|
Issue 31,
Volume 9, 23 December 302 AP The Story behind the news. |
|
Cover
Zeitgeist of the year: Pedro Carmonte Runners up: Roven's President and Finance Minister Other key events this year Business Starlight's mistake Kyle Langley: pro-unions? Politics Gov. Hope tours the south "Pardon? There's a drought?" Are the Burovians a spent force? Law The bitter fight over Savante's millions International Gichadia: island paradise comes of age The Moun's Front legacy Pataki Communists refuse "dregs" Castronovia: recog- nition or bust Entertainment Samsarini games ICARA's Alphalpha 300 debacle |
|
Subscribe to Zeitgeist
Subscriber queries |
|
What IS a Zeitgeist?
Jerman for "Spirit of the Age". In this case it is to mean the "spirit" of the Utanian people, the magazine reporting the people's thoughts behind the press-releases and reported news. Want an article published? Would you like an article published by Zeitgeist Magazine? Please send the text of the article for evaluation, OR send us an email describing the issue/story you would like published to the email Editor@jaggedblue.com. Article authors It is the policy of this magazine not to identify the authors of any Zeitgeist articles. It was conceived in the early days of this magazine, by our founder, Mr van der Hamm, when authors were being threatened by Guwimithian Authorities for their anti-Imperialist columns. Our founder endured jail time in Imperial prisons for his "insolence". Now, the policy is to demonstrate that this is a magazine, not a collection of authors. |
|
© Zeitgeist Magazine, 302 AP.
Email: Editor@jaggedblue.com <TECH> ©Mike Ham, 2002. All rights reserved. No reproduction without, at least, tacit approval. ;-) |
|
The Carmonte Affair, continued...
Justice or the Law? The government is also taking a hard line, emphasising that Carmonte broke the law, and must accordingly be punished. No wavering. No possibility of clemency. To be sure, the Tribunes have ordered a retrial for Carmonte with another court, but the retrial cannot overturn the verdict, only alleviate the severity of his sentence. A pardon would require the Lendosan Senate's concession that the law is not working as designed, a result considered unlikely. Yet, almost perversely, the Lendosan government is acutely aware that law does not equate to justice. Indeed, to admit it is a very culturally-Lendosan characteristic. Once more, there is a warning associated with the Six Virtues that says that moderation must accompany the virtues, that strict application of the virtues was tyranny.
However, he did believe that "the law has been satisfied." But, was justice done? Only 65% of Lendosans believe Carmonte should have been charged with "Insecularity", and even fewer, 52% of Lendosans, believe he received a just sentence. Ultimately, the decision of whether Carmonte received justice, indeed whether the Insecularity law is "working", is down to the lawmakers themselves in the Senate. While the Tribunes can declare a law unjust, says Senator da Tenio, they can be overruled. The Senate, he says, is the ultimate authority. So, was Justice done according to the Senate? Senator da Tenio "chose not to" provide even a hint of his personal opinion on whether Carmonte was receiving justice. Another of the Six Virtues is Discrisano -- discretion -- controlling the flow of information to maintain social trust. Senator da Tenio, aristocratic Leader of the Imperial Party, is a master of Discrisano. "My sense of responsibility compels me to wait until I have all the evidence before me," he told Zeitgeist Magazine.
