When it comes to the ‘blog genre’ of WTH (What The Hell), one can never go past a good story of a woman scorned – especially one who resorts to cannibalism!
The eerie part of this, is that it’s certainly not the first time I’ve heard of this happening. In the latest incident in Pakistan (in the Shah Faisal colony of Karachi), the arrested woman didn’t actually get as far as eating her husband. In fact, according to police chief, Nadeem Baig, “There could be two factors behind her intention to cook the husband. One is to destroy the evidence and the other could be her immense hatred against him over his plan to marry another woman”.
32-year old Zainab Bibi was arrested on the 24th November, along with her 22-year old nephew, Zaheer. They were alleged to have killed Zainab’s husband, Ahmed Abbas‚ chopped his body into pieces and were about to cook his flesh in a bowl.
Zainab was apparently angry at her life partner for his plans to marry another woman without her permission. You see, according to Islamic family law in Pakistan‚ a man can in fact take another wife, but has to get permission from his first wife to do so.
The knife with which the pair allegedly killed the man has been recovered.
In a very bizarre twist, television networks showed actual footage of the human flesh in a bowl and ready for the stove.
Now before you start casting aspersions on a particular race, country or religion, or suggest something like, “this could only happen in Pakistan”, think again my friends!
This week is the Thanksgiving holiday in the US. It also happens to be the 20th anniversary of probably the number one most crazy cannibal-wife incident in history.
Just last month, the Californian woman who killed her new husband and cooked his body parts over Thanksgiving weekend in 1991 had applied for (and thankfully denied) her bid for parole.
Dubbed as a female Hannibal Lecter, Egypt-born Omaima Nelson’s is serving a ‘25-years to life’ sentence for her crime. At the time of the killing, Nelson was aged 23, and was convicted of murdering her 56-year-old husband William Nelson (they had only been married three weeks).
WARNING: GRAPHIC DETAIL OF THE GRUESOME EVENTS OF THANKSGIVING WEEKEND 1991 FOLLOW (read on only if you have a strong stomach and not prone to queeziness)
According to authorities, Nelson tied up her husband, killed him and then decapitated, dismembered and disembowelled the body over the course of a weekend. She had churned his parts through a garbage disposal (neighbours reported that they heard the machine running non-stop for hours after the murder).
Some of the victim’s body parts were found stuffed in garbage bags and mixed with leftover turkey. A bag containing his entrails was discovered on the front floor of his Corvette.
Blood pools were found on the floor of the home, along with blood-stains on sheets and walls. Mr Nelson’s hands had been fried in oil and his head boiled and stuffed in a freezer.
His lower body and torso were skinned. Strangely, the crazed wife had tried to get two different friends to help her remove her husband’s teeth and dispose of his remains (to cover her tracks and get rid of evidence)… this proved her downfall – one of the friends alerted police – well, go figure!!
Nelson’s defence at trial was that she was acting in ’self defence’ – she said that her husband William had sexually assaulted and beat her for weeks. She claimed William had tied her hands, and bit, kicked, grabbed and choked her and threatened to kill her.
Prosecutors didn’t wear this at all, putting forward evidence suggesting that Nelson killed her husband to obtain his money and other property.
At the trial, she said that after the murder she “freaked out, fell into a trance-like state, and spent 12 hours hacking up the body to simplify disposal.”
Nelson claims to have little memory of her husband’s dismemberment, but did recall cutting off his penis and his ring finger, before cleaning the apartment and packaging the body parts.
A psychiatrist testified that Nelson had put on red shoes, a red hat and red lipstick before spending hours chopping up her husband’s body. She had also confessed to cooking her husband’s ribs ‘barbecue-style’ and tasting them.
“Jurors found Nelson not guilty of first-degree murder, citing insufficient evidence of premeditation, but convicted her of second-degree murder. They also found Nelson guilty of assaulting a former boyfriend with a gun.”
One of the most positive things about living in Singapore, is the extremely low crime rate… one reason, being the relatively small illegal drug trade which takes a lot of the opportunities and temptation away from our youths.
Of course (and I’ve spoken about this before), I’m not necessarily raising the subject of hard versus soft drugs, nor am I advocating the very tough penalties associated with them (up to and including the death penalty)… I just feel very comforted to know that as my kids grow up in Singapore, they will have little or no exposure to ‘hard’ drugs – a comfort that unfortunately cannot be shared in many other countries across the globe.
