December 02, 2005
Deal Breaker
If what went on this morning doesn't make you feel for Nguyen Tuong Van's mother, brother, friends, family; if it doesn't make you question the point of fantastic economic prosperity if the price is the state-sanctioned murder of other human beings; if it doesn't convince you that when we send people to the gallows, or the chair, or the chamber, or the injection, we take a backwards step as a society;
if it doesn't just make you sad to see a 25 year-old guy killed;
then I'm not sure we can be friends.
Filed under Peter
Comments
Well said.
Posted by: Tim at December 2, 2005 10:10 AM
Thanks. I'm starting to get sick of people (almost) justifying it. 'Oh, but this is happening all over the world, every day, whay are we making such a fuss blah blah.' (Disturbingly, this has been the opinion put out by several of my most tree-hugging Lefty friends.) What, are we in some kind of suffering competition? Is one dead body not enough for us to feel outraged? Is one family's pain not enough to justify us feeling a bit sad about it?
Just because the death penalty is still practised so widely right across the world right shouldn't stop us being able to acknowledge this particular situation for what it is, ie. bloody miserable.
Posted by: jellyfish at December 2, 2005 12:13 PM
They have a point: it is happening all over the world each day. What this case provides is an immediate, recognisable hook to hang our arguments on.
I'm not saying that this execution is any worse than any of the other ones going on, be they state-sanctioned or under the table. But it does provide an immediate, familiar example of the barbarism of capital punishment. A guy whose name we know, whose face we can recognise, is far more potent as a political tool than unnamed political opponent #423 in China. If Nguyen's case convinces more people that what we do as a race is wrong, then I'm happy to jump on its bandwagon.
Posted by: Peter at December 2, 2005 12:41 PM
Save some room on that bandwagon for me, Pete.
Posted by: mindlessmunkey at December 2, 2005 12:59 PM
I am thoroughly relieved that you and I can be friends, Mr Glutbusters x
Posted by: Jess at December 2, 2005 02:03 PM
The thing that perhaps upsets me most is that instead of using this as an opportunity to engage with The People about why the death penalty is wrong, and why it's not something we subscribe to here, our Great Leaders have talked about why Drugs Are Bad, Kids. It's abhorrent. When 27% of the country still thinks that state-sanctioned murder is okay, it's time to have a DISCUSSION about why it's simply NOT. (Actually, I take it back: the next person who rings in to Jon Faine and compares hanging with abortion thoroughly deserves to be executed).
Posted by: Virginia at December 2, 2005 03:56 PM
How come nobody was interested in capital punishment before this? Not yourself personally, but an entire nation. China is bumping people off left, right and centre (3400+ in the last year alone for god's sake) for crimes that are even less worthy of the penalty than drug trafficking but you don't hear anything and nobody is trying to boycott them. Why does it take an Australian to be on the recieving end before people can stand to come out and say how bad it is?
I'm against the death penalty in all forms, but it's as wrong for a drug trafficker in Singapore to be on the end of it as it is a murdered in Texas or somebody who stole a car in Beijing.
Posted by: Adam 1.0 at December 2, 2005 10:31 PM
Of course we were interested and appalled by capital punishment before this. But, as Peter points out, the sad fact is that it does take an Australian on the receiving end before people here really wake up and give a shit. It's not that we don't object when Chinese political dissident number 3350 is executed - it's just that as a general rule people won't get excited about it. (In China's case it's probably because it simply seems too hard and we're somewhat scared of the country.)
I agree with your last sentence.
Posted by: MrLefty at December 3, 2005 08:29 AM
Thanks everyone. I'm glad that this provokes response. Cause if it didn't, well, we'd be fucked wouldn't we? Bandwagon jumpers, welcome aboard. It's going to be a bumpy ride.
Adam, Lefty pretty much hit it there.
Posted by: Peter at December 3, 2005 09:42 AM
And we're sending an Olympic team to China.. I can't tell you how much I object to that. I hope that somebody with more fame than us has the balls to stand up and make a point of that in the months leading up to '08
Posted by: Adam 1.0 at December 3, 2005 11:02 AM
"...trying (and failing) to only despair about things that are ultimately inconsequential."
Well failed.
Well done.
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