audreyrosario

Imagine yourself dashing around mostly-naked outside in 2 degree weather before frantically jumping into the warm 39 celcius waters of a geothermal pool. This is the Blue Lagoon (Bláa lónið), yet another odd Icelandic occurrence. Neither natural, nor intentional, it is an unusual and surrealistic pean of serendipity created by a geothermal powerplant. With it’s mineral rich content and unusual algae, the natives soon found that a dip in this ersatz spa was quite nice and so they designed a high-tech spa facility and restaurant around it for foreigners to take the edge off Iceland’s ridiculously exhorbitant prices.

Sydney Uni Law School is actually in CBD, but I did have one class on the main campus. If I could do it again, I would. Sydney was a blast, and got a Master’s degree to boot.

NYU was my alma mater, so getting a degree here had to have changed my life somehow, right? Right??

So brilliant. British supermarket chain Tesco (marketed as “fresh & easy”) has finally made it to the United States.

I came here to visit my uncle who runs a garment factory here. I stayed at San Teh Hotel, why such a decent hotel was located here was beyond me. I visited every classroom in an elementary school nearby. I was the 3 American the students had ever met (#1 and #2 were my uncle and my cousin). That’s when I realised I was really in the sticks. I would do it again.

I went to the Intermediate People’s court to watch a 23 year old kid stand trial for the attempted rape and actual murder of a manager at a trading company he worked for. It was so ‘Red Corner’, that lame movie with Richard Gere in it.

Back to this boy. Chinese ‘law’ in practice is a sight to behold. First, it may be important to note that the procuratorate and the security council ‘investigate’ crimes, and only if they are sure the person is not innocent, THEN they stand trial. In other words, everyone who stands trial is guilty. it should also be noted that the death penalty is practiced freely in this China – some judges can sentence death in hundreds of cases per year. Which means he’s certain to die as well.

The structure of trial is pretty damn funny in criminal cases. You’ve got the prosecutor and the defense lawyer, three judges, and the accused, who stands in a little box in the middle of the court. Then the prosecutor asks a few questions, name, birthdate, address, sub-china nationaltiy, etc. Then the accused is told to confess and tell what happened. In this case, he tried to rape a manager, when she refused (obviously), he choked her, then tied a gray telephone cord around her neck twice, hid her in the closet, and took her mobile phone and necklace. After the defendent tells his story, the defense lawyer raises some questions, the judges, etc. When this is done, the accused gives a closing statement. Our boy today pleaded for another chance at life on behalf of his sick and old parents and a chance at ‘rehabilitation through labour’ (<—standard criminal law slogan in communist China). What kind of pissed me off is that we were equipped with these little UN headset translators that made me feel really cool and important. The problem was that whenever the story got juicy or suspenceful, ZAP!, the headset went off. The trial would continue on, but it was like somebody hit the mute button. Stop censoring! I mean, there’s clearly something wrong with watching a kid futilely plead for his life, but this is China. That’s what we came here for.

A sentencing wasn’t immediately made due to the presence of us (foreigners) in the room. However, the probability of death sentencing is no less than 100%. This takes place almost immediately after sentencing, where even the cost of the bullet is then billed to the family after death.