Responding To The Fort Hood Tragedy

Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

On Thursday afternoon at around 1 PM CST at Fort Hood, Texas, there was a tragedy involving an Army major opening fire on fellow soldiers. The result was that 12 soldiers died and 28 were wounded. I can relate to this incident because I spent 8 years in the US Army. I don’t have a degree in Military Science. I was just a soldier, a Sergeant, but something like this really hits home for me, because I spent 8 years of my life living through the Army experience. It wasn’t all good, but it wasn’t all bad either, and what I miss most about it is the people. And, the people are who suffered in this tragedy, so after reading the news articles and watching some of the videos, I can’t help but wonder what happened. I didn’t get along with everyone I served with. In fact, I had a serious dislike for some of those bastards, but there was never a day where I’d have chosen an outsider over another soldier, for whatever reason. It may sound cheesy, or like some line from a movie, but you do form a bond with each other and on some level you feel like you belong.

Most of the reports indicate that the shooting took place in the Soldier Readiness Center on Fort Hood. Just to clarify what that means, it’s a place where soldiers go to verify paperwork and ensure medical readiness prior to and after deploying. I’ve been through one on two occasions. I can’t remember every step, but there are medical checks including verifying whether or not you’re current on vaccinations, audiograms, and getting your eyes checked, as well as paperwork checks to make sure your last will and testament are complete and up to date. You can also have powers-of-attorney made to allow family members to handle your business for you while you’re gone. Typically, whole units at a time, and usually more, will go through these checks at once, for the sake of ensuring it gets done and everyone gets processed. It’s a really busy place with a lot of ‘stations’. It’s crowded, chaotic, and I can very easily see an incident happening in one area of an SRC without the rest of the poeople there being immediately aware.

The shooter in this incident, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, was a mental health professional, whose job was to help soldiers returning from deployments deal with post traumatic stress syndrome. Every day he listened to soldiers tell him about their troubles, about the things they’d done and seen, and about how they couldn’t adjust to ‘regular’ life again. This is a pretty serious issue in the Army. The first time I came back from a deployment, when I was returning from Iraq, there wasn’t any sort of training about dealing with these kinds of issues. As the war dragged on, though, the Army recognized the problem and addressed it by providing training before and after deployments about PTSD. I distinctly remember watching the videos after my second deployment and thinking they were cheesy, but they addressed a serious problem. In addition to these videos, soldiers who self-reported problems could receive additional therapy and consultation, which is what I assume Major Hasan’s job entailed. With Major Hasan already dealing with a lot of internal struggles about the possibility of having to confront other Muslims in combat, hearing these details daily must have piled on the stress tremendously.

I spent some time in Iraq during 2003, when the initial wave of US troops entered the country. I was in Kuwait when the war started on a training deployment and our unit was pushed forward to provide logistics and repair support. Ya, I wasn’t in a combat unit. I was a supply specialist. Most of my duties involved warehousing operations, logistics convoys and vehicle recovery operations, since I was certified to operate the large forklifts sometimes required to flip over and lift vehicles, or pieces of vehicles onto trailers. I didn’t see much of any combat. I was only fired on once during the time I was there. I did see the results of combat though. It wasn’t pretty. Still, living in the middle of a foreign country where every person you encounter could potentially end your life, going to sleep each night wondering if a mortar would land in your tent and you’d never wake up again… Well, it was stressful. I still think about it sometimes.

I can only imagine the kind of mental problems combat troops come home with. I really felt for those guys. Sometimes they would come through our camp in Bradley Fighting Vehicles or M1 Abrahms tanks, and I would mentally wish them luck as they rolled by. I knew I had it easier than they did. I remember one time I was on guard duty at a checkpoint and a Bradley (if I remember right) stopped and the hatch popped up. The driver offered me 20 bucks for a pack of smokes. The American money we brought with us didn’t mean much out there. I tossed the guy my pack and told him to keep it. It was the least I could do. I never even knew the guy’s name, or whether he’s still alive today. Just the same, some of the chopper pilots running supplies up from Kuwait would give us cartons of cigarettes, because they knew we didn’t have a way to get any. It’s the small things that reminded us that we were all in the same boat, that we were part of a larger family, and we were taking care of each other as best we could.

