Maid in Coma

After banging her own head against a wall. Umm hmm. Sure. What is the point of even reporting crap like this? Does someone honestly think that a report that says, "The housemaid of Asian nationality reportedly did not wish to return to her homeland, and resorted to banging her head against a wall, resulting in being admitted to hospital [sic] in a coma" is going to be believed? Someone must or it wouldn't be taking up a single paragraph in the paper. But come one. Really. Seriously. WHO bangs their own head against a wall so hard that they put themself into a coma?!? Never mind. It is just another disposable maid. Move along folks. Nothing to see here...

Nothing to see, here, either. Just another India worker who plunged to his death from a high-rise building. Disposable. Get another worker.

A young man [nationality? guess!] has been sentenced to 15 years and 40,000 lashes for having an illicit relationship with a "non-Saudi" girl which resulted in her "accidental" death when she jumped out of the vehicle she was in with him and was run over by a truck. 40,000 lashes. Not a typo, on my part. 15 years in prison. Quick math. 40,000 lashes, divided by 15 years, equals 2,666.66 lashes per year. How will they be doled out? Monthly? That's 222.22 a month. Weekly? That's 52.28 a week. Daily? 7.30 per day. How can that even be possible? The death penalty was being sought by the prosecution. I'm guessing the young man, whoever he is, might be wishing for the death penalty. [If there is a typographical error in the paper's article, and it is corrected, I'll make sure to post it.] The young man is appealing the sentence [if it is reported, you'll read it here]. Must have been some super-duper really, really prominent and important non-Saudi girl for the sentence to have been this severe.

You know, for all the times I make light of PCRC, truly I do feel some compassion when a child is killed. It is not the innocent child's fault. It is the parents' fault. Parents who do not put their little children in safety seats and who do not stop to consider what the consequences of their actions might be. Like in this instance, where a father left his three-year-old daughter [unattended?] in a vehicle with the motor running so that he could run into a restaurant to pick up lunch. Dumbass. Yes, it was an accident. But that should not absolve you - the dumbass father - from blame. You left your little girl in a car with the motor running. Who does this?!? [Happens in America, too, so not directing this at any particular nationality. Stupidity is endemic world-wide.] If she was in a child-safety seat, chances are pretty good that she would have remained in the seat while you ran to get your lunch and she wouldn't have been hanging out the window and able to somehow operate the electrical function that allowed the window to be raised to the point where she suffocated. I remember struggling with the fasteners of child safety seats. They are not manufactured to be operated by little three-year-old hands. Child safety seat? Here? They are a rare sight - and I do mean rare! You'd be more likely to see flying pigs in this part of the world than child safety seats. Was your little girl in the front seat of the vehicle - hanging out the window - when she was somehow able to operate the electric window that caused her suffocation? If she was in the back seat, why didn't you have the "child safety" mechanism turned ON that prevents children from being able to "play with the buttons?" It is sad when any child dies. But this is an accident that could have been prevented with just a teeny tiny iota of common sense. Never mind...

Shocking. Just shocking. "Religious police accused of torture." Hmmm... Whodathunkit? A report by the Saudi Society for Human Rights "has presented a long and detailed list of accusations against the religious police in its 100-page report to the Shoura Council, the highest advisory body in the kingdom." The report "essentially charges the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice... of 'exercising excessive powers that are actually not in its jurisdiction.'" The media is being blamed. Um-hmm. "There were several complaints abou tthe torture and even custodial deaths against the members of the commmission," says the document. "Often these incidents ended up in the newspapers, but 'in such cases, the commission officals have resorted to blaming the media and playing down the reports as exagerated ones.'" Well. Okay, then. Now we know.

Oh. Some good news. That little eight-year-old girl who was married off to a pedophile by her father to "settle his debts" IS going to be allowed a divorce! Well. Kind of. Apparently that the child has won an appeal of the verdict that she would NOT be allowed to "divorce" the pedophile actually means "that the controversial [ya think?] marriage is still in effect, but a challenge to the marriage by the girl's mother is still alive." Huh? "The appeals court action now sends the case back to the earlier judge, who will decide whether to stand by his original decision... If the judge upholds his verdict and refuses to grant the child a divorce annul the marriage, then the case will again go to the appeals court... If the judge changes his decision, then the case is effectively over." Let's hope, for the sake of this child, that the judge clearly sees that NO little EIGHT-YEAR-OLD GIRL should be allowed to marry a pedophile who is 39 YEARS HER SENIOR! Sanity needs to prevail.