Skip to main content

Different eyes, ears and pens

Different perspectives are important. If not, one will end up with tunnel vision, a 'one-track' mind, etc. So I guess having different newspapers in front of you might help you develop the habit of looking at things from different perspectives.

Topic for the day: crime statistics for the first half of the year

This was front-page news on the ST: 'Cellphone thefts fall for first time in three years', subtitle: 'Drop due to measures that make it tough for thieves to sell off stolen handsets'. There was also a small box entitled '220 letters sent to parents (telling them their children had been caught loitering beyond 11pm)'. Most of the main article (14 out of 20 paragraphs -- ha ha, so wuliao, got time to count paragraphs) is on the cellphone theft thing, with the last 6 paras on other crimes.

On page 10 in TODAY, you have 'S'pore crime rate declines', subtitle: 'Fewer teenagers arrested but rise in rape and murder cases'. This article devotes just ONE of 11 paras to the cellphone stuff and TWO to the 216 letters to parents. The rest of the article presents the other info provided by the Senior Asst Commissioner of Police on crime in the first half of the year. The info includes:
Ooverall drop in crime rate compared to the same period last year
Odrop in crimes such as housebreaking and robbery
Odrop in number of teenage arrests
Orise in serious crime such as murder and rape
(the ST article reported just SOME of these)

Interesting, isn't it? The front-page one focused on cellphones and the page 10 one, well, gave the big picture. Are you all very interested in cellphone theft?

Anyway, I am increasingly irritated by the increasing number of jibes at bloggers who are hiding under their 'cloak(s) of anonymity', this Forum letter being the latest in the series. I WILL keep mine on.

Comments

Anonymous said…
i heard this report on the news yesterday. the drop in petty crime is good, but serious crimes are on the rise! and the police said this is no cause for concern?
dee
Anonymous said…
Hi Dee
I think it's because most of the murders and rapes were committed by people known to the victims, so it's not that the population in general is in greater danger. Hopefully...

Popular posts from this blog

A lesson in love

I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world. -Mother Teresa Most of the time my eyes just glaze over when I see article upon article of football news. One caught my glazing eye over the weekend, though - 'De la Cruz - Mother Theresa in boots' , because of the familiar name. Mother Teresa, that is. It was the first time I’d ever heard of this de la Cruz guy, an EPL player who hails from Ecuador (GNI per capita US$2,630; as a comparison, Singapore’s is US$27, 490 – source: BBC country profiles ). His is a great story to illustrate that famous Chinese saying about not forgetting your roots. According to the article, ‘Each month a proportion of that salary (about S$150,000) Reading pay him - be it 10 per cent in January or 20 per cent in February - goes direct to the village’ (where he grew up). (Picture and profile from here ) Here's what he has been credited for: 1. 'The 2002 World Cup,' de la Cruz reflects, 'finan

True train school

‘Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear, said the headmaster.’ How would you like to have such a headmaster? I finally re-read (read it first as a teenager) Totto-chan, The Little Girl at the Window , a ‘school story’ by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, translated by Dorothy Britton. Totto-chan is the name Tesuko Kuroyanagi called herself, and the book is about her life during her school days at Tomoe Gakuen. Totto-chan was expelled from her first elementary school because of her ‘disruptive’ behaviour, which included constantly opening and closing her desk top (because she was so thrilled by it), ‘vandalising’ her desk (because there wasn’t enough space on the piece of paper to draw) and standing by the classroom window waiting for street musicians to pass by or talking to swallows. Her mother, although probably alarmed about the

No wonder

According to a poll of about 300 people, reported in yesterday's Sunday Times, (how come nobody ever asks me these things?) , the Seven Wonders of Singapore are (in order of merit): 1. The Esplanade (a whopping 82 votes) 2. Changi Airport (53 votes) 3. Sentosa 4. The Merlion 5. The Singapore River 6. Food 7. Mount Faber and LKY (tie - 10 votes each) Some 'offbeat choices' which didn't make it to the top 7: aunties selling tissue paper at coffee shops, Singlish, kiasuism, 4D-Toto outlets and Newater (said someone of Newater: 'We are probably the only country with branded recycled sewage.' Well said, ha ha.). Maybe it's a personal bias but I feel that a 'Wonder' must also have strong historical and cultural/social value (so I'm rather miffed that Angkor Wat didn't make it to the 7 Wonders of the World; in fact it was never in the running for the top 7). Therefore, these choices are a little too modern for me. The Esplanade, for example, is a