A little whisper in the dark

All hail, the judicial system

Today, a drink-driving motorist was sentenced to four months jail for killing a cyclist. On the same day, on a different page of the newspaper, there was also a report on a police constable being sentenced to 16 months jail for having fellatio with an underaged girl.

Pardon me?

While it goes without saying that probably 2 different judges attended to each case (and I could not be bothered to find out if it was the case), is breach of morality, if we use jail terms as a guide, four times as heinous as drink-driving and causing an innocent life to be lost?

The act of fellatio, as far as can be inferred, had been between two consenting parties at the point of the incident. Was any lives involved? I should think not. Safer than having sex, I should think.

The motorist, in apparent migitation, said he was "remorseful" and that he was going to pick up his wife and daughter. He had been drinking for at least 3 hours beforehand. He was also speeding. The cyclist did not ask to be knocked down: he was minding his own business riding along the road, at the conclusion of a round island ride in which he had the role to shepherd less-skilled riders.

And thus a young life, on the brink of contributing to a society that groomed him to the point of university, was snuffed out.

Perhaps we should let bygones be bygones, and let the poor guy carry this cross the rest of his life.

But lawyers, being the people they are, would invoke this case in time to come, to attempt to lessen other offending motorists' sentences. And just what kind of signal are we sending out, with a judicial system like this? One that places oral sex above public safety on the roads? One that places morality over life?

Is the judicial system in need of a major re-think? Is the system in need of a lot of standardization of seriousness and importance?

I'd say give that drunkard the maximum sentence, and even that at 2 years is disproportionate to what he has taken away, and I'd say take his licence for life and make sure he never gets behind a steering wheel again.

posted by Chung Leong @ 12:39 AM 0 comments

Defying all logic

While I'm trying to stay properly hydrated in the throes of the bout of flu I'm currently having, perhaps even overly so (to the extent of visiting the loo way too often) the water I imbibe somehow manages to magically find its way from my digestive system to my nose, merrily dripping like a tap which refuses to completely shut off.

posted by Chung Leong @ 12:28 AM 0 comments

Has it ever happened to you?

Do you find yourself carelessly treating badly those you care about
and treading carefully, choosing your words, minding your manners,
with those you hardly know?

posted by Chung Leong @ 1:12 AM 0 comments

The New Paper

In the midst of looking further afield for a university that offered a reasonably decent degree that I could afford, doing what I aspired to do, an out of the blue Nanyang Technological University envelope was an intruiging prospect.

A few new courses they want me to be aware of, but most relevant to me would be the "Top 5% of polytechnic graduates with certificate of merit may apply for any course(s) at NTU regardless of their diploma".

Mmmm, tasty. Ever contemplated a career change?

For such a large university in the western part of Singapore, there sure is a remarkable dearth of courses that barely pique my interest; at this stage, I am pretty sure Math will always be my Achilles Heel, yet of the 12 lab-based degrees, 10 are Engineering degrees. Not so hot.

B. Communications Studies (Hons.) sounds interesting. Videography, photography, journalism, writing. Hmmmm.

The very next day, still mulling these new developments, I walked past a newstand and the New Paper's front page grabbed my attention, just as it was intended to.

"Singaporean girl has 50 bikinis."

And that is front page news? Well, maybe. I am sure I don't have 50 swimming trunks, or even 50 t-shirts. I might, however, have 50 pieces of clothing if I combined all that I regularly wear, footwear included.

Is this where local reporting and writing is at? I would strongly suspect that in the paper-chase society that is Singapore, the writer is probably a university graduate, and the headline is probably his brainchild as well. I'm not keen to waste my time and money to be educated to such a level.

A tabloid, then, perhaps we should classify this newspaper. Along with "News of the World", with its regular alien, Elvis, and scandalous sightings. The problem about New Paper, is that its in good old staid Singapore, and so instead of fantastically sensational newsbites, they make do with mundane stuff like bikinis, aunties petitioning to save a department store, the like.

A good friend of mine emphatically stated:

"Any newspaper that's too small for my dog to poop on, is a tabloid."

Its so bleeding obvious, no truer words have been spoken.

posted by Chung Leong @ 4:13 AM 0 comments