India
People! Respect your elders. Or else…
Today you get an interesting lesson in truth about family. “Blood” is not always family. It helps to be of the same blood, but it does not automatically make you family. Or deserving of the benefits thereof:
The family of a wealthy British pensioner who left her entire fortune to the owners of a Chinese restaurant failed Friday in a legl bid to have her will declared invalid.
Nephews and nieces of Golda “Goldie” Bechal claimed that she was of unsound mind when she made the will leaving 10 million pounds (13.9 million euros, 20 million dollars) to her Kim Sing Man and his wife Bee Lian Man. – [Yahoo/AFP]
Now I’m sure this all came as a shock to this old Brits nephews and nieces to find that they would be getting cut off from access to a healthy 10 Mil. pounds. But you know what? It makes a whole lot of sense. Why not leave your money to people who you feel close to, who feel more like family than your real family?
It’s funny how often I see people treat their elderly relatives like unwanted baggage. Especially here in the US. Perhaps if people started bequeathing their belongings to the people who they thought were better family, people would take much better care of their elderly relatives than they do now. Seriously. What would it take? Laws that make parental neglect a criminal offence, like it now is in India?What is even more striking to me in this case is how her nieces and nephews wasted no time in branding her insane when they found out they had lost out on a large chunk of cash. Insane? They said she was insane!!? Really? In my mind, that action, in and of itself, more than justifies the decision the old Brit took.
Perhaps if they had paid her as much attention as those Chinese restaurant owners, who, by all accounts, appear to be very nice people, they might have received an equal amount of appreciation in return…
- Elderly Briton leaves fortune to Chinese restaurant owner – [Yahoo/AFP]
- Neglect of parents a criminal offence – [Yahoo/Reuters]
Paris Hilton Has a Cause!
And guess what. It involves inebriated pachyderms:
Paris Hilton is being praised by conservationists for highlighting the problem of binge-drinking elephants in northeastern India.
Activists said a celebrity endorsement such as Hilton’s was sure to raise awareness of the plight of the pachyderms that get drunk on farmers’ homemade rice beer and then go on a rampage. – [Yahoo/AP]
You know seriously, with all the jacked up stuff that is going on in the world today, the one cause she decides to champion, is elephants getting drunk on rice beer that their owners forgot to put away? I suppose that is par for the course for this lady, but honestly…
Hilton tries to help drunk elephants – [Yahoo/AP]
Indian Judges Get Schooled
Here’s yet another great article on dysfunctional legal systems , this time from India:
In an order issued late Friday, Judge R. K. Tiwari was told to return for a three-month refresher course after issuing an arrest warrant in defiance of a previous High Court ruling.
Yes, in India, the lower courts can over rule the higher courts… NOT!!
Tiwari had ordered police to detain a landlord in a case where his tenant had failed to pay the power company, despite a previous High Court ruling that the landlord could not be held responsible. Tiwari could not immediately be reached for comment. – [Yahoo/AP]
And I thought it was bad here in the US!! How did this guy make it into office? But (at the risk of sounding like a broken record) one thing I will say is that the whole retraining idea is a good one. All judges and lawyers should be required to take periodic refresher courses in ethics and the law. As should police officers. And soldiers. and High-ranking military. And government officials. And… Well you get the idea.
OK… Back to my cave I go …
Indian judge ordered back to law school – [Yahoo/AP]
Creative rehabilitative incarceration strategies…
Prison authorities in southern India are planning to introduce inmates to poetry, literature and music as part of a novel reform plan, a minister said Tuesday. Poets, playwrights, authors and musicians will participate in readings and live performances, as well as share their experiences with inmates, said Kerala state home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.”Jails should not be used as torture grounds. They might have committed crimes but we should help them to reform themselves,” Balakrishnan told AFP.
[Yahoo/AFP]
Now this is what I call a creative prison system. Now I believe that, barring the actions of hard, cynical, and even unethical prison guards, administrators and staff, prisons are in general, a hell (or “torture grounds”, if you will) of the inmates own making. I believe it is the cruelty and violence of the inmates themselves that makes prison so undesirable, not so much any external factors.
However in many cases some inmates would actually benefit from being exposed to some positive influences. Not every inmate is a hardened, cold blooded, dyed-in-the-wool criminal. Some of them were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, had the wrong friends, or grew up in the wrong environment. These kinds of people could be rehabilitated, if given the right conditions. Heck, you might even end up doing something cool, like these inmates at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in Cebu City, Philipines.
Now I’m not naive enough to believe that there will be wholesale reform as a result, I think I understand the reasons why crime exists, and I believe it should be obvious to anyone that rehabilitation is much too complex an issue to be solved by implementing any one solution. But if even one inmate learns to better themselves as a result, it will still all be worth it.
07/29/2007 – UPDATE!:
Apparently the dancing inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center have gained fame on YouTube! The link also provides some background information about how the program started and the intent behind it.
Video – Inmates in CPDRC, Philipines do “Radio Ga Ga” – [YouTube.com]
Video – Inmates in CPDRC, Philipines do “Sister Act” – [YouTube.com]
Video – Inmates in CPDRC, Philipines do “Thriller” – [MySpace.com]
Indian state mulls a dose of culture to reform prisoners – [Yahoo/AFP]
Dancing jailbirds in Philippines become YouTube hit – [Yahoo/AFP]
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