Violence in relationships
Today's Sunday Times had a very thought-provoking article on violence in relationships, referring to a recent case where a man decided that his unfaithful wife needed to be taught a lesson and decided to tattoo (?!?!?) her breasts, arms and abdomen with the help of his friend. The guy got 3 years and 12 strokes of the cane for this deed...and I'm wondering, is this enough???? There were also other cases where a man had beaten up his live-in lover so badly that she was blinded in one eye, and a spurned lover decided to hatch a conspiracy with some boys to do something evil to his ex-lover just because she dumped him.
Apart for the observation that in all the cases cited, the male partner was the miscreant, I'm wondering what sort of society are we living in where certain individuals think it's okay to become violent just because he/she's angry, upset, hurt, whatever? If your spouse is cheating on you, DIVORCE HIM/HER!!!! Don't slash him, cut off parts of his anatomy, or tattoo "EVIL BASTARD" on his forehead, as much as you might want to. There are other, less violent ways of taking revenge, and most of these won't normally land you up in jail! Eg, you can send copies of the mushy love letters he sent you to his new lover....or put super glue in his car lock....change his passwords.... or put his handphone number on the walls of the public toilets with the message "Call Kim for a good time" >:->
Of course, the ultimate revenge is always to find a new lover and be happy.
But seriously, why do people resort to violence when they don't get their way? And why do they want to cause such harm to people that they claim to love/still love? Is hate the other side of love? People say so, but I would like to think that the other side of love is charity. Yah, I mean the old English meaning of the word. Of doing good to others, even when they're not doing the same thing back to you.
Maybe I'm a cock-eyed optimist, but I believe that we're better and nobler than we think we are. And that we're capable of doing good things, without any expectations of reward. But that usually happens when we don't think so much about the consequences. Just do it, like our dear friends at Nike says. If you want to stand up in the bus to give an old man a seat, stand up! Don't feel self-conscious about it. If you see tourists looking at a map and looking about them in that typical "lost" look, go and ask them if they need help. After all, we are all tourists at some time or another, and I remember how nice it felt when locals helped me out when I was lost. One chap in a European city actually walked with us to our destination when he realized his English wasn't good enough to direct us.
If more of us behaved like better people, the world would be a better place. What do you think?
Apart for the observation that in all the cases cited, the male partner was the miscreant, I'm wondering what sort of society are we living in where certain individuals think it's okay to become violent just because he/she's angry, upset, hurt, whatever? If your spouse is cheating on you, DIVORCE HIM/HER!!!! Don't slash him, cut off parts of his anatomy, or tattoo "EVIL BASTARD" on his forehead, as much as you might want to. There are other, less violent ways of taking revenge, and most of these won't normally land you up in jail! Eg, you can send copies of the mushy love letters he sent you to his new lover....or put super glue in his car lock....change his passwords.... or put his handphone number on the walls of the public toilets with the message "Call Kim for a good time" >:->
Of course, the ultimate revenge is always to find a new lover and be happy.
But seriously, why do people resort to violence when they don't get their way? And why do they want to cause such harm to people that they claim to love/still love? Is hate the other side of love? People say so, but I would like to think that the other side of love is charity. Yah, I mean the old English meaning of the word. Of doing good to others, even when they're not doing the same thing back to you.
Maybe I'm a cock-eyed optimist, but I believe that we're better and nobler than we think we are. And that we're capable of doing good things, without any expectations of reward. But that usually happens when we don't think so much about the consequences. Just do it, like our dear friends at Nike says. If you want to stand up in the bus to give an old man a seat, stand up! Don't feel self-conscious about it. If you see tourists looking at a map and looking about them in that typical "lost" look, go and ask them if they need help. After all, we are all tourists at some time or another, and I remember how nice it felt when locals helped me out when I was lost. One chap in a European city actually walked with us to our destination when he realized his English wasn't good enough to direct us.
If more of us behaved like better people, the world would be a better place. What do you think?
Labels: Violence
posted by Heather @ 7:59 PM
2 Comments:
At 10:55 AM,
Anonymous said…
violence... I hate violence...
At 10:59 PM,
Anonymous said…
About giving up seats- when we were in Bkk, once we stepped into the BTS, suddenly a number of people stood up! Freaked my sis up! guess what? These pple were giving up their seats for my nieces who are 4 and 6 and they don't need to sit, honestly! So, I'm impressed!
Post a Comment
<< Home