Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Cruising On

It’s been an unprecedented 3 weeks of my life. Emotions ran wild. Pride had to be swallowed. Constitutions were tested. Decisions had to be made. And finally conciliation was given by the Almighty. Have I become stronger? I remain but a sojourner in my life in this world. I’ve learnt a few lessons, and hopefully these lessons will stick tight in the years to come. The journey has become all the more bearable and interesting with my wife by my side.

And now I look forward to a nice little cruise that we’re going away on. After that, I look forward to moving into our new flat at Kim Tian Road - the flat that has been in the making for almost 3 months now. It looks much better than I thought it’d look, and for that we’re thankful. May it be a place for solace, a place for spiritual uplifting and a place for peace to enter hearts.

~~~

I was quite shocked that a former law lecturer, a graduate, was detained by the ISD for attempting to make contact with Lakshar-e-Toiba, a militant terrorist group in Pakistan. Security experts believe he was a ‘self-radicalised’ activist – someone who surfed the internet and got convinced by himself that he needed to train in Afghanistan to fight infidels.

I’m not convinced he was convinced by himself. Surely, there could’ve been a network of like-minded individuals who had similar beliefs in order for him to be persuaded enough of the rationale to go to Pakistan.

But what other things can we learn from his detainment? The Internet is a powerful source of information, and care must be taken in assessing the credibility and quality of information that is found. In a connected society like Singapore, media literacy is essential, and as I see it, increasingly necessary in view of converging media technology. We need to equip our young and old with the tools to discern media messages and have an opinion on what is being presented.

No comments: