Real photos of a Singapore caning

No, these are not from a sicko snuff movie. This is what happens if you chew gum in Singapore. (Not really; the canee was convicted of rape, and this is just part of his punishment.) An interesting glimpse into an aspect of the culture here that is so different from anything we know back home….

can 1a.jpg
cane 1.jpg
cane 2.jpg

I also thought this would offer a nice balance to Conrad’s weekly “Different Perspectives” photos.

The Discussion: 90 Comments

yup – this seems to what is done in sg – but the face of the one who whips the fella is covered with some cloth – so that he cannot be recognised.

the pics are supposed to be the one from the m’sia caning ceremonies.

remember michael fay? – his arse probably looked like this after the caning.

toodles

August 14, 2003 @ 11:45 am | Comment

ugh.

i seem to remember during the whole michael fay scandal most people thinking that he was a whiny brat who should just suck it up and take responsibility for his immature behavior.

i wonder if pics like these got out at that time whether people would have changed their minds and demand that singapore free him. of course, the state dept wouldn’t be able to do shit, but maybe the court of world public opinion would put a little more pressure on singapore to release him.

August 14, 2003 @ 1:53 pm | Comment

Good points, Wayne. I remember listening to Rush Limbaugh at the time who said it would be the best medicine Michael Faye could receive, as though it was just a glorified spanking. It is apparently a gruesome, agonizing process; only 2 lashes of the cane are done at a time (or so my office colleague explained to me today) because after that, the canee loses so much blood he passes out. They wait, get him conscious again, and then proceed. What a job that must be.

August 14, 2003 @ 2:22 pm | Comment

… And people complain about a decadent American culture.

Clearly, the punishment is just as bad as the crime and all the more so because it is calculated to inflict pain, measure by measure so the perp won’t pass out or die on the ‘justice’ system.

August 15, 2003 @ 8:11 pm | Comment

Ultimate S&M Fantasy!

August 16, 2003 @ 1:45 am | Comment

How hot is this ?? I cane instantly !

June 29, 2004 @ 12:41 pm | Comment

Those Singaporeans sure learned a lot from the Brits who
began the fine art of caning. Hail Brittania!

July 30, 2004 @ 10:38 pm | Comment

anyone in NC who could do this?

October 14, 2004 @ 6:41 pm | Comment

I’d like to make some clarifications:

1) That is clearly not a Singapore caning. The caning procedure in Singapore requires the recipient to bend over the trestle. Receiving the strokes standing as in the photo suggests that this is actually a Malaysian caning.

2) To chew gum is not a caneable offence in Singapore.

November 9, 2004 @ 10:06 am | Comment

hey, can a 15 year old get caned in sg

December 13, 2004 @ 2:41 am | Comment

Caning to me is kind compared to a lengthy prison term. I;d take a dozen or so cuts anyday than spend a long time in jail.It suprises me that men can;t trade jail time for cane strokes.Even being the owner of a small white backside I;m sure once caned I;d still walk around and thumb up the end of my nose.

December 19, 2004 @ 7:37 am | Comment

Some comments:

1) You got those pics from corpun.com, right?

2) The trestle in the pic above is completely different from the one used in Singaporean prison caning.

3) That’s what happens to your backside when you receive the maximum number of strokes in Singapore; 24.

January 3, 2005 @ 2:20 am | Comment

Yes, it’s Malaysia, not Singapore. And the number of strokes shown here must be at least 15. Michael Fay only got four, so his backside would not have looked anything like this.

February 26, 2005 @ 4:14 am | Comment

For those who choose caning and avoid some hang-a-round in jail, you have no idea what you talking about.
Caning especially in Malasia’s jail is the cruelest and most painfull thing you can ever imagine. I as a Malaysian once had the chance to watch a video tape of the process of caning and i can tell you all sm fan, it is not pretty.
So, when you free and fell boring, come to Malaysia and have yourself a little rotan.

March 23, 2005 @ 5:37 am | Comment

I think the can should be introduced into Australia. If it does, I believe, the crime rate would drop considerably. Look at what punishments the “descendants of convicts” get now. Its joke.

March 23, 2005 @ 10:45 pm | Comment

Here i want to take the chance to ask you all, the people of the world to protest or do anything you can to stop the canig punishment in Malaysia’s jail. The malaysian leader keep telling that malaysia is a democratic country but we all know it’s crap.
this caning punishments is almost the same punishment in the dark age in Europe during the 5th to 15th century.
So as a human being, do what you should to and stop something like that happen in our lovely world.

