“Admit it,” your teacher says. “Just say sorry and you will receive a light
punishment. If you continue to deny it,
things will just get worse and worse for you.”
You know you are innocent. But what will you do? Will you shrug your shoulders and accept the
unjust punishment, or fight for justice until you can fight no more?
I read an interesting story about a British
man who recently chose the latter option.
A speed camera caught the 71 year-old Richard Keedwell driving over 35
miles per hour in a 30 miles per hour zone.
So he was asked to pay a 100 Pound fine.
But Richard was convinced that he hadn’t been going over the speed
limit. So he hired a lawyer, and a video electronics expert to demonstrate that the speed camera was faulty. He challenged the speeding fine in court, but
lost. So he appealed, but lost
again. So he appealed to an even higher
court, but lost yet again. The trials
took around three years in total, and cost Richard about 30,000 Pounds – his
son’s inheritance. He could have just
shrugged his shoulders and paid the 100 Pound fine.
All I can say is that I bet Richard voted
for Brexit. Sometimes you have to just
give up and accept you can’t get the perfect result you think you deserve.
Someone that I admired very much when he
was alive was Clement Freud, a politician, cook, and broadcaster. He was the grandson of Sigmund Freud. His brother Lucian Freud became a famous
painter. The two famous brothers fell
out with one another during their childhood and didn’t speak to each other for
70 years. The reason that they fell out
was a race that they had. Both claimed
to have won the race, and refused to back down.
Despite both becoming rich and famous and respected, neither could
apologise or admit that he had been wrong.
They died without resolving their differences.
Even if you were the brother who had won
the race, wouldn’t it have been better just to shrug your shoulders and let
your selfish brother take the credit?
You would lose almost nothing, but perhaps keep a brother for life.
If the referee denies your team a clear
penalty, don’t take a gun onto the field to shoot him. Even though it’s painful, just shrug your
shoulders at the unfairness of life. And
maybe one day your luck will change, and you’ll meet the referee in a dark
alley when no one else is around...
Vocabulary:
unjust – not fair or reasonable
the latter – the second of two options
faulty – not working correctly; partially
broken
to appeal – not to accept the result of a
trial or court case, and to ask a higher court to review the decision
an inheritance – money passed down to
someone after another person’s death
Brexit – Britain’s exit from the European
Union
to fall out with someone – for your
relationship with someone to become bad
to back down – to give up or stop
supporting an opinion, position, etc.
an alley – a very narrow passage or street
“Oh, I wish I was in Glasgow,
With some good old friends of mine,
Some good old rough companions,
And some good old smooth, red wine.”
Billy Connolly, from the song, “I wish I
was in Glasgow”
I tuned in to the BBC World Service for a
few minutes between English lessons last week and heard a discussion about
“extreme economies”. They talked about
the economic problems Japan is having because of its ageing population. To my surprise, they then talked about my
hometown of Glasgow.
“A-ha!” I thought. “Glasgow is famous around the world!”
The writer of a recent book talked about the
“Glasgow Effect”. That is the strange
and difficult to explain fact that people from Glasgow die, on average, at a
much younger age than people from other cities in Britain.
“Hmmm... Maybe some ways of being famous
are not so great after all. So how long
am I going to live?”
Life expectancy at birth for Glaswegian men
is currently 71.6 years, compared to 78.2 years across the whole UK. Life expectancy for women born in Glasgow is
78 years, compared to 82.3 years across the whole UK. By the way, why do feminists always complain
that life is so much harder for women? Have they seen how much longer they live?
“Ouch!
I’ve got several students older than 71.6 years. I think I’d like to live a little longer than
that. Maybe if I can understand the
cause, I can work hard to avoid it...”
The interesting thing about the Glasgow effect
is that nobody is sure what causes it.
It is not just poverty, since there are other poor cities such as
Liverpool and Manchester, whose citizens don’t die so young. The Economist newspaper summed up the mystery
well in 2012 when it wrote, “It is as if a malign vapour rises from the [River]
Clyde at night and settles in the lungs of sleeping Glaswegians.”
“[Kagh!]
Sorry, I think I’ve got something stuck in my lungs.”
I had to turn off the radio and teach my
student. It’s probably just as
well. I don’t like mystery programmes. Where’s that smooth, red wine?
Vocabulary:
rough – of a person, not so polite or
polished in their behaviour
to tune in to a programme – to set one’s
radio or tv to receive a programme
life expectancy – how long someone is
predicted to live
Glaswegian – of or from Glasgow
malign – evil or having evil effects
a vapour – a gas
After the changes to the Japanese
consumption tax take effect in October, how much tax will you have to pay on a
hamburger?
