Party Vibe

PS: this report from a British news organisation shows what jail conditions are like in the Phillipines. Most of these inmates are suspected (not charged) drug offenders and this is far worse than anywhere in the neighbouring countries and in contravention of UN human rights guidelines.

Harrowing photos from inside Filipino jail show reality of Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal war on drugs | Asia | News | The Independent

the worst part of it is the whole region actually tried to reduce harsh penalties but the countries have divided between rich and poor. The complicated geography of the Phillipines (being a load of islands) must make matters more complicated with regard to border/immigration control. Added to which is paranoia betwen different races and religions…

Even here in England there is a problem with young teenagers being groomed into dealing hard drugs by gangs in London and other cities and then they get put on the train to sell stuff in my town 80 km away but the cops and social services have got better at catching people early and trying to keep them out of permanent crime.

It was also a problem in NL but I read what their laws are and they don’t send the young people to prison (unless the pills are PMA or other poison) but confiscate all their money and fine them some more on top of it so its not financially worth it trying to become a dealer.

@Shakyamuni 985561 wrote:

That creepy grooming to be a dealer shit is rampant in America but they don’t send them to other areas very often.

TBH this is now an international problem but I guess the sheer physical size of the USA, different laws and levels of youth protection between states and local demographics is a big factor; in Europe this usually happens around big cities and towns and where there is regular public transport such as trains and it is safe to ride bicycles – which are harder to spot on CCTV schemes as they lack registration markings – this causes other problems as the bicycles used are rarely legitimately purchased!)

Even so it is often obvious what is going on as it now costs around $50 for the train ticket, because of this fare evasion is made difficult with barriers, CCTV and private security and British Transport Police working together (there are special cops for the railway networks) – very few London teenagers are going to willingly spend this sort of money to travel to Ipswich (a town which now hardly has any nightlife as a backlash against the drugs culture of the 2000s) for fun.

In NL things were happening the other way round, teenagers from the suburban areas and other provinces were bringing the drugs into Amsterdam and Rotterdam using the railway networks which are slightly better than UK – €50 will take you from Zeeland to the borders of Germany which is a good few hundred KM. However there is a lot of CCTV as well as (more importantly) people to watch it, Philips Telecommunicatie in Hilversum (where the media industries also traditionally operated from) were one of the first tech companies to make affordable CCTV equipment for public sector use as long ago as the mid 1960s.

One thing I’ve noticed over the years comparing continental Europe with the UK is teenagers/young adults do appear to get a lot more freedom/indpendence at an early age but at the same time there is a lot more emphasis on family values and good behaviour in groups (not unlike Asian culture TBH) – which means that misbehaviour is caught early.

In Dutch they often refer to minor drugs offences as “kattekwaad” (literally, the amount of misbehaviour/sin a pet cat or a young human is allowed to commit) – but if you watch their youtube videos or read any nature forums you learn that Dutch cats (as well as dogs and children) are often trained to obey their owners and behave well in groups, often in a matriarchal society similar to that found in Malaysia or Singapore…

from what I have read about transport infrastructure and traffic safety in the USA the drug trafficking on the highways doesn’t surprise me; seems that state cops deploy ANPR systems without any of the checks and balances or coordination found elsewhere in the world (including China!) and the Feds (nor any other national govt ministry) don’t even have a nationwide database of all motor vehicles.

Europe is completely the opposite; most countries (even UK) place increasing emphasis on road safety, young/new drivers and/or anyone suspected of having anything to do with drugs are watched closely (so it is less risky for those involved to use the public transport where available, provided they are discreet).

There are more reports on the Malaysia news website today, [rightly] criticising the fallout from the war on drugs – as what is going on in PH even risks destabilising MY and its neighbours as predictably loads of pinoys are fleeing their country, the Malaysia border force caught a load of them trying to enter with fake MyKad immigration cards [the real ones are very sophisticated with RFID etc so fairly difficult to forge, although one major manufacturer of RFID cards is the Phillipines!]

Unfortunately one reason the president (who was democratically elected) is able to get away with this madness seems to be because the country is quite highly populated and still growing; but if PH carries on lilke that SE Asia could easily end up in the same pickle as Europe and the Middle East…

@iliesse 985575 wrote:

WHAT IS THAT EXPRESSION MEANING “That creepy grooming to be a dealer shit …” ????

the same as what the gangs are doing in Phillipines with the teenagers, i.e an older adult encouraging a teenager to do something that is harmful or criminal as the teen wants to make money of look grown up.

I think some states of the USA have had those laws since Reagan was in power;

although as its not the entire country where this happens those who might have committed two crimes simply move to a state where they don’t have such harsh penalties rather than emigrating as a whole (they may not have travel documents or be able to learn different languages).

The whole way the law works in America is highly confusing to anyone else due to the concept of legislators being alllowed to pass different criminal laws within regions (but it is also why marijuana is legal in some states but not others).