The world was aghast with horror at the grim news out of China last year when a toddler was hit by a vehicle on a busy road and no one seemed to notice or to care. The little girl was struck again and again by subsequent vehicles entering the intersection where she had been initially hit; the original driver, and succeeding ones seemingly unaware and uncaring, speeding on, leaving the child to die.

Eventually a street cleaner, a humble woman who had observed the dreadful spectacle, rushed to the child, to attempt to staunch her mortal wounds, to no avail. But surely the touch of another human being might have given some comfort to the dying child.

It is easy to sit in judgement on another society, another culture. Decrying it as having lost touch with human values. People living in oppressive conditions become uncaring, unresponding to the needs of others, their empathy drained. Or so goes the argument. The Chinese themselves turned in the anguish of disbelief upon themselves, at that time, berating themselves for their careless attitude to the draining of a human life.

And in Canada? On a busy winter workday morning this week in Calgary a state of social oblivion appeared to have overcome the humanitarian impulses and emotional attachment to relieving the problems that life sometimes visits on strangers to which others are witness.

A 55-year-old woman was struck by a vehicle, and the driver simply continued on driving. No one seemed to notice or to care about the agony of a human being lying helpless on the road. Cars sped by, no doubt swerving at the last moment to avoid the hapless lump of flesh. One car did not avoid her, and she was struck again.

Passersby seemed not to notice. A woman, seated in her kitchen whose window overlooked the street, heard some commotion, instinctively sensed what had occurred, dialled 911, and rushed out of doors to locate the victim and give comfort, seeing all the while traffic swirling heedlessly around herself and the dying woman, with no one having the human decency to stop, to offer assistance. One man did attempt to alert traffic to bypass the victim.

People busy with the immediate concerns of their busy lives; driving to work, taking their children to nursery or school, anxious to beat time. This is not a society that one can be proud of.