On Fri, 24 Jun 2005 09:24:44 -0400, Steven Shelikoff
wrote:

On Fri, 24 Jun 2005 13:30:34 +0700, wrote:

[...]
You should be aware that in some countries, Singapore and Malaysia,
for example, the penalty for possession of a firearm or ammunition is
death and before you get any idea that being a U.S. citizen would
protect you if you were to be caught you should be advised that both
Singapore and Malaysia have hung quite a number of foreigners from the
west.

Do you have any cites of them hanging a US citizen for possession of a
firearm? You'd think we would have heard of something like that on the
news but it doesn't ring a bell. Last thing I remember was when they
whipped that boy for drunken behaviour or spitting or something like
that.

Steve

The boy, a US citizen, was 16 and was convicted of graffiti in a
Singapore court. He received a whipping with a rattan cane on the bare
behind - a standard punishment. Draconian it may seem, but we never
saw any graffiti between Australia and Greece. We knew we were back in
the civilised world when we saw the tagging on the Greek trains. Oh, I
forgot the small "f***k bush" tag on the wall of an Ottoman castle on
the hill above Aden in Yemen.

I do not have the figures for last year but do know that Singapore
hanged 273 foreign nationals in 2003 regardless of country of origin.

FWIW, the last time that anyone was flogged in an Australian prison
was in 1953 - not that long ago. Thrity years ago, as a former high
school teacher in New Zealand, I was able to cane boys on the rear
end so long as I did not draw blood - it was very common in some
schools, some teachers caning someone every day.