The following statement was made in this blog post which reported the recent case in where ‘star blogger’ Michelle Quek was allegedly hit on the back with an umbrella by a lady and then punched in the face by the lady’s foreign boyfriend:

“The only reason why I’m posting this video is beacuse she’s a blogger and I think bloggers should stick together.”

Wait a minute! So if she’s not a blogger then it’s alright for us not to stand with her? When did it make a crime more serious than it is simply because the suspect is a foreigner, and the victim is * gasp * a local blogger? Worst yet, should we only be outraged only when a ‘star blogger’ is assaulted? Do I stand back when somebody got punched in the face and kicked on the leg, simply because she’s a nobody? Come on! This doesn’t make any sense at all!!

Anyway, I still gave the incident a closer look. While I did feel some outrage when I heard that a foreigner has attacked a local and her friend, which were both young girls, it appeared to me that this case wasn’t as clear cut as that of Bo Davis and the trishaw uncle.

All we can see in the two video clips, was really just the aftermath, and in my opinion, a display of ‘mob justice’. It was not a video of what happened, and I honestly couldn’t take a stand without hearing the foreigner’s side of the story. In fact, is there anyway to ascertain that we have the full story even when we had listened to both sides? (An excerpt of Michelle’s side of the story can be found here.)

Some might argue that based on the fact that bystanders came to offer assistance to the girls and to detain the foreigner, it would mean the foreigner is definitely at fault. However, can anyone be absolutely certain the bystanders had also witnessed what happened prior to the chase and the foreigner’s violent act? Personally speaking, I suspect that any man who saw his girlfriend getting chased and outnumbered two-to-one would have intervened physically. This is simply what any men worth their salt should do. (But that being said, it does not mean I agree with resorting to violence to achieve that end even though the foreigner might have assumed that his girlfriend was getting bullied.)

So, while I would have normally rant about the foreign talent policy and on how foreigners failed to respect our way of live and our traditions, I find that I couldn’t work myself up to a rage to do it this time. I would normally have condemned any bad-mannered or misbehaving foreigners – be it PRs, new citizens or tourists – but I will refrain from letting my emotions run high in this case.

I would appeal to my fellow bloggers, let’s not use our blogs to influence our readers or to turn it into an avenue of mob justice, in which suspects are condemned without being allowed to adequately defend themselves. Administering justice is the job of the judge and our courts. It would not do well for the reputation of our country if Singaporean bloggers make the world see us as an unreasonable and xenophobic bunch.

When my friends forward me stuff on emails, I have always insisted that they verify if those things are true before forwarding. The reason is because I want to be able to trust what my friends are telling me, and to avoid the need to verify what was being told to me. I detest receiving stuff that is attributed to someone, but that person has never said or done such a thing.

Similarly, that same yardstick I apply to myself. I do not want my friends to consider that I am a source of false or untruthful information. I do not wish to mislead anyone into passing on a piece of false information. Whenever possible, I do my best to verify that the stuff I am posting are true, and if I even so much doubt its authenticity because of a typo, I will put up a disclaimer so those who read them are duly informed to take it with a pinch of salt.

I get exceptionally frustrated when I cannot verify something. And recently, the following posted on this blog has frustrated me because I was unable to ascertain its truthfulness:

I am not aware that comments can be deleted without leaving a trail. After all, I once deleted a comment from this entry on Cloudywind’s blog because of a typo and it left an indication of that deletion. And once you are logged on with your Google / Blogger account, the deletion icon – in the form of a trash bin – will be clearly visible beside your own comments. But in the case of this blog, there were no link or icons for similar effect.

So, how the hell did ‘Harry’ of ‘Why Nuffnang Will Fail‘ delete them? Did he hack the blog? If Harry has hacked it then that could possibly be a crime under the Misuse of Computer Act, which should be reported to the authorities for the appropriate action to be taken. And it is even more puzzling that if Harry has hacked it, why did he stop at just deleting the comments and not also change the password after wiping the site as well?

It is certainly bad manners and very unbecoming of someone to go around smearing someone’s reputation simply because the opponent held an opposing view. The accusing blogger should put his money where his mouth is and make a police report. If not, as a matter of principles, he should jolly well clear the name of the other blogger.

Of course he can refuse to do so but he can then go down as a liar and lose all credibility in blogosphere.

Now I’ll wait to see what lame excuses he’s going to come up with to justify his antics, which has so far been proven to be self righteous, if not self contradicting.

In between user calls and my daily tasks, I checked out the recent posts on ping.sg and noticed that two of its members are now on a collision course over the matter of Nuffnang.

But what is so notable about that since flame wars are pretty common in Blogosphere? Some people just flame one another for the fun of it or to attract attention. The reason it was notable was because not too long ago, one of the bloggers involved in this little ‘disagreement of views’ actually posted a blog post titled ‘The Final Words On Nuffnang (Seriously)’ (see screen shot below).

When Endoh sent me the subject of the post on MSN Live Messenger, I recalled myself typing the following response: “Famous last words, he mean?”

Anyway, just in case there are meanings in the word Final that I did not originally know, I actually checked it up on Dictionary.com to make sure I ain’t mistaken.

I was thinking that anyone who said something like that would really appear stupid if he later continues talking about the same topic. You see a lot of people getting their feet in their mouths when they said ‘This is my absofxxkinglutely last post on this matter’ on the forum and then continue to respond later. And here was the blogger making two posts on the matter today:

So, was that really final or not?

My colleague actually turned around and gave me the dirty look when I said that out loud. I went through some of his postings and comments on the subject and I actually saw him accusing his opponent of deleting comments from the comments section which is actually funny because… wouldn’t that mean his blog has been hacked? How could that be?

* Darth Grievous trembles in fear and exclaims * All hail Harry, the 1337 hax0r! I am not worthy!

I am again wondering if I was prescient when I said in an earlier post that supporters of Nuffnang aren’t really helping at all. Personally speaking, the so-called final post should be more aptly named:

‘The Final Words On Nuffnang. Eh, until the really final one, that is (Seriously)’. LOL!