a fruitful life.

Monday, January 29, 2007

Singapore hangs Nigerian drug smuggler

SINGAPORE, Jan 26 (Reuters) at 8.57am - Singapore hanged a 21-year-old Nigerian man for drug smuggling on Friday, despite pleas from the Nigerian president, the United Nations and international human rights groups to spare his life.

Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi was hanged at about 6 a.m. (2200 GMT) at the city-state’s Changi prison, Stanley Seah, assistant superintendent at Singapore’s Central Narcotics Bureau, told Reuters.

No further details were immediately available.

Tochi was arrested at Singapore’s Changi Airport in November 2004 for carrying about 727 grams (25.6 ounces) of heroin.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo asked the Singapore government on Tuesday to grant a reprieve to Tochi, who was a champion football player in Nigeria according to human rights group Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign.

In Geneva, the United Nations’ special investigator for extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions said on Thursday that Singapore would be violating international legal standards on the use of the death penalty if it went ahead with the hanging.

The death sentence is mandatory for anyone caught carrying more than 15 grams of heroin in Singapore, which enforces one of the harshest anti-drug laws in the world. - Reuters

***

No review of death sentence for Nigerian convicted of drug trafficking
By Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 25 January 2007 2356 hrs

SINGAPORE : Singapore will not review the death sentence for Nigerian Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi who was caught for importing over 700 grammes of diamorphine into Singapore in 2004.

In a letter, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong assured Nigeria’s President, Olusegun Obasanjo, that all factors relevant to the case had been considered.

These include the petition for clemency made to President SR Nathan by Nigeria’s Acting High Commissioner Dr Ozichi Joel Alimole, and a recent letter from the Nigerian President requesting Singapore to review the sentence.

Mr Lee said the amount of illegal drugs brought in by Mr Tochi amounts to more than 48,000 doses of heroin on the streets - enough to destroy many lives and families.

He said he also realises that Mr Tochi’s family will find Singapore’s position difficult to accept.

But the government has a duty to safeguard the interests of Singaporeans, and protect lives that would otherwise be ruined by drug syndicates. - CNA/ms

***

Nigerian drug smuggler set to hang in Singapore

By Koh Gui Qing

SINGAPORE, Jan 25 (Reuters) - A 21-year-old Nigerian is set to be hanged for drug smuggling in Singapore on Friday morning, despite international protests and a last-minute hunger strike by Singaporean civil rights activists.

Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi will be hanged at dawn on Friday, according to an official at the Nigerian embassy in Singapore, after he was arrested at Singapore’s Changi Airport in November 2004 for carrying about 727 grams (25.6 ounces) of heroin.

Tochi’s family has not travelled to Singapore to see him because they cannot afford the plane tickets, the embassy official said, adding that “he was well”.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo asked the Singapore government on Tuesday to grant a reprieve to Tochi, who was a champion football player in Nigeria according to human rights group, Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign.

Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs declined to comment on Obasanjo’s appeal.

Amnesty International, which also appealed to Singapore last week to spare Tochi’s life, said the judge who convicted Tochi of drug smuggling “appears to have accepted that he might not have realised the substance he was carrying was heroin”.

In Geneva, the United Nations’ special investigator for extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions said Singapore would be violating international legal standards on the use of the death penalty if it went ahead with the hanging.

Philip Alston, an Australian lawyer who reports to the U.N. Human Rights Council, said capital punishment could only be imposed if the evidence “left no room for an alternative interpretation of the facts”.

“In the case of Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi, the government of Singapore has failed to ensure respect for the relevant legal safeguards. Under the circumstances, the execution should not proceed,” he said in a statement.

“Judicial Murder”

The death sentence is mandatory for anyone caught carrying more than 15 grams of heroin in Singapore.

Two leading Singapore civil rights activist started a 24-hour hunger strike in protest at the planned execution.

