No Incentive to be Good

When I was a kid and went through my confirmation classes I was taught that ‘if you break Gods laws you go to hell’.

Simultaneously, I was taught that if I was truly sorry for my sins then I’d be forgiven and granted access to Heaven. I even remember asking my priest (or Vicar- he was a protestant) if this applied to any sin I’d committed to which he responded that this was the case if I was truly sorry.

So...if I have a bad night and accidently end up shooting 36 people, rape 14 goats and assault 3 beavers and a tree frog, but really regret it, at least on my death bed, I’d be OK and the gates of Heaven will open up for me. I can see why the Devil invented fatal accidents, ‘cause if people had time to regret their sins he’d probably go out of business.

So if all you have to do is be sorry after a life of being bad, then there’s no real incentive to be good, is there?!

Zero Tolerance

Back in the 90’s the then Mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, introduced the ‘zero tolerance’ policy against crimes. This harsh yet highly successful approach to fighting crimes spread like wildfire across the western world, and it would appear as if it has now reached Taiwan.

Only a few days ago a motor scooter rider in central Taiwan was held at gunpoint during a traffic stop for not wearing a safety helmet. After a police car whistled to the scooter to pull over, the officer pulled a gun on the 54-year-old female rider, who was wearing a hat but not a helmet, and ordered her not to move.

I wonder what happens if you run a red light?!?

I received another hate email...

On the 14th of November I wrote about an Islamic preacher who got imprisoned for failing to divorce 82 of his 86 wives. I actually saw the comic side of this and made a comment that implied that a man must be nuts for having 86 wives when 1 seems to be hard work enough.

Little did I know that I would receive hate emails as a result of this- certainly not from two women (have received emails like this in the past though). I will say, however, that I have no regrets about what I wrote and I do not consider myself having insulted Islam.

In fact, in accordance with Sharia (Islamic law) it is illegal to have more than 4 wives, which is what the Preacher got charged and imprisoned for in the first place, so perhaps I’m not the one insulting Islam?!

Regarding my comment- I meant this to be a joke, and since it’s my joke I reserve the right to publish it on my blog- it will not be removed!

The Preacher had 4100% more wives than allowed- that’s the real insult. I thank you, Yasmeen and Taahira, for your comments and concerns.

Rotisserie Australiana

There are many things I love about Australia but the sun isn’t one of them. Well, not necessarily the sun itself but certainly the rays, or perhaps it is the lack of ozone...or a combination of both.

I went beach fishing for a few hours yesterday morning and managed yet again to get seriously sun burnt! We did have some sunscreen (although we ran out) but I find it only protects to certain point. At least I had a long sleeve shirt (at the beach?!) and a hat.

However prepared, the reflection from the ocean and wearing only shorts my face and neck along with my legs and hands now have the same colour as a cooked lobster. A man in this condition could easily lose his sense of humour when putting socks and shoes on!

This has been an ongoing problem, and one summer I decided to hide inside a beach tent where I thought I’d be safe from roasting. Unfortunately my right foot was sticking out so I ended up burning the sole of my foot- didn’t even know you could burn there!

Perhaps my pigmentation is just a little too keen as I can burn in the Australian sun in about 30 minutes. It’s actually become a bit embarrassing and somewhat of a bad joke that I’m not able to play on the beach with my kids nor go swimming for more than 10-15 minutes. Walking around in a tracksuit isn’t my idea of fun at the beach, and besides, even if I did I’d still burn my hands and feet!

A kingdom for a clear and completely waterproof sunscreen spf 10,000 I say!

Thought of the day- Pharmaceutical Conspiracy No 37

Back in the good old 60’s people took LSD to make the world crazy. Now when the world is crazy, people take Prozac to make the world normal.

A Sucker for Punishment?

The authorities in central Niger state charged Mohammed Bello with "insulting religious" creed and "unlawful marriages" after local chiefs and Muslim leaders gave him a September 7, 2008 deadline to comply with Sharia, Islamic law, which allows a man to have no more than four wives.

The 84-year-old Islamic preacher with 86 wives was jailed after he failed to comply to divorce all but four of the women.

I have one wife, whom I’m madly in love with, but she sure is a handful. Having ‘challenging’ wives seems to be a pretty common thing among men these days, so what in the name of God would persuade a man to have 86 of them?!?

In addition, he’s got 170 kids- tough break for Christmas!

Finding Motivation

In my current business (recruitment) I frequently do a lot of work for no pay at all. This can of course put a major dent in your motivation and there are days when you simply can’t get over ‘losses’ worth tens of thousands- occupational hazard they call it.

The real trick is to get the motivation back although a particular strategy or approach may not work every time. So you have to look for new things or ways to make it happen.

I had a couple of those days recently where nothing worked. My eldest daughter looked at me and asked what my problem was (cheeky little shit) to which I explained that I lost some money at work.

She immediately slapped in the face and told me to "get over it".

I think the shock of my daughter slapping me must have worked ‘cause I’m back to my normal self.

I guess sometimes you don’t need to look hard for motivation- it could be right in front of you!

Public Humiliation – A New or Returning Trend for Punishment?

Shanghai police will post photos and videos of jaywalkers in newspapers and on TV in a bid to shame them out of breaking traffic rules. Offending pedestrians, moped riders and cyclists would be snapped at selected intersections and their images put in regular columns and on special television programs set up by police. A local lawyer was quoted saying "It's a principle of law that a penalty should match the seriousness of the crime".

Jaywalking is a way of life in major Chinese cities, where crossing roads legally can be a hair-raising battle of nerves with oncoming cars disinclined to give way to pedestrians. Traffic police recorded 7.78 million jaywalking violations at Shanghai intersections in the first eight months of 2008.

The scheme had come under fire from lawyers who said public humiliation was too steep a punishment for jaywalking and warned of defamation lawsuits against police.

The interesting thing about all this is that during the 1700 and 1800’s similar punishments were very common in Northern Europe- the log punishment, whereby the person being punished has his or her legs firmly shackled in logs and placed outside the church door along the roadside for public inspection, or the pillory which consisted of hinged wooden boards that formed holes through which the head and/or various limbs were inserted and the boards locked together to secure the captive. These pillories were set up in marketplaces and crossroads to hold petty criminals, often with a placecard detailing the crime nearby.

They do say that fashion is cyclical and it would seem that this is also the case for public humiliation as punishment. Then again- the British tabloids have been around for awhile so perhaps it’s not a new or reoccurring trend after all.