March 26, 2005 @ 12:30 am | Comment

Caning in Singapore

Posted by Candidia Cruikshanks, CEO of Wealth Bondage Best practices of corporal punishment in the well ordered state. (Caning pictures from Singapore.) Societies that suceed have the stomach to do what failed cultures don’t. Liberals coddle the poor. …

March 30, 2005 @ 6:52 am | Comment

I believe that if a son or daughter of anyone opposing this punishment is molested, raped or killed would immediately change his/her mind, I would love to see a video of this punishment in progress, there are some evil persons that deserve this, I would recommend this punishment for armed robbery, auto theft, molestation, rape, corrupt government officials and anyone who deliberately causes harm to innocent people.

April 17, 2005 @ 1:10 pm | Comment

Those people are barbarous. It is indeed like midieval torture, and has no place in the modern world. Maybe one stroke has a place, but repeated strokes are just torture. I would like to see retribution payments for civil crimes or other punishments that fit the crime, but chewing gum or vandalizing a car does not approach the level that the punishment does.

I wager with odds that the guy who would trade time for cane strokes would change his mind after one unless he is already doped up with morphine before the torture.

You people who don’t like the govt of Malaysia should do something about it, and not just complain here. That is serious stuff.

Karl

May 3, 2005 @ 2:04 pm | Comment

I for one would like to see the US adopt this form of punishment for grown men. I think any criminal deserves to have their ass bared and whipped hard. I used to get bare ass spankings well into my 20’s and it scared me good. The thought of having people watching your ass turn red hot and you feeling it burn badly should be a deterrent. Look at Singapore and malaysia;s crime rate. They are low because of this. People may argue that if we have it it won’t be administered fairly and what not. Let’s have it administered fairly to all men regardless of age or race. Definitly a punishment like this would help us win the war on terror if some terroist scumbags from the middle east decide to plot something against us by entering here illegally

May 13, 2005 @ 2:26 pm | Comment

Rush Limbaugh laughed back in 1994 that Michael Fay deserved this “spanking”.

Caning is torture. It is a crime itself. It vandalizes the human body. Civilized nations have long abandoned the whipping post.

Ironically, Limbaugh got himself into a drug mess. In Singapore, Limbaugh could have his fat buttocks caned.

Who knows how Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Bob Grant, etc. would feel if they were whipped?

May 18, 2005 @ 7:58 am | Comment

Singapore doesnt exist human rights

http://www.migration.ucdavis.edu/mn/more.php?id=1680_0_3_0.com/

May 22, 2005 @ 2:45 am | Comment

Who are we to say what the punishment in another country should be. If you are traveling or moving to another country, know the laws before you live or go there or face the punishments. If a man only gets whipped and jail time for raping a woman he is lucky. I can think of worse things he should get!!!!

May 27, 2005 @ 5:58 pm | Comment

I lived in Singapore for 11 years. Caning was a common punishment for rape, breaking and entering, vandalism, assault and myriad other type crimes. The maximum is 24 strokes and they’re given over a period of time. Not all at once. No question that caning is brutal, but then again, if the criminal knows what’s in store for him if he gets caught he may think twice before committing a crime. Most don’t however. Like I said, caning happens all the time in Singapore. I don’t know the minimum age for caning, but men over 50 can not be caned.

June 2, 2005 @ 1:01 pm | Comment

makes me want to find a man from singapore and show him some American hospitality! Those dumb fucks – how could clinton let them even touch a hair on his (fay’s) body. Clinton had so much leverage. All he had to do was say “let my people go – or else” Fuck diplomacy- we are talking of physical punishment- torture. We Americans allowed it and should be ashamed of ourselves. Maybe one day I’ll run into a nice man from singapore and teach him a thing or two – to even the score!!!!

June 6, 2005 @ 7:14 pm | Comment

Yeah, blame Clinton for everything. Idiot.

June 6, 2005 @ 7:29 pm | Comment

pic is not of singapore police force uniform

June 7, 2005 @ 3:20 am | Comment

Pot meet kettle? You americans have more to be ashamed of than you’d dare to admit. I figure your idea of american hospitality is laden with 100 tons of exlosives? You decide you want to even the score with a singaporean for Michael Fay but you forget literally millions of victims under American foreign policy who have a score to settle with YOU. Its exactly the ‘do as I say – or else’ self-righteous mindset that teaches kids like Fay to have no regard for authority and run into trouble with the law. Have you ever thought, maybe, Bill Clinton, sitting somewhere behind his desk, honestly and truly felt we should have every right to cane the bastard but had to bow down to pressure from idiots like you? You amuse me.

