Gillian's Predicament

Since the private photos were uploaded early last year, I have basically not commented even once on them. I have been reading the news and developments, and have just finished watching Gillian's recent interview with Stephen Chan on Be My Guest. There are a few certainties here:

1) the photos were private and what people do in private should be their business, even celebrities have the right to privacy

2) hence the leaking or distribution of the photos through the internet is a crime by the person who copied and posted the photos, the people in the photos did not commit any crime

3) there are many who condemn the celebrities who were in the photos, why the rush to judge, who has the right to judge, let him/her who is without sin cast the first stone, who are we that can stand on a pedestal and cast judgments and make degrading remarks on them

If this was in western media, most people would have shrugged them off after a few days, but because we are in Asia, dignity and moral decency seems to be everybody's business. It shouldn't be. We must learn to respect one another, and we must give each other "space" to make mistakes - we are not God, and neither are we angels. In Cantonese, each society's essence and maturity can be found in whether they have the capacity to "pau yoong" (the capacity to forgive, the capacity to accept and work together) the mistakes, failings of one another... and not to rush to condemn those who make mistakes and failings to seemingly eternal damnation and oblivion.

Even if you do not like the characters of some of those in the pictures, that should only be a secondary consideration, ... reflect on what's really important. Some would add that as celebrities they have a certain responsibility in portraying a certain healthy image - nobody intentionally tries to portray an unhealthy image, nobody really tries to sabotage their own image, yes they may have been naive and silly, they did something in private which in hindsight probably they shouldn't have. If you don't want to support them as fans anymore, its cool, but let them get on with their lives.

How forgiving a society is reflects on their upbringing, their sense of values, their maturity in dealing with human frailties. We can be religious and throw the bible or Koran at them and say they were wrong - but they know they were wrong already... sometimes God has already forgiven while some of us still have not??!!!

I will leave you with some final thoughts:

a) If you are religiously inclined, after all that has happened, and after the immense pressure and suffering plus the countless apologies.... ask yourself if God would have forgiven them already... if He has, why haven't you?

b) Ask yourself this, what if Gillian was your younger sister, how would your attitude and comments be different, why is that? Remember, she is somebody's sister, she is somebody's daughter. Enough is enough, let everyone get on with their lives.