I'd like a Big Mac, a diet Coke and an M16 please
Last Monday marked the first day at my new job here in Utrecht. It’s a temporary solution until I can return to KL. Currently the application process of my working permit is still pending. I have accepted a job offer in KL and I hope to go back sometime next month or not long after that. In the meantime I’ll be working here to save up some cash.
While we were enjoying ourselves in the blazing sun – which was pretty abnormal for an April day – the news of the Virginia Tech shooting reached my ears and chilled everyone to the bones. Another bloody mayhem. Another Columbine tragedy. Again in the US. What the fuck is wrong with them Americans?
Before I proceed, please be clear that I do not intend to weaken the shocking effects of this massacre that will long be felt, nor do I attempt to justify Cho’s actions or whatever motives he might have had. He won’t be remembered as a holy martyr, far from that. He was another sad example of a disturbed young man, filled with rage and suffering from delusional disorder, so terribly he decided to write history by taking away innocent lives. For future generations a case book study waiting to be analysed.
In the midst of grieving, we must ask ourselves how this could happen. Intense debates are going on over how best to protect society from people with violent tendencies. And yet, they do not seem to solve anything or change the status quo.
In the case of the US, I tend to quickly condemn their current weapons policy with different gun laws in each state and various loopholes in the law enforcement. In Virginia, any state resident over 18 years of age are allowed to buy a firearm, including assault weapons, if they pass a check of any possible criminal background against state and federal databases. No permit needed; it’s almost as easy as buying a Big Mac. Imagine obese people walking around with a gun under their layers of fat. Scary picture.
The thing is: as you make your bed, so must you lie in it. As long as the federal government doesn’t revise its policy, the situation will only get worse. I foresee a huge increase of gun purchase all over the country, its nation lives in fear, a weapon will be a necessary accessory to complete your outfit. Another person will lose touch with reality, another shooting will happen. Outrageous? Yes. Am I exaggerating? I don’t think I am.
Issues have been raised whether security at public places should be increased by placing detector gates at entrances. Its effectiveness has considerable limits, not to mention the high costs incurred for such a measure. How can they promote national security while safeguarding their own interests? Instead of eradicating the roots of the problem, one would only attend to the symptoms. It’s like constantly taking big amounts of aspirin when you have a brain tumor and wondering why your headache doesn't go away. I’m not saying that the sole change of policy will solve the matter, but it would surely help improve the situation. We need to change the society’s mentality as well, a daunting task that might take years. American kids now grow up with the idea that besides food and shelter, a gun is a basic necessity. A more stringent weapons policy may evoke a huge resistance, evolved out of fear and ignorance, the nation’s biggest weakness.
Another question that occurred to me is: how come these shootings often happen in the US? There are mentally unstable people all over the globe and naturally there are similar crimes everywhere (although it usually never makes world news printed in giant letters; once there are Americans involved, only then is something of significant importance) but you don’t see a student blowing their fellow students to pieces anywhere else. Correct me if I’m wrong.
I believe that mental illness needs special attention and long-term care, in any circumstance in any place at any time. I also believe that there hides a potential madman in each and everyone of us. Everyone has their limits. What makes us "healthy" and different from killer animals is that not even when all our buttons have been pushed, do we think of actually grabbing a gun and executing the bully. Our sense of morality is what makes us human; compassion is humanity's most defining attribute.
Try to go inside the mind of the murderer. What could have been done to prevent the person from doing what he did. Experts claim that it takes the right set of personality characteristics in addition to certain environmental triggers to produce such aggravating crimes. I agree. Whereas it is very tough to change someone’s personality, creating environmental factors less conducive to criminality is a more feasible task. It is impossible for authorities to track each citizen’s moves and figure out if and when an attack is being planned, but at least they can do as much as they can to make it just that much harder for those who are set to go on a killing spree. Ruling a country is hard but I'm not president so I leave it to him to come up with a solution pack. It's bloody time he take his finger out of his ass and do the job he's been appointed for. We do not need any more misery in the world.
While we were enjoying ourselves in the blazing sun – which was pretty abnormal for an April day – the news of the Virginia Tech shooting reached my ears and chilled everyone to the bones. Another bloody mayhem. Another Columbine tragedy. Again in the US. What the fuck is wrong with them Americans?
Before I proceed, please be clear that I do not intend to weaken the shocking effects of this massacre that will long be felt, nor do I attempt to justify Cho’s actions or whatever motives he might have had. He won’t be remembered as a holy martyr, far from that. He was another sad example of a disturbed young man, filled with rage and suffering from delusional disorder, so terribly he decided to write history by taking away innocent lives. For future generations a case book study waiting to be analysed.
In the midst of grieving, we must ask ourselves how this could happen. Intense debates are going on over how best to protect society from people with violent tendencies. And yet, they do not seem to solve anything or change the status quo.
