Richmond - The Editor, I am in full support of anti-bullying. I really appreciate the current attention the governments, the traditional media and various social media are giving to this serious issue.
Richmond - The Editor, I am in full support of anti-bullying. I really appreciate the current attention the governments, the traditional media and various social media are giving to this serious issue.However, while the issue is getting the spotlight, I wonder if we are approaching this issue properly? I worry that, if we are not careful, we could be actually creating a new monster.No one likes to be bullied. "Bully" is generally defined by some dictionaries as "people coercing others by fear," "to frighten or pick on people who are weaker than you," "oppress by force or threats," etc.A bully's actions are often associated with descriptions, such as unjust punishment, discriminating, threatening, harassment, targeted teasing and targeted mockery, bulldoze into compliance, frighten into submission.If we could, we all would want to protect our loved ones as well as ourselves to avoid any bullying activities.However, bullying is a human behavior which exists everywhere throughout human history. Many researchers have indicated that, as long as there are perceived strong and weak members in a group, some forms of bullying would show up; often an inappropriate comment or conduct of showing others "who is the boss" could cross the line and into what is considered a bullying act and become a totally unacceptable and/or illegal behavior.I believe that most people have some experience of being bullied by others and/or have bullied others in their life.As a matter of fact, people who like to bully others, often are victims of bullying activities themselves.Many of us have learned to deal with bullying acts and related awkward situations in our life by trying to minimize the harm and move forward.However, some of us have a lot of difficulties in dealing with them. In addition, often bullies do not even realize the seriousness and the irreversible tragedies could be caused by their bullying actions.If we promote anti-bullying as a supportive action or as an educational reminder for a kinder, nicer society, I believe that we are on the right track.If we think we can totally protect the victims and actually eliminate all bullying activities in our society by demanding it to disappear, then I am not that optimistic.I suggest that if we want to effectively minimize the damages which could be caused by various bully activities in our society, our efforts should include the following: 1. Properly recognize that bullying is a common human behaviour in real life, which could exist in any groups in our society. (Don't be too naive) 2. Provide useful information on how to deal with bullying more effectively; such as take a stand, lend a hand, how to intervene, and where to report, etc.3. Develop a consistent policy in dealing with bullies on how to make them apologize properly; how to make them observe their promise not to do it again; how to investigate and punish them under related laws and rules, etc.4. Establish practical and encouraging procedures for reporting by people who experienced or witnessed inappropriate or disrespectful comments or conducts (whom, where, and how for filing a written or verbal complaint.) 5. Support those bullying victims by offering timely investigation, confidential counseling and special assistance when required.6. Remind and educate those "stronger" members in a group that they should be more careful with their disrespectful conduct as it could have serious, even deadly, consequence to others.James HsiehRichmond