The CNB seized 17 grams of Ice, 74 grams of heroin and some Ecstasy pills
On Friday, just gone by, the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) arrested 111 drug offenders in a five-day islandwide operation. Included among those taken into custody, were seven suspected traffickers and 104 suspected drug abusers.
The CNB also seized 17 grams of ‘Ice’, 74 grams of heroin and some Ecstasy pills as a result of the operation. The scope of the activities covered both public and private residential areas, along with industrial estates in Woodlands, Sengkang, Tiong Bahru, Clementi and Jurong.
So, all kudos to the men and women of the Central Narcotics Bureau!
Having said that, I am still waiting for the authorities to take a stance on the other ‘legal’ drug, which has been proven to be one of the most addictive, harmful and damaging (to individuals and those around them) available today! Of course, I am talking about alcohol.
Now, don’t get me wrong… I am no prude and I enjoy a beer or glass of wine as much as the next guy. But for a country where drug use and abuse brings about such severe penalties and other breaches of the law are strictly and swiftly dealt with, I am often amazed at how alcohol can be purchased at any 7-11 store, local and large chain supermarkets and any food-court beverage shop. The follow-on effect of this ease of availability, which has shown to be the case in many other geographies, is the onset of drinking in public places and under-age drinking.
This problem I have personally witnessed on numerous occassions – just take a walk around the back of Admiralty shopping centre (near the MRT) on any evening, and check out the many very young boys openly drinking and ‘yahooing’ – while young families (and sometimes small children on their own) are walking by…
Given the widely publicized facts that alcohol is the number one abused drug in the world, and is the cause of the largest number of drug-associated violent crimes in many countries (not to mention the high rate of association with road deaths due to drink-driving), it’s about time that the authorities in Singapore thought about a blitz on public intoxication and the under-age drinking that is prevalant… they could start with an overhaul of the sale of alcoholic beverages, making it available only at licensed premises or bottle shops.
On another note, the statistics for the first half of this year, show that between January and June, 1,741 drug abusers were arrested (of which 641 were new abusers), compared to 1,456 drug abusers (including 672 new abusers) arrested in the first half of 2010… I’m wondering if this shows an improvement by law enforcement, or an increase in drug activity?
Let me ask a quick question – “When you think of the term ‘Russian Doll’, what first comes to your mind?”
For the young guys, it could maybe inspire images one of those the anorexic looking, but often pretty super-models from the Soviet Union who strut their stuff on the catwalks of Milan:
Or for the older generation – Aunties and Uncles – the first thought might be a set of hand crafted ‘Matryoshka’ nesting dolls:
Well let me offer up another suggestion, my friends! One that I doubt very few of you envisaged when I posed the question.
A respected historian and journalist, dubbed as a “genius” who can speak 13 languages, 45-year old Anatoly Moskvin gets his kicks by digging up female corpses from graveyards and dressing them up as ‘Russian Dolls’
According to Russian authorities, Moskvin had visited more than 750 cemeteries… he felt so at home there, that he sometimes even slept in coffins.
The ‘Russian Doll’ horror was exposed by Moskvin’s own parents. They were paying him a visit and thought that perhaps something was awry when they stumbled upon their son’s bizarre collection of Russian Dolls.
Moskvin is alleged to have dug up bodies from dozens of cemeteries and had transported the sometimes mummified remains of at least 29 women to his apartment in Nizhny Novgorod (about 200km from Moscow).
Yes, they are hurtful – but not so much to me… I’ve become a little desensitized and maybe even thick skinned. But certain statements are indeed hurtful and even damaging to others and the community in general.
I was going to ignore it, and I even posted on Facebook that I didn’t care about a particular comment which came in for moderation today. But after thinking more, I allowed the comment to publish just so that I could focus on the fact that there are still some haters and intolerant people out there – usually, like this particular man or woman, they use the anonymity of the Internet and social network to hide behind and shield their cowardly ways.
The comment I refer to reads ‘Whites are filthy monkeys. I spit on them because they deserve it.’... So goodie for you, my cowardly and ignorant little friend! I really do pity you and feel sorry for you.
The good thing, is that most people in this wonderful world are peace loving and caring people – colour, religion or any other differentiators are often put aside for the sake of social harmony. So the haters and racists become the minority – ironic, isn’t it, when often it’s other minorities towards which they vent their ignorance.
So, enough said. I didn’t delete the comment… Let this drop-kick carry on, and one day if he or she decides to gather the courage to expose their views publically, they might find themselves facing the wrath of the majority!!
