We wear more clothes here than Gunga Din – who had nothing much before him, and little less than ‘arf of that behind, according to Kipling.
And clothes make the man, they say. But does it make a civilization too? I don’t know.
It’s true we have the Hubble telescope and can compare the soil of Jupiter and Mars at first hand. But, playing Peeping Tom in space is one thing. Down here on terra infirma, our infernal voyeurism is nothing if not barbaric. A recent example:
Australian police yesterday said a threat to sell letters penned by cricketer Glenn McGrath’s mother via the Internet may be immoral but did not appear to be illegal.
“Just because something is unsavoury or immoral doesn’t necessarily make it illegal,” Detective Superintendent Peter Cotter told reporters. “It would appear certainly at this juncture that no criminal offence has occurred.”
Police launched an investigation after receiving a complaint from McGrath’s management.
New South Wales state police said they had received legal advice that the former McGrath family friend who asked for money from the bowler’s management for the letters was not guilty of extortion.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that a former McGrath family acquaintance, Peter Amiet, had threatened to publicly release the letters, which reportedly contain details about McGrath’s parents’ marriage, unless he received several thousand dollars.
It said the letters were briefly advertised on Tuesday on the Internet auction site eBay and attracted an offer of 15,100 Australian (US$11,630) before being removed pending a police investigation.
Amiet told the Daily Telegraph that the letters were addressed to him in the early 1990s, when he worked with Beverley McGrath at a mail sorting centre.
He said he was now in a “financial situation” and needed money. He said back then, he initially offered the letters to McGrath’s management. But when they declined to buy them, he decided to sell them publicly.
McGrath, 35, arrived in Sydney yesterday after failing to inspire Australia to victory in the fifth and final Test at The Oval in England.
McGrath’s manager Warren Craig said he had attempted to shield his client from the potentially distracting situation during the series, which England won 2-1.”
Source: China Daily
Comment:
I read something like this and I think it can’t be all bad in Saudi Arabia, where trying to take unauthorized pictures of someone, especially a woman, is liable to get you hauled off to jail. Yes. Saudi color coordination grates on me and I don’t care for a few other gentle practices – such as stoning women for being unfaithful – but on the issue of privacy, I think they have gotten the lead on us.