I'M AN IDIOT, GET ME OUTA HERE!

A reader's comment in the Sunday Mail caught my eye the other morning. B.P. wrote "What's going on in Adelaide and around South Australia? Stabbings, murders, house fires, idiots driving through homes and shops nearly an everyday occurrence. Must be a permanent full moon. It seems many people have gone mad."

I have noticed that too with two thirds of the news every night taken up by the reporting of vandalism, burglaries, arson-related house fires or bushfires, violence in the streets, and so on. What is going on in little ol' Adelaide? Is it full of idiots with nothing better to do than cause grief to something or someone.

Even in my neck of the woods the 'low-lifes' in the adjacent suburbs think they can steal a van, pull up to a home that is still under construction in the nicer suburbs, and help themselves to white goods and construction materials. They need to think again, because we have a great Neighbourhood Watch program going and all the residents are on the alert and most have surveillance cameras. These idiots eventually get caught and I assume they are punished. What they need is something to keep them busy and not have too many idle hours to get up to mischief.

They need a program like "I'M AN IDIOT, GET ME OUTA HERE" where they have to spend time in the jungle-jail competing in challenges, such as eating crocodile tongues, bulls' scrotums, pigs' eyes, and cows' intestines and crawling through slime or snake and rat infested pits in order to collect stars to earn their meals - one star equals one meal. There could also be other, more useful challenges, such as growing food, cleaning the cells, cleaning the latrines etc. And the bag of meal ingredients, which they have earned, would be dropped from the sky for them to cook over a camp fire. No pre-prepared meals for them. This should kill a few idle hours too and perhaps teach them that life doesn't owe them a living. They can't just go out and acquire things without earning them. Jail is not a place of luxury where they are waited on hand and foot. No stars - no food. And only when they have learned their lesson well would they be allowed to yell "I'M AN IDIOT, GET ME OUTA HERE".