Is adultery should be considered as a crime

Constitutional Court building(free photo from wiki)

South Korea actress Ok So-ri, 40, gets an eight-month suspended jail term for adultery, according to the JoongAng Daily.

She admitted having an affair with a well-known opera singer.

She blamed all this on a hapless  marriage. Her husband, Park Chul, a radio talk show host, sought the maximum sentence of two years imprisonment.

Goyang, Gyeonggi Province Regional court Judge Cho Min-seok said they took into account the her husband’s indifference to his wife and the mental agony Ok So-ri has already gone through immense since the trial started.

She was sentenced to eight months in prison, but avoided jail because the sentence was suspended for two years.

But some women’s rights groups in Korea disagreed with the law which considers adultery as a crime. But the top judge adultery is damaging to social order, and the offence should therefore remain a crime.

There are many other countries in the world also considering it as a crime which are :

Western countries or districts	Michigan,Pennsylvania,Maryland
Asia	Korea, and Taiwan
Middle East	Iran, some muslin countries
Indian subcontinent	Pakistan Indian

In ancient China adultery was considered as a severe crime. Adultery has been kick out of law system in Republic of China.

People argued that adultery should be considered as a crime because it won’t hurt people physically as murder; it doesn’t damage the plaintiff’s reputation as defamation.

Netizen discovered the corruption of housing department director from news pictures

Zhou Jiugeng, Nanjing city Jiangning district housing department director on some news picture, has been found wearring different luxury watches and taking premium cigarette.

According the post on the internet, the government offical’s wages can’t afford those watches he wore which are Vacheron Constantin, Rolex and tudor.

director's watch

director's watch

director's watch

And the cigarettes beside him are the local most famous cigarretes a carton of which is worth about 1500Yuan (about 150 pounds)

cigarrete he takes

cigarrete he takes

Now Zhou Jiugeng may be the the last Internet hit personality of the year 2008.

It is said that he has a brother who is the general manage of estate company. The two brothers, one is the official in charge of housing department, the other is a real-estate developer, “match” peferctly

Netizen made fun of that. They said from that officials should learn some lessons:

First of all, government officials should never flaunt their wealth.  They should try to keep a low profile.  Why did he have to smoke that brand of cigarettes and wear those watches?  Those items are clearly not commensurate with your salary.

Secondly, you should learn to choose the right time and place.  Leaders should be able to enjoy luxury items, but you should learn to choose when and where.  At a public meeting with television and newspaper reporters, you have to be wary about their image.

Five hotest search term in China in 2008

Chinese netizen vote on ten hotest search term in 2008 at the end of the year.

No.1 Wenchuan earthquake

On May 12, 2008, an earthquake happened in Si Chuan province. For the first time, national flag was lowered to half mast and we held a national day of mourning.

Official figures state that 69,227 are confirmed dead.The earthquake left about 4.8 million people homeless,though the number could be as high as 11 million.

On the morning of May 13, there were 2,710,000 searches for “earthquake,” 4,950,000 for “Wenchuan” and 3,820,000 for “Sichuan earthquake.”

No.2 Beijing Olympics

footprint of 2008 Olympics(photo by Yao)

At 8:08pm on the 8th of August the opening of the 2008 Beijing Olympics started.

A series of giant footprints outlined in fireworks processed gloriously  from Tiananmen Square.It took one minute for the footsteps created by the fireworks to traverse Beijing. But Chinese waited for many years just for this moment.

No.3 Sexy photo gate

Photos about a male celebrity having sex with a lot of female celebrities have been exposed on the internet.

People could not help but snigger secretly,but what more important what our journalists should do, when the public interest conflicted with  celebrities privacy.

No.4 Sanlu milk powder

Sanlu, China’s biggest milk powder manufacturer, sold contaminated milk which caused thousands of baby sick.

This raised the alarm, which hopefully made 2008 the year of food safety in China.

No.5 Global downturn.

In the economic crisis, China became the focus of the whole world. Other countries also count on China to rescue the world.

