I almost confront the sight of death today. Today, one old guy was having seizure and somehow he was in the water in Sydney Harbour. I was on my way to work at my casual job and I saw everyone were congregating around the platform. I was curious so I came and have a look. By the time I knew what was the fuss about I realised that something was floating on the water. I got five seconds to jump into the water to save him but I was indecisive about it (because I would be wet and its a long way home) and the guy got into the water first. Everyone were just there looking and only one guy attempted to save the old man's life. The saver wasn't a good swimmer so he struggled abit. I helped him pull the man in.

Afterwards I felt so guilty that I didn't act sooner. I'm a very good swimmer and even won swimming competitions at school. Do you guys think that selfishness is human nature?

no it not your fault, in that situation you have Two choice jump in or not... when you eventualy saw 1 person going to save the old man... then you think that you don't need to jump in or it just you don't feel comfortable of all the people looking....anYway you offered help to the guy to pull the man up...If their's no one going save the old man, i would think you should 'jump' down...as you said that you good at swimming...
'selfisness is human nature' not really, some people don't really care about other, and some are confuse 'wat they should do'...

I still feel so $hit now. Can't believe I didn't do anything. So depressed

-delete-

I'm in no mood for jokes over this matter, tattra.

Wow..this happened today in Sydney, didn't even see it on the news.

If I was in the same situation I wouldn't have jumped in too, coz I'm not a strong swimmer but I would have called for help straight away. If I really came to a matter of life and death for the old man no decent human being would have let him drown and someone was there to rescue him anyway.

Don't dwell on it man, the most important thing is the old man was saved.

You're right, I shouldn't have joked about it. Let me delete it then, sorry bro !

atleast you felt sorry.

Some may just forget about it in an hour or something..........

Yeah you did feel sorry, and it isn't your fault. If I was in the same situation I wouldn't care, I would be like hey at least it wasn't me. I don't show or have any emotions, well maybe I do show anger and happiness. Heck when my cousin died I didn't feel sad. Showing emotion or sadness is for the weak. I have learned this when I was young.

the old man is okay now, feel better Chuong

i wouldn't jump down either, i can't swim.. i've learned how a few time, but just really stupid n never got it.

u've learned it wrong ejay1 !!

There is nothing wrong with the way I think, only the strong survive.

but u r not healthy.

So your saying it is not healthy to not show weakness.

You would have nothing to conceal if you had nothing to fear.

^ this is not weakness

That is not weakness, your starting to not make any sense.
Of course those are the qualities of weak people.

showing emotions is not a weak quality, u show emotion so that others understand u.. n when u get along w/ ppl u dun need 2 b strong 2 live .. ..besides emotions/sadness is part of u, n if u dun show it u r living it out fully!!

I have had a similar situation four years ago although it didn't turn out positive for me. Four summers ago, while riding my bike home from my office during one evening, I saw a person stumbling on the sidewalk on the other side of the street. It was a senior gentleman who felt down on the pavement and looked like he was in bad trouble.

I dropped my bike and ran across the street to help him while calling 911 using my cell phone. A few minutes later, a police cruiser came with an ambulance from the fire department.

The old gentleman was a incoherent 88-year old who got to walk with his 80-year old wife at the local mall once a week for exercise. During this outing, he somehow managed to escape from his wife's supervision, got lost in the crowd and started wandering outside of the mall unaccompanied. He walked like a zombie until he came to the edge of the shopping mall where the graded slope between the parking lot and the sidewalk caused him to lose the balance and fall.

I was very glad I could help the old gentleman out. He was a veteran of WWII who fought many battles in North Africa and Italy as a infantryman. What pissed me off was the cops asking me all kinds of question, vaguely suggesting that the old man was mugged and the suspect was... Go figure. That was really low. I was really mad at those police officers who talked like they didn't have the ability to graduate from high school. If I am mugger, why would I use my cell phone to call for help my victim and wait for the police to come? That's when I realized that America has changed for the worse. From that day on, I haven't helped anyone, including women who have flat tires on the side of the road - something I had always enjoyed doing as a young person.

