Dealing with bullying in NS.

Hello everyone. I recently had quite an interesting question from a young reader who has yet to serve NS - he had expressed shock at the way I had discussed bullying in NS as if yeah, it happens a lot. He thought that in a strict environment like that, bullying would be downright illegal and there would be consequences for those who were bullies. He then asked me what he could do if he found himself being bullied when he served NS. Well, I have actually blogged a lot about both bullying and the NS experience - so in today's blog post, I am going to talk about bullying in NS. Once again, I stress, I'm here to talk about the wider topic, rather than just about myself - I am however, going to expand the discussion to beyond bullying in NS as I have also observed a lot of similar kinds of bullying in the working world.

What if you are bullied during NS?

Firstly, why is there bullying in NS in the first place? The answer is actually remarkably simple when you look at the formula. The age of enlistment in Singapore is 18 and so all soldiers are at least 18 when they start NS - by that token, no one is a child. You are expected to behave and function like an adult when in NS, it is considered an important part of growing up for the men in Singapore for it is often the first time in their lives they are being treated like adults as opposed to children in the schools where they have just come from prior to enlistment. Now this can be a huge culture shock for many enlistees who do not have the emotional maturity to function like adults at the age of 18 - a lot of that depends on their upbringing: if they have good parents who have prepared them in advance for the NS experience, then they wouldn't struggle that much to function as adults. This can happen in the working world too. 

So what you have is very much a 'Lord of the Flies' situation - in the book, a group of British schoolboys found themselves stranded on a remote island after a plane crash. They then try to govern themselves on the island but were unable to remain rational and reasonable, instead giving in to feral and warlike behaviour, turning on each other. In what seems like a consequence free environment, far away from any adult, the consequences were tragic and disastrous. In NS, there are situations where you have a 19 year old in charge of a group of 18 years olds and wielding actually quite a lot of power over them: the 19 year old is placed in charge because he has been in NS longer and has supposedly attended the right courses to obtain the necessarily rank to do that job, but how much more mature is he compared to the 18 year olds he is in charge of? I have witnessed cases where the slightly older soldier of slightly higher rank lacks the kind of basic human decency to act in a reasonable manner and goes out of his way to be as abusive as possible, to be the worst possible bully, knowing that he will get away with such behaviour. What? I hear you asking, this is not the Lord of the Flies! There are rules in the SAF and more to the point, there are older, responsible adults around to keep lower and middle ranking personnel in check, so they don't go power-crazy with the recruits, right? The truth is somewhere in between the two, welcome to the real world with the many shades of grey.

Case Study One: 3SG Pui has an axe to grind

During my BMT, I found out that this sergeant (let's call him 3SG Pui as he's kinda fat) had messed up his A levels really badly and couldn't get into NUS - he had a real chip on his shoulders as a result because he knew that he would not get the degree he had wanted. He didn't consider himself stupid or inferior in any way to his peers, merely someone who had been very unlucky by performing badly at his exams. Come on, haven't we all messed up a test or exam before, right? 3SG Pui came from a poor family, so studying abroad was simply not an option for him. However, that meant that 3SG Pui had a grudge against any soldier from the A level intake and if you're from a top 5 JC (and if you're rich at the same time), you best keep your distance from him for he will assume that you have good results and thus would go out of his way to make your life miserable. If you were from a poly or had only O levels, he would leave you alone. I'm not trying to defend Pui for a moment here - he was unhinged and definitely mentally unstable.

Would bullying someone with good A level results change anything for him? Of course it wouldn't, but he was angry with the system, he felt he had an extremely bad deal after having worked very hard as a student. Most of the A level recruits had a simple mantra in NS, keep your head down, keep your mouth shut, get through NS peacefully because you have university to look forward to. 3SG Pui didn't have that luxury and he gave in to petty jealousy. I was very lucky in that someone had warned me about him and thanks to my late grandmother, I spoke Hokkien fluently. So when I knew I was going to go anywhere near him, I switched to Hokkien and Mandarin, to avoid his attention because I knew he would single out the A level scholars from the way they spoke English fluently. Should someone as messed up, immature and irrational like 3SG Pui have been put in any position of responsibility? Of course not. But 3SG Pui picked on those who were of inferior rank to him, he was smart enough to be polite and respectful to those of superior rank to him, so none of his superiors suspected that he was a nasty bully. The whole situation was a terrible mess.

