Every day we have the local paper hurled at our apartment door. While in my book it is quite a luxury to have the paper at my door when I step out, this perk is a bit diminished since I have to scrape together the sections into some semblance of a pile in order to read it. But scrape I do and first thing I turn to the national section, home to my favorite: the "court" column.
Before giving you samples from this column, first I must remind everyone that Dobby is in a Muslim country. It can be easy to forget that here when surrounded by so many non-Muslims, most of the time. Many Muslim sensibilities and values are very similar to those in other parts of the world. It is important to remember this basic fact. And some Muslim sensibilities and values are a little different than what we are used to in the West (although not so different from the subcontinent). One such difference involves ideas about appropriate dress and personal presentation--for both men and women. Another involves the possession of alcohol.
That said, the following article caught my eye the other day:
"Secretary 'stripped' to defer paying loan": a Philipina woman is accused of allowing two men to have sex with her. The two men in turn are accused of having "forceful sex" with her and possessing alcohol. I don't know the outcome, but the basic facts involved this woman owing money to her boss and his brother, and supposedly she offered sex in lieu of immediate payment. How is that for a storyline daytime soaps!
"Three men charged with Attempted Murder": This story may be familiar and is quite sad. A French teenage boy was tricked by a local Arab into getting a ride from school, and ended up being raped in the desert. While this guy and his accomplices were finally convicted of rape, it turned out the rapist has AIDS. So the local prosecution have brought a murder case against him. This is an example of non-differing values: it is possible he will be convicted of murder or attempted murder because he knowingly passed on the AIDS virus.
"Girl claims forced to have sex in car": Two local youngsters-16 year-old girl and 20 year-old guy are caught in the car in compromising positions. Now she is claiming he forced her into it. Both are also charged with possession of alcohol.
"Visitor gets jail, fine for carrying fake currency": A guy from Africa is caught with about $ 35K of fake dollars. He claimed he thought they were drawing papers. He was also charged with possession of alcohol.
"Man charged with Grabbing Women's Breast": and possessing alcohol. Apparently some guy grabbed a woman's breast in a mall or something, although the details are vague and it sounds like it might have been consensual. . . . .
And the list goes on. Sometimes entertaining, sometimes very serious, and always educational.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
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2 comments:
interesting, I didn't know that a person could get slapped with an attempted murder charge for passing on the AIDS virus...
and as for the visitor, ok fake currency understood but aren't foreigners allowed the right to possess alcohol, since they aren't restricted to the Muslim rule of forbidding alcohol?
or do ALL visitors have to go thru all the regulations you once blogged about in order to actually buy alcohol there?
Hey there! Its progressive to treat intentional passing of the Aids virus as attempted murder. THis is a controversial issue in Western countries too. As for the currency guy, if he was clearly Muslim he would not be allowed to ahve alcohol. OR maybe he had some without the card. I think the rule is if you are resident here, you have to have the card to ahve alcohol outside the house. I'm actulaly confused about all this.
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