Should Judges Angle for Applause?

  •   Sat, Jan 28 2023
  •   By John B Monteiro

January 28, 2023

“The hungry judges soon the sentence sign, and wretches hang that jurymen may dine.” - Alexander Pope (1688-1744), English poet and satirist.

In the earlier centuries the Emperor/King was also the fount of justice as in the case of Solomon whose famous judgment in determining the true mother if an infant child has not only found a place in the Old Testament of the Bible but also made into a Hollywood film. Here is a short account from the Bible.

The Judgement of Solomon is a story from the Bible in which Solomon ruled between two women, both claiming to be the mother of a child. Solomon revealed their true feelings and relationship to the child by suggesting the baby be cut in two, each woman to receive half. With this strategy, he was able to discern the non-mother as the woman who entirely approved of this proposal, while the actual mother begged that the sword might be sheathed and the child committed to the care of her rival. Some consider this approach to justice as a typical example of an impartial judge displaying wisdom in making a ruling.

But, the Bible account does not say that there was any applause in Solomon’s court.

Compare this with the angling for applause (media coverage) as reflected in the two reports excerpted below.

Pointing out that instances of sexual harassment against students are increasing and mostly boys are facing the allegations, a division bench of the Kerala High Court has stressed the need for change in the present education system by making lessons in good behaviour and etiquette part of the curriculum. "Boys must know that they should not touch a girl or woman without her explicit consent. They should understand 'No' means 'No'," Justice Devan Ramachandran observed while disposing of a petition by a male student against an internal complaints committee report against him.

In the judgment issued on 25/1/23, Justice Ramachandran pointed out that "most of, or all," allegations of sexual harassments were made against boys."Boys, even from a very young age, often grow up with certain sexist stereotypes - reinforced by peer and other social influences. Showing a girl or woman respect and honour is not old fashioned. On the contrary, it is a virtue for all times. The archaic concepts of masculinity have changed, it needs to change more. Sexism is not acceptable or 'cool'," the judgement said.

The judgement also quotes medieval Islamic theologian and spiritual writer Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya, “Women are one half of society, which gives birth to the other half, so it is as if they are the entire society.”

The judgment said that respectfulness was an imperative that needs to be inculcated very young. "A child should be taught at the family, and from the beginning of school, that he or she must respect the other gender. They should be taught that real men don’t bully woman – it is unmanly and not an expression of macho virtue, but its antithesis. It is, in fact, the weak men who dominate and harass woman – this message must ring loud and clear."

In another case, this time from Gujarat, IANS (24/1/23) reported from a district court-level court had this set of pearls for his court audience while awarding punishment in a cows and bulls transportation case: “Science has proved that houses made of cow dung can protect from nuclear radiation”. The judge said that many incurable diseases can be cured by drinking cow urine. Tridev is not different from the cow. Religion is born from the cow, in today’s time organic farming is becoming popular in place of chemical fertilizer-based farming, and organic farming can be done only with cow dung.

Why not bull-shit? Pause for applause?

The subject is open to many views. What are yours? Your response is welcome in the format given below (Pl. scroll down a bit). Once again welcome to reason.

 

 

Also read:
 

 

 
By John B Monteiro
To submit your article / poem / short story to Daijiworld, please email it to news@daijiworld.com mentioning 'Article/poem submission for daijiworld' in the subject line. Please note the following:

  • The article / poem / short story should be original and previously unpublished in other websites except in the personal blog of the author. We will cross-check the originality of the article, and if found to be copied from another source in whole or in parts without appropriate acknowledgment, the submission will be rejected.
  • The author of the poem / article / short story should include a brief self-introduction limited to 500 characters and his/her recent picture (optional). Pictures relevant to the article may also be sent (optional), provided they are not bound by copyright. Travelogues should be sent along with relevant pictures not sourced from the Internet. Travelogues without relevant pictures will be rejected.
  • In case of a short story / article, the write-up should be at least one-and-a-half pages in word document in Times New Roman font 12 (or, about 700-800 words). Contributors are requested to keep their write-ups limited to a maximum of four pages. Longer write-ups may be sent in parts to publish in installments. Each installment should be sent within a week of the previous installment. A single poem sent for publication should be at least 3/4th of a page in length. Multiple short poems may be submitted for single publication.
  • All submissions should be in Microsoft Word format or text file. Pictures should not be larger than 1000 pixels in width, and of good resolution. Pictures should be attached separately in the mail and may be numbered if the author wants them to be placed in order.
  • Submission of the article / poem / short story does not automatically entail that it would be published. Daijiworld editors will examine each submission and decide on its acceptance/rejection purely based on merit.
  • Daijiworld reserves the right to edit the submission if necessary for grammar and spelling, without compromising on the author's tone and message.
  • Daijiworld reserves the right to reject submissions without prior notice. Mails/calls on the status of the submission will not be entertained. Contributors are requested to be patient.
  • The article / poem / short story should not be targeted directly or indirectly at any individual/group/community. Daijiworld will not assume responsibility for factual errors in the submission.
  • Once accepted, the article / poem / short story will be published as and when we have space. Publication may take up to four weeks from the date of submission of the write-up, depending on the number of submissions we receive. No author will be published twice in succession or twice within a fortnight.
  • Time-bound articles (example, on Mother's Day) should be sent at least a week in advance. Please specify the occasion as well as the date on which you would like it published while sending the write-up.

Comment on this article

  • Daniel, Mangalore

    Mon, Jan 30 2023

    High tech time! So Respect women, men, transgenders and soon aliens also ? And, Organic food for cows now ? Following quoted and titled article on WEF internet site. "Study shows that feeding cows seaweed could help reduce methane emissions" But Why ? to reduce methane gas 'emission' by Cows! So, "Bill Gates warns of the dangers of cow farts — and the world should take his words seriously. Bill Gates has a $1 billion fund, collected from a who's who of fellow billionaires, ready to invest" ... An article on Business Insider dated Feb 12, 2019. So He could be also behind this lumpy virus to promote his artificial lab made meat business and to rake billions from meat industry, like he was promoting covid vaccines and made billions and if eliminate few millions of cows in the name of saving planet from climate crisis, it is not surprising!! As such in 2010 Bill Gates in his Ted Talk had said Population is one of the reason for global warming or Climate change and with a good vaccines 15% population can be reduced. If 15 % or 50 % ? or if It is sterilization, slow euthanization, Ai transhumanisation, transgenderisation... God only knows. So now we have to respect not only men, women and transgenders but aliens soon (next generation) if his DNA modifying vaccines do wonders !? We will be told these aliens are from other planets! have come to help humanity! Or hybrid men, technology merged with humans like those shown in 1999 movie Matrix ? A Sci-Fi Ai future ahead! Hope and Pray that God will enlighten these WEF elite doing away from those high tech human modification control and enslavement experiments on large part of innocent humanity and most of the humanity wakes up early, say no to high tech chip control and better sense prevails.


Leave a Comment

Title: Should Judges Angle for Applause?



You have 2000 characters left.

Disclaimer:

Please write your correct name and email address. Kindly do not post any personal, abusive, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent, discriminatory or unlawful or similar comments. Daijiworld.com will not be responsible for any defamatory message posted under this article.

Please note that sending false messages to insult, defame, intimidate, mislead or deceive people or to intentionally cause public disorder is punishable under law. It is obligatory on Daijiworld to provide the IP address and other details of senders of such comments, to the authority concerned upon request.

Hence, sending offensive comments using daijiworld will be purely at your own risk, and in no way will Daijiworld.com be held responsible.