The entire country appears shocked at the murder of Raymond Choo Kong. I don’t know why… crime doesn’t have a particular stratum of society that it sticks to. I empathise with his family and friends but in the past, we have had relatives of the poor, the rich, the police, lawyers, CEOs and even of Members of Parliament being struck down unexpectedly. Crime is no respecter of persons.
People may not like me saying this, and I am NOT saying I want this to happen, but I have often felt that it is only when crime hits home to those in positions of power and positions to implement inflexibly enforced changes, then and only then we will see the will to affect those changes.
Much is being made of the fact that Mr Choo Kong was gay. Whether that is a factor in his murder remains to be seen, but one cannot deny that whole segments of society such as the LGBT, the blind, the disabled etc, remain discriminated against and disgruntlement is rising while politicians play with themselves.
But don’t worry. Just Google “happiness set point” and you will find out that no matter what happens, and who it happens to, the level of happiness will rise back, partying and feting will go on (Diener et al., 1985, 1998, 2001).
Once Carnival doesn’t stop or get cancelled…