So, it really disturbed me to find out that a solider, a Major no less, opened fire on fellow soldiers. It’s disgusting to me that soldiers died on a military base in the US, under fire, without a chance to defend themselves because one guy couldn’t handle the pressure. These are people that, for whatever reason, made an oath to defend the country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Who could’ve guessed that the domestic enemy would be one of their own, a person who had been entrusted with the rank of Major and also entrusted with the mental health of soldiers returning from combat. Perhaps it’s unreasonable, but officers, at least those that get promoted to Captain and above, are supposed to be the kind of guys you should emulate. They’re supposed to be the ones who have things under control and set the example for the troops under their command. They’re held to a higher standard. Perhaps that was part of the problem though. Enlisted soldiers or the ranks E-6 (Staff Sergeant) and below are pushed through all of the hoops and are scrutinized carefully. I have no clue, but I assume the same is true for the officer ranks of Captain and below. Once you get above those points, though, you’re golden and are often able to excuse yourself from training or appointments. You get away with more and are therefore more likely to fall through the cracks if you have a problem. I think people forget that they’re still human despite their rank.

The reports I’ve read say that Major Hasan was a Muslim, and that he’d been harassed by other soldiers because of his religion ever after the September 11th incident. They also said that he had tried to leave military service but hadn’t been successful. I really don’t understand that part. What contract had he signed that required him to stay in for 8 years past the time when he first expressed the desire to resign? Some officers have to stay in for a term of four years, to pay back college loans. Beyond that, I believe they can tender their resignation at their convenience, barring the setting of a “stop-loss” just prior to their unit deploying. If this guy was really serious about getting out of the military he had ample time to make it happen. Maybe he thought he could handle it. Maybe he thought he could deal with the occasional taunting. Maybe he thought he’d found a safe spot where he wouldn’t get deployed. Prior to my completing my contract and leaving the military, a lot of folks were very interested in finding out which bases had the lowest deployment rates and then finding ways to get assigned there. Maybe he got comfortable, and then was suddenly presented with orders to be deployed to the Middle East.

I remember when I got deployed to Kuwait the first and second time, and was informed that we would be moving forward to Iraq during the first deployment. You really have no choice but to accept it. You might not want to go, but no one does. You see, when you get orders like that you either go, or you go AWOL. When you go AWOL you can’t work because the IRS will report you to the military and you’ll be picked up by Military Police. When you get orders, you have to suck it up and push forward with the mission until the mission is done. That doesn’t mean you don’t bitch and moan about it along the way, but you don’t go apeshit and kill your buddies either. In short, when you get orders you’re locked in. I was actually extended past my contract date for a deployment. My discharge paperwork reads “extended XXX days for the convenience of the government.” So ya, there’s really no way out, even if your discharge date was close at hand. He was locked in. I imagine he must have tried to fight the deployment, possibly using his rank to try to sway someone into reassigning him elsewhere, but it must have failed, and after failing, he must have felt trapped.

This guy had some serious personal conflicts with the deployment. From what I gather he seems to have been very conflicted about the potential of having to kill other Muslims. It wouldn’t be likely, given that he was a health care professional, but it was possible. Even if he had never pulled the trigger he might have felt as if he were an accomplice to the murder of other Muslims, depending on his view of the ‘rightness’ or legality of the war. Feeling trapped, feeling conflicted about killing other Muslims, and feeling afraid of what might happened based on the stories he was told by his patients, it must have caused him to snap.

He apparently disposed of his personal belongings prior to going in to work Thursday morning. It seems as though he had reached the decision much in advance of his actions. What I wonder is why did he choose a path of violence? He could have simply refused to go and accepted the consequences. It might have resulted in his being jailed and losing his rank, but isn’t that a better option than killing your comrades, possibly dying, and swaying public opinion of Muslims into a much worse light than they already are? Let’s face it. Most Americans see Muslims as fear mongering, hate filled people who are all potential terrorists that are not to be trusted. Some Americans even feel that all Arabs and/or Muslims in the US should be rounded up into internment camps like the Japanese-Americans were during World War II. His actions have definitely not helped the situation any.  The weirdest part is that the morning before he did this, he handed out copies of the Koran to his neighbors.  What a way to advertise!  “What’s up guys! Here, have a copy of the Koran.  It’s great and will help you lead peaceful lives devoted to Allah.  Now, pardon me.  I have a readiness center to shoot up, Praise Allah!”  I just don’t see this going over too well.  If things were bad for Muslims in the US, and Muslims in the Army specifically, it’s only going to get worse now.  Oh, and after that he went to his regular convenience store and bought breakfast and had a chat with the store owner.  I guess he wasn’t too disturbed by what he was about to do.

