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I would never have imagined safe Singapore to have news like this!
http://thestar.com.my/columnists/sto...sightdownsouth
http://thestar.com.my/columnists/sto...sightdownsouth
Saturday July 9, 2011
An epidemic of corpses
IN RECENT days, parts of this law-and-order city, whose murder rate ranks as low as Japan’s, resembled scenes from the American TV series Crime Scene Investigation.
Against its staid nature, seven gruesome bodies have been found in various parts of the island since July 1, unrelated to each other – at a rate of one a day.
In fact, the grisly spate had begun earlier, from around mid-April when a decomposed body was found in a luggage bag at the casino resort of Sentosa.
A month later, an Indonesian maid’s body was discovered submerged in a rooftop tank that supplies drinking water to nearly 200 residents at Woodlands. Her Bangladeshi boyfriend had been arrested.
Since then a total of 13 bodies have turned up, prompting shocked citizens to ask: “What has become of Singapore?”
Police investigators and pathologists – as well as sociologists – are working overtime to probe this epidemic of corpses. Most were believed to be murder or suicide victims.
[...]
Several of the bodies had been found in surrounding waters or forested areas, a few having died or been killed some time ago.
Among the grotesque finds was the lower half of a decomposed female body which was discovered floating in the Bedok Reservoir, a source of drinking water for many Singaporeans.
So far, the phenomenon has not really dented Singapore’s reputation as one of the world’s safest cities, with an average of two murders a month. This works out to 0.5 homicide per 100,000 people, a proportion close to Japan’s and slightly ahead of Hong Kong’s.
But suicides here are another matter. Despite its prosperity, the republic ranked 43rd in the world in 2009 with 401 cases; that was before the casinos opened their doors.
At least half were non-Singaporeans, a few of them China mainlanders.
An epidemic of corpses
IN RECENT days, parts of this law-and-order city, whose murder rate ranks as low as Japan’s, resembled scenes from the American TV series Crime Scene Investigation.
Against its staid nature, seven gruesome bodies have been found in various parts of the island since July 1, unrelated to each other – at a rate of one a day.
In fact, the grisly spate had begun earlier, from around mid-April when a decomposed body was found in a luggage bag at the casino resort of Sentosa.
A month later, an Indonesian maid’s body was discovered submerged in a rooftop tank that supplies drinking water to nearly 200 residents at Woodlands. Her Bangladeshi boyfriend had been arrested.
Since then a total of 13 bodies have turned up, prompting shocked citizens to ask: “What has become of Singapore?”
Police investigators and pathologists – as well as sociologists – are working overtime to probe this epidemic of corpses. Most were believed to be murder or suicide victims.
[...]
Several of the bodies had been found in surrounding waters or forested areas, a few having died or been killed some time ago.
Among the grotesque finds was the lower half of a decomposed female body which was discovered floating in the Bedok Reservoir, a source of drinking water for many Singaporeans.
So far, the phenomenon has not really dented Singapore’s reputation as one of the world’s safest cities, with an average of two murders a month. This works out to 0.5 homicide per 100,000 people, a proportion close to Japan’s and slightly ahead of Hong Kong’s.
But suicides here are another matter. Despite its prosperity, the republic ranked 43rd in the world in 2009 with 401 cases; that was before the casinos opened their doors.
At least half were non-Singaporeans, a few of them China mainlanders.
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