I often get emails and suggestions from friends and readers offering content for my blog, but more often than not I don’t feel the same inspiration that the sender did when they made the sugggestion.
In today’s case, things were quite different. I received an email from one of my colleagues who thought I might get a kick out of the following pictures… and that I did, my friends. Actually, I found myself laughing out loud – literally.
Now, we all could share funny photographs from any one particular country – just take for example a screaming, neurotic fan at an AFL match in Melbourne – by other countries’ standards, the image would most probably be considered amazing and even funny.
The following images are from the culturally rich and colourful country that is ‘Incredible India’ – you may just find some of the pictures quite ‘incredible’ – I know I certainly did.
Not only is it just downright morally wrong, but there are any number of other reasons why every husband should remain faithful to his better half.
One of those reasons has presented itself in the remote outback of Australia’s Northern Territory. A woman ‘allegedly’ got so annoyed about her partner’s sleeping around that she tried to hack off his *ahem* – let’s just say his ‘family jewels’!
*My eyes just started watering*
The victim who is 35-years old and not identified at this stage, is recovering in hospital after suffering stab wounds to his testicles. He was admitted to Tennant Creek Hospital on Saturday, and later flown to Alice Springs Hospital by the Australia’s Royal Flying Doctor Service for further treatment. Doctors say that he is in a ’stable condition’.
I have one question – Outback Australia… Tennant Creek… really, just how many opportunities would a man have to be play up or sleep around??
In case you missed this, I wanted to make sure I could help you play catch-up!
Only in Europe could you get away with something so brazen on live television…
Although the stunt was obviously a ’setup’, the male streaker that ran out on stage to join Heroes starlet, Hayden Panettiere, caused more than a few gasps in the audience.
Hayden was just about to read out the nominations for Best Song at the awards ceremony held at Belfast’s Odyssey arena, when the unidentified totally naked man “with an Irish accent” ran around around in all of his glory!
She invited the streaker to join her for a pint (beer) after the show.
The winner of the award incidentally, was Lady Gaga. However she did not mention of the stunt – the winning song, was “Born This Way”.
Due to copyright reasons, I cannot embed the video – but as usual, I know of ways to get at the source…
WTH? – As the slogan goes – ‘SPEED KILLS‘… But this time around, 28-year old Erin Holdsworth of Ohio in the United States survived, only to be arrested by bemused police officers. Dare I say it? – “Only in the USA”
Not only was Ms Holdsworth heavily intoxicated and travelling at speeds of up to 200km/h, when ordered by police to exit her vehicle, officers were stunned to see that she was wearing only a pair of sneakers, fishnet stockings and a G-String!
Ms Holdsworth did not go down lightly though – she was apprehended only after a high-speed chase that ended with the cops having to use stop-sticks to puncture her tyres.
As she alighted from her vehicle, she staggered across the road almost butt-naked, before being hand-cuffed and put in the back of a police car.
Then she went postal – yelling abuse and kicking around wildly.
Just a very quick article to applaud the hard work of a group of very focussed and talented young Singapore Polytechnic students. Also to thank all the rest of the volunteers – grassroots people (CCMC, RC and Sub-Committees) and all of the other student helpers.
The atmosphere was electric
The ‘2011 Halloween Spooktacular’ at the Anchorvale Community Club at Sengkang West took place on Saturday night (29th October) and featured the first ever ‘Heartlands Halloween Haunted House’.
To say the event was a resounding success would actually be an understatement! Just a few short weeks ago, we were getting worried that we had only sold just over 300 tickets for the night. Fast forward to Saturday afternoon and we had to put a freeze on ticket sales (around 1,070 sold) or we would have risked not having enough goodie bags.
An early arrival in costume
The event was due to start at 7:30pm, but by 6:30pm – while it was still daylight – the first of the residents began showing up. This enthusiasm and excitement continued into the evening. With other walk-ins, the number of attendees was well in excess of what we ever could have imagined. By 8:00pm, the plaza area was completely full of people and the queue to get into the haunted house at the multi-purpose hall was already stretching as far as the eye could see.
Jack-O-Lantern Decoration competition
If attendance alone was not enough, the atmosphere was just electric. I’m guessing almost half of the residents came in costume, some of which must have taken hours (if not days) to prepare… and everywhere you looked, there were people bonding, laughing and having a general ‘blast’ of a time.