The odds had been stacked against Pui.

But wait, didn't anyone make a complaint against 3SG Pui for his behaviour? The answer is yes, someone actually did make a complaint but it backfired. This guy, let's call him Norman because he was from NJC. Norman is a typical A level kid from a good JC, his parents were fairly wealthy and made sure he never had to lift a finger at home to even wash a cup, just so he could have every spare moment to focus on his studies. He wasn't a bad person, just someone who was somewhat clueless about adapting to this new environment and had a big mouth. Not in a bad way, he spoke English with a hint of an American accent like Amos Yee, he loved talking about going to university and that got the attention of 3SG Pui. So for example, during area cleaning, 3SG Pui would go out of his way to find fault with Norman by deliberately leaving dirt in areas that Norman was supposed to have cleaned. There was nothing wrong with Norman's ability to clean - it doesn't take a genius to operate a broom or a mop, but 3SG Pui went out of his way to create the impression that Norman was a spoilt brat with an attitude problem, that he was too important to do area cleaning. He threatened Norman with weekend guard duties to infinity and poor Norman finally snapped.

You see, 3SG Pui's justitication for punishing Norman was his "attitude problem" when really Norman had done nothing wrong,  his only crime was not doing the 'keep your head down and mouth shut' protocol. So Norman went to a senior officer, let's call him Major Lau because he is old and made an official complaint, claiming that he was being bullied by 3SG Pui. This came as a complete surprise to MAJ Lau as 3SG Pui had given him a very good impression thus far, but he promised to investigate and he went to question 3SG Pui. Well, 3SG Pui knew he had a compelling story: he claimed that Norman was a spoilt brat who had never washed a plate in his life before, that Norman needed a taste of hardship to help him understand the rule of law in the military, that all these punishments was actually exactly what Norman needed before he got himself into big trouble. 3SG Pui convinced MAJ Lau that if Norman wasn't punished, then he would become a big troublemaker in the future. There is an attitude in the SAF: if you spot a potential troublemaker, you nip that in the bud before you allow that person to cause you any trouble. That is a principle which is fine when dealing with genuine trouble makers - but 3SG Pui manipulated MAJ Lau into using it against Norman when really, he hadn't done anything wrong apart from talking about going to university within earshot of 3SG Pui.

Pui was in the wrong, but what could Norman do?

MAJ Lau decided to give 3SG Pui the benefit of the doubt and Norman realized the hard way that he had accidentally offended the wrong person. The consequences were dire - I suppose 3SG Pui knew that Norman would probably go on to have a much rosier, easier adult life with his wealth, privilege and degree, so whilst the tables were turned, he could go out of his way to vent all his frustrations on Norman - the guy who has everything 3SG Pui never had and could never have. Norman's spirit was completely broken as a result of the relentless bullying and punishment that 3SG Pui inflicted on him. The irony of it all was that MAJ Lau was to all intents and purposes a perfectly decent man who didn't condone bullying, he was simply fooled and manipulated by 3SG Pui. The rest of us who witnessed what happened learnt an important lesson. It was truly a 杀一警百 situation: we knew that nothing good could ever come out of complaining and that the only self-defence mechanism we had against bullying were our social skills to blend in, fit in and keep a very low-profile. Let's look at another case study which I had touched upon in previous posts.

Case study 2: Sam vs the system

Let's call this guy Sam as he was some Singapore Polytechnic, bright guy and when you first meet him, there was nothing unpleasant or objectionable about him. However  Sam didn't like the idea of having to serve NS - he felt that it was a waste of time and because he wasn't put in a high ranking position with a lot of important responsibilities, in his own words, he felt it was a case of "大才小用" (literally: a small use of a big talent - you get the idea). His vocation mainly involved quite mundane tasks and he got very bored quickly. He grew more and more cynical by the day and reacted by trying to do as little as possible - so for example, if the commanding officer announced a major operation that would involve everyone working very hard for long hours in the following days, you could be sure that Sam would suddenly come down with some kind of mysterious illness that would require him to take MC for at least two days. I remember once when some furniture was delivered to the unit and everyone was asked to help unload the furniture, Sam suddenly developed a stomachache and needed to go to the toilet where he stayed for the next half an hour.

Sam tried to do as little as possible.

