Hulls holds out hope for Nguyen

The Australian: Hulls holds out hope for Nguyen :

"'It is important that we use every avenue possible to save this young man's life.'"

Do you know, we are all talking about this and it's heartwarming. The discussions are multifaceted and comprehensive. This 25 year old with no other criminal record is scheduled to die next Friday, the second, and when you look at other 25 year olds, you can see that is a time people are hitting their stride in claiming their own lives and when you listen to 40 and 50 year olds they will talk about their mid twenties and how silly they were and how they have changed. It's very sobering to think this life is being sacrificed so we can become more conscious of the complexities of the drug situation in our society and what drugs have done to our world and then to hear how each person reacts. What is clear and interesting is that each of these media cases has been "judged" by the individuals. No case has just been lumped into the "druggie" or "criminal" basket. People have listened and thought and then made decisions. The general consensus seems to be these people are very stupid for doing this in Asian countries. The second thought is maybe there are people behind these people who terrify them into doing things and then the third thought seems to be they are actually too stupid to be criminals and a proper criminal wouldn't get caught. I rest my case at this point. The people sentenced to die are not the criminals in the drug problem we have world wide...and the real criminals are not being caught. That countries have agreed to work on this together is of great relief to me. The more brains engaged in this , the better. It has been very obvious in this that Australians are being caught. No other country seems to be doing this or reporting it. You just don't read news of others from other countries in their news. Either they don't get caught or they don't do it or we own our recalcitrants very publicly. I am actually pleased to know I am in a country where we have operated as a team to try and sort this awful mess out for all these people. We have treated them all differently. They are all individuals to us. We have responded differently to them all and our politicians have too. So inspite of criticisms of this person and that person, I am actually glad we have been just like a squabbling family trying to sort out the black sheep. I am proud of us. We have not disowned them. Nor have we necessarily felt sorry for them. They have been our family and we have applied our common sense to them. Whatever way you look at it...they haven't killed, maimed , destroyed, blown up, spiflicated, raped, pillaged or murdered. Some seem more involved than others and we are looking at that. We realise they have a real problem with reality and we question why,when they are so young, and most other young people get it. Those who say they don't care, probably don't, like some family members switch off...usually with a family member who does the same stupid thing time and time again. So which one of our high profile cases has done this time and time and time again? Which one of our high profile cases has been so drug affected it's driven us to distraction or been such a case hardened dealer? Friday of next week will tell me again we are a nation which still has a heart and we are still a family and I hope it's not because a 25 year old has to die because he really did do something soooo stupid. The penalty for stupidity? Come to Australia...you will find out. We are merciless with people who make daft decisions. Shane Warne is still serving his time.

The last comforting thought I have had about this situation is I have been reading the news and Indonesia has been really getting stuck into us. They have been all along the way. They are not frightened to give us a good talking to and to tell us to sort ourselves out and get ourselves into gear. That is a good friend. When they think we are stuffing up, they blast us in a very public way and go lecture, lecture, lecture and that's what your best mate does to keep up your courage and to keep your backside moving. It tells me we have got neighbours who are our friends. They are as frustrated as we are with all of this. I thank them for their forebearance ,their consideration and their straight talk.

In the mean time, the mother is suffering her pain, but we have somehow managed to rally around her and give her public support. For her, this is a cruel blow and I am glad we have had the compassion to put our positions aside and stand right there with her.