Wednesday, December 18, 2013

People Are Asking The Wrong Questions


A few days ago, there was a strange incident in a subway train in Singapore. A commuter was caught on video carrying and holding a samurai sword in a train. Needless to say, the man was arrested.

SMRT said that the police were called in and a police spokeswoman confirmed that the man was detained for possession of a weapon. The police spokeswoman however refused to respond to questions on the nationality or age of the man. This led to many people speculating on the internet that the man was a foreigner.

I have to ask, "Who cares what nationality he is?" The man is clearly sick and unwell but instead of asking what he is suffering from, we are asking where he is from. Is it written somewhere a mentally unwell sword-carrying overseas man is more dangerous than a mentally unwell sword-carrying man from Singapore?

No, so why should anyone care which country the guy is from? It make no difference whatsoever! The main thing is that no one was hurt, why the man did what he did, and what could be done to prevent such incidents in the future.

Those are the questions people should be asking.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

He came from his home(presumably) dressed in "cosplay costume" and nobody "panicked" till he got into a confined and "high security" place - the mrt.

Was there any intention to hurt people with his blade? Nobody knows. People saw "tattoo" on his body and assume he was or is a "criminal"(remember the adv on TV to correct stereotyping people with tattoo on their bodies?)

Moral of the story? When you are trapped in a small and crowded space , it takes only a "few good men" to send fear into everyone and then the justification for law enforcement.

The cosplay man may not be the only imprisoned soul!

The said...

Moral of the story is - the security apparatus of SMRT failed badly - allowing a deadly weapon to be brought on board the train.

Anonymous said...

A woman's stiletto can be deadly too. Your fists can kill too.

Stay at home is the safest. But then, your "loved ones" may feed you with insecticide without you knowing.

The said...

/// A woman's stiletto can be deadly too. Your fists can kill too. ///

Great. How about you use a stiletto and I use a samurai sword? Let's see who is deadly. duh

Ghost said...

Considering that it's a real sword and he did draw it; yes, I think the commuters were right to fear him. I don't think you can call him a "cosplayer".