power of technology...

I found something very interesting today. At around 7ish pm I received an SMS from a friend stating that her friend's 6 year old daughter was kidnapped today along with their car, which is a new Perodua MyVi, at a petrol station in Puchong. Without hesitation I forwarded this SMS to my mates as well as people in the office. I went online during that moment and noticed that there were multiple postings of this case in various forums. I also got word that some of my mates received this news via chat tools like MSN/Yahoo Messenger and ICQ. About an hour or so later an update was posted in most of the forums stating that thankfully the daughter was found by a taxi driver. The story was that they left the car (running I think) in the petrol station (to pay or get something I'm presuming) with their daughter inside. Two guys got in the car and shot off. They immediately spread the news to their friends who in turn spread it about. About an hour or so later the lil' girl was found by a taxi driver along a road somewhere. Thankfully as the girl's safety is all that we were worried about. The car can always be replaced.

Now the interesting thing is, I do not know this family and neither does my friend who sent the SMS to me or received them from others. But the way how information travelled to tonnes of people who were total strangers to the people affected. I even heard that a radio station publicised this during the ordeal (although stating that they cannot verify if it was true). The marvels of technology helped spread the news and keep people in the lookout. I am sure without mobile phones and the internet, it wouldn't have been so quick and god knows how the ending would have been.

This also reminds me of an incident whereby a car got stolen in Shah Alam and within minutes it was posted online to spread the word. After about a handful of hours, the car was spotted in Johor (which is about 400km or so away from where the car was) at some workshop. Within a few hours from getting that info, the car was recovered by the owner (and his mates of course) in one piece. Imagine how fast that took. No cop in Malaysia could do that I tell ya. At least not without bribing or getting some big shot to pull some strings. And all that would take at least a day or 2. This was done within half a day.

Its amazing. The power of Information Technology. Although in some cases its a pain with people suffering from defamation/slandering to black mail. But majority of the times its the best source to spread information without all the damn red tape and hurdles. Especially in the latest incident where a child's life was at risk. Thank god she was found so fast and unharmed. Can't imagine the trauma the parents and the the lil' girl faced. At least they are reunited now. Hope they manage to find the car and catch the 2 arseholes who did it. Sadly I doubt it with the state our cops are in. Sigh. Its getting really scary nowadays. Too many shit happening with no sense of security at all. We are becoming very close to a lawless nation. Well at least I feel that way.

Anyhoo, I better get back to work. G'nite folks and be careful. You never know when you would be targetted.