Break your silence and SPEAK UP!

[Heidi Kleiber]

Filipinos have a tendency to say "bahala na" or "problema na nya" attitude, but how can one expect change if he himself does not care nor speak up. Hellen Keller once wrote: "We may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all—the apathy of human beings."  There are a lot of issues that we face everyday, and many complain about it, but only a few stand up and speak their minds.  Some of the issues are stated below:

 

• Resistance to Cyber bullying / Digital Crab Mentality + Trolling.

In this day and age, Internet has become a gate way for people to interact with others and spread their opinions. Sadly, a lot of problems also comes with it. One of them is Cyber bullying. Now bullying does not only happen in schools, but also in the Internet. Take Chris Lao for example. He was videoed driving his car straight into a flooded area. The act itself was not the main issue but the comments he gave to the news anchor.

This situation became worse when people began attacking him on various social media sites, calling him stupid, no common sense, etc. The worse part is that, these cyber bullies does not only strike his actions but his personal being as well.

 

Charice Pempengco, who is an internationally acclaimed singer, is also a victim of cyber bullying. People would write negative comments about her gained weight or her looks.

 

The hardest part of this is that cyber bullies has their anonymity. They can create false identities and  false email addresses so that they could not be identified. They would attack a person's personal life  which some could not take. There have been incidents in which these persons would change their whole lives or even commit suicide because of the emotional torture of cyber bullying.

 

 

• Resistance Piracy

The government and media themselves have been campaigning and reminding people not to buy pirated items like DVDs, CDs, or even copies of branded items, but still people would not act on it. Piracy have been an issue for a long time now, and you can still see a lot of pirated items in different shops, malls, or side roads in the country. A lot of people know these piracy issues, but only a few would speak up about it, nor act upon it.

 

• Resistance to Receiving / Sending False Information

 

Just recently an email has been circulating condemning the President of Zimbabwe because of his supposedly lavish mansion. This same mansion was used as a propaganda against Sen. Manny Villar during the last presidential election. Many people believed in it. The sender was even asking  the receiver to send it to other friends, thus creating a network of false information.

I myself received such an email but I refused to resend it to others, mainly because I could not verify its authenticity. People should resist spreading information which they cannot verify as true.

 

• Speak up against media biases.

It is a known fact that some media writers are being paid to write well about a certain person and put down another. This practice should be stopped, because the media should be an unbiased source of information.

 

• Speak up for the environment

There are a lot of organizations that are fighting for the environment. Still, a lot of people tend to ignore the issues, or remain quiet about it.  It is obvious that global warming is now taking its toll on Mother Earth. We need to be more vocal and speak up for the environment. It is not worth exchanging a better environment for a better economy.

 

 

Most tend to shrug their shoulders and look away, thinking by doing this, they could avoid extra problems. This is one attitude that needs to be changed. We all need to speak up in order to be heard and attain the change we want. We should know what is right and be brave enough to fight for it.   This year 2012, we need to be more active and speak up. Let our opinions be heard in order to attain the changes we would like to attain.