Bullies

Are you a bully and don't even know if you are? What turns a person into a bully anyway? I was once bullied in school. I think I was 9, then. A boy from another school stole my bag full of ice cream sticks I collected for my math project on my way home from school and hang them up on a branch of trees that I couldn't reach. I arrived home in tears, thinking all my hard work collecting the sticks for the past 3 weeks was all wasted. Luckily, my father was home on his afternoon break. Although I can't recall all the details, but I remembered the lesson he taught me that it was never alright to be bullied. We went back to my school to get the sticks and gave a 'word or two' to the bully.

That was then. Has anything change? Perhaps not...it's getting worst. A documentary on ABC I watched tonight, highlighted the issue of bullying right at the start of kindy in Australia. One boy even thought of committing suicide, and he was only 6, then.

The interesting part was that most of these bullies saw nothing wrong in whatever they did. Some considered themselves as just having a little bit of fun and that there's nothing serious in their action. But they do inflict harm, even if it's not physical. Most of the children affected are mentally depressed, had low self esteem, performs badly in school and worst... are suicidal.

Now, bullying has move on to another level of wicked sophistication - the cyber space, aka 'Cyber bullying'. This new generation of bullies use technology such as the Internet, cameras and mobile phones to bully people in all sorts of way, which includes being mean in forums, blogs comments, emails or text messages, or taking or posting (humiliating) pictures of others with no implied or expressed permission to.

Tom Wood a 16 years old Aussie dedicated a blog for advocating against cyber bullying. He gave practical advices on how to protect yourself against cyber bullying, considering that nowadays people are bound to be online one way or another. One very good advice: If you received any forms of bullying in emails or forums or blog comments, DO NOT Response! Before deleting or blocking any of the 'bullying contents' and the writer, always print a copy (or two) of the contents as proof for future (criminal) investigation. Then tell someone about it. If it's in a moderated forum, report the matter to the administrator. And then tell someone about it.

I think the emphasize here is to always share the bullying incidents with others. May it be in real life or the cyber world. It could save lives; yours and others. The issue of bullying definitely warrant a major research covering the law and policy, psychology and education. And how does faith and religion, like Islam plays a role in preventing it, especially in the worst case effects of bullying; suicide?

Meanwhile, as parents we must always keep our eyes and ears open. Bullies are no longer only lingering in the school compound waiting to pounce on others, but they are now invited into our homes through all our latest technology;-(