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What could possibly make a 47 year old man want to marry an 8 year old girl?
There are some things that I will never understand and never accept as anything else than repulsive. Children should be kept out of the problems of adults, not be forced to settle some debt with their own life as the prize. It's disgusting that judge Sheikh Habib Al-Habib didn't annul the marriage, and even worse that the mother of the girl was not allowed to represent her in court.
I don't think it's a defense to talk about culture in these cases either. To say that, is to say that there is no individual choice and that everybody in Saudi Arabia feels like marrying little girls are ok. People don't think it's ok. Not in Saudi Arabia and not anywhere else either.
This is about changing the law to protect children, no matter where they happen to be living. A child's situation must be taken into concern every time there is a legal issue involving children. Anyone has to be able to defend a child, if that person has a reason to think that the well being of that child is questioned.
The captain is free, cheerios to that, but why is ransom ever paid?
Every time someone pays the ransom for a kidnapped person, especially in such an infected situation like the piracy along Somalian coastline, they give a boost to the pirates, that it is a sure way of getting money.
There are other methods to fighting for the freedom of a kidnapped person. Rewarding the kidnapper with cash is hardly a way to show that the method of earning a buck is wrong.
The methods I'm thinking of is more along the line of using military personnel to get some fear into the pirates. Free the hostage at a higher price, perhaps, but who would continue to kidnap people if all they got out of it were a crew with gunshot holes to the head?
If you wanna win, you have to be more of a bad ass than your enemy.
The reason I even mention violence as an option is not that I'm bloodthirsty, cause I'm anything but that. The reason is that I think the situation is very infected and I think negotiations are a lost cause at this point.
If the path of riches is continued, I think the situation will get worse, to the point of companies not daring to have their ships sent on that rout any longer. Is that really the result we want?
2 comments:
While I am totally with you regarding the pedofilia in Saudi Arabia... I beg to differ regarding the pirate case.. in this particular case, the captain ran away under cover of US Navy fire, no ransom was paid for him, but ransoms were made for others surely, and pirates got stronger.
If you think about the root cause, these people are desperate, they steal from the rich and give to the poor in Somalia.
Yes, and since the root of the piracy is poverty, I think the smart thing is to make it clear that these types of 'income' is not acceptable.
I don't see how the pirates are heroic and give to the poor, since people in Somalia fear them, they are not seen as heroes.
As long as ransom is paid, even if not in this case, there will be more violence and if anything, it should open the eyes of the rest of the world and make it clear that it's much overdue to give a helping hand to the people of Somalia. If the people of Somalia are depending on piracy to survive financially, then it's a terrible situation.
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