Kindness under pressure
A few months ago, I saw an old woman lying in an alley near my school. A girl passing by immediately went up to check on her, followed by myself and several others. We stayed with her until she was able to stand up. Fortunately, she was not seriously injured.
I was initially hesitant. The thought flashed through my mind that if I could not help, I might end up causing more trouble, for that person or for myself. At the same time, I knew that if I did not lend a hand, I would feel guilty.
Taiwanese are mostly kind. This kindness not only exists in interpersonal interactions in real life, but also extends to the online world. People use social media to help find missing people, initiate online fundraising, forward emergency relief information or write articles to call on more people to pay attention to vulnerable groups.
However, these good intentions seem to be facing a test. I have seen some cases in the media recently where people who helped out with good intentions got into trouble because their actions were misunderstood, such as being mistaken for sexual harassers, being held accountable during the rescue process or the amplification effect of social media, which made people afraid that their actions would be judged online or that the way they were handled was wrong. Increasingly, people choose to stand by and watch rather than get involved.
The reasons include insufficient legal protections, endless scams, declining social trust and the rapid exaggeration of controversial events by the media and social media platforms, making the simple act of helping others full of risk and unpredictability.
A friend told me that one day, she and her family were driving when they came across a single-vehicle accident. They got out of the car and asked the other party if they needed help. He said he was fine and left. A few days later, her family received a call from the police, saying that the other party had accused them of a hit-and-run. The surveillance footage was incomplete and the case was eventually brought to court. This incident made her start to wonder whether she should avoid helping others out of goodwill.
If the law lacks a clear protection mechanism, then even help with good intentions could cause people to fall into legal disputes due to misunderstandings or simply insufficient evidence.
This is not to say that I think Taiwanese have become indifferent to the plight of others. However, we need a safer social environment that can support goodwill. Perhaps we should re-examine the current laws to see if they can fully protect those who lend a hand with good intentions; the media and social media platforms should also report events more carefully and responsibly to avoid causing harm and misunderstanding.
“Helping others” should not be a risk or a burden, but a social value that deserves to be encouraged and cherished.
The next time someone needs help, we all hope that there will still be someone brave enough to step forward and that society would choose to support them.
Lee Tz-hua
Kaohsiung
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