i've been attending a course this past week, organised for prosecutors - both proper ones, and also those who nominally fall into the category but know absolutely nothing about the job requirements. like myself. - by the agc (attorney general's chambers, for the uninformed). this course has been decently informative. i have learnt many things, including the following two facts :

1. the number of magistrate's appeals has gone up by 300% since april. coincidentally, this rise in the number of appeals filed closely mirrors the departure date of a certain individual.

2. apparently, our nation is facing a crisis of dire proportions. offenders in singapore who have the privilege of being sentenced to caning are a pampered lot. the rod used to tickle their behinds is subject to the most stringent of quality controls. specifications for the cane to be used are laid out statutorily, so i have learnt, in the cpc. this details that the cane be made of organic wood, of a certain length, diameter, weight, etc.

our canes are imported from indonesia. recently, though, this indonesian supplier has notified us that all the cane forests have been chopped down. the cane trees remaining are too small to make legally-coherent canes. in short, our supply of canes has run out.

one can conclude that apart from setting forests on fire and sending prodigous quantities of airborne pollutants our way, the indonesians fail also to practice sustainable farming practices on the land they have razed.

it would be amusing if we had to amend the law to allow for the use of canes constructed out of genetically-modified cane. or perhaps we could send offenders to indonesia and not allow them to come back till they've found a suitably mature cane tree. a find-your-own-cane scheme - something along the lines of how my dad used to make me go and get the cane from his room so he could whack me for not practising the piano. i still hate the piano. we could even let them keep a bark rubbing from the tree as a souvenir.

have a good week.