Five of them helplessly watched the just and they were joking laughing young people in an instant pain and rapidly across the life and death of the watershed so away thinking language and life .
It is a disturbing idea to modern minds , harking back to old stereotypes about violent cavemen battling with clubs while a passive woman , fetching in furs , waits helplessly to see who will win her .
Tongkang 's village committee was supposedly a shareholder in the company but , although they were able to get temporary jobs as drivers or labourers in the mines , the villagers saw little other benefit and watched helplessly as their water supply became increasingly polluted .