Should We Defend a Bullied Victim Against Our Own Friends?

When I was in primary school, there was this boy in my class named Jaden (not his real name). Unlike the other boys in my class, he often hanged around and played with the girls. From what I observed, Jaden didn't have any gender identity issues or anything like that. It's just that he didn't act like the norm of boys that age. This caused the whole class to call him a "girly boy", me included.
I know that this was just meant as a joke and Jaden often laughed it off. From my point of view, Jaden didn’t seem to mind, and we still had a good relationship whether I tease him or not. In retrospect, I never really knew how he felt. Did our teasing ever made him uncomfortable or questioned himself? Did it made him feel frustrated and bullied? Did it affect his characters and actions in the future?

Some bullied victims became a danger to the society and themselves. In the US, there had been many cases of school shooting that shocked the world. In Asia, such as Japan and Taiwan, there had also been cases of public stabbing. After investigations, a lot of these criminals, appeared to be children who had been bullied before. They generally become loners and have a lot of bottled up anger against the public inside.

So the root of a lot of these problems is bullying. Some bullying were made without us realizing it, such as what I did to Jaden. I didn’t mean to cause him any harm and I thought it was all just good fun. But now, thinking about it, we were quite insensitive to what he was feeling.

Children are often ignorant about all this. Growing up, children tend to seek stability and security. They feel safe being in familiar surrounding with familiar people. So it’s natural for children to be apprehensive or reject differences. Thus, respect and toleration should be hammered into children's minds starting from a very young age. They should also be taught to always think of the consequences of their actions, especially bullying.

These must be implemented both at home and school. Unfortunately, some parents either don't care or deny that their children are bullies. Then there are those who don't know what they should do with their children's behaviours. Both parents and teachers must be taught how to deal with bullying and why they should do that. Children should also be taught how to have the guts to stand up for themselves and others.

I wasn’t brave enough to go against my friends and acted that way due to peer pressure. If I stood up for him, my friends would talk behind my back about this and make fun of me. I try my best not to change my relationship with my friends, as I like to be part of the big group. After all, they're also my friends, and I wouldn't like to go against what most of them think. I hope that our ignorance and harmless teasing didn’t affect Jaden negatively. I am grateful to know that now societies are more aware of this problem. Both children and teacher organisations are now trying their best to tackle this problem. Hopefully this will lead to less problems in the future.

The Wizard Of Oz: Is Hiding a Lie, a Crime?

After finally defeating the Wicked Witch of the West, the four travellers went back to Oz to claim his promises. They got lost on the way back to Emerald City, but with the help of the Winged Monkeys, they finally reached the Emerald City. No one expected the four to come back so soon -- and alive! Not even Oz. However, instead of being immediately summoned to meet the Wizard of Oz and received their rewards, Dorothy and her friends were left to wait for days. They finally got an audience with Oz after they threatened him with the winged monkeys. During this session, quite by accident, they discovered that the Wizard of Oz was just a humbug. He was not an all-powerful Wizard but an old man from Dorothy’s land.

Dorothy and her friends felt deceived! They had put their life on the line by facing the Wicked Witch of the West, and it was all for nothing! They would never get what they wanted, because the Wizard of Oz wasn't a wizard at all. If I were in their position, I would have exposed him to his citizens. However, Dorothy and her friends had very simple mind and goals. They were only concerned about their own wishes. It had not occurred to them at all to expose him at all. Once their wishes were fulfilled, they were happy and forgave the Wizard for his lies. They also still treated him like a great powerful wizard up till the moment he left the Emerald City for his hometown.

I think that a large percentage of the inhabitants of our world is actually just like Dorothy and her friends. The normal citizens are usually more simple and are just concern with individual or family’s needs. As long as those needs are fulfilled, generally, they won’t go find troubles. They won’t go exposing other authorities or politicians’ misdeeds and crimes just for the sake of justice.

The Wizard of Oz: Dorothy's Hidden Strengths

In exchange to have their wishes granted, Dorothy and her friends were given the task to kill the Wicked Witch of the West by the Wizard of Oz. The friends were all horrified and crestfallen at first. However, as there were no other alternatives, they decided to give it a try. Surprisingly, with no plans, no armies, and no advantages; they succeeded.

In real life, we sometimes felt as if we’ve reached the end of the line with no way to solve our problems. However, as long as we don’t give up and lose hope, we might discover more strengths in ourselves that we didn’t realize were there before. Dorothy didn’t know that she bore the mark of goodness, which protected her from any harm from evil. She’s also not afraid of water or darkness, which the Witch feared. She wore magical silver shoes that belonged to the Wicked Witch of the East, which were powerful, but Dorothy didn’t know that.

As Dorothy didn’t know her strengths, she didn’t dare go against the Witch and obeyed all her orders. The Witch, seeing that Dorothy was so meek, she underestimated her. It’s true that Dorothy was an innocent child. However, she still had strengths that helped her win the battle with the Witch. She cared about her friend and smuggled food for the Lion. Thus the Witch’s plan to starve the Lion until he does what she wanted failed. The Witch saw that Dorothy didn’t know how to use her powers and strengths and therefore, the Witch dared to plot against her instead of running away. She thought that she had won when she successfully obtained one of the silver shoes. She was laughing triumphantly, when Dorothy threw a bucket of water at her and thus reverse the situation. Dorothy successfully defeated the Witch without meaning to.

We sometimes have strengths that other people and ourselves might not know or consider as a strength. But these strengths unknowingly help us solve our problems and achieve our goals. If Dorothy had not been the innocent child that she was, the story might play out differently.