suicide jumper thrown off bridge in south China by passer-by

[Maryan0]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...7D66.DTL&tsp=1
video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPRM1BfxKL0
(05-23) 01:34 PDT BEIJING, China (AP) --
Chen Fuchao, a man heavily in debt, had been contemplating suicide on a bridge in southern China for hours when a passer-by came up, shook his hand — and pushed him off the ledge.
Chen fell 26 feet (8 meters) onto a partially inflated emergency air cushion laid out by authorities and survived, suffering spine and elbow injuries, the official Xinhua News Agency said Saturday.
The passer-by, 66-year-old Lai Jiansheng, had been fed up with what he called Chen's "selfish activity," Xinhua said. Traffic around the Haizhu bridge in the city of Guangzhou had been backed up for five hours and police had cordoned off the area.
"I pushed him off because jumpers like Chen are very selfish. Their action violates a lot of public interest," Lai was quoted as saying by Xinhua. "They do not really dare to kill themselves. Instead, they just want to raise the relevant government authorities' attention to their appeals."
Xinhua said Lai was "taken away by police" but did not elaborate.
A police officer who answered the telephone Saturday at a station close to the bridge confirmed the incident and said it was under investigation. He refused to give any other details and hung up.
According to Xinhua, Chen wanted to kill himself because he had accrued 2 million yuan ($290,000) in debt from a failed construction project.
On Thursday, he made his way to the Haizhu bridge, where 11 other people have tried to take their lives since April.
Lai volunteered to talk Chen down but was turned away by police, Xinhua said. Lai then broke through the cordon, climbed to where Chen sat, greeted him with a handshake, then pushed.
Photos in the Beijing Morning Post showed Lai, shoeless and in a T-shirt, saluting after Chen fell.
The paper said Lai was released on bail Friday but did not give any details. It said he had been on medication for "a mental illness" for decades and had been on his way to a hospital for his pills.
Chen was recovering in the hospital, Xinhua said.

[Al-Zaara]

Incredible. I'd "understand" the pusher if one would see people like that daily but even then, why make oneself a killer? Oh well, he hadn't had his pills.

[Snowflake]

^Or maybe it was the pills lol

In the long run he's probably done more good in making people think twice about suicide than their shrinks.

[Thinker]

To understand this you need to understand (as I have said so many times) how easy it is to convince human beings to believe anything; in this instance it is called culture. I lived and worked in China for many years and came to understand that (culturally) Chinese people have a distinct hierarchy of who is important to them. I’ll give you an example; one day I was walking down a road and a man was pushing his car so my friends and I helped him push start it. He was so grateful he was almost in tears. I told this story to my Chinese colleague and he explained that other Chinese pedestrian would not help him push because they didn’t know him and as they didn’t know him his plight was of no consequence to them; his attitude was that they weren’t related or from the same village or known to them so why should they help him.

[Sampharo]

Sorry, but this is too funny! I don't know why when they said the traffic was held for 5 hours, I somehow can understand where this Lai guy was coming from.

Of course it is only funny considering that he knew there was an air mattress underneath.

[S_87]

Sorry, but this is too funny! I don't know why when they said the traffic was held for 5 hours, I somehow can understand where this Lai guy was coming from.

.

exactly, if he was gonna jump-jump