Almost as disturbing as the tragedy itself are some of the reactions of people on the Internet. Mostly people are posting out of ignorance, but some people are outright lauding this man’s actions. It’s infuriating. What people fail to realize is that the soldiers themselves shouldn’t be blamed for the actions of the government. I’m sure there are some nutballs in the Army that can’t wait to go to combat, but for the most part soldiers are just like everyone else. They’re normal folks that go to work during the day, then go home at night to their families, or to their computers and XBOXs. They’re just people who got a job they could do to put food on the table for themselves or their family. Some soldiers don’t even want to be in the Army at all and are just doing service to pay off loans or save up money so they can do something else. Still, they’re all bound by contracts and they can’t just quit. And, they all have to follow orders or risk going to jail, which could put their families in jeopardy and sacrifice their future careers. I just wish people would ask questions and think a bit before blurting out ridiculous statements about soldiers. It’s also a bit ridiculous that some people have asked why Majar Hasan was able to kill and wound so many people before the police showed up. A military post in the US is like a town. There aren’t tanks rolling down the streets, or armed soldiers on every corner. There are no choppers flying through the air monitoring the situation. The firearms are all locked up in armories and require a unit commander’s approval to be released for cleaning or use at a range for annual qualification (which makes me wonder how Major Hasan had those two pistols in the first place). There are usually a mix of military police officers and contracted civilians. Response time for law enforcement on a military base is generally the same as or a bit better than that in a regular town.

The whole situation is disgusting. I kinda understand where the guy was coming from, but I just can’t understand what he was thinking when he decided that killing a bunch of people was the way to solve his problem. I’m actually glad Major Hasan is alive. Now he can stand trial for what he’s done. And, after all that shame, embarrassment and knowing that he’s made the US a worse place for Muslims, I hope they hang his ass.

(Photos snagged from CNN)

Christmas Decorations Are Up on Orchard!

Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

Update: Please read THIS article to see samples of the 2009 Christmas Decorations on Orchard.

Last year my wife and I had a great time walking around Orchard Road, looking at all of the Christmas decorations.  Singapore really goes all out when it comes to Christmas and Orchard Road becomes a sort of Winter Wonderland… minus the snow and the crisp breeze that is.  This is still the tropics, after all.  Despite that heat, the sheer number of decorations and how well they’re displayed can help you to forget for a moment that you’re sweating, and put you in the mood for wrapping gifts and drinking hot chocolate.  It’s a great time of year in Singapore!

And, based on my trip down to Orchard Road over the weekend (pictured above), the city isn’t wasting any time in getting things going this year.  We were downtown on October 31st and they were already getting the majority of of the pole and tree mounted decorations in place.  The decor looks like it’s going to be a different theme this year, which is really cool.  It would be boring if they simply set up the same stuff as last year.  In fact, I think the decorations look like they’ll be a lot better than last year’s.  I can’t wait to have a look at them!  I’m not sure if they’re being lit up after dark yet.  They certainly weren’t when we were there, though that might have been because of the storm.  I’m thinking it’s just preparations though, and they’ll get things going around the end of November.

I wanted to take some more photos but we went into Lucky Plaza to eat first and when we were done, it was like the bottom dropped out of the sky.  The thunder was sounding almost right after the lightning flashed and was so loud it was like having iron pots banged together repeatedly about half a foot from my ear.

(How to calculate your distance from a lightning strike using the sound of thunder.)

Here are some pictures of last year’s Christmas decorations:

Google Android OS on the Acer Aspire One

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Earlier tonight I was at the mall and I saw a really neat little netbook called an Acer Aspire One.  It had good specs, like a 1.66 ghz processor, 250 gb HDD, 1 GB of RAM, a 10″ screen, etc.  Basically, everything you need for a good little netbook.

Then I noticed a little green guy on one of the stickers and read it and got excited.  It said that the laptop could dual boot between Windows 7 and Android OS.  I was thinking, ‘Hey, that’s not supposed to be out yet.’  I’d remembered seeing a post on a tech bog recently about a link to a downloadable version of Google’s OS that turned out to be a fake.

