It’s been a long time since I watched the news or even read the newspaper. When I was in Singapore, I would still catch the repeat telecast of the Channel 8 news even though I was already very tired after working OT. Further, I would at least flip through The Straits Times before I went to bed. It used to be my way of relaxing before I slept.

After I come to the U.S., I had not been watching or reading the news. The first time I watched the news here a few months back, I was appalled. I decided for my own well-being, I should stop watching it.

Today, after being ignorant for such a long time, I watched the news again. And to my dismay, this was what I saw:

“One black man stabbed a bus driver after they argued about whether the black guy paid the bus fare. A 15 year old boy was murdered by a 15 year old girl. A man was released after 6 years in prison for an alleged rape. When he was arrested, he was only 16. This man was finally acquitted of rape after the DNA test taken then was found to be inaccurate. This young man lost his childhood while the real rapist is still at large.”

With such daily doses of murder, rape and misfortunes, why would I still want to keep myself abreast of the latest happenings? Watching the news would only make me petrified and depressed especially these are real incidents that happen everyday around me.

In Singapore, if there is a murder case, it will be on the news for weeks. Everyone would be discussing about it. It will be the chitchat topic during lunch with colleagues. But over here, it is usually reported today and forgotten tomorrow. No one really talks about it. There are just too much such occurrences that they don’t matter no more.

Come to think of it, I have never heard my colleagues discuss about such issues. I only hear them chat about basketball, baseball and American football among other stuffs.