Harvey Weinstein, by all accounts a sexual predator, ruthlessly exploited others and wielded his power in his organisation and industry. His victims are many – including those who have lived for many years in silence for fear of repercussions to their career, fear that the most powerful man in the film industry would single-handedly destroy their future. Of course, silence only fuelled the monster. So many knew, yet so many said nothing. Their silence serving only to empower Weinstein in his serial sexual harassment, abuse and abhorrent behaviour.
In addition to being a sexual predator, he is also a textbook bully. By all accounts, he used his immense power to intimidate, coerce, force, threaten and aggressively dominate his victims – and not just the women he sexually assaulted. Retaliation to any rebuke of his advances included a real or perceived threat in the relatively small film industry. Clearly, in the case of Weinstein, the fear was very real. Women with the world stage at their feet, who fight fiercely for global human rights, felt unable to speak up.
This bullying behaviour is not unique to Weinstein. Ask a friend, colleague, co-worker and they’ll know someone who has been bullied in the workplace or they will have experienced bullying behaviour themselves. Bullies don’t have to open their office doors in bathrobes to be of great harm. And just as Hollywood cocooned through its silence Weinstein’s bullying and outrageous temper, so too do far too many people in every day workplaces. In Northern Ireland, for example, the worst kept secrets like pay-outs to women [and men] who have been subject to bullying, harassment and victimisation in exchange for their silence is not at all uncommon. The same fears – loss of livelihood, career prospects exist. NI is a small place with far fewer opportunities to move jobs. It is ripe for this behaviour and culture to flourish.
Speaking up, either for yourself or as an observer can be costly – issues around employment, promotion, mental health, family, home can all be affected. But this is true whether you speak up or remain silent. Speaking up and confronting the bully and the behaviour is empowering not just for the person but also for the entire organisation and society as a whole. Deaf ears and blind eyes pervade the most morally corrupt organisations where bullies flourish and victims are many. Sitting idly by, head down is not an option if we want to do better as a society.
Staying silent amidst such known or suspected bullying behaviour and abuses of power may not be a criminal offence but it is morally wrong.
We need to develop a culture in organisations where moral courage is rewarded, even celebrated.
Dr MELISSA McCULLOUGH
Belfast BT15
Date of Lord’s birth doesn’t particularly matter
Colin Nevin, as in previous years, yet again raises the issue of the celebration of Christmas on December 25 as if it was a problem (October 11).
Christians have properly celebrated the birth of Our Lord on December 25 since around the fourth century. The exact time and date of the Lord’s birth is not given in scripture and it doesn’t particularly matter.
We are not celebrating His ‘birthday’ as such in any case. We are marking the fact that our Saviour has come into the world and December 25 is as good a day as any to do so. For, in a very real sense, for Christians every day of the year is a birthday of Jesus Christ.
Only a small number of fundamentalist sects object to celebrating Our Lord’s nativity on December 25. Some of these are opposed to any celebration of Christmas whatsoever, often for anti-Catholic reasons. For example, Oliver Cromwell famously tried to outlaw the ‘Popish’ feast of Christmas in the 17th century. As soon as his regime came to an end Christmas was reinstated.
Nature itself, during the month of December, declares the truth of the Gospel of God’s Son – the True Light of the world – Light the darkness can never overcome (John 1:5).
Therefore, the objections of sects like the Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witness notwithstanding, Christians can legitimately celebrate the birth of the world’s Saviour on December 25.
There is no need to refer to Him as ‘Yeshua’ either. He is the Saviour of all the nations – not just Israel. He is ‘Jesus’, ‘Iosa’, ‘Jesu’, ‘Yesu’, ‘Iesous’, etc.
The commercialism and consumerism that marks the season associated with His birth is unfortunate. All the more reason for Christians to proclaim the Lord Jesus and His Truth in every season and every day of the year.
Fr PATRICK McCAFFERTY
Belfast BT12
Observation about Brexiteers
Westminster pays a £10 billion per annum block grant or subvention to access the market of 1.8 million consumers in Northern Ireland.
At the same time Westminster pays either £13bn (2015 figure) or £19bn per annum (Boris Johnson’s £365m per week) for access to a market of 500 million consumers in the European Union.
Intelligent people would surely think the latter better value and so ditch the former and retain the latter.
But Brexiteers in the Conservative Party think the former is good value for money and have entered into a confidence-and-supply arrangement with the DUP and instead they baulk at the latter, think the EU are our enemies and want to cut all ties with it.
This evidence allows us to make at least observation about Brexiteers in the Conservative Party – they’re nice, but dim. And Theresa May and Boris Johnson are really, really nice.
BERNARD J MULHOLLAND
Belfast BT9
Unionism has failed to evolve
Should the current political discussions concerning Stormont conclude without firm agreement upon a standalone Gaelic language act, then such a scandalous outcome must be interpreted as a clear sign of the failures of unionism to have evolved from the supremacist, planter mindset of their unfortunate origins, to one where respect for their nationalist neighbours is to the fore.
Any agreed diminution of the native language of this island will also be indicative of continuing nationalist capitulation to Orange whims, as well as further evidence of the great insincerity upon which the British government bases its dealings with Ireland and the Irish people.
The running jokes that are the ‘Ulster-Scots language and culture’ must also be consigned to the growing and fetid heap of costly unionist indiscretions. Ulster-Irish we all are and Ulster-Irish we must all be, to reach that much-sought resolution.
ANTAN O DALA AN RI
Newry, Co Down
National freedom
In response to Eamonn MacGrianna – ‘Tedious writings of Malachy and Sean need to be challenged’ (October 5) – the Ulster Protestant people do not want to be part of a united Ireland. On that basis I’m against forcing them to accept a united Ireland. At the same time I assert the right of Irish people in Northern Ireland to national freedom. Britain has no right to sovereignty over Irish people or any part of Ireland.
MALACHY SCOTT
Belfast BT15