Winner of the best dressed competition
The demographic of the crowd was also very interesting – everyone from the young families – parents and children, senior citizens and of course, the young adults… teenagers and early 20’s. It really was a complete cross-section of our close-knit community in Sengkang West… In my Grassroots leadership role, I couldn’t help feeling quite proud and excited as one of the key organizers of perhaps the most successful and fun event ever in our constituency!
Absolutely – this was Community bonding at it’s best!
Following on from my recent appearance on BlogTV, live on Channel NewsAsia, I’ve had a few people tell me that they thought I was ’sitting on the fence’ in relation to some of the questions posed to me about controversial blogger, Peggy Heng. They even went as far as suggesting that perhaps I was avoiding conflict, because of the fact that I was seated right next to Peggy on the panel!
Fence Sitting Just Isn't My Thing
I’m guessing that maybe I came across this way, because being only a short half hour (TV air time – another 15-min either side of that online streaming), I was told up front by the show’s producers that my answers need to be short, succinct and to the point… my regular readers (and friends in the real world) know that’s just not my style.
So to clear the air, I’ve included the ‘long’(winded) version of the answers as I had thought about them, prior to the show going to air.
Also, I’ve managed to get at the streamed version of the segments and uploaded to YouTube – so if you missed the show on TV and do not have the appropriate media player to view on the BlogTV website, you can check them out here and now!
What did you think of the publicity stunt by blogger Peggy Heng?
As long as Peggy feels that she remained true to herself, then I don’t personally have any issues with what she did. The idea was to promote a dating event for young singles, right? Then if the audience that she was after stood up and listened and attended the event, then maybe it worked? Having said that, Peggy must have known that in Singapore’s relatively conservative society, the netizens were going to take umbrage and express outrage. So, if she’s comfortable with the reactions and is ok for her family to see her in the light that she portrayed, then all kudos to her.
VIDEO SEGMENT 1: HOW LOW WILL YOU GO? – We ask the panel how far they will go to get hits for their blogs:
Did you think it was a smart way to get traffic to her blog?
I firmly believe that it’s really ‘every blogger for his or her self ’. The thing to remember though, is that even if you one day delete your blog with the intention of burying the past, due to aggregation and republication of articles as well as any media coverage that your actions might bring about, it really is the case that anything that appears online remains there forever. This is extremely important – I would never post anything online that I would be concerned for my kids to read or see as they grow up (perhaps through a simple Google search of my name). Also, it is well known that many companies (large and small) use the internet and social media when making recruitment decisions. HR departments in most MNCs are completely experienced in this method of screening… once again, if I thought that any of my actions or writings might jeapordize my career, there absolutely is no way that I would post it online.
Was it necessary in your opinion to go through those measures? Would you have done it differently?
There are many other ways to promote an event and attain clicks. I definitely wouldn’t pursue the same path as Peggy, because I have too many people – loved ones and colleagues – that would potentially be hurt by such actions. If it were me, I would use my already established networks to promote the event.
VIDEO SEGMENT 2: SENSATIONALISM SELLS – Our guests tells us what users want to see in blogs:
I used to be almost obsessed by traffic and hits to my blog, but over time came to realize that aside from SEO techniques, the important thing is quality content – once this is under control, the traffic will take care of itself. Worrying over short-term spikes in traffic, just led to too much time, stress and heartache in trying to increase the stats. I think there comes a point in time (perhaps once a blog has sustainable and long term readers) that it’s no longer important.
Controversy often creates short term hits – I’ve found that sometimes (for example, when I wrote about the ‘crushing bunnies’ fetish in China before it hit the mainstream media), traffic will increased hugely (in this case, almost quarter of a million hits in the one month), but this is not sustainable. Although I got a ‘buzz’ from the spike, it’s often the more informative articles that deliver returning traffic and have stood up to the test of time.
I also have come to realize that (in my view) the interaction through comments is not that important – I used to receive many comments on certain articles (especially when I didn’t have moderation on my blog) and sometimes readers were disagreeing and even arguing amongst themselves. By keeping this in check over the last year or so, I find that most ‘serious’ readers will reach out to me via email if they really want to discuss a topic or get extra information etc. This has really helped reduce the ‘noise’ but had no real detrimental effect on traffic.
How would you promote dating and being social?
