Civilized Dialogue
Isn't that what we try to teach our children? To be civilized, to behave themselves, to be a credit to their parents, their school, their neighbourhood, their city, their country - hey, the world at large. Don't fight kids - it isn't nice. Fighting solves nothing. Just creates more resentment and more pay-back. Talk instead.And it's true. When I was a little kid, a little girl to be more precise, I was always frightened by the bully on the block, or at school. And since I lived just down the street and directly across from the school I attended as a child, I was exposed to both; someones one-and-the-same. And then I learned something about bluff.
Of course I didn't know then what "bluff" referred to, but as a keen observer I realized that if you didn't demonstrate your fear openly and instead stood and shouted, something miraculous might happen. Your tormentor is thrown off track, your defiance puzzles him, then frightens him; he looks quickly around, to the left, to the right, then makes his swift departure.
He may not have been frightened of your wizened little body compared to his robust one, but curious behaviour always has a way of throwing people off track. No one really likes to mess around with nutcases. You never know what they're capable of. For one thing, if you're trying to scare the living hell out of them, and if you hit them and if they don't care, and maybe even think it's fun - then what's the point? Look elsewhere for your jollies.
Then, to further protect myself, I began to bluff in another way. I became a verbal bully, threatening to trash anyone - larger kids included - who wanted to mess with me. It worked. This was heady stuff. I felt pretty good. And I realized, hey, this is the way the world works. And guess what? it does.
What made me stop? One classmate whom I had threatened for looking at me sideways went to the teacher and snitched on me. This teacher approached me and admonished me for behaving like a bully. I was astonished at her rebuke, and honestly didn't know how to react. I felt truly ashamed. Me? behaving like a bully. I didn't want to be a bully. And thereafter wasn't.
Now what's brought all this nonsense up? Why a caption, a news story and a photograph in the newspaper, that's what. This comes out of Bolivia. And reading this item it appears that Bolivian mommies and daddies have shirked their duty to their kiddies. Or perhaps it's the example that their new president, Mr. Morales has led them to.
How's this for kids' play?
Rival groups of Bolivian miners hurled sticks of dynamite at each other yesterday despite a truce that was declared after at least 11 died in a battle over the ore in one of the world's largest tin mines. Sounds of exploding dynamite boomed across the barren Andean town of Huanuni where miners from the state-controlled mining company COMIBOL, and workers belonging to independent mining co-operatives skirmished for a second consecutive day. Hundreds of independent miners, many crouched down in the rocky hillsides overlooking the mine, tossed lit dynamite sticks at rival workers.I kid you not. This is for real. No sand-box disputes here, no sticks or stones - these big guys know how to use dynamite, it's their stock in trade, you see. So don't mess with them.
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, October 11, 2006
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