I started writing this as a reply to someone's status update on FB. But I know better than to feed the internet trolls on that platform, I still need to get this out of my system though, so here goes.
There was a Police brutality video posted up this week showing.. well, police brutality.
I know I don't have the heart or stomach to watch it, so I won't. But I have a fair idea of what it entails, especially judging by the comments of those who have watched it.
I understand the uproar. It's a major human rights violation, agreed wholeheartedly.
But I don't see eye-to-eye with those who are using this as an excuse to jump on the 'What has become of Fiji' bandwagon.
Police-brutality is a reality worldwide and so as wrong as it is, I still don't think it justifies us questioning our progress as Fijians, questioning our identity and saying that we are ashamed to be Fijian. I question humanity, yes. But I am still proud of being Fijian, and one has nothing to do with another.
Cases such as these have been happening for ages now, and while that doesn't make it ok, I only bring it up to indicate that the only difference now is that this time ...it was caught on camera. I think it's wrong to blame our circumstances politically, or otherwise. Yes, we should not be having such incidences at all, but I think by blaming it on things like democracy, and coups etc, is a cop-out from tackling the more deep-seeded issues in our society that leads its people to act so inhumanely.
Someone commented that we are going back into the dark ages. I disagree, as a nation we are doing better, we are good people, but bad people do exist. I question the integrity of the person who was a part of this abomination, and of those that stood around and did nothing about it. I try to get my head around what would lead them to be so cruel.
But I will not blame it on our country, and its people as a whole. I think we get enough of that from the misled foreign media and other countries already; we don't have to resort to blaming ourselves too.
We are good people. We need to remind ourselves of that. Bad people will always exist. But we shouldn't lose the good ones either.
Rant. over.
There was a Police brutality video posted up this week showing.. well, police brutality.
I know I don't have the heart or stomach to watch it, so I won't. But I have a fair idea of what it entails, especially judging by the comments of those who have watched it.
I understand the uproar. It's a major human rights violation, agreed wholeheartedly.
But I don't see eye-to-eye with those who are using this as an excuse to jump on the 'What has become of Fiji' bandwagon.
Police-brutality is a reality worldwide and so as wrong as it is, I still don't think it justifies us questioning our progress as Fijians, questioning our identity and saying that we are ashamed to be Fijian. I question humanity, yes. But I am still proud of being Fijian, and one has nothing to do with another.
Cases such as these have been happening for ages now, and while that doesn't make it ok, I only bring it up to indicate that the only difference now is that this time ...it was caught on camera. I think it's wrong to blame our circumstances politically, or otherwise. Yes, we should not be having such incidences at all, but I think by blaming it on things like democracy, and coups etc, is a cop-out from tackling the more deep-seeded issues in our society that leads its people to act so inhumanely.
Someone commented that we are going back into the dark ages. I disagree, as a nation we are doing better, we are good people, but bad people do exist. I question the integrity of the person who was a part of this abomination, and of those that stood around and did nothing about it. I try to get my head around what would lead them to be so cruel.
But I will not blame it on our country, and its people as a whole. I think we get enough of that from the misled foreign media and other countries already; we don't have to resort to blaming ourselves too.
We are good people. We need to remind ourselves of that. Bad people will always exist. But we shouldn't lose the good ones either.
Rant. over.
