For those not appreciating this exercise, can I reassure you that we are within two years of the end of the book I am indexing. Two to ponder:
1121. Retribution is of two kinds: first, social, also known as justice; and second, individual, also known as revenge. The mark of a civilised society is that it promotes the messy frustrations and delays of the former over the false and instant consolation of the latter.
(Amol Rajan, theIpaper 19/4/12 on Norway's response to Anders Breivik's court behaviour)
1135. ...there are many kinds of wealth money cannot buy. You can buy education, but you cannot buy intelligence; you can buy designer clothes, but not style; cosmetics but not beauty; sex, but not love.
(A.C.Grayling, The Heart of Things)
Showing posts with label Justice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Justice. Show all posts
Monday, November 03, 2014
Friday, September 12, 2014
Judgement Day
I may have read too much Grisham or watched too much Good Wife, but today I caught a few minutes on Sky News of the live proceedings from the Pistorius trial in South Africa. And my one thought was how desperately slow it all was.
This was not born out of a desire to cut to the chase, nor to read the last few pages of the novel first. It was a sympathy for the defendant. Pistorius knows what he has done. He alone does. For when two people walk into a room and only one walks out there is an inevitable bias in the record of what occurred. But he has been found, at the time I write, guilty of culpable homicide and not guilty of murder.
And now he waits while legal arguments are made about the bail possibilities pending sentencing. During this period his current address was broadcast to the world. Again that seems odd to a Brit.
How can one sit calmly for so long awaiting sentence? An attribute of civilised society is that we are not cruel to offenders. We aim to punish them without undue cruelty. We take away liberty not fingernails.
In the absence of a jury, which is how this case has worked, the judge hears arguments then heads off to ponder and research. But presumably she already has a good idea of what sentence to impose. Yet Pistorius must wait. Until mid-October. It takes forever. And that seems harsh.
This was not born out of a desire to cut to the chase, nor to read the last few pages of the novel first. It was a sympathy for the defendant. Pistorius knows what he has done. He alone does. For when two people walk into a room and only one walks out there is an inevitable bias in the record of what occurred. But he has been found, at the time I write, guilty of culpable homicide and not guilty of murder.
And now he waits while legal arguments are made about the bail possibilities pending sentencing. During this period his current address was broadcast to the world. Again that seems odd to a Brit.
How can one sit calmly for so long awaiting sentence? An attribute of civilised society is that we are not cruel to offenders. We aim to punish them without undue cruelty. We take away liberty not fingernails.
In the absence of a jury, which is how this case has worked, the judge hears arguments then heads off to ponder and research. But presumably she already has a good idea of what sentence to impose. Yet Pistorius must wait. Until mid-October. It takes forever. And that seems harsh.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Quote Book Index 651-660
Just indexed ten more quotes (maybe only a thousand or so to go now) and here is the best of them:
656. ...justice is very hard to define but you can usually locate injustice. Rationality is very hard to define but you can usually locate irrationality.
(John Habgood, Archbishop of York, Third Way September 1995)
656. ...justice is very hard to define but you can usually locate injustice. Rationality is very hard to define but you can usually locate irrationality.
(John Habgood, Archbishop of York, Third Way September 1995)
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