Law, Partially

This talk about Singapore’s draconian criminal justice, with such harsh penalties for such minor crimes – deterring minor crimes will make major crimes even less likely; there will be no testing of the limits of prosecutorial discretion – I have to say it’s deterring some individuals from committing minor crimes. I’m not going to say I’m a newly-anointed party animal, but with my new Singaporean friends, I’ve stayed out late drinking a lot of beer, and I’ve been really tempted to urinate in public. In the States I would. I urinated in public in pretty much every European, North American, Indian, and Ethiopian city I’ve ever been to. It’s sort of a tradition. And when you gotta go, you gotta go. But here in Singapore, I’m too worried about being punished by public caning; not to mention, I don’t have time for court. (I’m not scared of being caned; I just don’t want to have to mess around with the hassle.) I don’t know for sure if urinating in public is the norm in China. It is in Indi...

I’ve been back in the States for two weeks now. Some Indian reflections are in order. Consider this closure. I think I’ve done all the things in the States that I had been dreaming of all summer. I’m drinking red European wine and eating European cheese as I type. (American wine and cheese were also dreamed about, but it just so happens that I’m going European tonight.) These items are prohibitively expensive in India, but at Costco in the U.S., they’re just the right price. I ate Mexican food at El Maguey. I saw friends and family. I spoke English, and everyone understood. As I type this, I’m thinking, being back home sounds underwhelming, and actually it probably is. I have unfinished business, it feels, in India. Eleven weeks just wasn’t enough time. I was intimidated by India when I first arrived there. What shocked and scared me most at first was the madness of the streets. People were walking on highways. Also on highways there were roadside stalls set up. People didn’t stop at r...

Seeing and listening to the rosy picture painted for us in the villages around Latur, I was reminded of statements I’ve often heard in the U.S. For example, a celebrity spends a day with some disadvantaged children and then says something like, “their strength and determination is an inspiration to me,” and this celebrity gets a pat on the back for caring. Paris Hilton gets out of jail and is inspired to party less and live a life devoted to helping prison women. How selfless of Paris. You can throw some money at the disadvantaged and leave. You can build them a house and then roll out of town. But these things don’t really get to the roots of why these people are disadvantaged in the first place. The house is likely to be taken care of poorly and the money spent imprudently. People tend to appreciate things a lot more if they have earned it themselves through their own work. I think this is why CRY goes about this development work the right way, empowering people through education and...

The South Korean Supreme Court has ruled that it is a violation of "human dignity" to force someone to drink . In South Korea, like Japan, men drink obscene amounts after work and then go to karaoke bars. This gives the salarymen a chance to be more honest with their bosses and it helps the workers to bond in hopes of brining about the harmonious society that is so honored over there. Now that women have begun working more, they sometimes feel uncomfortable in this binge drinking culture. It was a woman who filed the lawsuit upon being forced to drink by her boss. All you college kids out there just remember your right to human dignity when peer pressure is squeezing you to drink when you don't want to.

(1.) In two weekends, I will probably be going to a Hindu Holy town called Nasik. It’s about 4 hours by bus and train away from Mumbai. It is also the home of India’s most famous wine growing region and winery, Sula. An Indian who made a boatload in Silicon Valley returned to India and brought California wine makers with him to start the winery. They make whites and reds, including a cabernet shiraz blend. (2.) I read this article earlier in the year and was quite moved by it. Cotton farmers are unable to repay their loans with the price of cotton being so low and the price of tractor fuel and genetically modified seeds being so high, and unable to repay their loans, they’re killing themselves. As poor as the population seems in Mumbai, the poverty in the countryside is supposed to be just grinding, and the primary reason why there are so many slums, beggars, and sidewalk sleepers is because people are just pouring into Mumbai from the countryside looking to make a better living. Anyo...

That would never look good on a job application.

I was feeling very Tucker Max in the evenings. I was feeling very scholarly during the day. In the evenings, I was told I had no filter on the words and sentences that came from my mouth. I drank a lot of alcohol and went to a few bars. (I don't do this very often anymore. I'm over it. I usually drink red wine by myself on my couch and read the newspaper and talk to my roommate.) I am sure there are numerous people in D.C. last weekend who thought I was an idiot, and they were right. In the day I went to some boring, yet also very, very interesting, panel discussions on international law. I heard about arbitration, bilateral investment treaties, the harmonization of food law, what law can do for climate change, et cetera, et cetera. Funny note: arbitrators tend to be "pale, male, and stale." I met an elderly man (I met many men, some women and girls too.), a German who is now a very respected law professor in Germany and was also, I believe, a judge for, I believe, t...