June 14, 2005 @ 9:54 am | Comment

Congratulations Ben — you have won the title of Official Moron. You don’t even have the faintest idea what you’re talking about.

June 14, 2005 @ 10:04 am | Comment

Nice come back Richard, is that the best you can do? Snide personal remarks? I apologize if you found the wording too difficult to understand. Let me put the rationalization behind my earlier post, in a clearer, less complex way.

You break our rules, we break you in our own very own way. This is Singapore. We do not give a flying rats ass who you are or where you come from. This is our playground, our sandbox. Capiche?

And I repeat, you Americans do not decide what is allowed and not allowed in our country. Besides, looking at retort, you know no shame.

June 14, 2005 @ 10:31 am | Comment

No, I admit it, I know no shame! I don’t have to, because this is my site.

You’re a moron for drawing some sort of moronic connection between US foreign polict that’s “killed millions” and the caning of Michael Faye. And you drew first blood, referring to the previous commenter as an idiot. So don’t you get all uppity and complain about snide remarks, you snide moronic moron.

June 14, 2005 @ 10:46 am | Comment

That son of a bitch vandalised cars. He had it coming.

June 15, 2005 @ 2:16 am | Comment

moronic moron? You’re the moron…
your vocabulary is as limited as a 5 year old savant. Do you know what a savant is? Of course you don’t what a dumb question. I think you are on dictionary.com right now trying to find out what it is…

June 15, 2005 @ 2:27 am | Comment

Sometimes these U.S people think they are the moral police or something, keep instructing other nations on their policies and look at their country now run by some red-neck boy

June 20, 2005 @ 7:26 am | Comment

oaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah u mingaz wm

June 22, 2005 @ 10:02 am | Comment

I wish the Pope had intervened on behalf of Michael Fay. Or volunteered to take the torture for him.

Caning is wrong. While I respect the autonomy of foreign nations, there are limits for all human beings in how we administer justice to our fellow man.

You do not torture.

June 27, 2005 @ 6:49 pm | Comment

Ok. Caning is the worst punish ment ever. Like henry says, it vandalizes the human body. I fucking hate it.

June 28, 2005 @ 4:58 pm | Comment

Yes, and malaysia’s and singapore’s crime rate still increase every year. it shown that this stupid yet cruel punishment is not suitable to the world. If you want to change a criminal into a responsible man, you have to make them know they are wrong, what punish them and make them hate this world more.

Last but not least, F***U to the goverment who use this type of torture.

June 28, 2005 @ 11:44 pm | Comment

Offcourse, the criminals like me deserve punishment. But am still a human being!
Do I have to live with those scars in my mind
and body rest of my life??? What answor will
I give to my wife?? What will be the condition of my parents, in case they came to know about the mental and physical torchure their
kid suffered? I am sure they will die of broken
heart. I believe even God will not punish a HUMAN BEING so. And am sure those people
who execute the caning will not die peacefully…I am sorry, but I don’t have words
to explain much about that system….

July 4, 2005 @ 1:19 am | Comment

fuck u singapre judicial system….

July 4, 2005 @ 2:27 am | Comment

Singapore is an interesting point; I always imagined oppressive governments (fascism and communism) to inevitably result in financial poverty. But Singapore manages to be fascist and still have a decent economy.

Singapore is very sick. I consider routine atrocities like this a great argument that the US should be involved in reforming other countries (such as Afghanistan, Iraq and North Korea).

July 4, 2005 @ 9:02 am | Comment

Win said: “Do I have to live with those scars in my mind
and body rest of my life??? What answor will
I give to my wife?? What will be the condition of my parents, in case they came to know about the mental and physical torchure their
kid suffered? I am sure they will die of broken
heart.”

That’s kind of the point. It’s a deterrent. You’re not supposed to break the law. If it takes something this drastic to make you think about your actions, so be it. What about the mental and physical torture your (metaphorically speaking) victims have suffered? What about the parents of the woman who was raped or the boy who was murdered?

