EDITORIAL
Standing up for what is right.
Someone who has come up against the establishment in previous years through his job as a teacher told me something that I thought very profound, especially for today’s society, where people are distrustful of what is going on and where we have such ingenious and vital links to people from all walks of society through the Internet. He told me that when he was fighting for his job in the face of the establishment he was asked why he had told people about what was happening.
The inference was, you should keep quiet, and people will think you are odd; you should be ashamed to say anything. This is the way the establishment works, anyone who is bold enough to stand up for their rights or those of others are condescended to by the lower echelons of that establishment then if they do not go away and play as they should without causing any sort of stir they are 'ousted' i.e. made to be a serial complainer or an agitator and will find no redress anywhere.
We have seen cases of people who have had their human rights taken away by stealth, their names tainted and themselves treated as undesirables when they are the wounded party. The answer of this man to the establishment that sought to break him was simple. That is the way bullies work. As a teacher he knew well how bullying took place in the schoolroom and here he was facing it in his own life. Bullies always make the person feel ashamed of themselves, make the person want to slink away and lick their wounds in private, make the hurt go into that person where it produces anguish and suffering for that individual.
The establishment in such forms as local authorities, the judiciary, the education and guango systems seeks to bully the people just as schoolroom bullies attack individuals. As this man told me, "I looked him in the eye and said: I spoke out because I refuse to be bullied, I spoke out because I can, I spoke out because my only salvation is that others should know that they are not alone in their suffering and anguish and so that the people who bully should not get away with it again".
I applaud all those who stick to their guns in the face of a faceless establishment, in the face of a machine that will bury you and the wrongs you suffered so that others who come after you will suffer the same fate. We now have the choice, we speak out by whatever means at our disposal and we continue to speak out, on corruption in all its forms. For corruption covers a multitude of sins, from MP's expenses to guangos that are set up to maintain the systems they should be marshalling at all costs. From Courts who deal with families behind closed doors so that no one can know, to authorities who do not operate as they should and yet will silence those who speak out and say the truth.
Corruption will only cease when enough people speak out, when enough people know and when those who corrupt are in the minority and no longer have the power to corrupt. We have the offering of a transparent society so let us make it one.
Editor
