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Girl sold herself for mom: Dilemma of Internet charity
(Southern Metropolis Daily/zonaeu)
Updated: 2005-11-07 09:39 But she did not expect that when the virtual identity became a real person,
something completely different happens. For the first time in Chinese history,
someone traveled from one city to another to investigate an Internet
controversy.
This person goes by the name of Bafenzhai. He is a small and honest man, and
he has participated in more than twenty different Internet donation campaigns.
All along, he had helped to raise 5,000 yuan for Chen Yi and her mother.
In reviewing at the various doubts, Bafenzhai found it difficult to discern
truth from lies in a way that he had never encountered on the Internet before.
On September 30, Bafenzhai posted "An enumeration of the deadly flaws in the
Chen Yi case" to express his own doubts.
On October 4, he posted "Advice and hope with respect to Ms. Chen Yi" to
recommend that Chen Yi disclose the financial details and to ask a charity
organization to manage the money. Chen Yi did not respond.
So the self-described activist Bafenzhai decided to go to Chongqing
personally to investigate. He said that his thinking was very simple: if Chen Yi
had no problems, then she will be clean; if there were problems, they will be
exposed. This incident should not destroy the basic value -- trust -- in all
Internet-driven donation campaigns.
Prior to leaving, he had received the emails in Chen Yi's personal email
account as obtained by hackers. Among the emails were the detailed medical case
history that Chen Yi refused to disclose, as well as many emails from netizens
who had sent her money -- some had wired the money through the post office while
others wrote checks. Chen Yi had never mentioned those.
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