Zero Empathy in Seoul following mass stampede

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I dont understand how humans can be so selfish. I can understand why places have compacity numbers, how many can attend because it's for reasons like this. People push against each other, leave no personal space. There are even reasons why black Fridays have police everywhere and increased security and why they limit number in stores. Same happens with game systems when they are first released. Stores hand out cards for how much they have in stock to keep people from pushing and trampling each other over a game system. I even heard stories of people being trampled to death when too many people were trying to get on the train during rush hour.

Granted many of those continuing to party might be under the influence of alcohol but
1. the nightclubs in the vicinity chose to keep blasting music
2. I'm sorry to say most of the kids dancing could see the ambulances and bodies as captured on camera


https://www.koreaboo.com/news/partygoer ... ac-arrest/

This has become big news in Korea. A lot of self-reflecting on what type of kids the previous generation have bought up as there is no dispute they kept partying while watching the horrifying scenes

Stampedes occur elsewhere but I think this is a cultural phenomenon we are witnessing.

For example drunken football fans have often caused stampedes and/or damaged pavilions but when there are clearly even a couple of bodies the whole thing stops and grinds to a halt and people move/leave in a calm manner.

Same with concerts in Europe and the US. Stampedes result in the music turned off and people leave.

What we are seeing here is simply impossible to imagine in a western country.

I don't agree with self-congratulation over the assumption that this couldn't have happened in a Western country. The News.com report is the only one I saw that emphasized this "lack of empathy" angle. My initial reaction was that the aim of the report was to stereotype an East Asian culture as inhumane, blind to human suffering, etc. My personal impression is that Koreans have a f**kton of empathy. I can well imagine that most people in Itaewon didn't become aware of the scope of the incident for quite some time, in fact eyewitness accounts seem to me to support that conclusion.

The problem that led to this tragedy seems to have been that the authorities didn't anticipate the situation. It's possible that COVID-19 restrictions in Korea have been relaxed somewhat as compared to previous years and there was a pent-up desire to go crazy on Hallowe'en. I guess the COVID-19 aspect is Asian in nature but it's not the point I see in the news.com report.

I apologize to anyone I might have triggered if they thought I was denying that the tragedy happened.

Honestly if I saw an ambulance at a celebration like this, I would have thought someone had passed out drunk and maybe hit their head or something. It wouldn't occur to me to record it and post it to social media going "Look at how stupid people act at these parties."

But I also wouldn't show up to places like this if it was way too crowded. I would have just gone home. There were people that hid inside buildings when they saw it got too crowded so they survived. Here in the US, this wouldn't have happened because they sell tickets for people to attend these things and I can understand why. it's to limit how many people can come so it doesn't get too crowded. I wonder if the ball drop sells tickets because if not, I wonder how do people go there without being crushed to death.

I will also say I have been to places where everyone leaves at once and no one is ever trampling over each other and shoving their way through. We all are moving along with the crowd. Maybe because we all have common sense and aren't behaving selfishly.

I remember when I went to the 4th of July firework show this summer with my son, it took us over an hour to leave the parking lot because everyone was leaving at once. We all had to be patient and we were all leaving in rows. I just ended up watching a few episodes on Hulu on my phone.

It was also reported in the Koreabu article as well. I think it was established the kids left partying could quite visibly see
a) ambulances
b) bodies

I lived in South east Asia for 3 years. I saw plenty of examples of cultural norms that don't apply in the west. One of the most common is to mind you own business. If somebody has a car accident and is injured it's always an Indian person who rushes into traffice to attend or give first aid. It's a east asian/Chinese cultural norm to not intervene in when a stranger is in distress. e.g. stranger falls over or stranger get's attacked

During the #stopAsianhate campaign in the US during COVID I saw many young women in Chinatown getting attacked saying the most distressing thing is that nobody in their community intervenes to help them while they are getting racially abused.

I think it's plausible that young people at the Halloween event continued to party because they saw the injured and dead were being attended to by ambulances so to them from a practical perspective there was no reason to stop partying.

The death toll is expected to exceed 160 + 60 injuries (many serious) that's a lot of bodies and ambulances. This wasn't a drunk random hitting his head while dancing needing an ambulance.

But you are assuming they knew at that time than afterwards.

Plausible indeed. Maybe further reports will clarify. I don't know to what extent this matters to those of us who live in the West or the Anglosphere. There are a couple of people on WP who live in East Asia, perhaps one will offer an observation.

Even if you were inebriated (I am not sure how many young 18-20 yr old Koreans drink in public?) it should be apparent there is a serious catastrophe happening at your ankles.

Another interesting fact is that most of the those crushed but still alive (Close to 100 people) were screaming out "help me" which is literally heart breaking, The idea the kids dancing around the catastrophe could not hear the screaming is a little hard to believe.

I've watched some clips by people who claimed they heard "help me" and "I can't breathe" and I couldn't hear anything. All I heard were people chattering and loud music. Imagine if this is how it sounded to these people too taking videos. Some people must have really good selective hearing because I can't hear through all that noise.

Well they were saying those things in Korean.

The authorities in Seoul are investigating allegations that police took 3.5 hours to arrive. One nightclub worker claims she phoned police at 6.34pm.

https://www.news.com.au/world/asia/poli ... 78b98a1f20

The police, fire and ambulance, on the other hand, claim they arrived but were unable to penetrate the crowd

More pictures coming in warrant why the whole place wasn't shut down ?



Notice the crowd of onlookers behind snapping photos underneath lanterns. Partygoers clearly could see and hear what was going on.

Gross.

This side of the story wasn't in any of the news I saw about this.

Pretty crazy how inhumane people can be.. totally desensitized to the suffering & deaths of others. :/