The years of our discontent
What a country?!! This was the exclamation made by the guy (wearing a blonde wig and a phony accent) to his guide at the end of every little segment in one of the greatest shows on PTV called Kaliyaan. The guide would generally be showing the tourist around and they would find something totally amazing which you can only find in our holy land.
The past few weeks have been very interesting, there is a silent tug of war going on between the forces of good and evil, both convinced they are right, while the eye in the sky watches with impotent fury. I think I will remain the observer, slightly biased toward the evil side, since there is no way in hell I can identify with the good.
There have been a few newsworthy stories in the newspapers and I think most of them have been talked about to death, but I like to put my own twist on them. So here goes nothing
1. Video evidence not applicable to Hudood Ordinance
Court dismisses allegations of adultery on a woman because according to the learned judge's understanding of Hudood Ordinance, the only way adultery can be proven is by having four Muslim men witness it. My only question is why the plaintiff brought a suit only against the woman in the alleged homemade porn, and not the two men she was filmed with?
Maybe it was because there were four Muslim men who were witness, two participating and a couple filming it etc. So the two men couldn't be accused, since their deed could only be verified by two and a half witnesses.
I say Way to go Judge Man!!!
2. LHC validates marriage of a 12 year old
The Lahore High Court validates the marriage of a 12 year old girl to a man 13 years her senior, saying that a girl becomes an adult when she reaches puberty. This is something that is troubling me, and not just because of the obvious reasons. The age of consent in some countries is 13 (The Netherlands e.g.). I have just finished reading Lolita by Nabokov, and the neo-cons in all parts of the world would gladly lynch Humbert Humbert, all except from our holy land.
At the same time, there was a news item about child marriages in India, which is at least illegal. Apparently the marriages are not consummated till the child reaches puberty. So the question is, should kids be allowed to engage in sexual activity as soon as their hormones kick in? If yes, should they be also be allowed to get into legally binding contracts like marriage? If the answer to that is affirmative, then should they also be treated as adults in all aspects?
The problem is that adulthood cannot be measured; I have met eight year olds who were more mature than most thirtysomething people I know. What society figured out was that a line needed to be drawn to differentiate adults from non-adults and this was done so that adults were defined as people who could primarily take the financial and other responsibilities for their actions. The average age of a person who starts earning a livelihood is what determines adulthood, and unfortunately not the fact that they can reproduce. Legal obligations like buying property, starting a business, getting married etc. require that the person is financially responsible. Thus the age of 18 or 21 defining an adult, based on averages. Everything else stems from this.
People just seem to miss this point and get into a moral debate and start quoting historical precedents, both for and against. Get over it already!!
3. The marathons and the mullah brigade
This is the funniest of them all, the government can't seem to decide what side it is on. The mullahs have the power to disrupt, the police does what its told and its more fun watching people run for cover, nearer the spirit of the marathon. On a serious note, the emancipation of women will take more than running marathons with men. See above!!
4. The desecration of the holy book
I think all books are holy, and people should react whenever a book is burnt or desecrated. Getting killed over it is probably not a very smart thing to do. Protest, protest and protest about anything and everything, just dont do things which need another protest from somebody else.
Its funny how we are spending our energy on pointless futile things, but maybe, and that's an optimistic maybe, we will learn something from all this. Probably not, as this wise German philosopher said and I quote, "Even the gods battle in vain against stupidity".
So I laugh at the news and say to myself, "What a country!!!"
The past few weeks have been very interesting, there is a silent tug of war going on between the forces of good and evil, both convinced they are right, while the eye in the sky watches with impotent fury. I think I will remain the observer, slightly biased toward the evil side, since there is no way in hell I can identify with the good.
There have been a few newsworthy stories in the newspapers and I think most of them have been talked about to death, but I like to put my own twist on them. So here goes nothing
1. Video evidence not applicable to Hudood Ordinance
Court dismisses allegations of adultery on a woman because according to the learned judge's understanding of Hudood Ordinance, the only way adultery can be proven is by having four Muslim men witness it. My only question is why the plaintiff brought a suit only against the woman in the alleged homemade porn, and not the two men she was filmed with?
Maybe it was because there were four Muslim men who were witness, two participating and a couple filming it etc. So the two men couldn't be accused, since their deed could only be verified by two and a half witnesses.
I say Way to go Judge Man!!!
2. LHC validates marriage of a 12 year old
The Lahore High Court validates the marriage of a 12 year old girl to a man 13 years her senior, saying that a girl becomes an adult when she reaches puberty. This is something that is troubling me, and not just because of the obvious reasons. The age of consent in some countries is 13 (The Netherlands e.g.). I have just finished reading Lolita by Nabokov, and the neo-cons in all parts of the world would gladly lynch Humbert Humbert, all except from our holy land.
At the same time, there was a news item about child marriages in India, which is at least illegal. Apparently the marriages are not consummated till the child reaches puberty. So the question is, should kids be allowed to engage in sexual activity as soon as their hormones kick in? If yes, should they be also be allowed to get into legally binding contracts like marriage? If the answer to that is affirmative, then should they also be treated as adults in all aspects?
The problem is that adulthood cannot be measured; I have met eight year olds who were more mature than most thirtysomething people I know. What society figured out was that a line needed to be drawn to differentiate adults from non-adults and this was done so that adults were defined as people who could primarily take the financial and other responsibilities for their actions. The average age of a person who starts earning a livelihood is what determines adulthood, and unfortunately not the fact that they can reproduce. Legal obligations like buying property, starting a business, getting married etc. require that the person is financially responsible. Thus the age of 18 or 21 defining an adult, based on averages. Everything else stems from this.
People just seem to miss this point and get into a moral debate and start quoting historical precedents, both for and against. Get over it already!!
3. The marathons and the mullah brigade
This is the funniest of them all, the government can't seem to decide what side it is on. The mullahs have the power to disrupt, the police does what its told and its more fun watching people run for cover, nearer the spirit of the marathon. On a serious note, the emancipation of women will take more than running marathons with men. See above!!
4. The desecration of the holy book
I think all books are holy, and people should react whenever a book is burnt or desecrated. Getting killed over it is probably not a very smart thing to do. Protest, protest and protest about anything and everything, just dont do things which need another protest from somebody else.
Its funny how we are spending our energy on pointless futile things, but maybe, and that's an optimistic maybe, we will learn something from all this. Probably not, as this wise German philosopher said and I quote, "Even the gods battle in vain against stupidity".
So I laugh at the news and say to myself, "What a country!!!"
posted by Xoff at 5/24/2005 04:21:00 AM
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