Bad Shit Happens in Geneva Too

So I was awoken by the sound of a woman screaming. I at first thought that it was one of those outbursts (albeit politely short) that drunken Swiss teens are prone to in the wee hours of the morning. But realizing that it was 7:30am and the screaming continued for something like 5 minutes, I thought it best to roll out of bed and take a gander. What I saw was a cluster of cars, pedestrians, and bicyclists all standing in the intersection. Apparently, a pedestrian had been hit by a car. And from the best that other bystanders could tell me, it was a child.

Standing in shorts and bleary-eyed, I had flashbacks to my own man vs. car incident. A few months ago, I was hit by a car and the only thing that seemed to save me was 1) my skull and 2) the skin on the back of my skull. It was really eerie witnessing something that I had experienced. It's sort of like seeing yourself on TV: you remember being filmed, but seeing yourself on TV gives you all sorts of awkward feelings that you didn't necessarily feel when you were being filmed.

There were people redirecting traffic and others trying to help console the unconsolable woman. People were on cell phones calling 117 (911 Swiss equivalent) and people down the street redirecting traffic so that ambulances could pass. For as much flak as the rest of the international community give the Swiss for being a seemingly uncaring and vanilla-flavored peoples, THESE Swiss folks were actually DOING something. I've been known to give the Swiss a fair share of rib-jabbing for mindlessly coloring within the lines like Oprah bookclub zombie-groupies, but this incident gave me a sense of relief that if the shit goes down, the Swiss got yo back. Not to say that it wouldn't happen in the US, but I'm willing to bet that the entire neighborhood wouldn't get out of their building to help.

Standing there watching Swiss businessmen and stay-at-home mothers taking on their new roles of traffic cops and triage nurses reminded me of a quote by an Irish political philosopher, Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." It makes one think of how many opportunities you have been in a position to do something and chosen not to: either out of sheer laziness, unwillingness, or the thought that someone else would do it.