you hear murder on the news, except this time it wasnt on TV. What else are you supposed to do?
maybe you should add to your blog that people already called an ambulance, cuz thats also a question I had as well.
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On March 17 2014 21:58 ETisME wrote:
When I walked away, all I could think was:
Am I too heartless?
Am I growing up or just grown to stop caring?
Should I even feel guilty or question my moral?
If the guy was dying and you could help him, but chose not to, then you are heartless. But he is already dead and there's nothing you can do about it, so getting upset about it is quite pointless.
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Seeker
Where dat snitch at?37043 Posts
On March 17 2014 23:15 ETisME wrote:Show nested quote +On March 17 2014 23:12 Seeker wrote:
1/5. You spoiled the IM vs CJ results T-T... There or maybe i am really just heartless
Haha. No you're not.
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Seeing a dead body and having it not shake you is not a sign that you are sociopath. I wouldn't get too hung up on it.
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1001 YEARS KESPAJAIL22272 Posts
The fact that you expected to be more bothered by it already makes you a normal person. Nothing more you could have done assuming the cops were already on it, and there really is no more appropriate reaction for you to have
If you had actually enjoyed seeing a dead body then maaaaaybe that's a little weird.
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Isnt it just a natural reaction?
I mean, yes it's a dead person, but you didnt know him and there's nothing to be done anymore. Also, apart from the presumption he killed himself by throwing himself off of a building, the situation around the death also is unknown, which may prevent an emotional reaction on your end.
If you were witnessing a person's death, you'd probably be a lot more shocked, thinking about saving him or whatever.
It's just like those videos of for example the deaths of some gas attack. The thing that makes me angry is the gas attack itself, not seeing the corpses. As another example, there was a video of someone getting his hand chopped off after being convicted for theft. I simply couldn't watch that. The impact on me was many multitudes larger. It wasnt the gore, but the thought of what must have gone through his mind just before and after the chopping off, that made quite uneasy, to say the least. (i realise video's are something else then witnessing something, but it's just something to get the point across )
I don't think either being heartless, or the state of modern society has something to do with this particular reaction.
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On March 17 2014 22:46 bo1b wrote:Show nested quote +On March 17 2014 22:32 herMan wrote:
You just walked by? Was there anyone else calling the police/ambulance or whoever who has to take care of the body? Not doing anything about it seems kind of inhumane.
Maybe it's a testimony of how senseless we have become about violence. What? We've gotten less violent over the years by such a large margin it's crazy
You misinterpret me. I did not say we are violent, but our reactions to violence.
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You only think you should go berserk because thats how we see people reacting in movies. Obviously thats far from the truth. I saw two dead people in my life, both when I was a kid. One was drowned and the other burned to death. I was calm as was everyone around me.
You just have the wrong idea of how you should react because of TV thats all. No need for that drama at the end of your post.
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i think most people are more scared of blood and organs than just a lifeless body.
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With 5 years in as a Paramedic and seeing people go peacefully and violently of varying ages has shown me that everyone reacts differently to the scene. Some bystanders are hysterical while some are not and weirdly enough some family members are hysterical while some are not. I think a lot of it just depends on the person. In this line of work you can't let every dead body bother you, or you won't have very much of a "career".
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As soon as I saw this, I was like "Sixth Sense".
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I'm shocked when someone doesn't die.
e. or stay dead.
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I don't think you did anything different from what others would have done. I once left a grocery store and there was a big scene in the parking lot. A guy had a seizure and was laying on the ground twitching. Paramedics were already on scene helping him. I didn't even stop because of 2 reasons, 1) I can not improve the situation any more than it has due to professionals being on scene, and 2) I I have no relation to this person at all. If I fell under to either category I would have been more inclined to respond to the situation.
edit: seizure* not a stroke, im bad at medical terms.
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On March 18 2014 01:02 herMan wrote:Show nested quote +On March 17 2014 22:46 bo1b wrote:On March 17 2014 22:32 herMan wrote:
You just walked by? Was there anyone else calling the police/ambulance or whoever who has to take care of the body? Not doing anything about it seems kind of inhumane.
Maybe it's a testimony of how senseless we have become about violence. What? We've gotten less violent over the years by such a large margin it's crazy You misinterpret me. I did not say we are violent, but our reactions to violence.
well in terms of suicide (and actually most forms of violence) its actually the opposite. Before suicide was just someone sinning or their family members were laughed at cuz they produced a "mentally weak" child. Now its accepted as something that can be fixed and now we know that most cases of suicide are caused by factors sometimes out of their control.
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TLADT24920 Posts
I don't think there's anything wrong with you tbh. As mentioned, you are already thinking about it to even write this blog and you saw that someone already called the police and you were told not to get close. There's not much else you can do.
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EPT