I agree, mandatory caning for crimes like vandalism is extreme but caning in singapore is hardly a routine atrocity. Contrary to what some websites tell you, caning is NOT used as a punishment for spitting or littering. They have a doctor on hand to make sure no permanent nerve damage is done and for the most part, caning is for violent crimes and drug trafficking. Also, I’ll say it again, you’re NOT SUPPOSED to break the law. I know I sure as hell won’t be vandalising any cars in Singapore. (Although they don’t cane women, so it doesn’t apply to me anyway. Nor do they cane children – under 18s. Men between 18 and 50 are fair game though, which seems wrong to me. Why cane a 25 yr old male drug smuggler but not a 35-yr-old female murderer?)

July 6, 2005 @ 3:19 am | Comment

First of all get your facts right. The “4 strokes” for Michael Fay was his sentence but he didn’t actually get 4 strokes.

And the picture isn’t even of Singapore.

I don’t agree with capital / corporal punishment but I don’t think anyone should pass judgment on an entire nation, or its people, on the basis that it has sinned or needs to be “reformed”.

Let he who has no sin cast the first stone.

July 8, 2005 @ 11:59 am | Comment

Also, if you’re truly a proponent of human rights you wouldn’t resort to violence to “teach” someone else about human rights.

July 8, 2005 @ 12:00 pm | Comment

Does anyone think singapore strictly follows the rules and regulations?? Do you know what are the atrocities going on inside the city state? Just go around gaylang and see whats going on there..There are a hell lot of companies which treat their foreign workers like slaves. Manjorty of such mechanical companies, they are fored to work for more than 12 hrs. daily and 7 days a week. Is that the govt. is unaware of this situation? Simple, let them have a raid in such industries
or any of the hotels in geylang. Singaporians
may not know about these atrocities, but rest
of the world knows….

July 14, 2005 @ 6:41 am | Comment

Who is the man who does the caning? What is his name and address? Does he have a family? Has he ever been interviewed on tv, or been too ashamed?

Doctors who assist in caning should lose their licenses. Is there a Singapore medical association holding them to any kind of standards?

July 15, 2005 @ 7:24 pm | Comment

These people are sick.

At one point I was not very supportive of US intervention into other country’s tradition… But then I came to realize what these traditions were… The US has it’s problems… but the world outside of the US and Europe is pretty god damn disgusting.

July 18, 2005 @ 4:48 pm | Comment

I’d rather spend time in Singapore than in the US on any day of the week. One is a fair and just society with clear laws and penalties for breaking them which are well known and publicised. The other place thinks it’s the world’s policeman on every level and attempts to exert its will without regard for justice or respect for others who want to live a different life or go a different way. US citizens should universally hang their heads in shame and apologise to the world for their very existence – and while you’re on, free the people you detain illegally in Guantanamo.

July 25, 2005 @ 2:22 pm | Comment

I´d rekommend the first time caning to be carried out by a woman, not to cause severe injuries. A youngster might feel ashamed if he needs to appear in front of a woman and do no more crimes.

July 30, 2005 @ 9:01 am | Comment

are you kidding me? Im kind of glad i live in the us where i can break the law with impunity and not have to worry about actual punishment. On the other hand, are you kidding me? I cant believe the comments on here, cmon now if you cant take the cane, dont do the crime.

September 13, 2005 @ 10:10 pm | Comment

why i can’t see the phone for caning punishment (real)

September 13, 2005 @ 10:34 pm | Comment

I think the word “gook” still applies to the governments of Malaysia and Singapore who perpetrate this.

September 14, 2005 @ 9:05 am | Comment

For armed robbery u can get caned but for shop theft u are not caned.

i’m against caning because its too cruel but i dont understend singaporean laws ,why shop theft is not punishable by caning and overstaying visa is punishable by caning?

September 15, 2005 @ 2:41 am | Comment

but in Singapore still rapers , armed robers , drugs and there are caning , caning is not the panacea to fight against crimes as commonly supposed.

September 15, 2005 @ 2:45 am | Comment

this is soooo mank i showd all my friends and they sed ‘a person has to chew their daily gum…’
‘wot bout nicatine gum?lol’

September 29, 2005 @ 5:09 am | Comment

this fucker raped someone. personally, i think this is a completely fair punishment. he violated someone’s body, and now he’s getting a taste of his own medicine (excuse the cliche please). i can’t believe any of you feel pity for this sicko. maybe next time he’ll think before he decides to take advantage of a woman.

