September 12, 2000
SINGAPORE -- Criminals are by definition highly skilled and experienced in the art of innovation. They have to innovate to stay ahead of the systems they are attempting to subvert. Law, security and bureaucracy always follow the innovations of miscreants. The word "miscreant" itself acknowledges the creativity intrinsic to the role, while damning the direction this creativity takes. Two things give added opportunity to the criminal innovator: transition and technology.
The turn of the year from one season to another is expressed in cultures worldwide as the opportunity for the underworld to slip back into our world, slipping through the cracks between the seasons, to threaten us with other-worldly desires and motives. While Singapore celebrates the Hungry Ghost Festival and buys the long-dead spirits off with food and entertainment, Westerners anticipate Halloween, with its paraphernalia of trick-or-treat, bonfires and lanterns to light the threatening night, and fireworks to scale evil away.
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The article appears at:
http://www.gorillasia.com/features/rr-black12sep00lambe.htm