Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The Counterproductively of Revenge

Set for execution are those responsible for the Bali bombings. I was listening to a late night talk back show on the radio which discussed this issue. The host is normally opposed to the death penalty but openly stated that his opinion on this matter was the inverse. Callers were in support and even claimed to want to witness the executions.

I am against the executions and the death penalty. What I heard on the radio station was nothing more than blood lust and revenge. What is more, you are granting those to be executed the level of martyrdom, something that they have openly expressed to want and ironically tried to avoid by exhausting every avenue of appeal. By keeping them alive and incarcerated you are keeping them as examples to the world that these people are really cowards and that they will die in a cell not as a martyr but a prisoner of a crime against humanity. What is more, by keeping them alive, their supporters expose themselves. The amount of intelligence that can be gained by motioning supporters has the potential to prevent any future occurrence. By granting these people their martyrdom will give silent examples anti social cells to follow and provide them with anonymity to move freely.

Our goal is supposed to be preventing anther Bali, 9/11, London and Spain bombings. Not cry and lust for revenge for such incidents that may be yet to come. To do so is to make the innocent victims die in vein. They are the true martyrs and have the capacity to be heroes in the way we deal with and exposing anti social cells.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Hypocrisy

I am just minutes on form talking to the police in front of my parent’s house. A man who seemed to be intoxicated asked me for help because he was being followed. Now every story has two sides and what I could see that there was a man and a young boy walking the bottom of the street.

The man that had approached me went to his friend’s place across the road and who had just arrived while I rang the police at his request. While he was across the road another man, apart form the one accompanying the child turned up and confronted him. All I could hear form my vantage point were claims of pedophilia and threats of physical injury to this man.

I had not seen the event in question so I was in no place to judge. If the claims were true I would be first in line to condemn the man who had asked for my assistance. But now the men confronting the one who asked for my assistance grew in number and his friend had asked him to leave. The group was joined by women and another boy.

During all this my mother and grand mother arrived home form church. The police arrived and while my family was in the house, none came out. Instead all they did was to close the front door, effectively locking me out of the house while I kept vigil to see this man did not get hurt and his side of the story be told.

There is the hypocrisy. So called Christians getting the opportunity to practice what they preach and the best they could do was close the door.

The confrontation ended peacefully for those who are interested and the parties went their separate ways.