It's evil to exploit altruism

A recent news story of a little girl holding an umbrella over a scrubwoman in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, to protect her from the scorching sun touched the hearts of many netizens. But later it turned that the incident had been staged by some unscrupulous people to fulfill their aims. Such frauds to exploit people's sentiments deserves condemnation, says an article in Beijing Youth Daily. Excerpts:

When a good deed turns out to be part of a fraudulent scheme, it really hurts people and can make them indifferent to others' sufferings. For example, media reports in March said that a girl stopped by a hungry senior citizen in a street to serve him food. Soon the public was calling her "the most beautiful girl in Shenzhen". But ultimately people found out that the entire incident was part of a well-organized business plan.

Such incidents of exploiting people's feelings are unforgivable, especially when our society is already suffering from a trust crisis. If people continue to plot more such altruistic events, it can further damage social trust and shake people's belief in kindness and good deeds.

It was indeed troubling to hear the person who plotted the Shenzhen incident say that people should not reveal the truth even after finding out that it was staged, because it was intended to make citizens believe in the power of altruism. This is absurd. No one has the right to cheat people even in the name of philanthropy and humanitarianism. As economist Friedrich von Hayek said, the road to hell is usually paved by goodwill.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences issued a report recently, which showed that the public trust level in Chinese society had dropped to an alarming level. The CASS study found that the trust level was below the set baseline in quite a few cities.

Since staged altruistic events will drive the public trust level further down, we should not allow them to be played out in our society.

No profession is noble or low

A 25-year-old graduate from Tsinghua University, one of China's top institutions of higher learning, applied for chengguan's (urban patrol officer) job in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. He was appointed after getting high scores in the test and performing well in the interview. His appointment, however, has sparked a heated public debate on whether a graduate from prestigious institutions like Tsinghua University should be part of chengguan, a highly controversial law enforcement force. But a civilized and diversified society should give its citizens the freedom of choice. A college student who applies for grassroots jobs such as chengguan, traffic wardens or cleaners is nothing to fuss about, says an article in the Beijing News. Excerpts:

It's people who have labeled certain professions noble and others low and demeaning. But the fact is that it is not a humiliation for a college graduate to be chengguan.

People have a stereotypical image of chengguan because of the bad reputation urban patrol officers have. But we should view all professions with an open mind. Chengguan are no better or worse than people working in other professions.

Besides, with educated and young people ready to become chengguan, the profession could undergo necessary reforms, and the stigma to it could be erased.

As the US education reformer John Dewey once said: "Education ... is a process of living and not a preparation for future living." People need to do some soul-searching to understand the real meaning of education, instead of holding on to their misplaced beliefs and criticizing the choice of others.

(China Daily USA 08/09/2013 page16)