A little whisper in the dark

Outside, looking in

And so my overseas experiences continue, and it is often the turbulent and traumatic that create the most indelible impressions - today, an Australian of Vietnamese descent was put to death in a Singapore prison.

Normally, an execution in Singapore takes up little more than a two by three inch wide column in the local daily, tersely phrased, a reminder of the crime that resulted in the punishment, and neutral in emotion.

But in wave of Australian patriotism and solidarity for a fellow countryman (regardless of colour) the media took up the cudgels and the government bowed to pressure from all the TV networks - official, legal and personal pleas were all made for his life. The more effort put in, the more strain there was between the two governments, and now the scorned government allows that relations would be "strained". So much for sovereignity?

Credit where its due, the Australian media covered the human aspect to the nth degree, making up for the typical restraint I am used to reading. No titbit left uncovered, the opposition party representatives were interviewed, protesters given airtime, scenes of tearful people both Singaporeans in Singapore and Australians in Australia. Singapore is really a little red dot - for what it is, it hardly makes news in large countries when large countries have enough news of their own to fill in the 6pm prime time slot. Were it not an Australian that's on death row, it wouldn't even make one newspaper here, let alone doininate headlines for the past week leading up to the execution.

How often do we think we see the entire picture, when we don't realize that we're looking with only one eye?

posted by Chung Leong @ 12:06 AM