But China  suffered more deeply from the crisis than the US or Europe. Because the leading economic growth supported by export  has declined sharply.

A lost document revealed government officials travel at public expence

A IT technician  picked up a document by chance which was the detailed information about government officials going overseas on government expense and posted on internet, according to China Youth Daily

The technician found the document in the Shai Hai tube station. To find contact information of owner, he looked at those files and realized that it was  the arrangement of Xin Yu and Wen Zhou‘s government official tourist trip at public expense.

He told the China Youth Daily he was very angry about that . He wouldn’t let the taxes he paid being wasted on the

tour trip by miao

so-called “inspection” tour.

He decided to expose the information.Then he went home, scanned the files and uploaded part of them on the internet.

For his own safety He used a Chinese jumping board first,then an overseas proxy to make post.

The power of the Internet.

He had mailed out the information about the Xin Yu “inspection” tour group to the Jiangxi provincial party disciplinary committee on the day when the committee began a hearing on the case.

That is to say, the committee had called for a hearing according to the Internet information alone.

He  was still very disappointed with the attitude of Wen Zhou government.

The response from Wen Zhou government was  that “Las Vegas is a typical city and it is reasonable for the cadres to study and inspect urban infrastructure there.”

Tobacco companies were stuck off by China Charity Awards

Six nominated leading tobacco companies were ousted from the final list of China Charity Awards because of the opposition from the public.

Netizen questioned the qualification of some companies on the list of nominees at the first, especially the six tobacco companies, according to the Xinjing newspaper. .

Companies on the list were selected according to the amount of money they donnated.The China National Tobacco Company was ranked number one.

China Charity Awards

But letters from domestic and international organization were all opposite to giving the awards to tobacco companies, which included the China Smoking Control Association,the China Disease Control Centre’s Tobacco Control Office and the World Health Organisation.They said that it would violate the Tobacco Control Framework Treaty and harm the international image of China if the awards was given to the tobacco companies.

Wang Zhenyao,the Civil Affairs Bureau Social Welfare and Charitable Activities Promotion Office director was interviewed by Beijing News, said that certain overseas organizations will not accept donations from companies which are not environmentally friendly.

But charity cause in China has only just begun, and “we should not set up a rigorous moral standard for the corporations at this time yet.”

But in the awarding evening, The China Charity Awards had excluded the tobacco companies.

Wang Zhenyao explained that many organizations wrote to the Civil Affairs Bureau to protest that the tobacco companies were on the list. The bureau had to remove the tobacco companies from the list.

Meanwhile, International Tobacco Control Conference was held in South Africa from 17th to 22th of Nov.in Durban. During the conference, China was given the “ashtray award.”

The official reason given for the award to China was that China “would rather have pretty cigarette packs than healthy citizens.”

Are they great carols all time?

A list of Top-10-carols was voted for by the world’s leading choirmasters and choral experts.Many people were disapointed by the list for omission of some notable carols.

“In the bleak midwinter”  was named the best carol in the poll of 51 directors of music in the UK and US. In the BBC Music magazine poll, those exp erts were asked to select their five favourite carols and Christmas motets.

“In the Bleak Midwinter was  from Christina Rossetti‘s poem. The popular version of the song was written by Gustav Holst in 1911, then arranged by Harold Darke in 1911. Harold turned it from full choir to solo voice.

Richard Harries, the former Bishop of Oxford said it was easy to understand why it hold first place: “It’s a really good start to any carol service and of course it gets an airing each year with the broadcast of the King’s College service.”

Some famous carols that were omitted  may disappoint many,such as Shepherds Watched, The 12 Days of Christmas, The Holly and the Ivy and I Saw Three Ships.

Several other well known and much sung carols take lower spots in the survey. These include:

Once in Royal David’s City (11),

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (14),

God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen (22),

Silent Night (25),

O Little Town of Bethlehem (27),

Good King Wenceslas (42)

Away in a Manger (50).