it's all about me. tags. and mememe.

tag, the being bullied. or not. or what.

i was never bullied. i remained silent about the topic because what right had i to say anything? it felt to me one had to 'deserve' the right to speak about it and i'm still not sure that i do, so i had to think about it for a while. perhaps by other people's norms i was bullied, i'm not sure. i was never physically hurt. i was certainly victimised a few times, but does that not happen to everyone at some point? all people do not get on with each other. it would be unnatural. every person does not like every other person. that is life. we have to live with it and we do not have to go looking for trouble with someone who does not like us or whom we do not like, just stay clear of them, the earth belongs to all of us.

i do have strong feelings about how people are treated, though. another wattpad member and i spoke about this a few days ago. we both said our mouths are probably too big, bullies would not dare. (and it seems sometimes that not allowing others to bully one, seems a bullying offense in itself.) someone recently wrote: what happened to the survival of the fittest. i spoke about this to someone and we asked ourselves, where do life struggles and hardships that form character, stop and where does bullying begin? we were not sure.

i like to think that maybe in africa we are born with a certain tenacity that has settled deeply into our bones, because africa sure is a harsh land, so we are born with an innate sense of fending off predators. but the wattpad friend does not live in africa like me, so i don't know about that theory... i was shocked to find out that bullying is so rife. i really never knew this but i found out soon enough about the severity of the situation from wattpad, or else i might have been none the wiser. i still am shocked that bullies can drive others to suicide, self harm, depression and other extremes. i am even more shocked that one person will hurt another to the point of breaking skin and, horror of horrors, breaking bones, just because they can! i do not know what type of person does such a thing and it is shocking that someone would abuse their 'powers' (be it age, gender, status, physical superiority) like that. it is in fact a terrible weakness, in my eyes. (but what about bullies just repeating what was done to them? this is a vicious circle, it seems, with no beginning and no end, like the egg and the chicken. are we supposed to feel sorry for them?)

i would want to say that bullying happens less on my continent, because that is how it feels to me, but i am not sure that this is true, unfortunately. up to now i have only heard of one person in this country who took their own life because of bullying. but there may be more and it is hard for me to think that it could be so. i want to think that most africans are loving and mainly joyful and gentle people, because the sun usually shines, because we live close to the earth, because development here is slower than elsewhere in first world countries and we rest randomly under trees that give shade under a sun that can burn. i would love to believe this is so because people here smile easily and often walk to school with their toes brushing up dust. there are other struggles here, it seems... but i guess it is wishful thinking, for the world has touched africa too much and too deeply by now. what a pity. i am sad for the way africa is exploited and bullied, often in the slyest ways. that is a very real fact too.

i guess i believe in my motto: i try to treat all living things in a way that will always let me hold my head up high. i avoid the ones that try to drag me down. and as for turning the other cheek...? i have to think about that, but not for too long...