I guess "reviving blogging" did make its way onto my resolution list. So instead of waiting for 2009 to fade away to the obscurities of our tiny grey cells, why don't we start now?

Unnervingly, I realize that I've became more self-conscious when it comes to portraying my own self on the net (here) where literally the whole world can see what you write. Maybe it's because I believe that how a person writes betrays his or her's inner personality, however subtly.

Yes, we all have an "inner personality". Don't we? I have a shrewd suspicion there's a politically-correct psychological term for it but as look as the point cuts through, terms don't really matter, right? The fact is (or so, in my opinion), we live in a dysfunctional society. Really, if we're breathing in a sanely, healthy world, why do we ultimately need judicial laws? In fact, which came first? Did judicial laws corrupt society or did a corrupt society brought along the justice system? Human nature is to go against whatever that is unpleasing. So did unpleasing laws brought along a worse society? Ironically, is the justice system itself is to blame? Is utopia even tangible?

On another loosely related, but even more significant subject, is the death penalty even morally correct? I reserve my suspicions towards the number of people who actually read in detail about the recent case involving Akmal Shaikh, who was convicted of drug-smuggling and sentenced to death by the Supreme Court in China. Being the first European to be sentenced to death by the communist-ruled country in nearly 60 years, it has reasonably sparked much debate and discussion. The report by MSNBC can be read here, which I feel takes a reasonably neutral stand on the issue.
Not surprisingly, the following two reports, one by United Kingdom's The Guardian and the other by China's XinHuaNet on the identical issue is living, classic example of how humans defend their own stand and how a single issue can be viewed from two polar opposites.
In my opinion, it's tragic. It just is. This is not the first case of an innocent man who lost his life because of a case of seriously misplaced trust. There were many others. There will be more.
In the light of a new year, the human race claims to be more and more sophisticated (there's even already a Wikipedia page on the subject of Akmal Shaikh). But we're allowing such gruesome miscarriage of justice to happen. Civilised people my foot.

Someone from another continent recently said of young people in this country who are not allowed to voice out our opinions. Looking back, it's spot on. The state education system rarely, if ever, encourages the student to voice out and defend their own opinions. We are never asked to question the textbook, no. Thus we see the system churning out year after year of graduates, their minds numb from the sheer amount of data to be memorised, but lack the vital capacity to be opinionated. Yes, even the word "opinionated" looks alien, no?

2010, new hopes?