The answer is that it depends. If you eat the hamburger in the restaurant
then you will have to pay 10 per cent.
If you buy the hamburger to go then you will only have to pay 8 per
cent.
As far as I can understand the reasoning
for this confusing system, the government wants to increase the tax rate from 8
per cent to 10 per cent in most cases, but it doesn’t want people to
panic. “Oh, the tax rate hasn’t really
gone up,” the government would like people to think. “I still only have to pay 8 per cent in some
cases.”
This seems to have created an unnecessarily
confusing system. What will MOS Burger
do when a customer buys a hamburger to go, and then sits down and eats it in
the restaurant? How confusing will their
menus become when every item is listed with two prices?
The problem with a confusing tax system
which has different tax rates for different people or situations is often
practical. How do you check which
category this customer falls into? How
do you punish them if they try to claim the cheaper tax rate when they should
be paying the more expensive one?
Recently I bought some special software for
my computer which makes the computer usable by blind people. It is very expensive. I bought it from a store in the UK. Although we have to pay 20 per cent tax on
goods bought in the UK (and you are worried about 10 per cent!), people who are
registered blind don’t have to pay the tax.
The government has created exceptions to our consumption tax (called
VAT) which mean that you don’t have to pay the tax on items which are
considered essential. So there is no
consumption tax on babies’ nappies or eggs or milk, or on software designed for
blind people which is bought by a blind person.
But that creates practical problems. How do you actually check that the customer
is really blind? The answer is that the
web-site just asks people who are buying the product if they are really blind. You don’t have to submit a doctor’s note or
do an eye-test. You just choose the box
marked, “Yes, I am blind.” The
government has to trust people because there is no practical and easy way to
check the information.
Maybe Japan should adopt a similar system
for its confusing consumption tax.
Really hungry people who need to eat a hamburger don’t have to pay
consumption tax. People who are just
eating a snack between meals have to pay 20 per cent. Sales staff could ask a few quick questions
to decide which category a customer falls into.
“What did you eat for breakfast this morning?” or, “You look a little
fat – Why did you choose the double hamburger with egg topping?”
Vocabulary:
consumption tax – tax collected by the
government when something is bought or sold
to buy something to go – of food, to buy
something and not eat it in the restaurant
to punish someone – for someone in
authority to cause harm to someone who has done something wrong, broken the
rules, etc.
blind – having damaged eyesight or being
unable to see
an exception – an unusual case; something
which doesn’t fit into the usual pattern
essential – completely necessary; something
which is needed
In Japan there is a proverb which says that
the personality you have at the age of three will stay with you until you are
100.
That’s a slightly frightening thought. When I heard the proverb, I imagined my three
year-old son as a bent old man, still sucking his finger and dragging his
comfort blanket around behind him.
Maybe what the proverb means is that some
basic character traits – introversion or extraversion, bravery or cowardice,
etc. – tend not to change in a person over time. So if your three year-old likes getting up in
front of strangers and being the centre of attention, then they will probably
be just as outgoing and open as an old man or woman.
But does this mean that negative character
traits, destructive tendencies and criminality also follow people from the age
of three to the age of 100? If you stole
cookies from the cookie jar as a toddler, will you be stealing cookies from the
other residents of your retirement home almost a century later?
I have just started reading “Convenience
Store Woman” by Sayaka Murata in Japanese.
The main character, Keiko, explains that she has never fitted in. She recalls being a toddler playing with her
friends in the park and finding a dead bird.
When all the other children start crying, and an adult suggests making a
grave for the bird, Keiko says, “What a waste!
Why don’t we take the bird home and cook and eat it? Daddy loves fried chicken!” Decades later, the adult Keiko has never had
a boyfriend and doesn’t trust herself in society because she still tends to
think and say odd things that startle others.
I hope the proverb is wrong. I like to think that people can change. If it is a fundamental character trait, it
may take a lot of effort and a long time to change. It may be like turning around an oil tanker. But even if you jumped on ants , stole
cookies, or wanted to cook a dead bird you found in the park, there’s still
hope for you to turn your character around. Don’t wait until you are 100!
Vocabulary:
a proverb – a traditional saying, often
giving advice about life
to drag something – to pull something along
the ground
a comfort blanket – a blanket used by a
young child to make themselves feel relaxed or comfortable
introversion – shyness; a tendency to avoid
interactions with other people, or to prefer one’s own company
extraversion – the tendency to be outgoing,
or to enjoy the company of others
a retirement home – a home for elderly
people to live in after they have stopped working
a toddler – a young child who has only
recently learned to walk
to startle someone – to surprise and
frighten someone
