Daily Lessons from Life 09 September 2009

No fuss were made about today being 090909!! 9th of September 2009!! Absolutely no big deal!! This is great. ;-))

"Man admits killing baby
He directed his anger at girlfriend's baby and hit the toddler until she bled profusely from the mouth. -Wed, Sep 09, 2009 The Straits Times

AFTER quarrelling with his girlfriend at her workplace, a man cycled to the women's shelter where she was staying and asked for her two-month-old baby.

The baby girl was not his, but Sarle Steepan Kolundu, 44, was registered as the infant's biological father and he was allowed to take her out.

Filled with anger against his 24-year-old girlfriend, Sarle Steepan took it out on the baby, roughing her up until she bled profusely from her mouth."

What a tragic story. What is monster of a man. Or beast!!

Lessons for me are:

1. anger is just a 'D' away from Danger!! The inability to control one's anger can get one into terrible terrible situation and do the unthinkable and cruel and senseless thing! So, anger management skill is essential for those of us who have a quick fuse. Of course, in this case, the person may actually be 'outside' the normal response to being angry!;

2. while loss of temporary sanity is an excuse for doing stupid thing, it CANNOT be accepted as an excuse when that stupid thing involved killing an innocent child! He must pay for the action he had taken. The cruel and brutal way of killing the baby is simple intolerable. He must take responsibility for his actions. No excuse. No 'if' or 'but'!!;

3. are we having more of such unstable people in Singapore or in the developed cities and countries now? It always puzzled me when a society supposedly get richer materially, it has many more inexplicable happening. Is this the price one must pay for progress? I hope not. I think progress materialistically need not created monstrous behaviors IF we stay grounded on basic moral and ethics deeply. I honestly believed that our educational system does not spend enough resources and efforts in this area.

May we re-focus on doing good and not just getting richer materially. May we learn to manage our stress and anger so that we are in the 'danger' zone - to ourselves and others!!