“The state does not have the right to take a life. It’s judicial murder,” said M. Ravi, a human rights lawyer, as he sat on a straw mat laid out in Singapore’s Speakers’ Corner, the only place in Singapore where citizens can make public speeches.

The hanging of Tochi comes more than a year after Singapore hanged an Australian man, Nguyen Tuong Van, 25, in December 2005 amid much public outcry, and despite repeated pleas for clemency, including from the Australian parliament.

On Thursday, a Singapore court charged another Australian for drug trafficking, but he narrowly escaped the death sentence, which is mandatory for anyone caught with more than 500 grams of cannabis.

Michael Karras, 38, was arrested on Jan. 9 after he was found with about 495 grams of cannabis in a rented flat. Karras, who is pleading not guilty according to his lawyer S.S. Dhillon, faces a maximum of 40 years in jail and 30 strokes of the cane.

Singapore has the highest per capita execution rate in the world, and has hanged more than 420 people since 1991, according to Amnesty International.

The death penalties in Singapore’s anti-drug laws have been criticised by human rights groups as inhumane. But the Singapore government say they are necessary because of the city-state’s close location to drug-producing countries.

***

following this for some time now. i've learnt that i cannot just read news from CNA.com. this case really makes me sad.

now that the execution has taken place, i stop to wonder if he had the intent to bring in the drugs. i wonder if singapore has made the right move. because our gahmen speaks on behalf of us. i wonder what harm would it have brought to singapore and singaporeans if his life was spared and given a life sentence instead.

but then, i wonder if a life sentence would be something he wanted instead of the death penalty. being in a cell, ALL your life. is that something that would be preferred over death?

2 sides to a story. sam, i'll remember that.

anyway the point here is reasonable doubt. and i stand for that. reasonable doubt in a courtroom should be valid and it should be "innocent till proven guilty". but here, it's "guilty till proven innocent". as i pray for that man who died and who may have been innocent, i wonder why our gahmen is so unforgiving and dare i say, unreasonable.

more here: http://pseudonymity.wordpress.com/

Labels: singapore news

This girl posted at 3:51 PM

Saturday, January 27, 2007

on a friday, it was a beautiful day.

the sky was cloudless and was as blue as it can be.

the sun was up and the temperature was comfortable.

walking home, i was reminded of God's own special plan and purpose for each one of us, His children.

and to think that He is the same God that made everything around me so beautiful.

and as i read 1 and 2 Corinthians and read about how Paul struggled with his ministry at Corinth and Asia minor and all the things he had to go through and suffer for Christ's sake, and how he became such a great servant of God and such a good testimony and how he defended his faith.

i began to put things into perspective and that my struggles here are part of His divine plan, and that from within i can emerge to be a stronger christian and that what i'm going through cannot be compared to what others had to go through.

'And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”'
- 2 Corinthians 12:9

remember Him. always.

Labels: thoughts

This girl posted at 10:01 AM

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

as i surf the net for my dose of current affairs (p.s. i'm actually quite back-dated already. i didn't know american idol started today, and that the golden globes came and went on monday.), i was struck at how bad the weather is all around. the flooding in JB and singapore. the snow and ice storms that struck a whole lot of US states. suddenly i'm so thankful that seattle has cold cold temperatures and 2-inch snow. only. praying for those affected. praying for good weather. mother nature unleashes her global warming rage.

42 killed as winter storms, floods hit US
Posted: 17 January 2007 1113 hrs

CHICAGO: A massive winter storm has covered swathes of the United States in a mantle of snow, sleet and ice, killing 42 people, threatening millions of dollars in citrus crops and leaving hundreds of thousands without electricity, officials said on Tuesday.

"This is a big one, affecting all the way from New Mexico to Maine," said Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the National Weather Service.

The worst-hit areas were Oklahoma, where freezing rain left behind a sheet of ice, and Missouri, hard hit by sleet, he said.

"With the ice, the trees come down on the power lines, and in Oklahoma it's going to take the rest of the week to get all that restored," he said. "The lines are completely down. It's not like it's a transformer here and there - it's the whole grid."