Don't get me wrong - Sam had nothing against the rest of the soldiers around him, he simply had an axe to grind with the system. I have actually sat down with Sam and had long conversations before, he had come across as a rather interesting and pleasant person when you got to know him. He was well read, articulate and very well traveled.  But for him, "cheating the system" by doing as little work as possible became an obsession for him as he hated the system more and more by the day. What he didn't realize was the effect his behaviour was having on the rest of us - team work is essential in the army. If he didn't help unload the furniture from the truck, then the rest of us would have to work longer and harder to get the task done without his help. We were the ones who were "punished" by having to shoulder the burden each time he tried to "dodge the bullet". That made Sam extremely unpopular amongst the rest of the soldiers in the unit but incredibly enough, he was totally oblivious to the situation that had developed.

Sam didn't understand why anyone would want to bear a grudge against him - after all, weren't we all in the same boat? Weren't we all being treated somewhat unfairly by the system? Why didn't the rest of us share his disdain for the system? What Sam failed to see was the fact that he only managed to get away with the things he did because the rest of us were (grudgingly) willing to cover for him when he disappeared on us. You can subject a group of soldiers to the same experience of working together in the same unit, but because our emotional responses to the experience were so different, that prevented Sam from bonding with the rest of us who were more resigned to the fact that work had to be done whether we liked it or not. Some of the guys decided they have had it with Sam's bad attitude and confronted him - but each time, Sam would deny that he was deliberately trying to "dodge the bullet" and claimed that he was genuinely in poor health. Unfortunately, he couldn't be reasoned with and that was when the bullying started.

Sam failed to bond with his fellow soldiers.

So each time Sam tried to skive off, something would happen to his personal belongings - for example, we did our own laundry in camp and would hang them out to dry. His clothes would be deliberately moved, like they would be flung into the bushes or into the drain. Sometimes he would awake in the morning to find that someone has left disgusting wet rags in his boots, so he would be forced to wear wet boots all day. Other little things like his food and drink items would go missing - it was all engineered to send Sam a message that people around him hated him, that he would have to watch his back. Sam was clearly a victim of a concerted bullying effort, but there was also a conspiracy of silence against him. So when Sam raised an official complaint, a senior officer was obliged to investigate so we were all questioned. Like everyone else, I knew exactly what was going on and who was responsible for the "bullying", but as I bore a grudge against Sam for his bad attitude, I chose to say nothing. "I don't know anything sir, sorry. I really wasn't aware of anything like that going on with Sam. I'm not involved and even if something did happen, I have no idea who is involved." Nobody had anything to gain by being a snitch - Sam had found himself alone with no allies at all.

The officer got absolutely nothing out of the men and in the absence of evidence, the officer was unable to take any action against anyone but he knew what was going on. He took Sam aside and said, "look if you want this bullying business to stop, the power is in your hands - just change your attitude and I promise you the guys will stop doing this to you. You need to change your attitude, okay?" Unfortunately, Sam couldn't see sense - he was suffering from tunnel vision and had already seen himself as a victim who deserved protection, rather than someone who had brought all this upon himself. He saw the officer's refusal or inability to help him as yet another reason to try to 'get back' at the system by skiving even more - which led to a downward spiral of more bullying, he would make more complaints and eventually, the officer was obliged to transfer Sam to another unit where he would be someone else's problem.

Nobody knew what to do about Sam.

So if we compare the cases of Sam and Norman - in both cases, both guys paid a very high price for failing to adjust to their new environment and it seems they were behaving as if they were still in JC/poly, oblivious to the fact that they are now in the army. I do see one thing in common in both cases though - both Sam and Norman were unable to see things from their bullies' point of view and were oblivious to why they were being bullied. Both thought they were innocent victims and that mindset blinded them to some rather obvious solutions for their problems. I could go on giving you plenty of other examples of bullying, but I think these two case studies illustrate you can be bullied either by someone of a similar rank or by a senior rank. The only kind of protection that the rank system offers is bullying from those of inferior/lower rank. So, with this in mind, what can you do to try to save yourself from bullying in the army?

