1 July 2016

I was terribly upset when the Civil War series (Marvel comics) began about 10 years ago.  When we were younger, justice was unquestionable. Those superheroes might have physical flaws or weaknesses, but they would never question their duties or integrity; they would never sacrifice others to uphold their own needs. The Kamen riders (Japan) also became uglier, with darker personalities. And I think to myself, I must not get into trouble because if they came to help me, they might slave me afterwards, instead of saving me selflessly. If we don’t have upright leaders to look up to, how are we going to improve? I hope we will find no skeletons in the closets of Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, Ma Ying-jeou, Margaret Chan, or the newly-elected President Rody Duterte. It would be a shame that a leader left his people to take care of themselves on their own.

 

Last month, there was news about a senior teacher reporting to police saying he had been assaulted by the principal.  The news also reported that the teacher did not do his administrative work and mark student books diligently enough. Another piece of news reported that alumni and students of a school did not like the new policy on more study time on campus. Such news did not make headlines in newspaper, but were reported briefly here and there.  However, these articles were posted, and re-posted, on social media, numerous times. If a school disciplined a poorly-performed teacher or tabled measures to improve student proficiency was being lynched, either physically or cyberly, then other schools would be discouraged to make any move, any changes.  Should we ask teachers to put on a darker mask, or do we expect them to always uphold justice and integrity despite the half-witted netizens? 

 

I was surprised to learn that only seven women in the world now are allowed to wear white when they have an audience with the Pope (Le privilege du blanc); spare me the equality speech. Privilege, decorum, protocol, and etiquette are about tradition and spirit, rather than practical needs.  If we ignored decorum, and always argued that people had “rights” to do what was not written, we then became robots and could only function under lucid instructions. Animal Farm (1945) is a dystopia governed by pigs, not the society we are living in . . . yet.  Have a good summer meeting more people, understanding the world better, playing plenty of sport games, and locking away your mobile devices.  Dare I say: study harder?

 

 

Anson Yang