Tuesday, August 21, 2012

One Lady in Anguish and the roof top scene in China


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One Lady in Anguish and the roof top scene in China
It is hard to believe when you read the story.  The woman was trying to kill herself by jumping off a roof top in China.  A photographer clicked the following photos to capture the whole event.  Wow what photos they are. The anguish that is shown here is amazing.

The photos come from an article posted by the Daily Mail online – “Woman saved from suicide… to face firing squad”

Now the fact was not known when they tried to save her… that she had just murdered her nephew by smothering him and then throwing him off the same building – likely the same place she was trying to jump from.

Now she will face the Firing Squad with her own execution.

When I lived near China – in Hong Kong (which is now in and a part of China) it was not uncommon to hear of Chinese authorities arresting someone for a crime and then executing them.

The execution is usually done with quite a fan fare. The person is tried publically… and I mean publically.  The entire village of town that they live in attends the public trial and witness the pronouncement of quilt. (At one stage everyone was forced to attend from what my sources told me – specially the family)

A sign with their name and crime is hung around their neck for complete public disgrace.  They are then taken to the edge of the village. They are blindfolded and made to kneel in front of everyone.  A 45 caliber hand gun(or its equivalent) is placed behind their head, at the base of the scull and with one shot the spinal column is severed from the body and head. BAM – it is over.

Please excuse me for the graphic description but there is no other way to understand the photos that you see today.  The Daily Mail didn’t tell that story in their article – they made the mistake of letting you feel this in Western Eyes and Ways of thinking.  Surely the woman would have been better off to just confess and then go to prison. That isn’t the way that it works in China.

I am disturbed by what I see and hear. It appears to still be the same in China as it was 30 years ago when we were there.

Oh Boy.

Fourteen years ago I met Mr. G, a Chinese man in Prison.  Last week I received a very excited note from Mr. G. He was being released from our Canadian Prison system on Parole and is to be sent home to China – deported.

Mr. G murdered his roommate when they lived together at one of our Canadian Universities. He was studying Chemistry and she was studying to be a doctor. In a very angry state of mind he took her life because she wouldn’t cut classes that day and stay with him. 

After the trial in our court system he was given a Life Sentence. And for the last 25+ years he has served time for his crime in our Prison system.

My contact with Mr. G was facilitated by the Chaplain at that time.  He felt that it might help Mr. G in his depressed state of mind… and even possibly spiritually.  The contact was good – and in both ways we saw success.

He was moved from the Prison that we had originally met in but he continued to write once in a while with his updates and what was happening to him.

I am not sure where he is now. It could be he has been transferred to another secure facility or he could well have left Canada by now. He could be back in China at this time.

The great hesitation that the Chaplain had and I also shared was Mr. G would be executed when he was returned to China. They consider his crime to always be with him even though they know he has been in Prison in Canada.

The Daily Mail reported that China as one of the highest rates of suicide in the world with 22.23 suicides per 100,000 people. But that is only the figure that is given by China – not obtained from an outside source… which could be much higher but no one wants to tell.

After committing the crime it could well be easier to take your own life and have the shame attached to your memory... than to be shamed in front of the village and your family and have them pay over and over again for what you did.

That massive Shame Factor that is brought by the Government is definitely used to deter any further “bad actions” by the community members. If this is what this man or woman has done and brought shame on their family – you had better not do this to your family.

30 years ago we were involved in hearing about these things because of the “Christian Thing” and people were not allowed to join nutty groups like we represented.   Being shot for being a Christian was a real possibility… and it happened to some that I knew.

The photos of the poor, distraught, murderer trying to jump from the building in China has far more story behind them than someone in Britain or Canada can understand.

Sadly for her – I almost wish that she would have jumped and made it to the bottom and her death.

But then I really wish that she would have been helped before any of this happened.

But thinking again – there is far more than any of us realize in our Western World.

Chinese are still only allowed to have one Child. This little boy was the only child.  And the likelihood that the woman wanting to jump off the roof is that she could not have children… and a sister-in-law was rubbing it in… deeply and wounding her even more than anyone would ever know. So the woman killed her nephew to stop the mouth of the sister-in-law… and then tried to take her own life.

No one would have known the whole story if she succeeded with the jump to her death… but if she waited just long enough to jump – she could have wounded her sister-in-law to the fullest extent.

Will the sister-in-law now try to kill herself… and maybe the husband will follow the first two. There isn’t anything to live for when your child and his best was all that you lived for.  It is terrible to say the least with what has happened.

The stories and thoughts are always there. That is the reason that I try my best to help the Prison System in Canada.

I am thinking of Mr. G today – wherever he might be. I am thinking of that terrible turn of events in China and the family with two great losses.

I am thinking deeply and for a long time.

~ Murray Lincoln ~




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