When you live in the US you always hear about how Asia has bad ass tech that’s always out earlier and cheaper than what you can get in the US, so I was surprised but not really surprised.  (Keep reading).  I haven’t really found that to be true so far, but it is true that you can usually get electronics cheaper in Asia, especially in Singapore.  Singapore has ‘IT’ fairs every 3 months at the SunTec convention center and there are generally some good deals there.  It’s mostly clearing inventory, so what you get isn’t cutting edge, but it’s great deals nonetheless.  Anyway, back to the netbooks…

I got so excited that I took these photos:

Later I realized something that made me sad.  Google has two OSes they’re working on.  One is called Android and one is called Chrome.  The Android OS is supposed to be for phones, while Chrome is supposed to be their desktop OS.  Chrome is the one that’s not out yet, and I at first got confused and thought this laptop had Chrome on it.

So, the operating system on the laptop is actually the phone software.  That’s really confusing and I remember reading that people were wondering why Google was working on two separate OSes in the first place.  I think people were generally going with the idea that Google should have done things the way Apple did, with OS X running the iPhones.  I did read that Android boots up fast, in 18 seconds, but that doesn’t mean much to me.  Ubuntu 9.10 boots up fast too and I’m sure it has more support and available programs than a phone OS.  Netbook or not, I expect it to be able to do more than JUST browse web pages and compose e-mail, especially with a hard drive that big.

It’s annoying that they would put a phone OS on a laptop, but I guess they’re going for the whole ‘cool’ factor to help with promoting the product to potential customers.  If I bought it, I’d give it a try, but I have a feeling I’d wind up installing Ubuntu on that partition, at least until an official version of Google Chrome OS comes out.

(Geek trivia: You might be getting geeky when you start talking about swapping out OSes like other people swap out shoes.)

Toffee Nut Lattes

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The toffee nut latte is the one exception to my rule about not liking Starbucks.  Most of their drinks are watered down tasting and overpriced.  What you wind up paying for is the name and the ‘experience’ of sitting in their cafe.

The toffee nut latte is still damned expensive, with the ‘venti’ costing 7.30 SGD, but it tastes good and there’s definitely something relaxing about sitting at a Starbucks enjoying a drink.  I’m not so sure my enjoyment of the drink comes from the actual taste of it.  It’s not bad but it’s not anything incredible.  I think it comes from the fact that it’s a holiday drink, only available at this time of year, and it’s the first sign that Christmas is fast approaching.

Singapore Rejects Firm Emissions Targets? What About The Elephant In The Room?

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A little over two weeks ago, the world’s blogosphere observed an event known as Blog Action Day 2009.  The event was a coordinated effort by bloggers around the world to raise awareness of a specific topic, and this year’s topic was climate change.  I believe the total result was that bloggers with a total audience of roughly 18 million participated, including high profile blogs like The Google Blog, Mashable, TUAW, and the official government blogs of the United Kingdom, Spain and The White House blog.  It was a great effort and a very loud cry from people all over the world that we want to see better care taken of the planet we live on.

Later this year, there will be an international summit in Copenhagen to try to address the problem of climate change on a global scale.  Many countries are going into this meeting with the intent to set firm emissions goals, yet Singapore has taken a stance against the setting of any firm targets.

via The Straits Times:

Minister for the Environment & Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim said: ‘We are not obligated to set targets or reduce emissions, but…we will do our part.’

‘Whatever we do, we cannot compromise our ability to grow. So how we find a balance will be a continuous process.’

While I find it a bit disheartening that one of the most advanced and progressive countries in Asia has stated plainly that it is more interested in growth than being environmentally friendly, I can understand their position.  Singapore has positioned itself as a prime business hub in Southeast Asia and it will require continuous growth to both maintain and develop this status.  I’m not justifying the disregard for environmental issues, simply stating why I think they may be pushing it to the back burner for now.

Also, despite its high per capita emissions, Singapore is one of the cleanest places I’ve ever lived and I think this spotlight on Singapore’s position in regards to firm emissions targets is a case of ignoring the elephant in the room.  We should all do our part, but let’s not disregard the forest while complaining about the trees.

