Gather ‘round, gather ‘round, for I have a tale to tell of this little fucker known as #FrancisBegbieCat.
We get home at about 1:50am. Houdini and Salty are hanging about hoping for treats, but there‘s no sign of Begbie, even though he *loves* food.
Shaking the treat box usually brings him running, but there‘s nothing this time. No sound, no sign. We call him, check cupboards, look under the sofa, under the spare bed. Nothing whatsoever. At all.
At this point we think he might have slipped out the flat while the front door was opened when someone was going out, or coming home. So I go wandering about our condo complex, shaking the treat box and calling him name.
This is all around 2am, by the way.
I check the stairwell. I check the ground floor of the compound. I check the lift. I check the basement car park. I look in the little hedges. I call and call and shake the treat box.
When all that fails I go to security and ask them to play me CCTV footage.
Meanwhile, my husband is searching the stairwell (again) *and* the flat, trying to think of all the places #FrancisBegbieCat could be.
Zilch.
Finally, my husband lies down on our bed... and hears the slightest rustling from the corner.
Francis fucking Begbie fucking Cat is in the little space between the curtain, the railing by the window, and the nightstand.
THE FACE OF A RATBAG FELON
He’s now prowling the flat like nothing happened.
During all this, Houdini managed to eat both his *and* #FrancisBegbieCat’s portions of treats, so at least *someone’s* the winner in this tale.
I’d checked the curtains but hadn’t seen him at all, and he made NO SOUND. Goodness knows what the hell he was up to then
AARRRRGHFUFUFIDIFJFJGHHHHHH THIS CAT
cc. @HongKongHermit for I suspect he would very much enjoy this tale
Also @jyneonyang who said they love my cats, well here’s another instalment from one of the lil’ fuckers
It’s now 4:22am and we’re finally going to bed
... the cats usually wake us for breakfast at 5
Not even a little bit sorry
At least he knows how to take a wefie, unlike big brother Houdini
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🧵 on Twitter and Mu*k, from the perspective of a journalist/activist from #Singapore (me)
1/ I am from a country that has significant issues with civil, political, and human rights. But my government also puts significant effort into public relations to bolster its reputation.
2/ I'm constantly meeting people who have no idea that, in #Singapore, you can be arrested for holding up a placard in public. That 11 men have been executed this year for #drugs. That we have serious issues with press freedom and media diversity.
3/ In this context, Twitter has been, and is, an extremely valuable tool in allowing me — a freelance journalist and activist with limited resources and no big institutional backing — to talk to people outside of #Singapore about our problems.
#Singapore will finally repeal Section 377A (which criminalises sex between men), while also undermining the main point of repealing Section 377A by enshrining the discrimination against #LGBTQ people elsewhere
Once the Constitution is amended it's going to be freakin' hard to change it again. And as Lee himself points out, this is not just about marriage. It affects housing, education, who gets to be recognised as next-of-kin, even advertising and film codes (media censorship).
Right now, Section 377A is not enforced. So the reason it should be repealed is not 'cos gay men are getting arrested for having sex, but 'cos 377A exists as a signal that #LGBTQ people are different and less acceptable and therefore can be discriminated against.
🧵 I’ve been sharing updates but wanted to put together a thread covering the substantive points of the Court of Appeal hearing today (well, yesterday now) involving 24 death row prisoners in #Singapore
On 1 August, 24 death row prisoners filed an originating claim against the state, in relation to their right to access to justice. They claimed that the practice of handing out punitive cost orders against lawyers have deterred lawyers from taking on late-stage capital cases.
Due to this fear, they say that they’ve faced difficulties finding lawyers to represent them. Therefore, this practice of imposing cost orders has affected their constitutional rights in relation to access to justice.
It’s been about an hour since the court stood down to deliberate the appeal brought by 24 death row prisoners against the High Court striking out their civil suit relating to their right to access to justice. The hearing is conducted on Zoom so the 24 are calling in from prison.
On multiple screens in the courtroom you can see the Zoom gallery. 24 of those little rectangles are the death row prisoners, representing themselves because they don’t have a lawyer to represent them in this application.
It took some time to bring them all into the Zoom room and make sure they were all connected, audio working, etc. So instead of putting them in the waiting room like it usually does, they’ve just been left in the room while the judges were put in the waiting room.
Okay, finally got access. If I understood what happened to me in interrogation correctly, after this morning there are now *more* offences that @justanotherock and I are on the hook for. Just going to sum it up as best I can…
The original 2 alleged offences that @justanotherock and I were questioned for this morning were: (1) when 4 of us hung out outside Changi Prison chatting the night of Kahar was executed, and (2) when we took photos outside of prison a couple of nights before Nagen was hanged.
However, ‘cos @justanotherock and I were wearing (different) T-shirts with anti-#deathpenalty slogans today, the police claim that we have committed another offence of “illegal procession”, ‘cos we walked from the market across the street to the police station this morning.