The Diplomat, Porn, and The RAB Experience...

Back in February I had this unusual spike in visitors. I was sans an internet link at the time because of some house moving that we were doing so I was only aware of it some time after the fact.

It is only today that I worked out why it happened in the first place.

Thanks to The Diplomat, an internet magazine that deals with Asia-Pacific issues from what I can tell, mentioned me and my blog posts on the "one and only" Tifatul Sembiring (aka "TitS"). You can read the actual article here.

My guess is that Mong Palatino who happens to be a member of the House of Representatives in the Philippines and the Regional Editor of Global Voices for the Southeast Asia and Oceania regions reads my blog and he is responsible for the spike in visitors to my humble abode. Global Voices is a citizen journalism initiative, and one that I am in favour of. Thanks Mr. Palatino, I appreciate it. Maybe one day I will get to the Philippines to thank you in person (or maybe you might let me do some freelance writing for Global Voices ;)

No matter how it happened, it is always nice to see your name in print somewhere, particularly in a positive light. To be truthful, this is the reason I decided to reopen my blog to anybody who wants to read it and the reason I decided to blog today.

Trans-Jakarta Busway vs. New York Subway: The Flashers...

The Trans-Jakarta Busway as had a few recent "groping" incidents. These were essentially men grabbing and touching women in places women would not be expecting to be touched in a public bus. The police tended to encourage the women not to pursue their allegations any further as they are too difficult to prove. This resulted in some CCTV equipment being installed as a deterrent.

In contrast, the groping went to a much more extreme level in New York recently with the groper actually being a flasher who thought he would rub his penis up against his victim. Interestingly, no CCTV footage here, but some mobile phone video camera footage of the aftermath.

Perhaps, with the technology available to us in 2010 citizen journalism may capture a whole lot more video evidence than we might have had access to in the past, particularly real-time evidence at the scene of the crime.

Goaded Into Suicide

This is a story out of Derby in England and it is a sad indictment of the ways in which our communities are developing. Having spent about three hours in trying to talk Shaun Dykes, a 17-year-old Derby lad, down from the roof of the Westfield shopping center, the police were horrified that the young fella finally decided to end it all and jump to his death.

Even more horrifying is what went on below. The police cordoned off the area but this did not stop a crowd from gathering. What is truly disturbing is that there were people in the crowd urging the the young man to jump. It is being reported that someone yelled out, "How far can you bounce?"

Not surprisingly, the young fella jumped to his death. Then the story just gets very sad. People broke through the police cordon and starting photographing the body with their mobile cameras.

I guess this is what they mean by citizen photojournalism.

Depression is a serious illness and one that needs professional help and intervention where necessary. This kid apparently jumped to his death over a failed relationship.