Was China right?

Do you agree with the decision made by the Chinese government to execute Akmal Shaikh for drug smuggling? According to the family of Mr Shaikh, he suffered from bipolar disorder and this was not taken into account by the Chinese judiciary. Friends of Mr Shaikh claimed he lived in a fantasy world and said he was duped into travelling to China on the premise of making a record. He was given a suitcase to take with him in which was hidden 4kg of Heroin. This begs the question of whether Mr Shaikh knew what was in the case or not. We do not know what he was told by the people who gave it to him. I know what I would do if I was given something to take to another country, especially one that has strict drug laws. But if someone gave you a case that you trusted implicitly would this influence your decision or not? This case also throws up the debate about capital punishment. Is executing guilty drug smugglers the answer to stemming the ever increasing problem of drugs? What's your slant on it?

Football Transfer Window

I'm not sure about the benefits of the transfer window? It was initially introduced by FIFA to put the UK in line with the rest of the footballing world. A number of English managers want a return to the old system, whereby clubs could sign players throughout the season. Steve Coppell in particular argues the case for the re-introduction of the old system. I agree with him, because I feel at the moment clubs have to pay over the odds for players because of the limited time available to them. This has a bigger impact on the smaller clubs outside the premiership who do not have the financial clout of the wealthier clubs.

Barking dogs.

My rant today concerns irresponsible dog owners who let their precious hounds bark incessantly without doing anything about it. I speak with experience of this myself everyday. The worst culprits are owners who are not a home during the day and insist on leaving their pets outside usually in small confined spaces. Do they not realize that dogs get bored and when they are bored they resort to what comes naturally to them i.e. barking at anything and everything. This is especially annoying if like me you work from home and need to concentrate on what you are doing. Bearing in mind I live in a cul-de-sac and the next door neighbours who are amateur dog breeders, who never take their dogs out for a walk but leave them in their integral garage all the time. The next but one neighbours have never had a dog before but decided to get a German shepherd dog and these are the ones responsible for the dog I mentioned earlier. Despite approaching them directly several times and receiving assurances from them that they would sort the problem out nothing has changed. Perhaps if I were allowed to lock up irresponsible owners and deprive them of sleep whilst playing them recordings of their dogs barking they may appreciate the disturbance their pooches cause to people like myself. Responsible pet owners are excempt from this little rant of mine.

Car indicators?

Are car indicators optional extras these days? The reason I ask is because it seems the norm not to use them much any more. How many times have you come to a roundabout and had to wait until the coast is clear to move off? It happens all the time. I spoke to a Driving Instructor who said they only use indicators if there are other road users about. Yeah right. I work on the assumption that if I indicate at least other users should know what I'm going to do.