Topic: News
The son-in-law of the President of Taiwan have been convicted, along with his father, of insider trading. Going to jail for 6 and 8 years respectively. It's the most severe sentence for such crimes ever handed down. The entire nation (and some expats) have been following this, as it's such a clear case of special-privilege and corruption that the only surprise is how long it took for the dirt to hit the fan. The judge in the case quoted chapter and verse from the Analects of Chuang Tzu, a Taoist scholar who lived in the 4th Century BCE, as part of his sentencing:
"Those who steal a fishhook are common criminals; those who steal a nation are rulers; such does the downfall of virtue and honesty from the doors of those who rule."
Expanding on this, the judge pointed out in his ruling that those in power have come to expect to escape the reach of the law, and it is no longer acceptable; he also implies in his writing that the defendants' abuse of power have contributed to further the unjust gap between the haves and the have-nots in society, to the detriment of the nation beyond simply a criminal act. He further writes, quoting from classical sources, that the elite defendants have "purchased power with money, and extracted money using power" He called the defendants 'arch-typical elite criminals' who expect to be above the law. The ruling document ran to 297 pages, over 230,000 words.
Sounds like the judge in this case had a Classical Education. I mean, I totally agree with him and I feel a sincere respect for the classical scholarship, but jeezus, a 297-page ruling? Surely to read that is a sentence in itself.