The storm, which began churning across the country on Friday, was caused by an enormous cold front that dropped temperatures by as much as 17 degrees Celsius and brought wave after wave of freezing rain and sleet as it moved slowly eastward.

It weakened somewhat on Tuesday, sparing major East Coast cities such as New York, Boston and Philadelphia from the worst of the ice and sleet.

The National Weather Service has issued storm warnings for central Texas, freeze warnings in California, Arizona and Texas, wind chill advisories stretching from New York to Maine, and flood warnings across central US from Louisiana, Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio.

The storm has already caused ice storms in western parts of New York state, forecasters said.

In hard-hit Oklahoma, Federal Emergency Management Agency workers distributed electrical generators and bottled water to communities hammered by the ice storm, after President George W. Bush declared an emergency in Oklahoma on Sunday.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported more than 300 road accidents in which 14 people were killed, including seven in a minivan crash Sunday.

Some 103,000 people were also without power, according to Oklahoma's Department of Emergency Management.

Bush also declared a state of emergency for Missouri - including the city of St. Louis - on Monday, freeing up federal funding for recovery efforts.

State officials said eight people had been killed in the Missouri storms, including seven who died in traffic accidents and one killed by carbon monoxide poisoning - common when people without electricity use fuel-burning stoves for heat.

More than 300,000 people lost power in the state due to downed power lines, and a utility worker was injured, state officials said.

In Kansas, five people were reported killed in weather-related road accidents and one person died of carbon monoxide poisoning, officials told the Kansas City Star newspaper.

One person also died in a weather-related traffic accident in New York state, according to local radio.

In Texas, Governor Rick Perry called out the National Guard after heavy rain caused flash flooding. Local media reported two killed in separate weekend accidents on icy roads in western Texas.

And in California, where temperatures are generally mild, farmers braced for devastation to citrus crops worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has declared a state of emergency in the state, warned on Tuesday in a letter to the US Department of Agriculture in Washington that losses to the region's citrus fruit industry "will likely reach one billion dollars".

But Dave Kranz, a spokesman for the California Farm Bureau Federation trade group, said it was too soon to tell the extent of the damage.

"The freeze in 1998 was severe, but there were pockets of fruit that survived. That's the expectation this year," he said. "There are citrus groves that will have come through OK, but there is also widespread damage."

California accounts for nearly a quarter of the US market for citrus fruits, according to figures from state agricultural authorities, making it the biggest producer of fruit in the nation.

Some 51,000 homes and businesses lost power in upstate New York after a heavy layer of ice covered the area Monday, National Grid spokesman Alberto Bianchetti said.

The company, which provides power to around 1.5 million customers in the northern part of the state, expected to begin restoring services later in the day, he said.

More snow was forecast for later Tuesday and early Wednesday. - AFP/so

snow in its little dainty quantities is enough.

loving the phonecalls from sam. =)
and the skyping webcam sessions from home. =)
and a good dose of chinese food like winter melon soup and bah kut teh. =)

Labels: sam, seattle, snow

This girl posted at 4:22 PM

Saturday, January 13, 2007

here i am, freezing my bottoms off in the health sciences library, reading the anatomy textbook and trying to remember where the femur is and looking at x-rays of all kinds of bones. seems like the heater is not working. even by ibook doesn't feel warm. according to yahoo! the temperature outside now is -1 degrees. temperatures have been dropping like crazy as we approach deep winter in jan. even with the sun out, the air is freezing. don't even get me started on the wind chills, which drops the temperature by 3-4 degrees when it blows in your face.

despite that, i still like walking out in the open! all you need to do is to get your mind off the cold. wear tons of layers. long johns. bask in the sun. walk faster to get your heart pumping. enjoy the sights. with so many things around me to see where got time to worry about the cold? it's a good strategy because i used to be really miserable in cold weathers. now i'm not! and not to mention the feelings of awe and amazement and thankfulness when i'm surrounded by beautiful sights. this world that my God has created for us. He created such beautiful things just for us, because He loves us. how wonderful is that.

