haunted by history
In the German town of Lübeck, just ___km _____ of Hamburg, there is an old cathedral that was hit by Allied aerial bombardment during World War II.
Marienkirche is a cavernous, echoing place -
utopian dreams
[Draft. Outline of structure only. To be built on after i do some research. Pls feel free to comment and suggest stuff.]
1551, from Mod.L. Utopia, lit. "nowhere," coined by Thomas More (and used as title of his book, 1516, about an imaginary island enjoying perfect legal, social, and political systems), from Gk. ou "not" + topos "place." Extended to "any perfect place," 1613. Utopian, as a noun meaning "visionary idealist," is first recorded c.1873. Anecdote.
History is littered with the scattered remnants of our yearnings for _____________ (a better where to find???)............
To reclaim our dream of Eden.
Utopias gone wrong:
the Communist experiment
Hitler's Third Reich
America?? land of the free
Singapore????
It's a simple human truth. People screw things up. All the time.
Yet hope springs infernal in the human breast. (apologies to alexander pope)
Conclusion? No matter the failure - we must keep trying (or we might as well just roll over and play dead....)
time's winged chariot
It's been more than a year since i started this blog. i didn't even notice till i looked at the archives on the sidebar.
*Insert random cliche about time flying*
Time to take stock, to start counting up gains and losses, to think about where things have been and where they will be headed.
*Takes stock, counts gains and losses, thinks about where things have been and where they will be headed*
Ok. The yearly quota of navel-gazing - sorted! On with the rest of my life!
Thanks for reading and commenting, guys! :)
to take a life
Another storm in the media - this time about a 25 year old Vietnamese-Australian man who's been sentenced to death for attempting to smuggle 396 grams of heroin into Singapore.
Here are the facts pertinent to the case:
Van was caught in transit at Singapore's Changi Airport in December 2002 on a flight from Cambodia to Australia. He was in possession of the drugs because he was trying to raise money to clear drug-related debts incurred by his twin brother in Melbourne, Australia.
Van was convicted on 20 Mar 2004 of trafficking 396 grams of heroin and sentenced to death by hanging. On Friday Fri 21 Oct 2005, Singapore's President SR Nathan rejected Van’s appeal for clemency. He will be executed within a fortnight.
Ever since I've started thinking about these things, i've been troubled about Singapore's laws on the death penalty for drug-traffickers. From what i understand, the rationale is that drug trafficking can have multiple negative, or even fatal, effects on a disproportionately large number of people. If you think about it even further, it can even be argued that a disproportionately large number of drug addicts belong to the lower classes, and that the last thing the poor need is a drug addiction to further lock them in the vicious circle of poverty. Furthermore, addiction affects not only addicts, but their families as well (think dependent spouses, children, even unborn babies). It is indisputable - drug trafficking has ugly, ugly, potentially life-destroying consequences.
But a drug trafficker does not deserve to die for his crime.
Many arguments have been put forth against the death penalty being used on drug-traffickers. It has been rightly pointed out that most traffickers are no more than lackey-middlemen, and that it is the drug-lords in Colombia, Cuba, Thailand, and other far-flung locations who should bear the blame for the existence of the drug trade. It has also been pointed out that, in some cases such as the one currently in the news, the extenuating circumstances make it necessary to temper justice with mercy, and to give the criminal a second chance.
These, and other arguments, are certainly valid and compelling. But as far as i'm concerned, the real crux of the issue lies elsewhere. With or without easy access to drugs, the choice of whether or not to take drugs still lies, ultimately, with the individual. The drug-trafficker cannot be blamed if someone makes that choice, just as a gun-manufacturer cannot be blamed if someone decides to use a gun to kill another person, or even to kill himself. The drug trafficker does not do what he does with the specific intent of killing another human being. Drug trafficking is not murder, and does not warrant the same degree of punishment that is meted out for murder.
For this reason, i have always been opposed to the death penalty as a punishment for drug trafficking. And if you, Gentle Reader, feel the same way, i urge you to sign the petition at the following website to register your views.
http://stophanging.comFrankly, my dears, whether or not we give a damn will make no damn difference in the final outcome of this case. The guy is going to die, and there is nothing any ordinary citizen is going to do that will change that. But sometimes the mere act of standing up for what you believe in is a necessary step in itself, regardless of the outcome.
Stand up and be counted.
......
