Hi rehctub.
I dont know about the do gooders being responsible for our mulitcultural society.

I thought mostly it was Labor...in the days when Labor still had that old Red flame flickering in their wayward hearts (maybe the old flame still flickers in quiet Labor backrooms?).

I seem to have been on duty as a young Constable in Rockdale, Sydney many years ago, in Al Grassbys days, at the openning of a mosque and Al was there and there was great fanfair at the openning and I wondered at the time just what an Italian guy was doing there as Minister of Immigration and helping a new Islamic powerbase get up and running? It was Labor under Whitlam that openned the door to all of the trouble with Middle eastern folk.

A Labor plot to weaken the spiritual strength of Christianity here?

We wait to see.

Hello runner,

I don't know much about Singapore, so I can't comment
on the city. I do have friends there though, so I'll
ask them, and perhaps let you know at a later date.

I should have explained further I guess, what I meant
by "Punishment does not deter misconduct."

Misbehaviour and punishment are not opposites that
cancel each other; on the contrary, they breed and
reinforce each other.

One high school student related:

"Our teacher gave a long sermon on integrity.
I listened and laughed inside. She herself teaches
dishonesty and doesn't know it. I was late to school
once because I overslept. She said, "That's not
a good excuse," and she punished me. I got the message.
The next time I was late, I made up a convincing
story."

How the blind belief in punishment is passed from
generation to generation is dramatically illustrated in
Willard Motley's book, "Knock on Any Door."
Upon hearing that his son Nick was sentenced for murder, his
father said, "I can't understand it... I always whipped him
when he did wrong."

Nick himself, in his death cell, has no better advice
for the upbringing of his newborn nephew than,
"Don't let what happened to me happen to him.
Beat the hell out of him. See that he does right."

As I said in my earlier post, Ethical concepts
such as responsibility, respect, loyalty, honesty,
charity and mercy cann't be taught directly. They
can only be learned in concrete life situations
from people one respects (not fears).
One grows into virtue; it can't be forced by
punishment.

Runner,
I think you'll find the safest place to be in is a relative assertion.
It's all a matter of how you measure it. Singapore’s attitudes to guest workers is well debateable.
A business contact of mine says that racism and exploitation is rife.
He also says that there are a lot that is not reported.

He also says there is a thriving violent underworld,crime all the good stuff....it all depend on who and where you are.
There is no proven link between the ratan and less crime if that is your point.

Sorry had Al Grassby as Italian. He was Spanish and Irish descent.

Ludwig.
I know the feeling. More than once a mate got me into a canning. Though... I always sort of knew, somewhere inside, I was part of the trouble.

Runner.
A good story:) Im glad your children turned out well. Praise The Lord for the wooden spoon. It never harmed me and Im thankful for the cannings I got.

Bugsy.
What are those kids doing on your lawn?

I see you Pynchme and Oliver
So what is the answer to the crime in the schools.
We cant let it keep going until a teacher gets killed?

My son told a story of an angry Islander boy whom the teacher had told he needed to get away from his bad mates to improve his attitudes. The boy left the school and then rushed back into it and king hit the teacher.
That cant be allowed.

Examinator.
The cane worked for us. Thats what I know.

At Ballina High School our beloved High School Principal, one Roy Hughes, beloved he was when we looked back at his years at Ballina High, would prowl the corridors with cane in hand slapping his leg as he went...looking for kids who had been put out of class. He ruled with discipline and we knew the line not to cross.
Im thinking security guard will soon become the norm as in the USA.

Foxy.
Fear of the cane frequently kept me in line.
It was fearful having to go to the Heads Office and tell him what I had been sent to him for.
I wouldnt have missed it looking back.
I was a rebellious boy who may have turned out worse without that implement of fear.
Roy Hughes had about 3 canes.
Never pick the thin one:)

Firstly, there's some fundamental flaws in the reasoning here.

I hear the old "this would have never happened 40 years ago" argument a lot.

The problem is that it's entirely unprovable. There was less by way of media, accountability, transparency - you name it. These kinds of incidents might have happened.

The truth of the matter is that society never was this glorified crime-free paradise of homemade pies and shiny shillings.

The ugliness was just hidden better. If you really think people were 'better' back then, perhaps you should have a word with Hitler.

My parents managed without using a cane or smacking and I didn't become a thug (although my detractors may disagree).

That being said, my parents were clever ones. My mother used the 'fear' of the wooden spoon without actually using the wooden spoon.
In fact, she made the wooden spoon into some mythical god-like device that would bring about the apocalypse if I stepped too far out of line. All she had to do was smack the wooden spoon on the table and I'd fall into place.

My father had a more mischievous approach. He knew I'd once been zapped by an electric fence, so he simply told me the biscuit jar lid was electrified.

I can still remember being caught trying to get into that jar using oven mitts while wondering why my dad was trying so hard not to laugh.
I didn't get punished for that effort though. He just told me that rubber gloves would be a better bet for avoiding electrical currents.

IMHO it all comes down to psychology - corporal punishment is a blunt, clumsy way of instituting that psychological discipline.

Dear TRTL,

I had a scottish head mistress who was
truly amazing.

She had the knack of making her students
wait outside her office for what seemed
like an eternity, before finally
ushering them into her inner sanctum.

By the time I got inside her office,
I would confess to all of my misdeeds,
without her having uttered a word.

I remember her today with great fondness.
The very first meeting where she was about
to give her first lecture to a full assembly,
she stumbled and fell. The hall roared in
hilarious laughter. The Headmistress rose
slowly, straightened up, and said,
"This is my first lesson to you: A person
can fall flat on her face and still rise up
again."

Silence descended. Then came applause. The
message was received.

She was a true disciplinarian. She used the
force of wisdom to affect events. In a
moment of distress she influenced children
not with threats and punishment but with her
power of personal response. Her words touched
on inner yearnings and turned disruption into
contemplation.

She believed that to punish a child was to enrage
them and make them uneducable.

My parents were similar to yours. I was never whacked.
To me the biggest crime would have been to let them
down. They trusted me. And I felt obliged to live up
to their expectations. A stern look from my father
was enough to express disapproval.