I’ve never been interested in or been a big promoter of online dating – I think some bloggers turned business people have done a great job of it though… take for example my good friend, Violet Lim of Lunch Actually. She’s shown there is a market out there that if managed professionally is well untapped today. If anyone asked me personally where they could seek dating help, I would have no hesitation sending them Violet’s way. Her business model is one that is very unique and morally adept.
Being social is a little different – my family and I have met some wonderful people through moving out of our comfort zone. In the early days of Facebook and our early days in Singapore when we knew very few people, we met up with members of social groups – (usually surrounding food interest), and some of these people have remained as our long-term friends – one couple is getting married this November and we will be there to take part in their celebrations.
Although I probably wouldn’t recommend social media as the best way to get out and meet people, I think it can definitely assist, especially for people who might otherwise have problems mixing and getting to make new friends.
Notice I’m talking about social media, and not suggesting that provocative videos combined with sensationalism online is necessarily an effective way to promote a dating or social event.
VIDEO SEGMENT 3: DADDY, I’M A BIG GIRL NOW – We make a call to Peggy Heng’s father to ask him what he thought of the stunt!:
What are the most tasteless things you’ve seen done on blogs?
Personally, I’m not big on the whole ‘colourful’ language thing that many bloggers these days utilize. As an Aussie, I’m obviously not unaccustomed to four letter words. Just head on down to any bar on a weekend down under, and it’s enough to make even the most hardened potty mouth blush. However, nothing is more annoying to me, than reading a blog article where every second word is a curse word. Perhaps I could forgive the odd F-Bomb to get a point across or if the author is passionate about a particular subject… but some bloggers seem to have redefined the entire English dictionary. I sometimes wonder what their parents or children think of this?
I recently read an article by a very well know Singaporean female blogger whose previous articles I had never actually read before (let’s just call her ‘X** X**’ – I don’t wish to be her next target), who was upset about an ‘anti-fan’ who had posted videos on YouTube about her – at first, I was a little empathic about her plight, but as I read the article I soon realized that it would be all too easy to make fun of her potty mouth – she lost me after the first couple of paragraphs… they say that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit… I think that splatterings of swear words throughout all a bloggers articles suggests an even lower form of intelligence.
UPDATE: After the program was aired, I saw a retweet from this same well-known blogger – once again, potty mouth was tweeting about Peggy having a ‘c*ck’ in her mouth… hmmm – very lady-like indeed – actually, very sad if you ask me!
What do you think Singaporeans want to read?
Around 74% of ‘Aussie Pete’ readers are from Singapore (sustainable readers and subscribers). The main spikes in traffic due to controversial topics to which I referred earlier, often arrive from international audiences. In my experience, although I could be antagonizing and stir up netizens by writing negatively about things that many Singaporeans are passionate about (eg. immigration policy), I could definitely increase traffic, but I would not be being true to myself. I try and be as respectful as I can to all people – I am grateful of my place in local society and therefore completely tolerant and understanding of anybody’s point of view on any topic. From my experience, my local readers are more interested in informative content – whether it’s a ‘foreigners guide to Singlish’, ‘buying a HDB flat as a permanent resident’, how many cars could be bought in other countries for the current cost of COE, my views on Singapore traffic or cycling on footpaths – these are the kind of articles that continue to deliver sustainable hits, many months and years after I first wrote them.
The entire general election period was interesting, and as a PR and non-voter, I was careful to keep my (sometimes strong) views in check – although I did garner much interest and even a little bit of hate email at the time).
VIDEO SEGMENT 4: THE FUTURE OF BLOGGING – We discuss in which direction bloggers are trending toward to:
Do you think blogger’s have a responsibility to censor?
Absolutely! – However, I think the level of censorship needs to align to an author’s particular blog, their intentions around audience and should display some level of diligence. For example, if an author wants to write using many curse words, I would not want my children unwittingly opening and reading their articles. Any ‘unsavory’ material –words, images or videos’ – should carry a warning or disclaimer and should be highlighted as unsuitable for some readers.
I am an advocate for freedom of speech (especially on the internet), but the onus is on every website owner to manage their content in line with their country regulation and censorship laws, as well as be sensitive to the fact that what they publish could be read by an audience that may find their content offensive or even harmful. I have absolutely no time for intolerant authors that write in abusive or racial tones or suggest individual differences as a subject of discourse.
In collaboration with omy.sg, the Hong Kong Tourism Board sent ten
bloggers from the Singapore Blog Awards 2010 to Hong Kong to experience the Hong
Kong Dragonboat Carnival, part of the Hong Kong Summer Spectacular Program.
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