In the case of the US, I tend to quickly condemn their current weapons policy with different gun laws in each state and various loopholes in the law enforcement. In Virginia, any state resident over 18 years of age are allowed to buy a firearm, including assault weapons, if they pass a check of any possible criminal background against state and federal databases. No permit needed; it’s almost as easy as buying a Big Mac. Imagine obese people walking around with a gun under their layers of fat. Scary picture.
The thing is: as you make your bed, so must you lie in it. As long as the federal government doesn’t revise its policy, the situation will only get worse. I foresee a huge increase of gun purchase all over the country, its nation lives in fear, a weapon will be a necessary accessory to complete your outfit. Another person will lose touch with reality, another shooting will happen. Outrageous? Yes. Am I exaggerating? I don’t think I am.
Issues have been raised whether security at public places should be increased by placing detector gates at entrances. Its effectiveness has considerable limits, not to mention the high costs incurred for such a measure. How can they promote national security while safeguarding their own interests? Instead of eradicating the roots of the problem, one would only attend to the symptoms. It’s like constantly taking big amounts of aspirin when you have a brain tumor and wondering why your headache doesn't go away. I’m not saying that the sole change of policy will solve the matter, but it would surely help improve the situation. We need to change the society’s mentality as well, a daunting task that might take years. American kids now grow up with the idea that besides food and shelter, a gun is a basic necessity. A more stringent weapons policy may evoke a huge resistance, evolved out of fear and ignorance, the nation’s biggest weakness.
Another question that occurred to me is: how come these shootings often happen in the US? There are mentally unstable people all over the globe and naturally there are similar crimes everywhere (although it usually never makes world news printed in giant letters; once there are Americans involved, only then is something of significant importance) but you don’t see a student blowing their fellow students to pieces anywhere else. Correct me if I’m wrong.
I believe that mental illness needs special attention and long-term care, in any circumstance in any place at any time. I also believe that there hides a potential madman in each and everyone of us. Everyone has their limits. What makes us "healthy" and different from killer animals is that not even when all our buttons have been pushed, do we think of actually grabbing a gun and executing the bully. Our sense of morality is what makes us human; compassion is humanity's most defining attribute.
Try to go inside the mind of the murderer. What could have been done to prevent the person from doing what he did. Experts claim that it takes the right set of personality characteristics in addition to certain environmental triggers to produce such aggravating crimes. I agree. Whereas it is very tough to change someone’s personality, creating environmental factors less conducive to criminality is a more feasible task. It is impossible for authorities to track each citizen’s moves and figure out if and when an attack is being planned, but at least they can do as much as they can to make it just that much harder for those who are set to go on a killing spree. Ruling a country is hard but I'm not president so I leave it to him to come up with a solution pack. It's bloody time he take his finger out of his ass and do the job he's been appointed for. We do not need any more misery in the world.
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1 comment:
Hey babe! I was chuckling at your earlier entry about Wentworth...the guy. Yes, definitely droolicious... aiyah, we've been partying in zouk and loft and your presence is sorely missed. Although I won't be around when you're back...so just know you'll still be missed anyways.
Yes, VA Tech is tragic...as for the gun laws. Honestly, not everyone owns a gun - mostly in the midwest and downsouth. I am against the possession of guns, but just to play devil's advocate here - I'm not sure taking away gun ownership is the solution. I mean, even the most innocent of objects can become weapons in the wrong hands. Let me give an example, a car can be useful taking people around places and most of us wouldn't even be able to imagine a life without it except maybe the dutch (bicycles rule there). But in the wrong hands, a car can cause accidents or be used to mow people down (that actually happened in California when an old man killed 7 people in a crowded marketplace with his car).
Okay, so it's a bit of a stretch...but point is, some people own guns for protection while others will use it for bad things ie gunning people down. I've lived in some pretty remote locations in the midwest where your next door neighbor is a few miles away and all you've got is a forest and the main road is a highway without street lights. It's scary and I can imagine why some people would want to keep a gun. I actually have a friend who had lived on a farmland and had 3 strangers come into her house one night. She was only able to get them to leave when she threatened to shoot them.
So is the item bad? I think it's more to do with the intention of the user. Just like how Singapore considers drugs bad (possession or distribution is an automatic death sentence) while it's okay in Netherlands.
The guy who did it - Cho had really lost it. If not a gun, I think he would have done something drastic to make his point before he died. What is sad though is that he seriously needed help, and everyone around him recognized that he was not behaving like a normal person. His silence and anger were signals that he needed help and yet those were the same things that pushed away the people who could have helped him.
The one thing this tragedy did was make me think of the really angry, clinically depressed people i knew in life. How hard it was to love them even though you knew they were the ones who really needed the attention. Towards the end, I actually felt a little pity for the dude who did it (not condoning his actions), but even his grandfather said he deserved to die. How sad it that...when the ones who should love you unconditionally aka family actually think it's better you don't exist. So is this about guns, how screwed up americans, colleges, wealth divide, racial issues etc? I don't know...
Crazy as it seems, (I risk sounding like a hippie) but maybe the answer is to have compassion and love those who will come into our lives no matter the circumstance. Sounds great in theory but so hard to enact...
my 2 cents.
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