If Senator da Tenio was happy that the law has been satisfied, why would his own Justice Section conduct an internal investigation in response to claims that Carmonte was not aware the law applied to him? Pedro Carmonte certainly does not believe the Secularity law applied to him. To Carmonte, far from the hussle-bustle of policy framing and real influence on society -- the tasks of REAL government -- University Lecturers are not real government employees. "While I acknowledge the government's intent in stopping religion from being forcefully promoted using its power", Carmonte told Zeitgeist Magazine, "I do not accept that it should apply to a university lecturer." Senator da Tenio disagrees. "If it is wrong for the state to promote religion - as we believe it is - it is wrong no matter how important (or unimportant) the person breaking the rule is. "Moreover, who is to decide what constitutes an 'important' breach of insecularity? Where does one draw the line?" While Carmonte may not need to appreciate that he is guilty to be guilty, an investigation suggests the Senator believes all is not right. For there remains a serious question yet to be answered, one being investigated by the Senator's own department: why did Carmonte not know the law applied to him? If Pedro Carmonte was covered under the Insecularity law, if even his humble teaching profession is to comply, why was he ignorant of this fact? Ignorance of the Law The Educator Guild's Guildmaster Xavier CALINDOR definitely has his ideas. "We have suspected that the universities' attitude would end up with a teacher inadvertently breaking the law", he says, speaking on behalf of the Guild that represents some one-and-a-quarter million teachers, professors and associated professionals. "And there have indeed been cases where staff have not been aware of the law." While precise numbers are not available, the Guildmaster says that numerous other cases of teachers being caught up by the Secularity Law, something his Guild has been fighting for years, albeit on an administrative front, not a legal one. The Guild, like most people and organisations in Lendosa, is not keen to directly challenge the Senate, albeit via its law. To remedy teacher ignorance or misunderstanding of the voluminous legal code that applies to them, the Guild operates regular seminars to educate the educators on the implications of various laws, "Insecularity" included. "Obviously, now that this particular law has been applied to publicly, we will be making sure we give it particular attention." However, no one knows if Carmonte attended such seminars. Furthermore, says Guildmaster Calindor on remedying Carmonte's ignorance of the law, "the University is unlikely to have done anything." "The University authorities have acted with their typical lack of concern for the people who genuinely make the organization work, a tendency which is becoming all too common among today's generation of management-trained provosts." Fifteen years ago, university councils, representatives of teaching staff making up a virtual University board of directors, were abolished by the government, and replaced by autocratic Provosts, executive managers with financial accounting, not educational, backgrounds. "And nothing but bad has come of it", says Calindor. The Justice Administrator, Senator da Tenio, says the university Provost assured him that "the university does indeed communicate all necessary regulations to its staff." "The University does endeavour to make certain that its staff understand their responsibilities," says Provost Alvarono HERANTRO, the head of the university, "and our guidelines for staff specifically include mention of this law. "We are, of course, reviewing matters after this incident, and will look at whether it should be given greater emphasis, but we believe that the provisions currently in place are reasonable." This communication, the law and its application to their specific jobs, is made available to all university staff by the University Administration in the form of a twenty-two volume tome of several thousand pages of regulations and advisory statements. Few university staff know all the laws and how they apply, and even fewer have read this tome in its entirety. In any company, in most nations worldwide, the management must ensure that staff are aware of the law as it pertains to them. For example, in health and safety measures, all staff are made aware of correct and incorrect practices, with the company ultimately responsible for ensuring that staff protect their lives and limbs by complying with correct practice. Provost Herantro rejects this assertion. "While there is probably an obligation on an employer to ensure that laws are made known, we do not see it as our responsibility to chase up every one of our many staff to make certain that they understand what we tell them. "Ultimately, it is an individual's responsibility to obey the law, not the responsibility of whoever employs that individual." "Should we, for example, go around all our staff and tell them that it is illegal to park their cars in front of military-designated access-ways, just in case they do? To tell them not to avoid their taxes, just in case they do? Not to throw rocks at people, just in case they do?" That the Provost should reject this assertion should not be surprising. Under the safety example above, any injuries sustained by the employee contravening company safety policy would be on their own head. If, however, the policy was not enforced, was not made known, or was not prepared, then the corporation in question would be responsible. "That is typical of an executive's twisting of words," retorts Guildmaster Calindor. "The University can't be expected to make Carmonte obey the law, but it most certainly ought to make sure that any violation of the law he makes is done by choice, not ignorance." Herantro disagrees. "While I believe that it is reasonable for a university to provide information to a lecturer about this sort of thing, it seems to me that you simply can't blame a crime on anyone who could have warned (the perpetrator) but didn't. "Should we blame Carmonte's wife for failing to warn him?... Lots of people could have told Carmonte not to do it, but we can't just blame the people who could have given a warning, while letting the actual person who committed the crime go without punishment." |
Printer-friendly version of this story.
Stock Exchange:
 The only hope for capital markets in Utania: Hope! |