so it snowed 2 days ago. the weather forecasts were all really accurate. and it happened in the funniest manner. my friend suhui and i were grocery-shopping at U-village in the afternoon after classes, when we were almost gonna check out and we peered out and saw white stuff falling from the sky. white stuff that's not rain. the outside became a blur of white things. and we realised it was snow! we grabbed our bags, left our shopping cart in the supermarket and went out to stand in the snow. hahaha. sua ku singaporeans.

it was the most beautiful sight. the snow was light and fluffy. it was all over. the snow melted the moment to touched the ground. so in that sense it was beautiful just for a moment, fleeting. in the air, the snow danced in the wind. as the wind came, it seems as though the wind was drawing a piece of art on the snow canvas. i stood and was really excited and mesmerized at the same time. we took many pictures with the snow. haha. and finally went back to pay for our groceries. and i bought a jacob's creek bottle of red wine for USD5.99. how cheap is that. =) but our total bill was USD74.99. haha. that's more than 100 sing. and we didn't even buy a LOT.

as we reached home 1 hour later, we dumped our groceries in our rooms and went out to take MORE pictures. yes we were that excited. by this time the snow had stopped falling but my blockmates were gathering snow off the roof of cars, making snowballs and having a snowball fight, right in front of our apartments. i got a super duper painful hit from my friend 'cos the ball didn't break as it hit my arm. hehhh but quite fun. the snow continued to fall intermittently throughout the night, but we were lucky (and unlucky too) that it probably only snowed 1-2 inches here. my sister's friend who lives in the south had 6 inches of snow and they couldn't get to work the next morning.

speaking of the morning after. it was just as beautiful! i stepped out to white snow on top of almost everything. trees, cars, houses, shrubs, soil. everything was just wrapped in a blanket of white snow and the sight was amazingly beautiful. the sun was out but the snow didn't melt due to the crazy subzero temperature. so it was just a sight i wished i could stand still for a minute to take it in. but as usual, i was running late for class. snapped pictures along the way so check back on my pictureblog soon.

anyway i need more cooking ideas! carlene! can you send me some of your foolproof recipes? including the one you cooked for our christmas get-together.

edward! you know the microbe soft toys you got us for christmas? they are sold at my school's bookstore! which is school of medicine lah. but they are SO many of them!! i shall upload the pictures soon.

ohyes. another exciting thing. one of my classes is human anatomy and physiology. and for the first lab, we got to look at cadavers. as in dead bodies that were dissected for the purpose of learning. at first i was so afraid that i was gonna freak out and puke out whatever things that i do not have in my stomach. but thankfully i didn't! mainly because it looked so model-like. it was dissected and prepared and processed till they resemble plastics. touch-wise, it felt soft but i didn't touch much. we looked at the muscles primarily. but i got to peer into the body cavity and see all the organs. heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, stomach. the genitals, head, feet and hands were covered for minimal privacy and taking into account the interest of other students. one of the cadavers which i worked with was a woman. she was quite small sized and elderly. the other cadaver i worked with was a man. very big chest cavity. very developed muscles. today we went to look at bones! this time it was the bones of an elderly woman. all the tibia and femur etc etc.

i realised my medical knowledge is really a lot for a non-medical student. haha. all thanks to CSI and House and grey's anatomy. although i watched ER before, but that was a long time ago.

well well, i'm going to post more pictures up soon. of the NBA game and the snow. =) assignments are looming. and more subject registration nonsense. sssiigghh.