1. Ask someone, "why is this happening?"

That's one thing that neither Norman nor Sam did once - it may have seemed painfully obvious; when you don't know what is going on, ask for help. Get hold of some information. But this is when they remind me of my own parents: once my parents have one version of events in their head, they hardly ever change their opinions even when they then encounter evidence that proves their initial impression to be inaccurate or incorrect. You can call that stubbornness or stupidity. Intelligent people will always be happy to ask for help, only stupid people think they are smart enough to never need any help from anyone else even when they are in deep trouble. Perhaps I am stating the obvious, but Norman and Sam never once asked for help from me - I could have easily explained to them what was going on. I had little incentive to try to help them understand what was going on - you can bring a horse to water but you can't make it drink. I wasn't sure that they would even want to listen to me anyway if I had tried to tell them what was going on.

"Can you tell me why this is happening?"

2. Try to see things from the bully's point of view.

In the case of 3SG Pui, it was obvious why he singled out Norman - Norman had flaunted his wealth and had boasted about his A level results. It triggered off jealousy and anger in 3SG Pui, once again, I could see exactly what was going on. Let's put ourselves in Pui's shoes for a moment - imagine this: he comes from a poor family, the odds are stacked against him all his life. He thinks he has every chance to make it to NUS if he works hard then he is unlucky enough to mess up his A level exams so badly he can't get into the course he wanted. A rich kid in that position will merely go abroad to pursue the same course in another university in somewhere like the UK or the USA, but Pui doesn't have that luxury - his family was poor. He was contemplating retaking his A levels whilst serving NS but trying to find the time to study and revise is simply impossible whilst having so many responsibilities. He was intensely frustrated and the last thing he needs right now was someone like Norman to remind him how dire his situation is. Norman has a bright future to look forward to, Pui doesn't. Pui was probably resentful at the way life turned out to be incredibly unfair.

Explaining all that doesn't justify Pui venting his frustrations on Norman of course, but with all that in mind, once I found out this piece of information, I knew how to behave in front of Pui so as not to push the wrong buttons with him. I figured out why Pui was picking on Norman and so with that information, I knew how to avoid antagonizing Pui. Let me give you an analogy: if you see a snake, the common advice given is to keep still as snakes have very poor eyesight. You do not approach the snake and you most definitely should not provoke the snake in any way. When safe to do so, you back away and leave the snake alone. You need to have some knowledge about snakes if you are to keep yourself safe when you encounter a snake - it doesn't mean you have to like snakes especially if you know they are dangerous and have good reason to be afraid of them. But if you knew you lived in an area where snakes are present, wouldn't you at least want to know how to deal with them safely? By that token, I'm not asking you to like Pui or feel sorry for him - on the contrary, I'm just asking you know learn how to handle him safely, like a very poisonous snake.

3. Stop seeking justice/revenge, start solving problems.

There are times in life when you need to know when you simply can't fix something that has gone wrong. In the case of Pui, yes what he is doing is completely wrong - bullying Norman isn't going to fix the problems in his life. But is there anything one can do about the situation? Probably not because it is really up to Pui to find his own solution to his difficult situation and where Norman went wrong was that he was hell bent on revenge: he felt strongly that Pui was in the wrong and he thought that the system wouldn't tolerate Pui's behaviour - that's why he made a complaint about Pui, because he was seeking both justice and revenge. However, it only made things a lot worse and did nothing to solve his problems. I did suggest to Norman that complaining about Pui may make things far worse but his reply was, "but we can't let him get away with this!" Oh dear. I was going to make useful suggestions as to how Norman could have handled the situation better - but it would have meant bowing to Pui's authority and effectively letting him get away with something very wrong. Ah well, sometimes in life, you just can't get what you want unfortunately.

4. Find allies you can rely on.

Oh this is so important: allies can provide a very valuable source of emotional support when things get really tough. Notice that I use the word allies rather than friends - therein lies an important difference. Anyone who has watched the reality TV programme Survivor will understand exactly what I mean: you're thrown in a situation where you have to live and work with a bunch of people and whether you like them or not, you need to get them to like you. In Survivor, in every episode, someone will get voted off the show at Tribal Council and in order to survive, you have to get the people around you to like you enough to vote for someone else. So you often find a situation where you have an 'unholy alliance' whereby two unlikely people choose to work together despite not apparently liking each other, but they may both hate the same person and want to vote that person out next, so they default to the "my enemy's enemy is my friend" principle and form an alliance not so much on any notion of a friendship, but rather, a common goal.

