I used to think human rights was about preventing people with power like the government or a dictator from silencing people they didn't like by putting them in jail or killing them. These days I read the news and it seems to me that human rights is more about protecting the rights of people who commit crimes - even atrocious crimes.
I recently read an article about a man who forced a girl to have sex with a dog and he got a maximum of 14 years in prison for this. He apparently also sexually assaulted a lot of other under aged girls. This is a pretty stiff sentence for Sweden where rapists are hardly punished. They do go to jail but not for long - and then the rapist is let loose again to rape more women.
http://www.thelocal.se/8250/
Don't get me wrong. I have a lot of respect for Sweden, but I don't think even the Swedes like this aspect of their legal system, because it encourages people to come to Sweden and commit crimes. Sometimes if the rapist is a foreigner he can get a lifetime ban from Sweden, like the Indian guy who raped another foreigner and killed her, then claimed to be engaged to her. As if the engagement would make his crimes any less atrocious.
I think the guy really deserved to get deported and banned from Sweden.
http://www.thelocal.se/7992/20070725/
Then today I came across this article criticizing capital punishment and more specifically criticizing Japan for its legal system that allows this. Though I am no fan of Japanese things in general, I don't think there's any sense in protecting people who do commit crimes in the name of human rights. I mean think about the people they killed. Weren't their human rights violated just so some sick guy could feel better?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6959685.stm
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Monday, July 30, 2007
Absurd Things that People Think
Some of us tend to assume that we have come a long way in terms of globalization and learning more about different people but I have heard some stories from friends and acquaintances that tell me otherwise...or rather that we still have a long way to go!
1. A Swedish businessman was seated next to two Saudi Arabian doctors who asked him in all seriousness: "Is it true that in Sweden there are naked blonde women running around and you can just grab them and have sex with them?"
2. A Spanish girl who had a physicist's degree from a university worried excessively about going to Chinese restaurants and coming into contact with any Chinese during the SARS scare. This was in her home country, Spain.
3. On the day of his first communion, my British friend of Indian descent was out on the lawn with his sister, both dressed up in their Sunday's best. A well-meaning English neighbor walked up to their mother.
"So it's their big day, huh?"
"What do you mean big day?"
"They're getting married aren't they?"
4. A Japanese girl went to a Christmas party dressed in this stapless cocktail dress which was cut above her knee. The skirt had silver fringes on it much like Christmas decorations. An English girl says to her: "Is that your national costume?"
5. A Spanish lawyer explained to me in all seriousness that a daughter of an acquaintance had this serious defect in her sinus as a result of mixed racial background.
"You see. Orientals have flat noses unlike us so when you have children with them they have a defect in their nose..."
The myths are endless. I can't think of more right now but when I do I'll add to this post.
1. A Swedish businessman was seated next to two Saudi Arabian doctors who asked him in all seriousness: "Is it true that in Sweden there are naked blonde women running around and you can just grab them and have sex with them?"
2. A Spanish girl who had a physicist's degree from a university worried excessively about going to Chinese restaurants and coming into contact with any Chinese during the SARS scare. This was in her home country, Spain.
3. On the day of his first communion, my British friend of Indian descent was out on the lawn with his sister, both dressed up in their Sunday's best. A well-meaning English neighbor walked up to their mother.
"So it's their big day, huh?"
"What do you mean big day?"
"They're getting married aren't they?"
4. A Japanese girl went to a Christmas party dressed in this stapless cocktail dress which was cut above her knee. The skirt had silver fringes on it much like Christmas decorations. An English girl says to her: "Is that your national costume?"
5. A Spanish lawyer explained to me in all seriousness that a daughter of an acquaintance had this serious defect in her sinus as a result of mixed racial background.
"You see. Orientals have flat noses unlike us so when you have children with them they have a defect in their nose..."
