Captivated

Post date: Jan 23, 2012 8:10:51 AM

I hope that none of you are ever in a position where you need to be able to buy citizenship. and if you are may you have the $10+mill in the bank to do it!

Take care

Love Sandra/ Mum

Home tonight as is Tony. Weather much better than yesterday which is a relief. Poor Lily had her first day with everyone out for the whole day. I did a 400km journey to look at gardens - so much my thing. I did use my I-Pad to take lots of garden photos. The journey was long but very worthwhile not so much for the gardens from my point of view but because it meant a lot to the local people that I came. I did like some of the garden art - like this pot.

I was listening to the news a lot in the car - the court case of Kim Dotcom ( original name Kim Schmitz - but Dotcom is so much more lyrical than Smith) who has been arrested and charged with Internet fraud for his company Megauploads. The arrest came as a collaboration between NZ Police and the FBI. Much discussion today about whether Kim Dotcom should have been allowed to immigrate into NZ as he already had a conviction for insider trading in Germany. Originally he was denied entry but once he bought $10million worth of government bonds the decision to reject his application was reviewed and he was welcomed - until this last week anyway. It does raise interesting questions about whether we really are prepared to overlook criminal charges for people with enough money or on the other hand whether once a person has been charged, convicted and served their sentence are they considered to have rehabilitated??? And are some crimes easier to overlook/consider rehabilitated like insider trading than say terrorism?..

One interesting comment today was that even the USA which is not known for their attitude to rehabilitation overlooked John Lennons criminal convictions for drugs to let him go and live in NY.