JUST PUNISHMENT*

*"Just Punishment will broadcast on the ABC at 9:20 on 7th December 2006.

On December 2nd 2005 Van Nguyen, a 24 year old Australian, was hanged by the state of Singapore for trafficking 396 grams of heroin. Van was the first Australian to be executed in many years and his story flooded news outlets across the country. Filmed over two years 'Just Punishment' tells the story behind the media face of Van Nguyen and the remarkable journey to try and keep him alive.

In the weeks preceding Van Nguyen's hanging the Australian public was gripped by media reports detailing the unceasing efforts to save the young drug dealers life. Despite the number of states within the Asian region who practise capital punishment, it had been 12 years since an Australian citizen faced execution. The media interest was intense, diplomatic tension ensued and public opinion was split.

Van became the pin up boy for a number of causes: a symbol of the injustice of Singapore’s mandatory death sentence system, a lesson on the impact of drug trafficking and an example of the power of reformation. At the moment of his execution thousands of people attended vigils and church services across the country. Van Nguyen's story had captured a nation.

Three years earlier, Van was arrested whilst in transit at Singapore's Changi Airport. He was found with heroin strapped to his body and in his hand luggage. Under Singapore's strict drug laws he automatically faced a mandatory death sentence. Van was not a seasoned drug trafficker, he had no prior criminal record and this trip was the first time he had left Australia.

Van's friends and family were shocked by the news of his arrest, including his twin brother who was, in part, the motivation for Van's ill-fated trip. His arrest brought together an unlikely group who formed Van's inner circle as his case moved from legal process to a diplomatic plea.

'Just Punishment' traces Van’s change from naive, young man to some one who became wise beyond his years, who in the face of the hangman’s noose came to fearlessly accept his fate and leave peace in the hearts of those who fought to save him. Told through a mixture of exclusive interviews, unseen observational footage and excerpts from Van’s prison diaries, ‘Just Punishment’ tracks the personal stories of Van and his inner circle over the two years from death sentence to execution.

Van Nguyen's story effected every-one who came to know it, from those closest to him to the highest levels of Australian politics. It is a story that is guaranteed to remain in our conscience for a while yet.

Kajneesh. The Taxi Driver

Watch the video

A part time taxi driver died hours after an assailant allegedly tried to throw him from his moving cab he was an Indian national completing his masters of accounting...

... in Melbourne, Australia.

 

August 10, 2006 

How to hate.

A couple of years ago I sat looking out over Cape Town South Africa from a vantage point on Robben Island. I sat there with two members of paramilitary organsisations who are fundamentally opposed to each other. We talked about if we had of been prisoners on the island would we have tried to swim to Cape Town in order to escape. We all answered differently though all laughed at each other's responses before saying good night and retiring for the night.

Both of these men had served time for murder, both of these men had been seen as soldiers, as terrorists and as freedom fighters by different people in different places. And both of these men had been told that the rest of their lives would be spent inside of a prison. Both of these men, now free, see each other on a regular basis, know each other as friends and kid with each other as though they are brothers. Both of them still hold their beliefs close to who they are.

One of these men walked into a house and shot a man point blank in the head as he slept, the other blew up a building killing half a dozen or more people and almost killing the leader of a country. Now both of these men greet each other in peace and humility and openly seek dialogue in order to bring about the end of a conflict which started many centuries ago. Not everyone they know would be or is happy about their friendship or aknowledgement of each other, though I would say that the world is a better place for having these two men free and free to talk with each other.

Both of these men feel that what they have done was necessary and do not back down on what they carried out; what they call "an act of war". Both see that there comes a time when speaking with each other is going to resolve more issues than killing each other.

On Thursday this week I was part of a crew recording an interview with a survivor of Auschwitz. In 1946 at the end of the war he had walked out of the gates of the camp yelling in three languages that he was a free man. Weighing less than 35kg, he was picked up by an American soldier and put into a hospital truck from were his recovery began. Upon recovery he went to Israel and became a part of the Jewish fight for Palestine and the eventual creation of the Israeli state. This small statured and very proud man talked of how he wanted to make sure that the world learnt from the experiences of the Jews in Poland and Germany; that the world and young people of today saw what misconstrued hatred can lead to. As we chatted later after the interview, we talked about hatred; hatred of the Poles, the Germans and then of the Muslims.

"How can you negotiate with a person who is only interested in how he is going to die", he said. This man who had previously talked with us about how he would never be able to hate again, that he had seen enough hatred and wanted to make sure that what happened to the Jews never happened again, had now misconstrued his own hatred. I don't feel that I can take anything from this man who has experienced hell on earth and has come back from it with what seems for the most part to be humility and understanding. However, to watch as hatred rises so easily in this man, makes me feel that humility and understanding is the hardest of lessons and the longest of journeys.

My own country sees attacks on our indigenous people every day of the week covered up as policy and swamped in bureaucracy and everyday I walk past the results of these attacks as drunken men and women abuse each other and bystanders with misdirected anger and hatred. We learn at an ealry age how to hate, it seems that it takes much longer to learn how to forgive and accept each others existance.

Both Martyrs to their own.

If both of these two young men die the way they seem to want to, they will both be seen as martyrs to their own people. If both of these young men were asked why they are willing to die fighting they will say it is for their homeland and for the right to say they exist.
And yet to the those with the power to have them talk, only one of these young men is seen as a soldier?

Whoopers for FREE!

Melbourne International
Film Festival Opening
Hamburgers all round.

Whoopers for FREE!

A couple of things I found on my phone

A couple of things I found on my phone this week,

Hi kel you are right
about Tash. We are in
the hugest fight over
screen. She really
mad with me casue i
ask her to fix it.Only
asked twice.. And now
i am mad with her
cause whats wrong
wit asking. She weird
she said she will be
writing me a letter to
tell me why she is mad
about me asking. I am
over it hey. Tired of
her being mean to me.
Me and brit think
maybe i should not be
her friend any more.
But its been so long
us being friends. so
confused..Miss you..

Guess what? I HAVE NO IDEA WHO THIS IS!
And Kel tell whoever to get over it>

My phone got drenched in a shower and I get given this loan phone. Some of the stuff I receive...
like this

Your ? account is
overdue. Please
arrange immediate
payment of the
overdue amount
or contact ? on
1300 ??????
to discuss your
account.

I am sure this must of been meant for Kel or Tash?

Would like to post some of the images. Though don't have the software to upload nor the ability to email at present.

another day...

another day...

...just another day.

And another vlog.

I will slowly get better and thanks dj spooky