Cheaters

Okay let's see what wikipedia has to say regarding cheating. Cheating is an act of lying, deception, fraud, trickery, imposture, or imposition. Cheating characteristically is employed to create an unfair advantage, usually in one's own interest, and often at the expense of others. Cheating implies the breaking of rules.

I was inspired to make a post regarding this after watching the movie Cheaters which is based on a true story. It made me wonder how these kids are doing right now. I've seen this movie once before, I think it was back in highschool. What they did is a clear deception to create an unfair advantage that eventually cost them a life of misery. I have no idea how they are doing now but you can imagine, would any school accept them after what they did? Or would any employer hire them after lying to so many people? And what a great shame that incident has brought them that I'm sure it had greatly affected their self-esteem.

Now, what about cheating boyfriends, girlfriends, or worse husband/wife? Hurting the people you love for the sake of pursuing personal gratification. Is it really worth the trouble?

And how about being a government official and cheating the people? Let's elaborate this one, a scenario of a corrupt politician, taking advantage of the people's money and trust. Why would one do it, because of greed, of course we are very much aware how money has the capacity to control people's mind and actions. Now how can these people fathom the idea of getting full while half of the country's men are dying of hunger and sickness? Are they any different from murderers who do not feel guilt in taking other people's lives? Actually, this would be a long story to look at as we may need to dig deeper than what we have already identified as a cause. We can include culture, system, people's principles because corruption runs from the top office to the lower ranks in the government. And even private companies and institution cannot escape the ghost of corruption. People in power seems like they really cannot handle what they bargained for; because if they can, they would never abuse what is vested upon them.

Moving on, another delicate scenario, cheating without knowing you are doing it or should I say dissent cheating,? I know, is that possible? Let's talk about the previous June 2007 nursing board leakage. I cannot be so sure that the test takers have no idea they were fed with leakage but I would give them the benefit of the doubt as I have experienced going to a review center and taking the board exam itself. So if I were in their place while I was reviewing I would have no idea that actual questions were already being given not until I see it with my own eyes which is when I am taking the real exam already. In this case this is a clear not consented cheating, you were made to cheat by other people. The only thing that bothers me is there are still people out there who wanted the leakage for themselves in order to pass when it is completely unnecessary. And I'm not saying this just because I made it without resorting to cheating but it is not a reason to cheat just because you lack self-esteem. Now if it turns out to be the reason then they are no different from the students in the Cheaters movie. We have seen the impact of the leakage, some patients question every nurse in a hospital what batch are they from only to find out if you belong to the controversial batch so they could ask for another nurse. Although this treatment died down along with the news, this incident had been imprinted in the history of Nursing in the Philippines. Now, are the people behind this happy after damaging the dignity and reputation of the june passers and even the rest of the nurses in the country?

What else is there to cheat, your passport, license, business permit, thesis, assignment, exam, forging signature, identity, bank account and many more may it be petty or huge.

And for whatever reason you have cheated, who do you actually think you have cheated on? The biggest person you have cheated that matters most is yourself. Did the fruit of your labor taste sweeter than you expected it to be? And how was the consequences of your action? Does it outweigh the prize after all? Or maybe you haven't been caught yet so you have no idea what you would have to face soon?

Cheating is such a temptation. Anybody and I mean everyone is prone to committing it as there will always be a point in time wherein we would think more for ourselves. But how do we deal with this temptation? We think hundred times, thousand times, nth time about what will happen eventually once the cat is let out of the bag? One precious thing you're going to break is trust, something so hard to earn yet so easy to lose. And we know that cheating will haunt us forever.