The myths are endless. I can't think of more right now but when I do I'll add to this post.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Peak Oil
"It is my opinion that the peak will occur in late 2005 or in the first few months of 2006," says Princeton geologist Kenneth S. Deffeyes in a new book, Beyond Oil. A more conservative estimate by Mike Rodgers of PFC Energy locates the peak somewhere in the vicinity of 2010-2015. If either of these predictions proves accurate, global oil supply can never climb high enough to satisfy the elevated consumption levels projected by the DoE for 2025 and beyond. (http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=2277)
_____________________________________________________________________
I calculated how old I'd be in 2025 and I would be 62 years old. Kind of worrying in view of the fact that this is when my legs would have become weaker and perhaps I would need a car. Right now, I don't even have a driver's license but my longterm plan had been to get one and then buy a car...for my old age.
I guess all we can do to prepare for this is to live pretty much the way we've been living because you can't stop driving cars depending on where you live. But you can make sure you are living in a place and have a lifestyle where it's not integral to take a car everywhere.
My flat here is walking distance from a train station, the supermarket and the beach. I walk mostly because I am not an exercise freak and walking is virtually the only form of exercise I ever get. But I'd been contemplating other means of transportation lately because it has been raining quite a bit this spring and I may soon be living with someone who may have to commute to place that might be a tad difficult to walk to in the rain. Rain also means you won't be going there in a bicycle or motorcycle even. It has got to be a car.
I mean if you're retired by the time petroleum costs escalate it won't be so terrible, but if you're in the peak of your career I don't know how you're going to be able to cope with it. You've got to get to work and the job has got to be done and it will probably take petroleum to get to work.
Reminds me of something my father who was a scientist said when he was still alive:
"With the way things are going now, who knows what will happen in the future? I think things will be fine in your lifetime, but I really can't say if it will still be fine in the lifetime of your children."
_____________________________________________________________________
I calculated how old I'd be in 2025 and I would be 62 years old. Kind of worrying in view of the fact that this is when my legs would have become weaker and perhaps I would need a car. Right now, I don't even have a driver's license but my longterm plan had been to get one and then buy a car...for my old age.
I guess all we can do to prepare for this is to live pretty much the way we've been living because you can't stop driving cars depending on where you live. But you can make sure you are living in a place and have a lifestyle where it's not integral to take a car everywhere.
My flat here is walking distance from a train station, the supermarket and the beach. I walk mostly because I am not an exercise freak and walking is virtually the only form of exercise I ever get. But I'd been contemplating other means of transportation lately because it has been raining quite a bit this spring and I may soon be living with someone who may have to commute to place that might be a tad difficult to walk to in the rain. Rain also means you won't be going there in a bicycle or motorcycle even. It has got to be a car.
I mean if you're retired by the time petroleum costs escalate it won't be so terrible, but if you're in the peak of your career I don't know how you're going to be able to cope with it. You've got to get to work and the job has got to be done and it will probably take petroleum to get to work.
Reminds me of something my father who was a scientist said when he was still alive:
"With the way things are going now, who knows what will happen in the future? I think things will be fine in your lifetime, but I really can't say if it will still be fine in the lifetime of your children."
REPSOL
Here I am waiting for the REPSOL guys to show up the week after Semana Santa and of course nobody shows up. Judging from the previous years, it seems to be some kind of a tradition of theirs to do a no-show the week after the Easter holidays - when I suspect most people are really in need of new gas tanks.
Gas tanks. Yes, it's uncivilized where I live. I need to buy these gas tanks to get my gas water heater going because they don't have central gas here. Not only that but since they don't have any civilized methods of replacing the tanks it's like a fish market every time I need one.
When the REPSOL trucks approach they blare their horns so loud it would awaken someone in a coma. Then, you have to literally run down the flight of stairs before they decide to leave and shout: Un butano para 2D!
While you're doing this you see women leaning out of windows shouting something like that too.