You see, some people simply don't grasp the concept of an 'ally' as opposed to a friend - a friend is someone you genuinely like, an 'ally' is someone you may or may not like, but you've convinced them that it is in their best interest to be supportive of you. Human relationships can be extremely complex - let's not think in absolute terms like "friend" vs "enemy" or "stranger" - trust me, I have seen people drive themselves mad trying to be everyone's friend, trying so hard to please everyone and they are just setting themselves up to fail because you're trying too hard to be popular that way. That's not the kind of popularity contest anyone can win because you are forcing yourself to befriend everyone whom you happen to have to work with, removing any element of choice. Creating the category of 'ally' allows you to dislike the person whilst creating the kind of working relationship you need with them to make your everyday life easier. Thinking back, I had a lot more 'allies' then 'friends in my NS days - that worked well for me.

5. Find a senior figure you can relate to.

This may be hard, but it is good training for the kind of office politics you will inevitably face in your working life. There will be officers in your unit, pick one you like - or at least pick one you loathe the least and try to find a way to bond with that officer. Let me give you an example: I knew there was one officer who was a Christian and I deliberately asked him about his church, I knew exactly what buttons to push to make him respond in a way that would give the others around the impression that we were friendly. Oh I don't think we were friendly at all but I knew somehow, Christians often feel the need to spread the gospel, invite people to their church, tell people about Jesus etc - if you have been brought up as a Christian, it becomes second nature. So I would ask him questions like, "Sir, in your church, what kind of bible study sessions are there? Is it in a small group or a large group? Who would be the teacher in these bible study sessions? How long is the study session? What are the kinds of issues you explore in those sessions?" I wasn't the least bit interested in going to his church, not at all! I just wanted everyone to see us talking in a friendly way.

Sir may I ask you a question please?

In being seen to be friendly with a much more senior officer, it sent out the message that I was not to be messed with because I had friends in high places. I did this with quite a few officers - there was an older 2WO lady officer who was vegetarian and I told her that I want to become vegetarian like her, I asked her for advice on how to have a balanced diet whilst avoiding meat. All you have to do is find out something that officer is very interested in, a topic that means a lot to that officer and ask that officer questions about that topic. Heck, if someone came up to me and asked me a question like, "hey I wanna learn gymnastics, but is it too late for me to try as an adult? Is it only for kids?" As it is a topic that I'm obsessed with, you wouldn't be able to shut me up. Sure  it would be ideal if you could genuinely bond with that officer and form a genuine friendship - but don't count on that, if it doesn't happen, then you can at least convince others around you that you have some kind of friendship with that officer and you will still enjoy the desired effect of that: people will think twice before bullying you and they will pick another target instead of you for bullying.

6. Keep your head down and your mouth shut.

Oh it's the golden rule of NS: keep your head down and your mouth shut when it matters. Don't try too hard or else you will draw attention to yourself - let me give you an example. There was this guy, let's call him Ben - now Ben's your typical jiat-kentang JC kid who struggled with Chinese and his Mandarin sucks. Yet when he was in NS, he made a genuine effort to try to blend in and be everyone's best friend, including with those Mandarin/Hokkien soldiers who had little in common with him. Nonetheless, Ben tried his best in his funny Mandarin and in so doing, drew attention to the fact that he was quite different from the rest - the fact that he couldn't really speak Mandarin points to the fact that he moved in totally different social circles and had nothing in common with the rest of the guys. The harder he tried, the more the other guys rejected him and that led to some of them being quite nasty to him. Ben simply lacked the emotional intelligence to make friends easily. If only Ben kept a lower profile and didn't try so hard! If you are different from everyone else in whatever way, then the last thing you want to do is to draw attention to yourself by doing what Ben did. The penalty for drawing attention to yourself is far worse than being the quiet one who keeps to himself.

It is not a popularity contest, remember.

7. Focus on the long term, not the present

NS really isn't forever, even though when you are serving NS, there are times when it does feel that way. I served 2 years 4 months back in the day, now the maximum is just 2 years. I have worked longer in most companies I have worked for over the years and believe me when I tell you that I can look back in hindsight and honestly say that 2 years really isn't that long a time. The time will pass quickly enough. When things do get hard, do not dwell on the problems that lie before you, think about the things that you'd like to do with your life after you finish NS. Start making long term plans about your further education and training that you can embark on once you are a civilian again, with those plans in place, you are giving yourself something exciting to look forward to once you finish NS and that will serve as extra motivation for you to get through the difficult times. Do not just think about what you're doing next week, think about what you'd like to be doing 5 years from now and start making plans for it to happen right now.

