Jinxed July 2013

The first month of the 2^nd half of the year has been a very eventful month. Most of it is coloured by grim news all over the world. Here is what has happened in month of July:

2nd July 2013	News from home: 6.1-magnitude earthquake shook Aceh. What a way to start the month, especially when the Muslim-majority province was going to observe fasting during the month of Ramadan, starting on 9th July. The death toll is 35, with 275 injured.
3rd July 2013	Morsi, the then President of Egypt, denounced and thrown out of office.
6th July 2013	Lac-Megantic train derailment. An unattended runaway freight train carrying crude oil derailed in the town of Lac-Megantic, Canada, causing massive fire and explosion right at the centre of town’s centre. (Final Destination? Could be a potential storyline for the next horror/thriller summer movie)
6th July 2013	Another earthquake in North Sumatra; this time with magnitude of 6.0. No tsunami occurred.
10th July 2013	Local headline news: Kovan double murder. Not many interesting events happen in this small city state and Singapore’s criminal rate is one of the lowest in the world. Ergo, this news came as a shocking surprise to the citizen of Singapore. The surprise was doubled after they caught the unsub, which turns out to be an ex-police officer. Tadaa…
11th July 2013	Huge prison break in Tanjung Gusta prison, Medan, North Sumatra. Inmates caused riot after power blackout knocked out water supply since Thursday morning. Some inmates forced their way out while some others set the offices on fire. 200 prisoners escaped, leaving 3 prison employees and 2 inmates dead. The prison itself was overloaded with 2,600 prisoners while its normal capacity is 1,500.
12th July 2013	Train derailment at the railway station of Bretigny-sur-Orge, near Paris, France. As of today, death toll has risen to 7.  (Could be connected to the train accident in Canada to make a fictitious chain of accidents across the globe orchestrated by a mysterious underground organization)
13th July 2013	Death of Cory Monteith. This is very shocking. At first I didn’t realize, who was Cory Monteith? I thought he was just one of the small actors in Glee, but what a surprise I got when I read the full news and looked at the photo, that he was Finn! :( So long, farewell Finn. Auf Weidersehen, goodbye Cory…
17th July 2013	2nd prison break in Indonesia. Really, what’s with Indonesian prison? This time it’s Batam’s Negara Baloi detention center. 12 inmates accused of drug offenses ran free. Again, the prison is overcrowded with 400 prisoners while its capacity is 250.
17th July 2013	Food poisoning (or intentionally poisoned food?) incident that killed 23 children in Bihar, India. This is very sad news. The food was part of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme by Indian government to attract parents to send their kids to school. India is the home of around 25% of the world’s hungry poor and has the largest number of illiterate adults in the world. Bihar ranked last in the literacy rate in India based on 2011 population census. Therefore, the Mid-Day Meal Scheme is a perfect solution for both problems, supposedly. However, the decency of the food is often questioned by the parents as their children often come back home complaining that the food smelled and tasted funny. Children who complained to the teachers are told to shut up and just eat the free food they can enjoy. Finally, the issue has taken its toll on the 17th July incident. This is indeed a very, very sad news.
21st July 2013	Fatal SMRT bus accident, killing one of the only 2 passengers on board. Based on the driver’s testimonial, the accident was caused by faulty brake. He stepped on the brake but the bus wasn’t slowing down which then led to the accident.
21st July 2013	6.9-magnitude earthquake in New Zealand. No tsunami alert was issued. There was no reports of serious casualties.
24th July 2013	Another train derailment accident. This time, it’s in Spain. The death toll is 79 people. Most of the passengers on the train were Catholic pilgrims heading for Santiago de Compostela’s internationally celebrated annual festival honouring St. James. The cause of the accident was the train going over the speed limit when approaching a curve which then led to the accident. The speed of the train was more than double the limit, disabling the driver to brake in time. The driver is charged with 79 counts of reckless homicide and released under court supervision.
28th July 2013	Italy tour bus crash. The bus was heading back home after an excursion at a thermal spa near Benevento. The bus was reported going on normal speed before skidding off, smashing several cars and finally plunging into a ravine. The accident killed at least 37 people. As many as 49 people were on board the bus. Investigation is still underway to determine the cause of the accident.
29th July 2013	Swiss train crash in Granges-pres-Marnand. Two trains collided head-on, killing one driver and injuring 35 passengers. (Wow! Look at those dates highlighted in green. Really, this chain of accidents across the globe could make a great conspiracy storyline! This month alone, there have been 6 accidents!)
30th July 2013	Series of explosions at the Blue Rhino propane plant in Tavares, Florida, US. So far there are 8 people injured.

Well, enough sad news. At least there’s good news in month of July:

22nd July 2013

THE BIRTH OF ROYAL BABY BOY!! The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have named him Prince George of Cambridge. His full name: George Alexander Louis. I don’t know why British royals have a lot of first names as their name. Maybe so that they can choose which name they want to be called when they are crowned as King? The press has waited a long time for the birth of the little prince. Some has waited as early as the start of the month. One of them even said that he didn’t wait for this long for his own son’s birth.

Well, that’s month of July for you! Quite jinxed, wasn’t it? For full article of the news, just google them :)