Returning Korean Hostages Offer Thanks and Apologies

After being held hostage for 6 weeks by Taleban extremists in Afghanistan, the 19 remaining South Korean hostages were finally able to return to their homeland. The Taleban insurgents captured 23 hostages nearly two months ago when they were in Afghanistan doing Christian volunteer work. Unfortunately, two male hostages were killed when South Korea failed to arrange the release of Taleban prisoners in South Korea and another two women were released a few weeks afterward.A Taleban representative claims that the South Korean Government paid 20 Million for the captives. However, the South Korean Government denies this, stating that the withdrawal of personnel was already in the works and that South Korea has already implemented a ban on travel to the area. Even though their intentions were noble, it was foolish to proceed with the mission. Furthermore, the South Korean Government has had to expend precious resources and put itself in an embarrassing situation to negotiate for the hostage’s release. This incident will definitely make the terrorists bolder in their future attempts and give them the misleading idea that violence can be used to achieve their aims. The Taleban is also now able to instil greater fear into the hearts of people worldwide, especially since they now claim to have an additional 20 million dollars to spend on launching similar terror attacks.
In conclusion, I believe that similar missionary groups should first consider the consequences of their action before deciding to embark on such duties

the rise of teen crimes in Britain

On the 23rd of August 2007, it was reported in The Straits Times, that in Liverpool, a youth riding a BMX bike gunned down a British boy who was as young as 11years old. Apart from that, there was another incident on a man at the age of 47 meeting his death from having head injures after trying to confront a gang of youngsters. Not long after, Mr. Evren Anil, was killed by a group of teenagers after putting up a challenge against a group of youths and an elderly man who tried to save him, had a knife next to his throat. All these incidents had occurred in Britain, with the rate of teen crime increasing rapidly and getting out of hand, it would seem that the teens have considered human life without a value. Teen crimes are not only present in Britain, but also in Singapore. Even though, teen crimes committed in Singapore got nothing to do with the involvement of guns, they are still on a constant rise and with the use of other weapons. If no action is taken to prevent it, it will continue to rise without any doubts, hence making Singapore not a safe place to live in. Stealing and shoplifting may be considered as a minor crime, for example taking something from a shop, but this can lead to greater temptation such as trying to break into other people's house to steal valuables as the small crimes are the ones that build up courage to do greater crimes. When these youths are not corrected early enough, they would tend to build up the confidence to do more and worse crimes, such as hacking into a computer system to steal funds. Experts who were interviewed by The Straits Times mentioned that the issue of teen crimes has been increasing for the last 20 years. The past 20 years had nothing or little help of prevention was given to stop teen crimes. However, this led to teenagers having the concept in their mind that nothing and no one is there to stop them from committing crimes, hence, they didn’t stop their wrong doings. Just like in Singapore, something must be done to overcome the problem of the rise in teen crime in order to prevent the situation from being bad to worse. Parents may be the cause of some teen crimes as it has got to do with the values that the parents teach their young. Parents should hold their responsibilities seriously so that the child will not be disrespectful to them. Parents should show more care and concern so that their young do not be led astray. Otherwise it would result in the lack of discipline and respect from the child. Such values such should be well nurtured at home, if not, the child would carry the values such as disrespect, out of their door step. In other words, parents are a form of cause of the rates of teen crimes rising. They must take up the responsibility to nurture their child and spend time with them which would create strong bonds and not let the young feel that their friends treat them better and care for them more than their parents do.