October 6, 2005 @ 6:39 pm | Comment

I am a german doing an internship in S’pore right now. A german colleage of mine was in prison last week because he touched an asian girl on her backside in a disco – he and the girls were drunken, but she decided to go to the security man to tell him about the german guy. Now he is waiting for his conviction. The plicemen threatens him that he would get at least 3 strokes for his offence. What about this? He has the worst time of his live because of touching a girl on her back. Is this fair?

October 11, 2005 @ 8:06 pm | Comment

I honestly don’t believe it. I lived there, and they spare the cane for more serious things, especially with foreigners.

October 11, 2005 @ 8:13 pm | Comment

I got the cane when I was 12 – 6 on my bare bum. It hurt so much I pooped myself

October 12, 2005 @ 4:01 pm | Comment

I hope you had you nose rubbed in your poo Fatboy! Who caned you? Did anyone else see?

October 12, 2005 @ 11:22 pm | Comment

A punishment like this is entirely appropriate for a personal crime like rape, child molestation, etc. Not only does it punish the criminal in a personal way, but it sends a loud and clear message to society that crimes like this are not tollerated. Further, it must give some solace to the victim.

My ex-wife was a rape victim – and I’m here to tell you that it was a life-changing experience for her. The rapist was not prosecuted even though she went to the police and knew who he was. She got no “closure” from our glorious “justice system” here in the US. The system raped her after he finished with her. On the other hand, had he been prosecuted and caned as well as doing jail time, she probably would not have been so deeply haunted by the whole thing.

I consider “cruel” or “unusual punishment” to be punishment that is disproportionately greater than the gravity of the crime. Caning is proportionate with respect to person crimes.

I found this site while writing an article for my blog at http://www.ifiwereasked.blogspot.com. You may find it interesting.

October 13, 2005 @ 12:02 pm | Comment

What is up with this .,… YOur butt is so hot you Chinese people! Tell him to email me! Love for ever you cinks
Hannah

October 14, 2005 @ 6:26 am | Comment

Claire: my aunt (who was caning me) and her 10 year old daughter (who I’d touched up to earn the caning). And yes, I did get my nose pushed in it, much to cousin Deborah’s delight

October 16, 2005 @ 1:28 am | Comment

I am glad you had your nose rubbed in your own stinking filth you disgusting little boy. It is a shame the caning wasn’t done in front of all the girls in your school so they could watch you poop yourself.

November 1, 2005 @ 1:47 pm | Comment

Gee..too bad people have to resort to name calling in this arguement. My opinion…Singapore is a soverign nation, and has the right to implement it’s own laws. I’m a U.S.citizen, and believe the U.S. has it’s own problems with respect to laws regarding the severity of the crime and its related punishment. For example, the U.S. has the highest per capita prison population in the world, with approximately 40% of those incarcerated being convicted of nonviolent crimes. What’s more reasonable…years in prison for drug possesstion, of a couple of stroke of the cane?

November 10, 2005 @ 12:48 pm | Comment

You people are all idiots. the punishment was (“just”) you do the crime you do the time. or in this case accept the punishment as set forth. They knew the rules and yet they broke them so hence forth they should be held responsible and accept the punishment. without laws or disclipline there will be anarchy.

do the crime do the time.

– enough said on this.

November 12, 2005 @ 12:25 pm | Comment

I,m a man from sweden who would
love a caning like this…..paintoyboy

November 14, 2005 @ 5:39 am | Comment

This is an entirely appropriate punishment for a lying cheating narcissistic psychopathic child-molesting scumbag like my ex. Or any other rapist or sexual molester, especially paedophiles.
Not however appropriate for lesser crimes like car theft or whatever, that’s just extreme.
Extreme crimes warrant extreme punishment. Hey, it’s better than death, for goodness sake.
Best advice is to avoid committing a crime in a country that administers this kind of punishment. Too logical, hey?

November 17, 2005 @ 4:01 pm | Comment

As is usually the case, most comments show compassion for the perpetrator. Compassion should be for the victim. I’m not as concerned about trying to rehabilitate the criminal as I am about trying to help the victim overcome there physical and emotional scars. If it’s a violent crime, I say cane the hell out of them.

November 24, 2005 @ 9:07 pm | Comment

Mutilation is cruel and unusual punishment. We are supposed to be above that. The perpetrators should be forced to suffer a long, miserable jail sentence but not physical torture.

