When in Rome, do as Romans do

Nguyen Tuong Van's name has been mentioned ever so recently by the press lately. Sadly his end came to a stop yesterday. Saw Straits Times reporting an article that australia is divided into two with two differing opinions. One who's against the death penalty and one who's for the death penalty.

Read through the comments from this link :http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=75556 , got kinda of mixed up after that. The whole scenario is sad, I do agree. Who doesn't feel a pinch of emotion when you know someone is going to die and you can't stop it. But as far as I'm concerned, death penalty may not be the most humane methods of punishment, but to be objective, the problem here lies in the fact that death penalty for drug trafficking in Singapore will lead to corporal punishment, and if you traffic drugs, you have to bear the consequences.

Some say he didn't have a choice because he was trying to raise funds to repay debts, but I guess by going through the trafficking routine, he should probably know there's a chance of getting caught. If not, why would someone pay you such a huge amount to drug traffic? I believe he should have done his homework before taking such a huge risk, especially by taking his chances to go through customs in countries with capital punishments. I wouldn't think he would assume he wouldn't get caught no matter what.

Some of the comments said how Singapore is so inhumane, barbaric etc etc. Came to one anti-death penalty's comment. I guess the sentence he/she wrote kind of struck me.

"I have read a number of feedbacks. Though opinions are varied, there are really just two groups of people; one who respect life and the other who doesn't."

By saying death penalty is not a form of respect for human lives, what about saying him bringing 26000 doses of heroin to his destination? Is that a form of respect for lives as well? Drugs lead to bad consequences, I just can't imagine how many will be affected by the 26000 doses of drugs. Has he any respect for human life as well? I don't believe that ever crossed his mind.

But I guess I felt kinda proud being a Singaporean in a sense. The country hasn't shifted its decision from pressure of a bigger country. Every house has its own rules, you just have to abide by them. Like one commenter said, "When in Rome, do as Romans do". There were rules, but he just chose to break it. So don't blame the rules, the choice was given, but the decision was his.