New plan: 200 words of the day

So this is my new plan to keep up with my blog more frequently. I read a lot of articles everyday, so starting today I will try to keep up a daily journal of my opinions on the most concerned article of the day. My personal response, however, will be limited under 100-200 words so that I can (1) make sure I won't spend too much time on my blog and (2) short posts are easier to be kept updated. To ensure flexibility, I will give myself 2 "free days" per week that I can skip, just to make sure I can sustain the plan even at busy times.

I will name this plan Daily Opinion. I would really appreciate it if you also contribute your thoughts to the conversation in the comment box :)

SO HERE IT GOES:

DAILY OPINION #1

(Saturday, January 14th, 2012)

Topic of the day: Please view this article:

http://www.baomoi.com/Nhieu-nguoi-bat-binh-clip-teen-tung-ho-Le-Van-Luyen/104/7710108.epi

For summary, the article talks about a murderer who intruded a gold merchant store, killed three people of a family and cut off an arm of an 8-year-old girl. He was sentenced for 18 years in prison. However, when he was escorted off the court, there were a number of young teenagers who publicly praised his name and supported him like an idol. 

My concern is: How can those young people idolize such a gruesome murderer?

Response:

Many people blame this strange phenomenon for bad education, lack of family concern, the degraded behaviors of the young generation, etc. They are all true. However, such blames are already old-fashioned, the kind of blames that I started to hear in middle-school about 8 years ago. Is there then any newer explanation for this new phenomenon?

That was what I wondered at first, but later on, I wondered a different question: Is this phenomenon new at all? Or is it just a long hidden social issue that we just start to observe and be surprised?

The kind of murderer in the article is not rare, and there have been tons of murder cases committed by under-aged teens. We are so used to reading that kind of news that we are more “immune” towards reading about murders. In short, will you still be surprised if another teen commits another murder? No, not that much.

Now, if there are many people similar to that murderer, it is just completely normal that the murderer had supporters during his hearing at the court. Those “supporters” are eventually potential criminals that have yet to commit an official murder.

In the end, we have long been alarmed; and instead of fixing the problem, we slept in that alarm. Now the alarm changes its ringtone, the problem reappears, not new, but just in another form, and that’s why we are alarmed again. Hopefully this time we will act.