Gadling

Remember Michael Fay? Does caning sound familiar? {Gadling}

Sep 24th 2008 8:53AM I used to live a stone's throw away from SAS down at Pine Grove. At the time of the "grave" incident, I was abroad in my junior year at Stanford. When I glanced up from my books to check out the whole storm in a teacup, I was more than a little amused. Really ... 1 U.S. President, 24 distinguished senators, and a whole gaggle of news organizations lambasting that barbaric little country that dared ... *gasp* ... to enforce her own laws (you know, the very same ones that help to keep Singapore *beautiful* and relatively crime-free?). You would have thought a Rwanda-level humanitarian crisis was brewing. And perhaps it was a crisis, for as we all well know, young American butts are too precious to be manhandled. Ouch.

God Almighty all that trans-pacific drama and egregious time-wasting over a callow man-boy whose parents for some reason forgot or thought it unnecessary to bring some order to his rudderless life. And as certain events occurring in the U.S. would later prove, he really was in dire need of some no-bull adult supervision. And yes I read all about this his ADHD. Well, maybe that cane was just what the shrink prescribed to get his undivided attention.

When I was in the U.S. for my studies I followed all the procedures from the time I disembarked at SFO to the time I departed four years later. I did not even get a single speeding ticket on road trips up and down California during school breaks. I followed the laws of the land I was residing in and did not bring trouble or grief to any U.S. immigration or law-enforcement agents. So I cordially expect the same of anybody, from the U.S. or otherwise, visiting my country. Honestly, I don't think that's asking for a lot.