Rules are meant to be bent

There was, and still is, a big ruckus over the execution of some major drug traffickers yesterday. Most of those executed are foreigners, so their respective countries are at first sweetly pleading, then harshly threatening, and finally cursing with promises of lash-backs and generally throwing tantrums when their vain attempt to rescue their citizens' life failed miserably.

One Australian newspaper even went so far to create the following:

Personally, I disagree with that headline, and I'll let you be the judge of whether my reasoning is logical or not. Kindly remember this is about logic, not fairness.

Universally speaking, there's a very thin line between bravery and stupidity. An example would be charging with a fully loaded AK-47 into a throng of machete wielding hostiles, some may consider it brave. Doing so while knowing that the AK-47 is actually jammed, albeit being fully loaded, is, for lack of a better word, stupid.

It's basically the same with the Bali 9 drug traffickers. Knowingly smuggling drugs into a country having the death penalty in drug-related offenses is seriously dumb. Getting caught while doing it proved beyond a reasonable doubt of the stupidity involved. Nothing to do with bravery here. But of course changing "brave" with "stoopid" in that headline would somehow ruin the whole stout and supporting tone of the article, and most probably affect the sales negatively. We wouldn't want that now, would we?

Still, the rule is pretty simple. If you want to break laws, don't get caught. And if that simple rule is too hard for you, then perhaps you shouldn't be in the business of trying to break any. And perhaps you should resort to bending instead, Avatar style (the A'ang ones, not the blue guys). In general, when you bend something, it makes less conspicuous noise than breaking it. Helps with the trying-not-to-get-caught thingy.

To those of you arguing that the executions will do nothing to stop the drug trafficking, maybe you're right. But then again, maybe you're wrong. What the executions will do, at the very least, is to prove that Indonesia means business about drug trafficking, that the laws are not just there for shows. Perhaps that will give some sense into the drug traffickers. Perhaps then they will value their lives more and reconsider moving their business elsewhere. And millions of innocent children might be spared just by that.

And for those still trafficking on to Indonesia despite the executions, and those who think that drug-trafficking-and-getting-caught-and-getting-executed is the shining example of bravery deserving national praise in the papers, there might still be some hope left. After all, God must have really loved the stupid. Else, He wouldn't create so many, right..?