starting to miss home. ok actually i missed a lot of home and singapore already. i've crossed the mark and set a new record of the longest time away from home. the longest being 11 days when i went to tokyo with my sis. as i predicted, this trip is really God's very own creative test for me to grow and mature and to be independent. drawing closer to God and reading His word and listening to pastor's messages online really really helps with everything. from the settling down to the culture shock (not much. thanks to all the american tv and magazines) to the people relationships to the everyday living bits like chores and meals. also a test of not taking anything that i had at home for granted. because many of us tend to do that and do not realise it before it's too late. so i'm glad i had this chance to not become like that.

ok i'm not making sense. my proteins assignment is calling me. but the long weekend is here. martin luther king day. it's supposedly a day of service. heh. makes me think of wsc. =) i think all my professors are all really good teachers. even the fred hutchinson guy who is quite a prominent scientist and researcher with many award-winning papers published. he's really good but i'm scared that he'll ask me some difficult question then i cannot answer.

ok. upload photos. eat fruits. do assignment. read Bible. sleep.

good plan.

Labels: life in seattle, snow, UW

This girl posted at 5:04 AM

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

2nd week of school starts. and there are more changes to my subjects. as usual.

after days of fighting for my subjects with the gip coordinator, and even after emails to my vice-dean, finally they allow me to take the modules to match my BS modules. the graduate ones. the ones where everyone is older than I am and more experienced than I am and they all have a bachelor's degree already.

it's really quite intimidating at times. but the content so far has been understandable. not very different from days back at NTU at CR1 listening to my lecturers talking about some obscure topic.

so this quarter i'm matching 2 core modules - protein folding/NMR and drug discovery with the 2 graduate modules. and the other 2 i'm gonna clear as electives. one is behavioral genetics, which the first lecture has proven to be quite interesting. and the last one is human anatomy and physiology. which has been really boring because it's a whole repeat-in-slow-motion of A-level biology, BS201 and BS301. seriously. and they are year 4 students. and they have no idea how an action potential works. and this course is for pre-med students. the only reason why i'm taking this course is because of the anatomy lab. paid $20, but tmr we're gonna zap cockroaches with electrical current and measure their magnitude of action potentials. something that i'd never ever get to do in NTU. yayyy. time to take my revenge on those creepy crawlies.

anyway here, all the health sciences are classified under the school of medicine. so technically, i'm a student in the school of medicine. so my classes are all in the health sciences building, which is linked to UW's medical center. fyi it's not like NTU's medical center. it's like NUH. a full-fledge hospital. and UW's medicine is quite well-known in the states. so a lot of times i walk around and see people in blue or green scrubs, doctors riding the same elevator or shuttle bus as me, lots of patients and i wonder again whether medicine is for me. and yes i get reminded once again of grey's anatomy.

speaking of which, i was just at the school of medicine bookstore just now to find my textbooks, and i saw gray's anatomy. the giant legendary textbook used by many many doctors and students. if i had excess lugguage space and weight and money, i'd just get one, just for the sake of keeping it. it was USD195 i think. and all you people back in singapore stop please stop complaining about the costs of textbooks. i know i will, because it is SSSOOO expensive here.

to my bs friends, you know the alberts book? the cell? it sells here for USD140. and they are using many many textbooks that we used too! so i keep seeing books like human genetics, immunobiology, principles of neural science and all. =) reminds me of you guys. hope the first day of school has been good. please update me on what's happening!

speaking of which...

happy birthday renchun and andrea! =)

ok i should update more often because now i end up typing a whole lot in one entry.

happening things so far. a party thrown by the singapore students' association of UW. we had italian food which was yummy, lots and lots of food. and beer and wine. still very mild compared to the typical american party. legal drinking age here is 21 anyway. so i'm safe. =) met some singaporeans studying at UW, many are graduate students. had a good time talking.

went for a NBA game. seattle sonics vs new york knicks. =) i know we're quite cool right. new york knicks somemore. seattle is not very good, we already knew that. the knicks won. but it was a great experience. having seen so much of american culture from the tv and movies i watch, it's quite surreal having experiencing it for myself. and this is just the start.

