Saviour-V teleports in...

10 days in training. Brain's fried to an almost golden crisp...^_^;;

Yesterday, something kind of broke the usual lifeless look. It's something to do with rivers again...^_^;;

Yes, the Klang River. Site of where I wrote one of my best entries, "Of Fish and Fishermen". Also, a particularly dirty river, unfortunately...>_<

Anyway, since my training began at Vsource Asia / FedEx, I've gotten used to taking the LRT train to the Asia Jaya station and waiting for the bus there, instead of heading to the Central Market bus station like I used to.

Yesterday, however, was when I took up my older route. When I got off the train, I noticed a large crowd looking at the river, or more notably, at a bridge spanning the river. When I asked a few bystanders, they told me that a few drug addicts had dived into the murky waters to escape the police.

Sure enough, there they were. 2 of them, hiding underneath the bridge, refusing the police's calls for them to surrender. After a few minutes, a rowboat carrying a few rescue operatives from the local fire department showed up, and that's when they let go.

The first got caught a few meters away from the bridge, right after an oarsman smacked the surface of the river to stun him. It was rather amusing to see that poor guy, clad only in a black pair of underpants, get hoisted into the boat by the rescuers.

The second one, however, swam QUITE a distance. In fact, he managed to swim right past the LRT station, and that's about a few hundred metres or so. Unless I'm exaggerating, but still, as they say, "You can run, but you can't hide!"

Yes, that guy was caught, eventually.

Now, for a few observations:

1. The general public was quite unsupportive of the police; in fact, some were even shouting, "LARI! LARI!" ("RUN! RUN!") to encourage that 2nd addict to keep on swimming. And that's precisely what happened.

2. It was also disheartening to note that the addicts were Malay, as usual. It's a pity, really. That swimming talent could've been put to better use.

Which brings me to the heart of this post. Ever wonder why? Truth is, we don't really care about others much; when we see our fellow man commit a crime, we're all gung-ho about putting him behind bars, "taking him to justice," so to speak.

Worse still, we tend to put stigmas / labels on former criminals / "wierdos" / "oddballs" and the like. I mean, they've done their time, so why not forgive them and give them a second chance to be useful to society?

And, I'm mindful that our local police aren't exactly perfect; there's been word of a few cases that were badly handled by them, notably when it came to a drug raid on a cybercafe.

The patrons there had nary a single drug in their possessions, and it was quite insulting when some of their operatives peeked on the patrons as they passed urine. "Part of a drug test," they said.

Riiiight. Perverse glory, looking at a few girls peeing in that situation is more the case. As low as I can get, I know better than THAT!

It makes you wonder as to what is going on with our society. Seems like the criminals are not only our worst concern; even the police and government officials are just as bad!

Times like these demand a reform. A chance for the people to air their grievances and actually get some answers and responses for once. Jeff Ooi's blog, Screenshots... happens to be buzzing with info off late, so you can visit him, and discuss these things further.

Let's hope that things can be straightened out.

Saviour-V teleports out...