Dear Dr. Maas,
This has been on my mind since the Good Samaritan lecture and it
resurfaced during our video conference. I contemplated putting this to you
in the session but I thought I could articulate myself better in the written
word!
You advised us to be Good Samaritans and even gave us a set of
guidelines for being Safe Samaritans but (excuse the travesty) some of my
friend and I could not but feel that being a Good Samaritan is just naivety. I
believe this may be a cultural thing because believe it or not in my neck of
the woods (I'm from Bangladesh by the way) everyone is actually taught
never to help anyone or even talk to anyone by the side of the road. Not
because they might be drunk or of a certain race but because 90% of the
time they are just faking. Moreover, there is a feeling that if one is driving
and someone asks for help by the high way one would rather run him over
than stop and for good reason too. More often than not the person in need
is a car jacker or a violent criminals who will not hesitate to kill. Once a
relative of mine lost his car, 100,000 in cash and his arm for trying to help a
8 year old he was apparently sick on the side of the road. On a lighter note,
I've been conned myself. Once, a middle aged lady by a bus stand
approached me and said that she had come to the city to visit someone but
had lost her luggage and money and had no where to go and needed
money for a bus ticket back to her village. I gave her some money and a
week later a I saw her doing the same in another part of the city! There are
also loads of people who actually make up fake doctor's reports that they
have fatal illnesses and need money for an operation. (On a philosophical
note, makes one wonder if people or so desperate why not just give them
the money) For these reasons we, most subcontinental people, think very
long and hard before even donating to charity. We are taught that
everything is a scam. Despite all this though, people will stop whenever
they perceive there has been an accident or if they see evidence of
physical injury. So, it's not all bad but we are generally disinclined to being
Good Samaritans.
This made me wonder if there may be a negative correlation between the
crime rate of an area and the percentage of Good Samaritans in that area.
For instance, someone said that in Qatar everyone is a Good Samaritan
and I believe Qatar has a really really low crime rate and so the idea that
the Samaritan is in danger of physical harm or being conned does not
occur but in other parts of the world that would factor in. Would you think
that is relevant?
I am truly sorry for writing this mammoth essay but I do think people should
be aware of some of these things too.
Thank You for your time.
Sincerely
Tahsin Farid