(comment on melb) image inspired by sydney activists) - it's something we can do

mick lambe

- The racism is hard to take...

...both against the Vietnamese-born Melbourne man Nguyen Tuong Van and the Singaporeans.

A universal condemnation/removal of the death penalty should be what we are trying to achieve.

So the people who are complaining about this execution while calling for the same when Australians are killed overseas - are little help.

I don't see the reason for Nguyen Tuong Van facing hanging (drug-smuggling) as any impediment to the issue of abolishing capital punishment. And I'm surprised how many Australians feel the same way.

Even the USA which has a disgusting record of capital punishment does not execute drug-runners.

Were Nguyen a ruthless drug lord or mass murderer his punishment could not be more severe. There is no proportionality. No lesser death.

I have no problem in criticising the Singapore government's death penalty or their ties with Burmese drug lords.

 http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/tough-on-drugs-soft-on-drug-lords/2005/

I just find the racist overtones counter-productive and as usual - illogical. The machinations of the State should never be confused with the people who suffer its domination. Poor Singaporeans are the people who are most likely to be locked up or executed under this regime - same as anywhere else.

Let's hope this issue is kept alive (eg, Melbourne Games) and that the barbarism in Singapore that Australians have become more aware of recently - is remembered in future times and settings, even when Australians are killed overseas.

We need that moral high ground.

 http://dimc.axxs.org/index.php?action=default&featureview=80

Iran executes 2 gay teenagers

 http://dimc.axxs.org/index.php?action=newswire&parentview=4685
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Boycott OPTUS
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Darwin vigil? - Hopefully NAP will sort something

 http://www.napnt.org/pages/nguyen_tuong_van.html
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Think my own's begun :-(
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See also:
 http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2005/11/100375.php
 http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=61522&group=webcast