I really don't enjoy doing this and am sorely tempted to get an electric heater. But then again, since we do have power cuts sometimes, it's nice to risk hedge and have the hot water heater running on something other than electricity. After all, I'd be able to take a nice hot bath even during a blackout.
The fact is, when I first moved in here. I lived without electricity for 2 weeks and this was only possible because my water heater runs on gas. It was very boring with nothing to do except read and play games on my GBA and while the sun was up, but I could take baths at night by candle light here and this meant I could live here instead of having to move to a hotel. I woke-up at sunrise and went to bed pretty much at sunset. It was a pretty healthy lifestyle but horribly uncivilized. Compared to that life is very civilized now. I have electricity, Internet, a landline, hot water, a working kitchen and so on...and these things work....most of the time.
Anyway it doesn't look like the REPSOL guys are going to show up today so I will have to wake-up and wait for them again on Monday morning. Just great.
Gas tanks. Yes, it's uncivilized where I live. I need to buy these gas tanks to get my gas water heater going because they don't have central gas here. Not only that but since they don't have any civilized methods of replacing the tanks it's like a fish market every time I need one.
When the REPSOL trucks approach they blare their horns so loud it would awaken someone in a coma. Then, you have to literally run down the flight of stairs before they decide to leave and shout: Un butano para 2D!
While you're doing this you see women leaning out of windows shouting something like that too.
I really don't enjoy doing this and am sorely tempted to get an electric heater. But then again, since we do have power cuts sometimes, it's nice to risk hedge and have the hot water heater running on something other than electricity. After all, I'd be able to take a nice hot bath even during a blackout.
The fact is, when I first moved in here. I lived without electricity for 2 weeks and this was only possible because my water heater runs on gas. It was very boring with nothing to do except read and play games on my GBA and while the sun was up, but I could take baths at night by candle light here and this meant I could live here instead of having to move to a hotel. I woke-up at sunrise and went to bed pretty much at sunset. It was a pretty healthy lifestyle but horribly uncivilized. Compared to that life is very civilized now. I have electricity, Internet, a landline, hot water, a working kitchen and so on...and these things work....most of the time.
Anyway it doesn't look like the REPSOL guys are going to show up today so I will have to wake-up and wait for them again on Monday morning. Just great.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
What is Life All About?
This is a question that even the 82 year old Kurt Vonnegut was asking. In his A Man Without A Country: A Memoir Of Life In George W Bush’s America, (Bloomsbury), his son and pediatrician Dr. Vonnegut gave a pretty good answer: "Father, we are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is."
I sometimes think that we are unhappy with our lives because we try too hard to live it the way someone else thinks it should be lived. Unfortunately there are so many people - some of them family and friends - who like to dictate to us how to live life.
As children we are in a position where we can't really be too rebellious toward the views our parents are imposing on us but in your 30s and 40s do we still need to be so easily affected by what others say and what they think you should do?
I noticed this a few years ago when some people got upset when they asked me where I went on holiday and I said I'd not gone anywhere. It seems there is this expectation that one must go on a holiday and boast about the things they did. Some of them even launched an attack on the way I lived my life saying: You need to go on holidays.
In my opinion this is just as narrow minded as saying: You need a man.
So, what is it that people demand you do?
In the case of girls: You need to be beautiful, have perfect skin, the body of a model, wear designer clothing, perhaps have a diamond or two, have lots of friends who you go out clubbing with all the time, meet and marry a guy who not only looks like Juan Garcia Postigo (Mr. World 2007), but has a great job with a great company and the salary and benefits that come with it. You'll travel with him to exotic locations in the world and have some kids who grow up to be just as perfect as you and Juan.
If you don't subscribe to these you will invariably meet criticism. If you do, people will say bad things about you anyway because they're jealous. So, you can't really win.
Actually the ideas of what you should be doing are even more specific. For example, take the holiday. You're not only supposed to go somewhere cool, but you have to say you went to this restaurant and that and stayed at this hotel and that. You might even come back from a holiday that you personally thought was fun until you told a friend who said: That doesn't sound like too much fun.
