This could've been anyone one here...

**James Deuce** · 2nd December 2005, 08:37

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3498636a10,00.html

Read it and then tell me that you didn't feel something for this man.

I'm not disputing the Singaporean Government's right to implement laws and enforce them, neither am I debating the merits or otherwise of the death penalty.

He was monumentally stupid. But like so many "stupid" people it was for reasons that defy rationalisation.

Imagine his mother's loss. Imagine the guilt his twin will bear.

**skelstar** · 2nd December 2005, 08:43

Originally Posted by Jim2

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3498636a10,00.html
Read it and then tell me that you didn't feel something for this man.
I'm not disputing the Singaporean Government's right to implement laws and enforce them, neither am I debating the merits or otherwise of the death penalty.
He was monumentally stupid. But like so many "stupid" people it was for reasons that defy rationalisation.
Imagine his mother's loss. Imagine the guilt his twin will bear.

Ok, dont know the WHOLE story but if you woke up one day and thought "I might smuggle some drugs today...." which country would you not smuggle them out of?

[edit] sorry thought it was thailand

**sAsLEX** · 2nd December 2005, 08:45

The crime

Nguyen Tuong Van, 25, was arrested at Changi Airport with 396.2 grams of heroin strapped to his body. His botched smuggling run was meant to generate cash to pay the debts of his drug-addicted twin.

Dont normally travel with Heroin on me!

**Waylander** · 2nd December 2005, 08:50

He smuggled drugs. Be damned if I'm gonna feel sorry for him, His family yes because it's not thier fault he is a fucking idiot, though the twin is worse.

**James Deuce** · 2nd December 2005, 08:51

Guys come on, I said I wasn't disputing the right of other countries to maintain their border security how they see fit, or that he did something stupid.

Whatever you think about the actual crime, I'm not interested in discussing. He was trying to pay his drug addicted twin's debts. If you have even a nugget of empathy, and are committed to your family surely you can understand how he got himself in this (albeit thoroughly irrational) position?

**ManDownUnder** · 2nd December 2005, 08:55

it's very very sobering. In about 1 hour (11am NZT) this guy is going to be put to death.

He's 25, he did something monumentally stupid and saying "Sorry" isn't enough.

I wish more people would learn that saying "sorry" isn't enough. Gotta admit I'll be giving him a moment's silence - thinking of him at 11:00am this morning...

**scumdog** · 2nd December 2005, 08:55

His actions rank right up there with heading the wrong way on a busy motorway on a GN250 - blindfolded - when it comes to self preservation! Let's call him Mr Lemming eh?

All the warning were there but HE chose to ignore them - bad luck!!!

Only worse 'cos if he had got away with it how many other lives would have been affected??( badly)

Somewhere in the world there will be some poor bugger confined to a wheelchair who is thinking "what a waste of a good body, if I had one like that I wouldn't be risking it doing dumb shit like THAT!!"

**Waylander** · 2nd December 2005, 08:56

Fuck no I wouldn't try smuggeling drugs for my brother. If anything I'de beat the shit out of him for getting hooked on it in the first place. Dumb enough to do it, dumb enough to be punnished.

**Colapop** · 2nd December 2005, 08:56

Being an Australian citizen I cannot figure out why he did not make use of the social services that are available in that country, if he was so worried about his brother why didn't he get a loan and put him in re-hab. This guy is not mentally retarded just stupid. Yep feel for his family, mother especially, but the reality is that there is so much media coverage about drug snugglers treatment from these countries that he must have known he was putting his life at risk. No sympathy for him, no apologies either.

**Lou Girardin** · 2nd December 2005, 08:56

It's barbarism plain and simple. They won't even let his Mother hug him, they did relent and allow hand holding though.
I don't have a problem with the death penalty for some forms of murder. But this guy has killed no-one, despite the pathetic justifications of the Singapore Govt.
If they are so hot on drug dealers, why do they allow entry to known drug king pins?
Singapore is a definitive example of a punitive authoritarian regime getting 'tough' on crime. One of which is failing to flush a public toilet - $150.00 please.
Fuck 'em. One place that'll never get my money.

**bugjuice** · 2nd December 2005, 08:59

I don't feel sorry for him. He knew the second he agreed to do it, that it could end like this. Any thing to do with drugs is bad, and he knows the consiquences. Shit, I crapped a brick going thru the airport with Panadol in my bag.. He took the drugs, he took the risk, and the country is gonna take him. The consiquences of smuggling drugs is nothing new. People have known the actions taken for donkeys years, and yet they still try to push their luck. Well fuck 'em, if they don't learn by other peoples stupidity, then they aren't going to learn shit. They will keep doing it and keep trying to bring drugs to kids to make a big buck, and fuck up more stupid people. It's natural selection imo.

If this guy had been 'set-up', then yeah, I'd feel the world for him, but I don't. He was a dick to do it, and now he's being punished. Why should we care about just another drug runner?

**sAsLEX** · 2nd December 2005, 09:00

Originally Posted by Jim2

. He was trying to pay his drug addicted twin's debts.

Sure but he hasn't been much help!

One must think of the outcomes of any dicission one would make before making it, he obviously didn't by choosing to smuggle drugs in to a country as strict as that

**James Deuce** · 2nd December 2005, 09:00

Please don't let this descend into a debate about the right's and wrongs of the issue. I'm not trying to debate the outcome of whether he'd got away with it or not.

Can no one put themselves in a pair of shoes labelled, "I will do anything to help someone I care about" irespective of the consequences? Can no one honestly look inside and say that they've done stupid things for similar reasons, but only escaped a similar punishment because the actions they took didn't require intervention at an authoritative government level? Or the flat out got away with it?

**bugjuice** · 2nd December 2005, 09:02

I've done stupid things with a minimal calculated risk. I haven't tried smuggling drugs into one of the worlds' noutoriously strict countries, no.. why the fuck would you even think of trying? Drugs = bad. Kill the fuckin lot of them.