Sunday, September 19, 2004 :::
the straits times reported recently that 92% of secondary school students were victims of bullying, one form or another. besides being a ridiculously high statistic ( i must be one of the lucky 8% or a bully ), their method of defining bullying is seriously flawed.
it seems that calling your overweight classmate "fat pig" and your slim friend "bamboo" are also considered a form of bullying. this probably constituted to the supposed high victim rate, since everyone at sometime or another has been referred to in an unflattering manner. but this is definitely not in any way bullying.
bullying is taking outright advantage of the weak, either by numbers, by size or by authority. something as trivial as calling each other names probably can be considered a little prankish, but it is a far cry to be considered bullying, and to be used as a statistic to highlight a problem that never existed, it seems that the surveyors already planned what they wanted, and are merely looking for evidence which supported their claim.
the truth is, if you are slightly on the heavy side, we will pick on your weight. if you are short, we will pick on your height. if you are rich, we will pick on your wealth. heck, if you are dark-looking, we will even pick on your "race". and the point is, you will have a trait that will eventually be picked on by others and others will have traits which will be picked on by you .there is no great harm intended and no need to be overly defensive.
it may not seem apparent, but finding something to pick on people actually plays a huge part in keeping relationships and contacts alive. even friends and lovers do occasionally call each names, but it only serves to build up the atmosphere as people laugh at each other and at themselves. how lively things get when people call you by familiar though belittling nicknames instead of distant acknowledgement.
it seems that the only people unhappy about such an arrangement are adults who try too hard to be politically correct and try to interact with people with fake amicableness.
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::: posted by Richard Wan at 6:33 PM
Friday, September 10, 2004 :::
Hamlet once asked, ' to be or not to be '
but methinks..
LOL!
i passed my 2B TP!
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::: posted by Richard Wan at 7:19 PM