But at the end of the day it's the same as the overall way you live your life. Some people will have bad things to say no matter what because there's this competitive edge to people that makes them say negative things about what you do just so they feel good about themselves by reaffirming that: My life is better than yours.
Who needs friends like that?
But a lot of people tolerate such friends because successful people are supposed to have lots of friends and to have lots of friends you have to tolerate a lot of crap. I find this more prevalent amongst younger people and when people get older they do generally seem to wisen up about this a bit. Notice that older people seem to have fewer friends as a rule? But then again maybe some people are happy about being around people who are always trying to get one over them and insulting them constantly - if it makes them happy, fine.
In your life time you will meet very few really nice friends...but you'll find that when you tell these few friends about things you did in your life they will most likely say: So long as you enjoyed it, it's great.
Maybe they don't approve of what you're doing or approve of your guy or your girl or your new outfit or new house - but at the end of the day your happiness about these things is more important to them than finding fault in these things to make themselves feel good about themselves and their lives.
And these friends will help you get through life whatever it is we are trying to do here.
___________________________________________________________________________
Kurt Vonnegut RIP
I sometimes think that we are unhappy with our lives because we try too hard to live it the way someone else thinks it should be lived. Unfortunately there are so many people - some of them family and friends - who like to dictate to us how to live life.
As children we are in a position where we can't really be too rebellious toward the views our parents are imposing on us but in your 30s and 40s do we still need to be so easily affected by what others say and what they think you should do?
I noticed this a few years ago when some people got upset when they asked me where I went on holiday and I said I'd not gone anywhere. It seems there is this expectation that one must go on a holiday and boast about the things they did. Some of them even launched an attack on the way I lived my life saying: You need to go on holidays.
In my opinion this is just as narrow minded as saying: You need a man.
So, what is it that people demand you do?
In the case of girls: You need to be beautiful, have perfect skin, the body of a model, wear designer clothing, perhaps have a diamond or two, have lots of friends who you go out clubbing with all the time, meet and marry a guy who not only looks like Juan Garcia Postigo (Mr. World 2007), but has a great job with a great company and the salary and benefits that come with it. You'll travel with him to exotic locations in the world and have some kids who grow up to be just as perfect as you and Juan.
If you don't subscribe to these you will invariably meet criticism. If you do, people will say bad things about you anyway because they're jealous. So, you can't really win.
Actually the ideas of what you should be doing are even more specific. For example, take the holiday. You're not only supposed to go somewhere cool, but you have to say you went to this restaurant and that and stayed at this hotel and that. You might even come back from a holiday that you personally thought was fun until you told a friend who said: That doesn't sound like too much fun.
But at the end of the day it's the same as the overall way you live your life. Some people will have bad things to say no matter what because there's this competitive edge to people that makes them say negative things about what you do just so they feel good about themselves by reaffirming that: My life is better than yours.
Who needs friends like that?
But a lot of people tolerate such friends because successful people are supposed to have lots of friends and to have lots of friends you have to tolerate a lot of crap. I find this more prevalent amongst younger people and when people get older they do generally seem to wisen up about this a bit. Notice that older people seem to have fewer friends as a rule? But then again maybe some people are happy about being around people who are always trying to get one over them and insulting them constantly - if it makes them happy, fine.
In your life time you will meet very few really nice friends...but you'll find that when you tell these few friends about things you did in your life they will most likely say: So long as you enjoyed it, it's great.
Maybe they don't approve of what you're doing or approve of your guy or your girl or your new outfit or new house - but at the end of the day your happiness about these things is more important to them than finding fault in these things to make themselves feel good about themselves and their lives.
And these friends will help you get through life whatever it is we are trying to do here.
___________________________________________________________________________
Kurt Vonnegut RIP
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