November 24, 2005 @ 9:12 pm | Comment

You’d also have a lot less crime if you also made it a police state and made everyone wear big signs around their necks with their name and ID number. Idiot.

December 1, 2005 @ 4:31 pm | Comment

my name is melissa
an i am only thrihteen and me and my mum wacthed it the somirong i think it is at atroses that a australian that has to get hung. i think that it was wrong of him to do that but hangin is the soultion for this. he should of just had the needle. all the best goes out to his family

December 1, 2005 @ 10:52 pm | Comment

Canning should be applied universaly for all violent crimes. It should be understood that criminals forego all their human rights when they commit the crime. Imagine a thug gets into your home at night, beats you sensless, rapes your wife, kills your dog and steals your stash, and then he gets caught. It would only be fair that his ass gets ripped open with AT LEAST 24 strokes.

Having said that, maybe 4 (reduced from 6 after all the complaints) strokes for the little american vandal was a bit extreme. 4 months in jail and the fine are, in my opinion, sufficient.

Being South African i hear about weird crime/justice things all the time. Check this out…. Couple of burglars broke into the house around midnight. They tied the father, mother and daughter, and beat the father couple of times so he would tell them where the cash is and the combination for the safe. Then, expecting to have the whole night they made sandwiches and took their sweet time robbing them. However the SON came back from partying around 3am, noticed that something was wrong, took his gun (in SA a lot of people carry guns in their cars) and shot both guys in their legs.

Having disabled them (but not killed) he proceeded to free his family and then him and father tied up the burglars, and went medieval on them. Torturing continued for about an hour (using fish hooks and stuff) and then they called the police. Police was shocked with what they found, but after all…so what they were burglars.

Well, after recovering, the BURGLARS ten sued the family for what they did to them!!

In my opinion this is wrong. The burglars gave up their rights when they broke into the home. Anything that happened to them between then and arrival of police is their fault.

Some people disagree. Interesting argument…dont you think? Maybe if the family knew that the thieves would get canned, they wouldn’t have been so rough with them.

December 4, 2005 @ 6:41 pm | Comment

Nice ass…

December 4, 2005 @ 6:50 pm | Comment

Cruel and unusual punishment must be banned, as it is in most civilized societies. Beatings, torture, skinning people alive, crucifixion — all are rqually repugnant, as they employ cruelty, physical misery. Do these people deserve it? Perhaps. But as a society we are more advanced than this, and there are ways to punish people that are as severe as physical violence in their effects without being cruel and barbaric.

December 4, 2005 @ 6:57 pm | Comment

The burglary story is totally irrelevant. This isn’;t about whether crime is bad or whether the judicial system isn’t fucked up. It’s about legislating torture.

December 4, 2005 @ 6:58 pm | Comment

Why do people think that “cruel and unusual punishment” means “cruel OR unusual punisment”? The punishment needs to fit the crime — it should be neither too low nor too high. Maybe people have basic human rights. Maybe people have a right to not get raped, killed, etc., and maybe this guy has a right not to have his ass beaten raw.

And why is prison such a better punishment? That 20 years in prison is a good third or fourth of your life. Why is it some people are strongly opposed to the death sentence but think that life in prison is not a “death by old age” sentence? The only way prison is better is that the sentence can be abouted if a year or two later if new evidence shows that he was not guilty.

December 5, 2005 @ 1:42 am | Comment

All civilized societies have disavowed torture and physical punishment (dismemberment, crucifixion, bone crushing, stretching machines, needles in the eyeballs, yanking off toe nails, etc.). If you are asking why and if you are defending such odious and anti-Judeo-Christian practices, then it says a lot abut you.

December 5, 2005 @ 1:57 am | Comment

Legislating torture?

Many countries endorse state funded murder with the death penalty…glass houses.

The cane is used to reduce recidivism.

They actually went easy on michael fay , 12 lashes reduced to 4 . He deserved his punnishment.

The USA has the worlds largest prison population. Tax payer funded.
It is arguable that overcrowded prison environments where rape/violence is often the norm and hence part of the punnishment ,is a more cruel punnishment.

Something like this could reduce costs, recidivism and serve as a deterant.

December 5, 2005 @ 2:36 am | Comment

Yeah, whatever. You can also reduce crime by allowing the police to shoot suspects at will, and by making people carry ID cards or wear RFID sensors. But that’s not what a free and advanced society is supposed to about now, is it?

