Young and not so innocent?

This article was taken from The New Paper dated July 30, 2009. The headline was ‘Teen sold himself for money’

He wanted to look good and dress well. So the teenager, then aged 15, decided to get money from strangers, offering ‘paid fun’.

His mother knew nothing about his prostitution, though she did notice that he wore expensive clothes and had lots of money. But an anonymous phone call out of the blue revealed the unpleasant truth in May 2007. After she confronted her son and learnt what he was up to, she lodged a police report on 18 May that year.

According to court documents, the boy had been chatting with strangers on social networking websites since he was in Primary 3. He came across a website popular with homosexuals here five years ago and later started posting messages and chatting there.

In December 2006, as he needed money to ‘maintain his lifestyle’, the boy posted messages on the website saying he was ‘seeking paid fun’. The boy cannot be named due to a court order.

Age revealed upon meeting

 

On the website, he said he was 16, but he revealed his real age to anyone he met personally or chatted with on the telephone.

A month or two after the boy posted the messages, Thomas Song Choon Chen, 37, responded and agreed to pay him $50 in exchange for sexual favours. The boy told Chen his address and they met at the boy’s home at 9am the same day.

When Chen arrived at the flat, the boy, who was in school uniform, told him he was actually 15 years old. After leading Chen to his bedroom, the boy undressed himself. Chen then performed sexual acts with the boy and paid the boy later and left. Chen kept in touch with the boy for some time, but the relationship later ended.

Assistant nurse Muhammad Hafashah Mohd Aslam, now 21, got to know the boy online through the same website around February 2007. The boy offered sexual services and Muhammad Hafashah agreed.

After meeting at the void deck of Muhammad Hafashah’s HDB flat in Jurong West, they went to a community centre nearby. They then went to a toilet for the handicapped there. After the sexual acts, they both cleaned up and went to an ATM nearby, where Muhammad Hafashah withdrew $100 to pay the boy.

In January 2007, Victor Ng Yong You, 25, got to know the boy via the website. The boy offered sexual services to Ng in exchange for a lift to Wisma Atria. Ng agreed and he went to pick up the boy.

Before heading to Wisma Atria, Ng drove him to an underground carpark in Bukit Merah to engage in sexual acts. The two later went to Wisma Atria and Ng then dropped the boy at the boy’s girlfriend’s home. Neither Muhammad Hafashah nor Ng kept in touch with the boy after the acts.

 

 Pleaded guilty

Yesterday, Muhammad Hafashah, Ng and Song, pleaded guilty in the Subordinate Courts to one charge each of performing obscene acts with the teen.

They and three other men were earlier charged with committing unnatural offences under sections 377 and 377A of the Penal Code, but the charges were later reduced to committing obscene or indecent acts under the Children and Young Persons Act. Muhammad Hafashah and Ng each had one other charge, which was taken into consideration.

Another man, Quek Hock Seng, 42, pleaded guilty in January to one charge and was sentenced to four months’ jail.The cases of two other men – Ng Geng Whye, 50, and Balasundram Suppiah, 40 – will be heard next month.

In his mitigation plea, Muhammad Hafashah’s lawyer, Mr S Balamurugan, said his client went to the website as he was confused about his sexual orientation then. This led him to commit the offence, which was his first, Mr Balamurugan said.

He said his client, who had since undergone counselling, was now in a relationship with a young woman, and had been accepted for a nursing course at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. Mr Balamurugan urged District Judge Sarjit Singh to consider probation for him.

Judge Singh asked for a pre-sentence report on Muhammad Hafashah, and his case will be heard again on 26 Aug. Ng and Song will be sentenced on 5 Aug. Anyone guilty of committing obscene or indecent acts with a child or young person can be jailed for up to two years and fined up to $5,000.  They can be jailed up to four years and fined up to $10,000 for each subsequent offence

I don’t understand. Is the teen not guilty at all?. He was the one who instigated the men for sexual favours. To me, when I read the article, I felt that the teen was as guilty as the men who got charged. I mean what if he /she influence their friends to do the same thing?

This article was taken from Youth.SG :

All children will be protected from sexual exploitation under a new law. The Home Affairs Ministry is proposing new laws to punish those who operate, promote or go on child sex tours. It also aims to protect young people and those with mental illness from sexual exploitation.  But it is also leaving sexual conduct between consenting adults private. The Ministry is also proposing to repeal four laws which have become irrelevant or archaic. The proposed changes are in line with Singapore’s push for a more open, compassionate society.

Maybe its time for Singapore to introduce a law which punishes minors who prostitute themselves?. How can we have a ‘more open, compassionate society’ when a kid grows up to be a prostitute?.

 

 

 

Twitter and Facebook has become part of my life.

According to Wikipedia, Twitter is:

Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications

According to Wikipedia, Facebook is:

Facebook is a social networking website. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves.

I’m posting about this because people have been asking me why I tweet so much and why am I on Facebook so much.

First of all, I’m not addicted. I started using Facebook because I wanted to check it out since it was so popular then and all my friends were on it. But it has gradually became a place where I can share my thoughts and what I like. In other words, it has become a so called ‘journal’ for me where I can keep my friends up to date with what is happening to me. I believe this is what Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook for 🙂

Then Twitter came along. I started using Twitter accidentally. I thought it was another option for a blog, which I realised was totally wrong in due time. When I first started tweeting, I thought ‘Well, what’s new? Its like facebook!’ But as I made more friends as I tweet, I realised that Facebook and Twitter will never be the same even though I use Twitter to update my Facebook status. Reason is, Twitter is where I get to know my friends better.

