Tuesday, April 16, 2024 | Shawwal 6, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Wisdom and integrity mocked: I just don’t get it

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Though what we think contributes to who we are, it’s our actions that define us, whether as individuals, communities, societies, nations, regions, races, cultures, or... whatever.


Our thoughts, our ideas, or opinions, are the result of either thinking, rationalising the information available to us into single coherent concepts, or inspiration, having been mentally or creatively stimulated towards a sudden, brilliant, usually timely, thought. Usually, we want to share them, and especially in the socially transparent, ecumenical, world of ours, that sharing appears to have become a requirement rather than an option. I just don’t get it.


So much hurt is caused, and so much angst experienced, in the name of ‘throwaway’ comments that were probably meant, and ‘posted,’ in a moment of madness, that, on reflection and should be taken back. But it can’t be, can it? “It’s been said, it’s been done, I can’t back down now, can I?” Friendships, relationships, partnerships, families, teams, governments, they have all been the victims of this insane need to express oneself publicly. Back in the day, and not so long ago, we had an old colloquialism that you, “don’t want to hang out your dirty washing for all to see.” Today it appears, not only do you, but you must. I just don’t get it.


The ’WAGatha’ trial taking place in the UK is just one example of just how badly friendships and relationships can go wrong, as the social media libel trial of the century sees Rebekah Vardy and Colleen Rooney, spouses of two well-known football identities face of over who-said-what, to-whom, about-whom, and who cares. They are clearly two self-obsessed women who have lost all respect for themselves and their society. I just don’t get it.


Meanwhile, celebrity couple Johnny Depp, of Pirates of the Caribbean fame, and his former spouse Amber Heard, more famous for her previous marriage to Elon (Twitter and Tesla) Musk have also gone head-to-head in a ‘sensational’ Supreme Court battle. This time in America, and it’s another he-said-she-said full of lurid details we are mostly utterly disgusted by and played out blow-by-blow (no pun intended) by a frenzied media circus. I just don’t get it.


Comparatively, the absurdities of Western ‘justice,’ continue to rise to the surface, with the UK Post Office scandal, where hundreds of postmasters were accused, and found guilty, even jailed, for theft, based on software that was known to be flawed. No officials have faced even reprimand, yet even compensation is being fought in this absurd court and justice system by postal authorities. Even worse, Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman was found guilty of vote-rigging in 2015 but was re-elected last week. That, I certainly don’t get!


America’s founding fathers initially, in 1789 set up the highest court in 1789 under Article Three of their constitution, and now Jefferson, Franklin, and doyen lawmaker Howard Marshall must all be turning in their graves at this abuse of a system set up as the guardian of civil justice. Not feeling any better will be the lengthy succession of Kings, Queens, Counsellors, or Lord Chancellors of the UK who created the High Court of Justice by bringing together eight different court systems seeking protection and justice for all. To what end? I don’t know, and I don’t get it.


Maybe the bad old days of ‘hang’em high’ justice, ‘duels at dawn,’ and the like would be more appropriate proliferation of real justice... I mean shouldn’t there be a triage system that determines what needs to go before the courts and what doesn’t? I do understand these are not Omani settings, or Omani justice I’m talking about here, but we are all global citizens, and surely there are more important issues to be considered and administrated by the most illustrious legal minds in the world. I certainly know most of us will not understand these legal profiteroles, these empty jousts. I just don’t get it.


Till next week then... watch Judge Judy, Ironsides, Rumpole of the Bailey, A Few Good Men, and Inherit the Wind, not real, but surely more authentic.


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