Corporate Empathic Failures
Destructive Narcissism can also be found in organisations, companies, institutions, and any system made up by people. Especially if the founder/s are destructive narcissists, and they have plenty of YES men and women around them; they won't tolerate anyone who will persistently challenges them, unless that someone has leverage over them!
It has come to my attention via YouTube that the Christian Brothers who set up and ran schools in Australia and in the South of Ireland are being sued for the Sexual Abuse of students. The Christian Brothers are trying to hide behind a corporation in order not to address the issue of abuse and compensation. Interestingly, when the video came online I shared a brief outline of my story as Christian Brothers student and YouTube refused to publish it! They often refuse to publish my comments especially about the genocide in Gaza or the history of colonisation of Palestine...that tells you a lot!
I wouldnt normally share my personal history on my website but I think this is a really important issue as there are Christian Brothers schools across the North of Ireland and not just in the south. Out of respect for the families I am not going t publish the names of teachers who were violent and abusive...but I do remember them!
At the age of 11, in March 1975, I went to a brand new Christian Brothers school in Downpatrick, Co. Down in the North of Ireland. I and my fellow classmates witnessed extreme violence by a Christian Brother teacher on another student in our classroom. The student was so badly beaten up that he had to be hospitalised, and never came back to the school. A local newspaper photographed and interviewed the student from his hospital bed, which was published later that week.
We had a sadistic lay Vice Principle who would monitor the front entrance to the school for students who's school uniform didn't comply to his high expectations - if your black and gold tie was not knotted perfectly, and God forbid if you were even a nanosecond late, which I occasionally was as I travelled 10 miles across narrow country roads by bus often behind sheep, cattle and tractors - he would take great delight in administering six of the best with his thick three-ply leather strap on booth hands!
I was bullied and humiliated at every opportunity by the lay Irish Language teacher because he didn't like the fact that I had come from a Primary School that had taught the Irish Language, as his class was aimed at the novices. At that time I was undiagnosed for dyslexia, and for some reason I took to learning languages other than English. I loved learning Irish and he completely took that from me. And we were taught French, which I also loved but I became withdrawn, depressed, and unmotivated. I started playing truant and drinking alcohol. I was then referred to a Psychologist Dr. Stanley Papenfus, who was a warm, gentle and caring person. He was a colleague and friend of my fathers. My father was a bit of a celebrity in the North of Ireland as he was often in the news, on television and on radio. He was a frequent panellist on the Gordon Burns Show discussing the state of the NHS NI. He was the Regional Secretory for the Confederation of the Health Service Employees, and a sportsman having been an all Ireland Hurley player for the Belfast based O'Donovan Rossa Club and County Down Hurling Manager. There were rumours about Sexual Abuse by the Christian Brothers and some lay teachers, but they would never have messed with Jimmy O'Reilly's son!
There were some good eggs among the teaching staff. Sister Bonaventure who was the visiting director of the School Choir, and she trained us and took us to in our ruffles and tunics to perform at Inch Abbey for Songs of Parise. Master Jim Curren who was a gentleman - kind and respectful. And Mrs Coyle who was patient and affirming. Ironically, I ended up working with the sister of the abusive Irish language teacher in Accident and Emergency at the Newtownards Hospital. She was the complete opposite of her brother - warm, reassuring, educative and professional! And she was running an A&E Department at the height of the troubles, and he couldn't manage an Irish Language lesson!
I am sure that most adults are aware of the absolute destruction caused by the Post Office Fujitsu Horizon IT Scandal. Which went on for over two decades destroying the lives of hundreds of Post Office workers including their family lives, relationships, livelihoods, careers, being criminalisation and imprisoned, and very sadly at least four suicides. BBC coverage
You will also see something very untoward happened leading up to the total collapse of the Pension Fund of the 11,000 employees and 8,000 ex-employees of British Home Stores BHS when Sir Peter Green sold off BHS for £1...YES, that's ONE BRITISH POUND! You can read the story here in the Financial Times. And here with the BBC.
The biggest pension fund scandal in history is often considered to be the case involving Robert Maxwell (born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch) (father of Ghislaine Maxwell notorious convicted Child Sex Offender and Trafficker along with Jeffrey Epstein) who plundered £440 million from the Mirror Group's Pension Funds in the early 1990s, affecting around 30,000 people. This scandal highlighted significant failures in the protection of employees' pension savings and led to widespread financial losses. You can read more about the Maxwell Plunder here as well as the looming Public Sector Pension Crisis.
Then in 2008 we have history's BIGGEST Financial Crime by Bernie Madoff who Made Off with $65 BILLION of client's investments! Read the full story on the FBI website.
The above Corporate Financial Crimes against ordinary folk are just the tip of the iceberg, which have devasted people's lives, and sadly resulted in suicides.
These crimes are not committed by companies who are made up of people with a conscience and with empathy for others!
What are the patterns here, what are we not learning from these patterns?