X-Message-Number: 20758
From: "John de Rivaz" <>
References: <>
Subject: Re: Anyone else out there depressed? (perhaps off topic.)
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2002 14:55:33 -0000

> From: 
> Subject: Anyone else out there depressed? (perhaps off topic.)
<del>
> Instead, right before Christmas, two weeks ago, I get a letter from the
NASD
> saying, in essence, "We don't think you have done anything wrong as such,
> except you violated some reporting reqirements to your firm.  And we are
> going to suspend your license for 9 months and fine you $20,000."
<del>

I too was saddened to read Rudi's story.

Not just for him but for the whole world inasmuch as this sort of thing
never seems to stop, as these examples from the UK seem to suggest:

At roughly the same time I read
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2615759.stm
(A 93-year-old man who saved the lives of nearly 700 Jewish children by
smuggling them out of occupied Czechoslovakia is to receive a knighthood.)
On the face of it this is an uplifting story, except it would not have been
possible or even necessary if humanity had learned how to manage authority
with common sense.

Also http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2042634.stm
shows however authority is applied, it doesn't seem to work at stopping
people from robbing and even killing each other. In fact this behaviour
seems to be increasing, not the other way round. I don't know what the
situation is in the US, but would imagine the problems to be similar.

Anarchy obviously isn't the answer, but things clearly aren't right when
someone can receive a draconian punishment for failing to fill in government
forms correctly whereas so many people get away with robbery and even
murder.

I know of a case in the UK a few years ago now where a financial advisor was
arrested and his office equipment seized because some American securities he
was selling were found to be fraudulent. After a while he was exonerated of
blame, but over the months of the investigation his business was ruined.
Later he left his wife as a result of the stress, and went into a decline.
He refused to communicate with the new financial advisors of his old
clients, (which refusal, of course, was culpable and resulted in legal
action.) What happened after that I don't know. But is does seem that an
honest and upstanding citizen was turned into a petty offender as a result
of the application of legal process. Surely it ought to be the other way
round! ( ie offenders, petty or not, turned into honest citizens.)

--
Sincerely, John de Rivaz:  http://John.deRivaz.com for websites including
Cryonics Europe, Longevity Report, The Venturists, Porthtowan, Alec Harley
Reeves - inventor, Arthur Bowker - potter, Holistics, de Rivaz genealogy,
Nomad .. and more

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