There has been a lot of media coverage about the impending execution of Nguyen Trong Van, an Australian citizen, is about to be hanged.

When reading the articles and seeing the coverage I experience a number of emotions about this episode:

When I first heard about the case I did not really feel a lot of anything about the case. I thought "well he took the drugs and got caught so he deserves what he got". After all a lot of people here in Oz know what the penalty is for trafficking drugs in south east asia. After all we have had a lot of coverage of Schapell Corby, the Bali 9 and Michele Leslie.

You understand the impct of say 500g of heroin can have on society in terms of how many people it effects. You thinki to yourself, this is a good deterent and why doesn't Australia get tougher laws for drug traffickers.

I am not condoning or in agreement to the death penalty but maybe being bit harsher with more than a few months of jail time is warranted in these cases.

However, after delving into the finer details and being forcefed by the media I feel a sense of sorrow in this instance.

I have a great amount of symphaty for his mum. Imagine the last chance you had of seeing your chile or a loved one was of him/her in a prison. Moreso, you could not touch or console that person as you were separated by a piece of glass. All you could go was put your hand on this cold piece of glass and your loved one do the same, but never touching.

As a human, you can not help to feel this is a form of cruelty, not to the criminal but moreso to people who care for them.

However the crux of the story was he was arrested in the airport while in transit. Plus he was carrying the drugs to pay of the debts that his brother had made. By doing something for his family he will lose his life.

Imagine how his brother feels?

I also have a sense of resentment for the Singaporean government. A date of the execution was set and the Singaporean government did not inform the Australian government to advise of the date. The date was communicated by a letter sent to the mother. Considering that officials here had made a few calls calling for clemency, this should have been handled a lot better.

Knowing a number of Singaporeans and having spent some time in there, this reflects badly and incorrectly on the people and here the usual idiots are calling for Aussies to boycott anything associated with this country.

However, ultimately Singapore is not a state of Australia so they have set the rules. People may not agree with them but thats probably why they are living here in Australia. I am not having a go at Singapore, it can be a bit stale and the beer is watered down but they have the right to set the rules there, not us.

I feel sorry for the family who have had to deal with the ordeal.