i miss Bethany a lot. i'm going to go to the university presbyterian church youth service tmr night and have a look. and i miss my home a lot. i wished i was back home. how odd right. but i'm glad this opportunity was given to me and how the Lord has shown me so much more than i could see if i were to be back in singapore. everyone i meet, everyday. the things i see and experience. the things i hear. the life i have here is quite different.

but in the midst of the changing world, i'm glad for things that are still ever so constant. like God who is always always there for me. and that never changes. His love and faithfulness is astounding. and i'll strive to be a good servant of the Lord and will develop that deep sense of love and faith in Him. constant things like sam, who is still the person i turn to for anything and everything. he's the person i tell everything to. he's the person that i'm most honest with. all the politics and gossips, every concern and emotion, he's there, just an email/msn/call away. constant things like my family. whom i feel being closer to even though i'm so far away. ironic right? i'm glad for the phonecalls and skype sessions. where i can feel like i'm back home with them.

alright. should go post more pictures to complement this post. in case you're not informed, pictures are here.

“That you may walk worthy of the Lord,
Fully pleasing Him in all things,
Being fruitful in every good work,
And increasing in the knowledge of God.”
- Colossians 1:10

Labels: life in seattle, UW

This girl posted at 6:34 AM

Thursday, January 04, 2007

9 is the title of the new damien rice album and it has really explicit songs when you listen to the lyrics. but yet the melodies are so beautiful and his voice is just amazingly suited to each song. each tone. each nuance. each rise and fall. each emotion. i love the melodies, and occasionally the words. but some, like the 4th track, is just horrible to my ears 'cos i don't like it when people say the 4-letter word out loud.

anyway today was the first day of school. spent the day at pharmacology II, where the prof was quite humourous; calling men "rats" 3 times in 30 mins. and lectures are only 50 mins! but 3 times a week. i feel like i'm back in tj. then went to the health sciences library to settle my subjects. went to see a prof regarding enrolling into a graduate course.

the story goes like this. when i scroll through the UW subjects and the schools, i just picked out the modules that matches the mods i'm supposed to be taking back in NTU, like pharmacology and drug discovery and all. and i was able to find them. so i submitted the subject codes and all to our coordinator. that was back in dec. and when we arrived in seattle, ms chua the NTU GIP coordinator happily told me out of 6 of my courses i picked for winter quarter, 5 are year 5 modules. year 5 is 1st year masters degree courses. oh well done. and she tells me to pick undergraduate courses because the masters courses are really difficult and i won't be able to get in and the fees are more expensive.

so i launched into this debate with her that if i do not take those modules i won't be able to graduate from NTU and i already signed an agreement with MOE that i have to graduate within 4 years. if i didn't take those mods i'll have to stay back 1 year in NTU. and i tried to convince her in my politically correct tone and manner that maybe US school system is just a little less advanced than what we have in singapore. hence my year 3 and 4 modules are only taken by graduate students here.

yes. even their introduction to biochem is taught in year 4. and we did that in year 1.

so i was talking to my prof. and showing him my degree audit. and he was so surprised at the modules that i have taken and was telling me "wow you can go and get a phd now." and he was listing all the modules. "wow, development biology, neurobiology, BIOPHYSICS?!?!"

for once, i'm proud to be educated in the singapore system. all those endless nights of slogging through the lecture notes and tutorials. paid off in that single second. and i was immediately enrolled in the graduate course.

and graduate courses mean no exams and tons of readings and assignments and projects.

something i've never done before for a bio module.

challenges and more challenges.

just got accepted into another grad module for proteomics. at the fred hutchinson cancer research center campus! ohhhh there're like 3 nobel laureates there!

so exciting. but i have readings for tmr's class already. the first lesson of the course!! =(

ok time for dinner. wonder what shall we cook.

will ramble more next time. =)

everybody take care! please say hi to singapore food for me.

Labels: damien rice, life in seattle, UW

This girl posted at 9:53 AM