December 5, 2005 @ 2:53 am | Comment

Richard

Please stop all this hypocritical crap about what a “free and advanced society” is supposed to be, and carping on other countries, when the most “free and advanced society” in the world sees it fit to torture hundreds of individuals without trial in Guantanamo, Iraq and Eastern Europe. At least the US had some locus standi during the Michael Fay incident to protest against the caning, but that was 1994, and another US altogether. (Don’t blame me, I voted Kerry too)

December 5, 2005 @ 1:01 pm | Comment

Daniel, I blast Bush and my own country all the time for going againsty what a civilized country should be.

December 5, 2005 @ 4:49 pm | Comment

He has been knocked down, but I fear the fact that the House elections are one year away, and knowing the rabid Fox news types, they could very well swing it ard for him again in this period.

Anyway, putting aside US politics, I fear that Bush and his ilk have made it very difficult for us to take the moral high grd. Sure, China’s abuses of human rights is extreme, but how about countries like Singapore where there has been economic progress (I have been going there since the late 1970s and have seen its progress with my own eyes – both economic and (slowly but surely) political). I find it very difficult to tell my Singapore friends that the freedom of press works in the US, given that it bamboozled enough pple to vote for Bush in 2004, and the virtual wall of silence in the US surrounding the decision to go to war. Sure, it is unravelling a bit now, but I can tell you that many of the die-hard conservatives are simply taking the position that it’s a liberal press conspiracy.

Well, sorry for this rant about US politics (and I suspect we share fairly similar views abt politics in general), I know this is a blog abt Asia, but I just want to say that the most impt thing for Americans rt now is to really work at getting our own house in order before we tell others what to do with theirs.

December 5, 2005 @ 9:04 pm | Comment

Punishments which the country’s corrective system uses tells more about the society itself and its way of raising children than anything else.

Society which practises corporeal punishments and which hangs from larceny, must absolutely hate its most innocent and vulnerable members – the children. I just wonder what might be the children’s and juveniles’ suicide rate in .sg?

December 6, 2005 @ 11:18 am | Comment

Interesting point.

I think it’s more barbaric that some individuals got so excited they felt the need to point out that caning is cruel, and in the process forgot WHY the caning is taking place…

Putting the rights of a rapist anywhere in the picture is ridiculous.

Talking about “human rights” in that context is insane. The rapist destroys their victims “human rights”. It seems fitting that they have their “human rights” stripped from them.

Why not consider all the components before harping about what Humanity is all about?

Granted, it takes a certain mentality to administer a punishment so severe, and there’s always the need for a “fair trial”…

…but it takes a radical type of ignorance to miss the fact that a criminal puts themselves in the lineup for it, and the punishment – might – not be the first step “over the line” in this context.

December 7, 2005 @ 9:04 pm | Comment

caning sort of excites me in a perverse sort of way… I could watch a caning and go wank off…

December 8, 2005 @ 6:22 pm | Comment

I don’t think they should cane till they cut the skin and cause bleeding… but they could cut back some and just cause bruising and redness – that woujld be ok… and then have at it and go 50 strokes!

yeow!!! stripe my arse! yeah! it makes my noogies draw up pleasurably just to say that!!!

whip me! whip me now! nekkid!!! yeow!!!

December 8, 2005 @ 6:25 pm | Comment

What the f#$% is going on u bunch of idiots? Canning is fuking barbaric

December 8, 2005 @ 7:39 pm | Comment

I find it interesting that you hear so much about gender descrimination and yet this horrible practice around the world in fact for the last two hundred years caning was only done to men and still is. Maybe the NOW needs to go to Singapore and demand that women be treated just as brutally under the law as men are. After all if were the same then why are women spared this brutual punishment. Sometimes I wonder who the oppressed sex really is?

December 9, 2005 @ 6:08 am | Comment

Diem, no one forgot the crime. Rape is barbaric. But the answer is not mutilation. No matter how heinous the crime, you do not descend to the level of barbarity of the perpetrator. I will say it once more: mutilation of another person’s body is barbaric and unacceptable and not tolerated in any advanced society. Even for the worst concentration camp guards and torturers, the answer is not more torture and mutilation. We are supposed to be better than that. An eye for an eye is ancient philosophy replaced by more enlightened ideas and ideals, discarded by civilized societies long ago. Caning is mutilation. Mutilation is wrong. It is barbaric. You do not overcome barbarism by descending to barbarism. Thread closed.

December 10, 2005 @ 2:27 am | Comment

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