We might laugh at some memes or jokes circulated
online and through mobile phone chat apps about public figures. This is normal
and acceptable when harmless and when it stops there. But last week's
episode involving a text-book case of bullying and harassment of ArabiaWeather
CEO Mohammed Al-Shaker went too far.
اضافة اعلان
It
started with someone obtaining the young entrepreneur's personal mobile phone
number and sharing it with very many people on very many platforms. The mob
mentality kicked in, and many thought it was just a joke. In fact, it is not.
Shaker,
who represents the best of Jordanian youth due to his hard work, perseverance,
entrepreneurial spirit and a success story that has made our country proud,
said in interviews that he was harassed over the phone hundreds of times just
because some persons thought, due to a couple of hours-delay in the arrival of
snow to Amman on Wednesday, that ArabiaWeather was wrong in its forecast of
heavy snow.
Those
people did not wait to see that the prediction was 100 percent accurate. They
jumped at the opportunity of accessing his phone number and were having fun
directing insults at him and his family.
He
had to deal with a storm of abusive texts and phone calls before the
good-for-nothing critics realized that he and his team were right and they were
wrong.
Shaker's
ArabiaWeather Inc. "is the leading provider of weather products, services,
and solutions to consumers and businesses in the Middle East".
The
entrepreneur, who started as an amateur and single-handedly built his
successful enterprise, created tens of jobs for young people manning the
company's offices in Jordan and elsewhere, including "world-class talented
meteorologists, data scientists, developers, designers, and salespeople".
All
this is a made-in-Jordan product; and we have more start-ups that are now worth
hundreds of millions, with a couple already sold for fortunes to international
giants like Amazon and Yahoo. The latest was Jordan-made mobile application,
Jawaker, which has been acquired for $205 million by Stillfront, a global group
of gaming studios.
It is
not clear yet if Shaker has filed official complaints against the bullies, but
we are confident that the law enforcement agencies will take some measures
under these, and other, circumstances, and we do need that, to make an example
of the perpetrators to others, and eventually put an end to this alarming
behavior.
This
socio-psychological phenomenon has been part of the social life ever since the
first human community took shape. It is simply about getting away with hostile
actions by hiding, or disappearing, in a crowd of like-minded people who are
committing the same crime collectively. Police work is very important here, but
a holistic approach is the actual solution.
This
starts with the family and school. Parents, teachers, religious preachers,
influencers and others conveying the message to the younger generation that
cyberbullying and harassment of others in any form is not funny. In other
words: the people, who find time and desire to design a meme to mock others or
pick the phone to bully a fellow citizen have nothing else to do, which takes
us to a different level, where we should work harder to find jobs for young
people or get them busy with doing useful things through well-designed and
well-thought engagement programs.
Let us
start with serious scientific studies of the phenomenon in the Jordanian
context, and make recommendations to experts and decision makers to design and
implement awareness programs, coupled with toughening the legal consequences of
the act of bullying at all levels. Let us do it before it is too late.
The writer is a former advisor at the Royal
Hashemite Court, a former director of media and communication at the Office of
His Majesty King Abdullah, and works currently as a senior advisor for business
development at Al-Ghad and Jordan News.
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