So, till something better comes along, I will continue using Facebook and Twitter 🙂

SMRT is ‘out of touch’

This will not be a ‘rant’ but an honest observation on my part.

As you all already know, SMRT has decided to fine those caught eating and drinking in MRT trains and stations on the spot. The first person they caught was a woman eating sweets. What a way to start their new ‘campaign’. As if raising the train fare isn’t enough, they are using this ‘campaign’ to justify the raise. As what my friend, Callan Tham from Trapper’s Swamp says ‘to cover extra operational costs’.

Its high time for SMRT to use the money we pay them to start doing their job. They should start paying their staff more money to get their asses of their office chairs to walk through the trains. People don’t only eat on the trains nowadays. They are having a party too! They are blasting their music on their phones like they are only one in the train and we can’t tell them off because there is no rule stating otherwise! Imagine tired office workers on the way home without their MP3s. They have to bear music ranging from techno to Bollywood. Shouldn’t this people be fined for disturbing the peace?.

This is what Chia Chun Wah, deputy director of Stations Operations at SMRT Trains, said

“We are trying to eradicate this (habit of) eating and drinking both in the stations and the trains. We have been doing a lot of advisories to the passengers.

“Obviously, there’s a certain limit where we can educate the passengers. Now we’re going to this enforcement scheme and trying to educate passengers further and to refrain from eating and drinking in the systems.”

So they want to ‘educate’ us eh? Isn’t education all rounded? Is eating and drinking worse than disturbing the peace?. Now its only blasting their music. If SMRT don’t stop that, people will probably start a riot on the train. By that time, eating and drinking won’t be your main problem.

I have a suggestion. Since some people are plain bored and obvoiusly can’t afford a ear piece, why don’t SMRT play music or radio stations in the train? That will prevent those who are caught eating from saying they are bored. Since we are all for ‘Supporting local talent’, why not play their music or their videos on the trains?. Foreigners take trains too don’t they?

Who knows? Maybe there’s a talent scout who’s bored on the train, about to reach for his potato chips and Mp3, looks up and sees, say, Electico singing? For that 30 mins in the train, he or she will probably be entertained and the potato chips forgotten.

 

Why I believe Steven Gerrard is innocent.

 

Ok. I’m a Manchester United fan and its considered a treachery to feel sorry for a Liverpool player but nothing changes. I still think Liverpool sucks and Man Utd rocks.

Yes. Rivalries exist in football but its only on the pitch where all the hatred overflow but when the match ends, we shake hands and sit down together for beer. That’s why, I feel that I have to say something about Steven Gerrard.

As you know, the Liverpool Football Club captain was accused of attacking businessman Marcus McGee, 34, after a row over music in a bar. The 29-year-old was with friends at the Lounge Inn in Southport, Merseyside, in the early hours of December 29 when his party clashed with McGee, a member of another group.

Yes. Gerrard punched McGee and I do not condone violence. But for those who watch soccer, does Gerrard behaves like this on the soccer field? Does he push the referee? Does he spits on his opponent’s face? Have he ever lost his temper? Hell, I would hard pressed to remember the last time he got sent off!

What I’m trying to say is, what you are on the field reflects on how you behave off it. A perfect example is Joey Barton. This guy has been a terror on the field and off it. I have lost count of how many times he lost his temper and got sent off or how many times he’s been charged in court for fighting.

Joey Barton is a gangster. Steven Gerrard isn’t. That is why I believed he acted in self-defence.

President Obama ‘apologises’.

President Obama made a surprise appearance at the White House on Friday in an attempt to diffuse the storm he started. He admitted that he used the wrong choice of words. He said:

“I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sgt. Crowley specifically,” Obama told reporters. “I could have calibrated those words differently, and I told this to Sgt. Crowley.”

He stop short of apologising to the Cambridge Police Department and reiterated his assertion that he believes police overreacted, but said Gates “probably overreacted as well.” Deciding now that he wants to know the full story, he has invited both Sgt. James Crowley and Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. to the White House to talk.

I applaud his decision to know the full story and be diplomatic BUT I strongly feel that he should apologise to Sgt. Crowley. The guy was just doing his job!.

An apology can work wonders but is Mr Obama to proud to do that?.

President Obama’s ‘Stupid’ Comments

The President has started a storm which I think will take alot of his charisma to calm down.

The storm brewed when, Henry Louis Gates, a preeminent scholar of African and African-American studies at the prestigious Harvard University, was arrested on July 16 by Cambridge police while attempting to enter his own home. The professor was reportedly trying to force open his jammed front door when a neighbour called the police, believing the house was being robbed. He was arrested by a white policeman. He is apparently, a friend of Mr Obama.

Mr Obama admitted that he “not having been there, and not seeing all the facts”. But he nevertheless, made this statement:

“But I think it’s fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry. Number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home,”.

Calling the people who protect the citizens that you pledged to serve, ‘stupid’? Not very wise, Mr President. Which brings me to a question. Did Mr Obama made that statement as a friend or as a President of the United States of America?

That Mr Gates is black doesn’t help either. Mr Obama will be seen as trying to side with a fellow black in a country where has seen so much racial violence.

Mr Obama, realising that he had opened himself to criticsim on a very delicate issue, tried to backtrack when he was interviewed on ABC, he said

“I have to say I am surprised by the controversy surrounding my statement because I think it was a pretty straight forward commentary that you probably don’t need to handcuff a guy, a middle-aged man who uses a cane, who’s in his own home.

“I think that I have extraordinary respect for the difficulties of the job that police officers do,” Obama added. “And my suspicion is that words were exchanged between the police officer and Mr Gates, and that everybody should have just settled down and cooler heads should have prevailed.

‘Pretty straight forward’? You be the judge.