The only consolation I got from the incident was a telephone call from the wife the next morning to my office, thanking me profusely for helping her husband. No calls from the cops though.

Okay so emotions might be normal, people are generally weak. You need to go through some tough times to lose your weakness. But if you don't have any then it is an big advantage.

to answer the question, yes i think selfishness is part of human nature. As darwin said its survival of the fittest, everyone for themselves. As kids, why else are we taught to share, its cause selfishness is in our blood...

As for the topic, maybe cause i wasnt in the situation myself but i would have jumped in to save the man. I dont know how long of a way home it was but my boss is real koo and he'd understand so that wouldnt really be a problem.

but yeah maybe if i was dealt with the situation it would be different? last week i saw some 25 year old guy fall off his bike, i didnt even say anything or help the guy out. i just sat in my car acting as if i didnt see him.

NQSH,

Just because you are a superb swimmer doesn't mean that you know how to rescue people in the water. It's actually a very dangerous act to yourself because most drowning victims are usually on panic mode and would grab on anything to stay afloat. You might end up being a victim yourself if you don't have any training in water safety and aquatic rescue.

The victim's face was pretty scary. He was all purple and I thought he was dead when we took him out of the water. Someone could have jumped in the water earlier so he wouldn't have drunk so much water.

Anyway yeah I'm a very emotional persion. I cried when close people around me dies. I even cried when I was on the plane going back to Sydney from Saigon. Such a cry baby eh?

i say u should compete w/ invasian!

You seem like an sentimental person.

LOL guys, please...

In general human nature are selfish. Such is in the example of the crowd doing nothing for the man in the water.
But there are also good humans in the world, witht he example of the one that jumped in. It is just that good people are really rare to find unfortunately.
You yourself thought of helping and that's good, even though your instinct first sought to concern only yourself. Which is more than I can say for some folks who are stone cold.



Sentimentality is good. There's no problem with that. THe problem in this world is that man tries to be the stereotypical buff and tough, that we forget to realize that we're human. I have more respect for someone who is concerned about a situation and is honest in showing it rahten than keeping the emotions to himself and tries to deny it.

What if you have no emotions, you can't hold back something that was never there.

We're no machine. Everyone has emotions, the pathetic thing is we try to keep it back so much that we begin to believe that we have no emotions, wehn truly inside we do. Be it guilt, concern, or soemthing else.

I tend to be optimistic, human are not as sadistic as you might believe they are.

Yes we are machines, how are people able to kill other people if we aren't machine-like.

Diffusion of Responsibility, its pretty common occurance when your around a large group of people during a crisis situation.

Yes I agree. I thought about it too. I was thinking that had there was only me and the old man, I would have jumped down without hesitation.

I personally believe (and that's my belief) that all humans has some good in them. Its' just society or a condition/disorder that turns them horrible. People who kill has some serious mental issues that inhibits them from delineating between what's right and wrong. I don't think anyone kills for the fun of it unless they truly have some psychological problem.

I truly believe that if I ever kill someone I would have no remorse. But I would never kill anyone though.

Totally agree. The biggest problem with men are that they tend to suppress their emotion and try to act tough to gain credibility and acceptance among their peers

i second that...............


when a man cries he will be called a wussy or something. Men have emotions tooo........

sorry to hear that.......... it not your fault. you did your best to help the old man by pulling him up........... maybe because you were so shock that you couldn't react far enough before the other guy............ you should be happy that you help pull them out of the water. if you never help pull, both of them will be in trouble, cause the other guy can't swim that good......... at lease you have a heart wanting to save that man.............. sometime when i'm in the stage of seeing things like that i get really confuse and my mind go blank.........but i will do my best to help out........ so you did a wonder job in saving the old man.............