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Defending cowardice is despicable

By Raymond Zhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-07 08:20

The May 12 earthquake has yielded many stories, many heartwarming or heartbreaking, but recently there has been a spate of reports that brought to light moral dilemmas that cannot be neatly categorized.

Fan Meizhong is a teacher at a Dujiangyan school. When the earthquake struck, he took off immediately and ran as far away from the school building as possible. He did shout "Earthquake!" to his pupils, but did not stop to help them in any way. Fortunately, the building did not collapse and none of his pupils were hurt.

Did Fan do the right thing?    

He justified his act in a blog that he was not responsible for his pupils' safety, and he did not posses the unselfish characteristics shown by many other teachers. The only person he would risk his life to save, if necessary, would be his daughter. Even his mother would not make the list.

True, if he had stayed behind and the building had collapsed, he probably would not have been able to save anyone - unless he was stuck in a very strategic position. And there is nothing wrong with running for your life to avoid imminent danger.

Fan did not break any law. It is in the court of public opinion where he should be judged. He also tried to attribute his "fast escape" to mere survival instinct.

There were teachers who sacrificed their lives to rescue students. They were not required to do it, but it was the honorable thing.

By eschewing the sin of hypocrisy, Fan has gone to the other extreme, i.e. shamelessness. Even if he believed what he did was not wrong, it was certainly not worth boasting about what he did for whatever reason.

Was he out to lay to rest the myth of self-sacrifice, which is sometimes turned into tools of propaganda? I do not think so. I think it is okay to be a coward in such a huge natural disaster and make sure one is safe. We cannot hold everyone to the standard of a saint. But I do not think it is right when young children are involved. A teacher has an implicit responsibility to ensure their safety - at least when he himself is out of harm's way.

What Fan did was, in a word, despicable.

At the other end of the moral spectrum, Lou Jiying did something honorable and was punished for it.

The Chongqing doctor wanted to be a volunteer in the quake-hit zone. But her boss said no, explaining that there were patients in the hospital for her to take care of. Besides, some of those injured in the quake were being moved there.

But Lou wanted to be at the scene where she believed she was more needed. So, she took leave without permission and was later fired.

Lou obviously violated the rules of her hospital, but morally she did not do anything wrong. This earthquake marked the emergence of China's volunteers and a sudden surge of civic responsibility, which served to bond the nation at a time of grief and difficulty.

In such special situations, people make hot-headed decisions, which are not always in the best interests of the whole society. Obviously, Lou could have helped earthquake survivors without personally going to the quake area. If everyone had left his or her job and rushed to Sichuan, who would build the tents and ship the supplies?

However, this was not an unforgivable mistake. She could merely have been given a slap on the wrist and kept her job. Compared with Fan the teacher, Lou is a better person.

Maybe I should not judge them by one act alone. What would I have done if I were in their shoes?

E-mail: raymondzhou@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/07/2008 page4)