Here are some photos of pollution in China, taken from a recent and popular China Hush article:

[Quoted] “In the Yellow Sea coastline, countless sewage pipes buried in the beach and even extending into the deep sea. April 28, 2008”

[Quoted] “In Inner Mongolia there were 2 “black dragons” from the Lasengmiao Power Plant (内蒙古拉僧庙发电厂) covering the nearby villages. July 26, 2005”

I’ve read the blog of a Swedish woman living in Suzhou, China that says she can’t hang her laundry outside to dry or it will be covered in filth and require rewashing.  She’s also afraid of having the windows open due to the heavy pollution in the air that’s as thick as a fog on some days.  I suppose it’s just a small mental comfort for her to run the air conditioner instead, since it’s pulling air from outside, but it demonstrates how bad the situation there is.

Let’s give credit where credit is due and focus on the true environmental disaster in Asia.

Talking Politics With A Cab Driver

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You ever get in a cab with a driver that is really eager to chat?  What choice do you have?  You’re sort of a captive audience.  Sometimes I try to deter them by giving short answers, but this guy seemed really excited about sharing his point of view.  The conversation started out with a brief ‘how are you’, ‘where you from’, ‘what do you do’ introduction.  That was followed by the typical ‘Singapore is so safe and clean’ and ‘the weather is so nice’ dialogue.  Then he started laying out his ideas, dreams and visions for Singapore.

Nothing he said was really new to me.  I’d seen it all before on various Singapore politics websites, like Temasek Review for instance, or on some Straits Times articles.  Still, it was interesting to hear a guy going apeshit about politics to me, when the policies in question don’t really affect me all that much.  Maybe he just wanted an opinion from someone who wasn’t all that biased.

His main complaints were about foreigners in Singapore.  He stated that they were causing too many problems for locals and that it wasn’t fair that foreigners often received better treatment than native born Singaporeans.  He mentioned the problem with first generation PRs not doing National Service.  He mentioned how Singaporean youth have to compete with foreigners for jobs, and how he feels that the foreigners coming into the country are no longer supporting the country, but rather are taking it over.

As he reached the climax of his venting he nearly clipped a curb.  I’m glad I had my seatbelt on!  The topic was serious but I was really entertained by this old man’s passion for his country.  The last thing he mentioned is that he felt that all the foreigners coming into the country and staying were changing the culture and he wasn’t sure it was for the best.  He said that foreigners are raised in a different environment and it’s not the same as how Singaporeans are raised, and that they’ll pass that on to their kids, which may cause problems.

Then he asked me what I thought about it.  Hmm… how to respond?

Instead of discussing such a sensitive issue with him, I instead tried to relate it to something that I do have a good grasp of and that’s the illegal immigration issue in the US.  So, I mentioned to him how there’s a similar problem in the US, with illegal immigrants entering the country, putting their kids in schools without paying taxes, getting health care, etc, etc.

Just about then we arrived at my destination and I was spared from having to dance around the subject any more.

Singapore provides a lot of opportunity to foreigners looking for work, but the policy also causes a lot of displeasure among locals.  I’ll leave it at that, but feel free to leave your opinion in the comment section, as long as it’s tactful and doesn’t contain racial slurs.

Yahoo! Deletes Huge User Group On Flickr Without Warning (New Details)

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Photo via LoopZilla on Flickr (Please click through the link at the bottom of the quoted article to see the photo that went along with the original article)

The following excerpt is from a Flickr user’s photo stream. It went along with an image of Heather Champ’s (a community manager) Twitter stream where she was expressing that she hates people’s freedom.

The post never states what the community was about specifically, but based on the tone I’m thinking it might have been a bit risque. Nonetheless, it does bring up some very valid points about how Yahoo! is managing Flickr data, which is your data and my data.

From what I gather a Flickr Community Manager received a report of offensive content in a post on a Flickr Community. Instead of taking appropriate action, which would’ve been to delete the post, or warn the community administrators, she simply deleted the whole damn thing. According to the person who wrote the below letter, there were over 5000 active threads and conversations. I don’t even want to guess as to how much time was put into it, or wonder how many references and links were lost.

This brings up a lot of questions about whether or not we actually own what we post online, if it can simply be deleted at the whim of an employee with a skewed perspective or that’s having a bad day. In my case, I can back up my blog every day, and if Blogger (Google) ever decides they don’t want me anymore, I can just import my data elsewhere. It’d be rough to start over with broken links and all, but at least the data would be maintained. As far as I know, there’s no such option in Flickr for Groups data.

