Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Hate Crimes in the world


These headlines caught my attention today
Firstly
"US anti-gay church to pay $10.9m" to Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder family is quite interesting to read today.

quote:"....have denounced homosexuality for years, initially targeting the funerals of Aids victims but later extending their pickets to the funerals of soldiers, who they say are being punished by God. ...." and children
"...with signs reading "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "You're going to hell"."
Wow this is really extreme. And the worst part is this
"Members of the church, however, reportedly greeted the verdict with tight-lipped smiles." The report indicates that they are going to appeal against the judgment. Somehow it disgusting to see that these people using children for propaganda purpose and doesn't show any remorse doing a bad deed.

Secondly
This is a clip that show a "Mr Davis and friends" bullying a 67 year old Uncle and didn't pay him for his service. Just how cheap can they get?




They are British tourists who claims they did not "bully" anyone in Singapore. However, when watching this clip, it felt like bullying and I think they weigh more then 240kg when all three are on the trishaw and even a young man could not go fast with that kind of heavy load. Hence Mr Davis original Youtube title:"Slowest Cab in the world" reflect badly on Himself.

The last is this one on "US diplomats refuse Iraq postings ".
"Hundreds of US diplomats have protested against a government move to force them to accept postings in war-torn Iraq."

Who could blame them especially peacekeeping efforts in Iraq go down the toilet after the torture photos in Abu Ghraib surfaced around 2004.

Picture from Wikimedia:




These are examples of what constitutes Hate Crimes and the consequences no matter how perpetrator tries to glorify the cause, the truth always come through.

News of Chemical Passing off as Medicine

I read about news on fake drugs that have been distributed in the world.
Video link from New York times
The headline is
"At least 82 Chinese companies at a Milan trade show, none of them certified, said they made pharmaceutical ingredients." Link to the news here

The part about the diet pills ring a alarm in my mind about a similar drugs that occur before in Singapore around 2000 to 2003. That drug is Slim 10 that created a storm that close down TV Media the TV shopping channel . And led to this law suit

Quotes from getforme.com
"...The product from China was pulled out of the market on April 15 by the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) because it contains fenfluramine, which is banned here.
Slim 10 suspected to have caused television artiste Andrea De Cruz's hepatitis and liver failure. In Singapore, at least 13 people who have been on the drug have come down with hepatitis, hyperthyroidism, hypertension and heart palpitations."

"...Chinese manufacturer Yuzhitang Health Products; importer Health Biz and its president and director Simon Liu, 32; and distributor TV Media in the first civil action over Slim 10. ....."

This kind of makes me wonder since this type of incident have happened in the past What could we have done to ensure our health.It's scary to know that there are fake drugs and food floating around in the market.