Writing to reach you

Two news items caught my attention in todays national news. Though both very different in nature they do both show how stupid humans can be. The first is about a thing that we have all seen on the news before in different countries in Asia, or in movies like Broke Down Palace. Asian countries have tight laws about drugs, and the punishments are all heavy. One thing is for sure though, there isnt a problem with drugs there, unlike most western countries. This item is about Machiel Kuijt, a Dutch man that's is being held in Thailand for drugs trafficing. He was arrested in 1997 with an Italian friend of his on his way to the airport of Bangkok. Half a kilo of heroine had been found in the house of an ex-girlfriend of his and her brother, both Thai. His Italian friend got to go to Italy but he had to remain in Thailand. In march of last year the court cleared him of all charges and he had to remain in Thailand because the destrict attorney went to a higher court. Today the news came that the judge of the higher court had reached a verdict on friday and he had been sentenced him to life in prison. Only today did the judge bother to tell the verdict to Kuijt's attorney and Dutch Embassy. They also havent received a copy of the verdict, so the reasoning behind this verdict is a big puzzle. The Dutch government havent got a deal with the Thai government unlike some European countries to extradite prisoners and have them finish their jail time in their own country. Just to illustrate how serious the Thailand government is about drugs : A few years back they started a big offensive against dealers and trafficers of drugs. There were over 43.000 arrests and over 1600 dealers and trafficers died during the investigation... The second item is of a totally different nature, although its also about drugs. Dutch children come into contact with drugs a lot younger then a few years back. These drugs are mostly drinking and smoking, most weed and hash. Today however a children daycare center employee was witness to something unusual and shocking. A 5 year old girl was "dealing" drugs in the daycare (which is in the town where i work and go out in). She was handing out candy she had gotten from her brother. The daycare employee got suspicious and had a look at the candy. These innocent candies appeared to be XTC pills, and balloons of cocaine and heroine. One kid had already accepted a candy and was about to eat it, so the employee was just in time to stop him/her. The police arrested the mother and the 3 brothers of the girl. After a search the police found a large amount of soft and harddrugs in the car of her 21 year old brother. Good thing the daycare lady recognized the drugs eh...? Shorts : Indepence Day has the most cheesy filmmoment of all times. The scene in which Bill Pullman plays the president of the USA and addresses the public was thought of as the cheesiest ever. Other "winners" are Tome Cruise in Top Gun with his "You can be my wingman anytime" and a scene from Four Weddings and a Funeral in which the great dialogue "It stopped raining ? I hadn't noticed..." can be heard. And then there were Stepmom and Pearl Harbor, but i wont even mention those, eugh! Americans get more music singles online then from stores. Well, duh! Yea yea, but these they pay for...uhuh. They buy most from iTunes (apple's new legal napster ?) and Musicmatch. Good for them ;) Amazon is stopping their "Search inside the book" function due to author complaints. After a week of being operational its being taken down. The database had 33 million pages of 120.000 books. "People started printing important sections from cookbooks and travelbooks." Good thing they took it down, somehow i value books more then music...hmmm... | posted by merc, 11:05 AM