All in all, I’m going to call this one a bad move on Flickr and Yahoo!’s part. It’s definitely bad PR, especially at a time when they’re sucking hard and selling off acquisitions left and right. They even decided to stop using their own search engine. I don’t know if they’ve already switched to using Microsoft’s search engine or not, but that’s what’s going to happen. Instead of alienating users and pushing them to other services (like what happened with users of this group, who now choose to use Friendfeed), Yahoo! should be taking steps to manage their assets (the users!) with more care.

A company can have the best platform in the world, but if they shit all over their customers it still won’t succeed. Just common sense.

Also, in closing, I just wanted to mention one other thing. Flickr is no longer viable for linking to for anything important, if Flickr is just going to delete groups without warning. I wonder how many blogs linked to that group? I wonder if any reputable sites did? I wonder if anyone used a quote from there in a term/research paper and now has unverifiable data and an invalid reference?

Anyhow, here’s an excerpt from the article, with a link to the full article at the bottom:

Dear Elisa:

Last month when you announced Yahoo! Inc’s new multi-million dollar ad campaign including the tagline, “the internet’s under new management yours,” I wrote you an open letter. While admittedly the letter was critical and even a bit sarcastic at times regarding censorship on Yahoo’s photo sharing site Flickr, I nonetheless was hopeful that perhaps Yahoo was sincere in your latest marketing message. I thought the statement was much better than the last big Yahoo marketing campaign about everybody needing to wear purple clothes or whatever, and as someone who values customer service oriented companies, I thought it was a positive statement for Yahoo to make.

Unfortunately, at this point, however, I am going to have to call bullshit on your new campaign. I assume it’s ok with you that I’m using such strong language to describe your campaign. Your boss Carol Bartz has built a big reputation as a tough talker with salty language so I’m hoping you’ll understand.

You see Elisa, despite the fact that seemingly everywhere I turn in San Francisco I see another one of your new ads on a bus shelter somewhere, the message rings hollow. It’s doublespeak. It’s inauthentic.

Yesterday, your Flickr Community Manager Heather Champ destroyed a community on Flickr that was home to over 3,000 hard-core Yahoo users. It was a community of photographers, many of whom have spent years on Yahoo in a group that was rich and vibrant. The group had over 5,000 ongoing conversations in it. It’s where many of us lived on Yahoo. The group was in part dedicated to free speech, but it was so much more than that. The group was a place where we talked about music. Where we shared tips on photography. Where we debated about film vs. digital. Where we went to ask each other for advice on what lens we ought to purchase next. It was a place where many of us went to meet each day. It was a place where offline photography meetups were organized. We actually published a magazine together. Many of us became good friends in real life.

But yesterday, while we were conversing there, and without any warning or opportunity to take any sort of self-corrective action, your Community Manager went nuclear and destroyed all of that user data. All of it. Every last thread. With a push of a button. Threads that were meaningful and important to us.

This was data that did not belong to Yahoo! Elisa. You destroyed something that did not belong to you. You destroyed hours and hours of peoples hard work maliciously and callously. You destroyed a group dedicated to free speech, but more significantly you destroyed a group that thousands of people had put significant emotional energy into.

And do you know what your Community Manager was tweeting mere seconds before she nuked this very popular group Elisa? She was tweeting “I hate your freedom.”

That’s right Elisa I, hate, your, freedom. That’s the image that I chose to go with this letter to you. A screenshot of her freedom hating tweet.

While I’m sure your representative got a good laugh out of that tweet, personally I found it as offensive as the fact that so much user data was destroyed so callously in the first place. You see Elisa, Yahoo already has a problem with people thinking that you hate freedom. Remember when Jerry Yang got called before the U.S. Congress and was brow beaten after you all released private emails to the Chinese Govt which resulted in a Chinese journalist’s imprisonment to this day? Remember just last week when rumors (very unfounded rumors I might add) were flying that Yahoo! had released private information on thousands of freedom seeking dissidents to the Iranian Govt?

Read The Rest of This Article

via Thomas Hawk on Flickr

UPDATE: A commenter left a message saying that the following is what was posted by the group admin and led to the group’s deletion:

“Ok, James, you’ve pissed me off. I’ve dropped my son at his game and am back home. You think you can fucking threaten me, for no reason, to make an example out of me? Fuck you.