8. Acceptance vs denial: life just isn't fair

Oh I have seen a lot of people waste a lot of time brooding over the hand they have been dealt in life, especially when something bad happens, they go into denial and start arguing that "but it isn't fair". Loads of bad shit happen to good people through no fault of their own, it happens. Such is life I'm afraid. Norman encountering someone like Pui is simply one of those things - it was sheer bad luck on Norman's part that their paths crossed. The more time you waste on being in denial, the further you are from trying to find a practical solution to your problem. Think about people who get a bombshell like a cancer diagnosis: many do fall into a denial-slump whereby they go, "this can't be happening, I am not a smoker, I am not overweight, this is not fair etc" and they essentially feel sorry for themselves whilst in that state. Likewise, you'll be amazed at the number of soldiers who go, "this can't be happening, the army shouldn't be done like this, there's something wrong with the system etc". Instead of refusing to accept the circumstances they have found themselves in, the only default response really is to say, "okay, this shit is real, I accept that it is happening",

9. Put on a brave face - wear your poker face.

What do bullies want? They want to know that they have power over their victims, that they have the ability to make their victims feel like shit. The more you show weakness, the more they enjoy bullying you. Par contre, if you show that you are able to laugh it off, if they simply are unable to upset you the way they want to, then one quite logical outcome is that they will move on to find a different victim - one who will give them the satisfaction of victory. One needs to understand the mentality of bullies: they are looking to score a quick win, they like the sensation of having power over their victims - they are not looking to pick a fight with someone who is going to give as good as they get. Now in the army, you can't exactly fight back when the bully is of a higher rank but the least you can do is to keep a poker face and hide your emotions even if you're angry or upset. The poker face is thus always the best default response.

10. Prevention is better than cure!

This article simply would not be complete if I didn't state the obvious: prevention is better than cure when it comes to bullying. Do not make yourself a target for bullying in the first place - be aware of how your behaviour may affect those around you. If you're not sure, default to keeping your mouth shut. Spend more time observing those around you. It is far easier to take preventative measures to avoid being bullied in the first place - Norman, Sam and Ben simply did not think before they opened their big mouths. Don't be a dick, don't be an idiot, be kind, be helpful, be respectful, be tactful. Don't say shit about people around you, if you don't have anything nice to say, then keep your opinions to yourself. We are bludgeoned through so many years of formal education yet how many times have we been taught how to behave properly in the company of others? The good news is that being aware of the need to watch your behaviour is half the battle won: I hate to blame victims, but often they are completely oblivious as to what is going on.

As for myself, yeah I'd be the first to admit that I found army to be a struggle socially. In a strange way, because I had already experienced bullying in secondary school, I knew from experience how to cope in a harsh environment where you cannot trust those around you. What I found quite hard was learning to get along with those who were of a very different social background and of course, I made mistakes, I offended people but I don't think anyone waltzes into NS totally prepared, fits in perfectly and doesn't put a foot wrong, never says anything wrong and is liked by everyone. By that token, I did what a lot of people did in my shoes - I was young, naive and inexperienced. I was placed in a difficult situation and I learnt how to adapt quickly. It was okay to make mistakes under those circumstances as long as you were willing to learn from your mistakes. It is a bloody steep learning curve and I think that as long as you manage to climb up that curve one way or another, you can be forgiven for having made a few mistakes along the way. Hindsight is 2020, I am writing this as an older, wiser 40 year old man who can look back at everything I went through and say "oh man, I could have done so much better" but let's be forgiving to those young 18 year old guys just starting NS.

So there you go - I know some of you are going to find this list controversial but bullying does happen in NS, the biggest challenge for young soldiers is to find a way to solve their own problems rather than running to a responsible adult for help. Once you've turned 18, you are an adult and expected to solve your own problems. These ten tips are but a start - I am sure my readers will have many more interesting suggestions of their own and they may also have other stories about bullying that they have witnessed during their NS stints. Perhaps you have met people like Norman, Pui and Sam during your NS days? Please do leave a comment below and let's talk about it - many thanks for reading.