I want you to be very clear about what is possible to go down when I write this blog post because internet mobs are frequently not easy to control. I’ve had experience with more than one and I fucking hate them. When they are out frequently they are out. All the I’m sorry’s I fucked up in the world after the fact frequently can’t fix them. That’s why I’m taking my time to be very careful about how this thing might go down and why I feel that I owe you a pretty detailed explanation ahead of time for what it might look like.

When I blog my post with your name in the headline, within 60 minutes or so it will be on the first page Google search results for your name. It will stay there for many years. Your name will be associated with someone who makes death threats on the internet and someone who wrote about potentially mugging me.

This will piss people off. I’m a pretty reasonable guy and well liked generally speaking by most people who follow my blog. In addition to my blog the post will go out to the 20,000 or so people combined who follow my Twitter/Friendfeed threads. It will be a sensationalistic juicy blog post and as such it will generate alot of attention.

I’m not sure where it will go. Simon Blint (mentioned above) moved out of his house for a while because he was petrified after getting death threats himself and people having figured out his home address and began publishing it on line.

I know you’re a big tough guy who doesn’t care about these sorts of things but I fucking don’t like being threatened and I’m never one to just sit down and fucking let it go when some fucking internet bully like you is threatening me.

So that’s where we are at. Consider yourself duly warned.

Now, for those whom James has threatened, can you please provide me links to the threatening documentation.“

Additionally, the admin posted James’ home address.

So, that adds some perspective to this issue. It’s no longer one sided.

I can understand how being harassed by a person online can be annoying. I could also understand how receiving death threats from a person can be annoying. I don’t have a way of judging the context of those threats, but if they were serious, I think it’s a matter that should have been brought to police attention. The way James handled it encouraged vigilantism and real violence, which in turn could have led to legal problems for himself.

However, admin or not, I still think Yahoo! dropped the ball on this one. Though the reaction was a bit over the top, the admin was the initial victim. Also, the resulting action punished all users of the group, rather than just the admin. I think a more appropriate action would have been to delete the offending post and freeze the group, giving members time to copy and paste out whatever they wanted to keep, and leaving the content available as an archive. Also, the admin’s Flickr account could’ve been blocked to serve as a warning that using its platform to instigate real world violence was not allowed.

Indonesian Maid Beaten To Death By Malaysian Employers

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via Yahoo! News:

Hani was rescued from her employers’ home a week ago. She was found by another Indonesian cleaner hired to replace her who noticed a foul smell coming from a locked bathroom.

Police said that when she was found she was tied up around her arms and legs, and was bruised all over her body. Among her injuries were a serious wound to the right leg that exposed the bone.

Local papers reported Hani had been abused by her employers almost daily during the two months she worked at their home.

One of Asia’s largest importers of labour, Malaysia depends heavily on domestic workers, mainly from Indonesia, but has been criticised for not passing legislation to govern their rights and conditions.

In May, the government announced plans for new laws to protect domestic workers from sexual harassment, non-payment of wages and poor working conditions.

Indonesian maids typically work seven days a week for as little as 400 ringgit (113 dollars) a month.

I hadn’t had much exposure to the practice of having hired help in the home until moving to Singapore. It’s apparently a very common practice in Asia, which surprised me.  In the United States it would be nearly impossible for the average person to afford hired help, but in Asia even middle-income families can generally afford a maid.  The reason for that is that the wages paid to these domestic helpers is very small in comparison to ‘normal’ wages made in the country where they work.

From what I’ve seen in the admittedly short time I’ve been in Asia, people rely on their domestic helpers to care for their homes and even their children in some cases.  They work long hours, often 7 days per week depending on the employer.  So, why is it that there’s no legislation to protect them?  Why is it that they’re paid a wage that’s so small local children would reject it from a part-time job?

These women leave their homes in search of a better life and are often used as the butt of a joke, or abused, sometimes sexually.  Then there is the rare occasion where a domestic helper is beaten to death, or commits suicide.  It’s disgusting.

Sometimes it’s not possible for these women to pick up and leave and go back home.  How could they if they’re paid so little they can’t afford the ticket?  Or if their wages are being withheld?  Or if they’re locked in the house and not allowed out?