Sunday, July 08, 2007

Commutable Sins

The Largest River that Flows into the Tokyo Bay: The Arakawa

Commutable Sins


A notable female Japanese interpreter/translator wrote in her blog that she encountered (on July 3) an unfamiliar word "commute" in the context of the case of Mr. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr. (http://kotoba-asobi.net/tsuruta/blog_2/index.php?eid=233).

(In a dictionary I use, there is an example of a sentence: "The death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.")

It is interesting that such a topnotch professional English user is still embarrassed by certain specific English terms (yet no one uses English in a daily life in Japan except some foreigners and their friends), though it is often said that English legal terminologies sound like a foreign language even to American students who first opened a textbook on law.

According to her blog, the CBS Evening News reported the other day that a draft statement was discovered in Washington D.C., which Richard Nixon had prepared for use in case he should have been able to evade the impeachment.

Japan has not adopted a jury system, but it is going to introduce a citizen judge system which is somehow similar to a jury system of common law.

The reason of this institutional reform is degradation of a level of commonsense among judges.

In a democracy, no one is above law. Even a president of a nation or judges should follow the constitution, laws and regulations. They can be impeached.

Nonetheless, Jesus Christ said, "Forgive your enemies. Do not judge others. Follow God's orders rather than rules man set."

I think that if all the Americans become rich, they will still have a challenge to tackle in this context. So then, I recommend all the people in the world to study and develop the teaching of Jesus Christ to realize it without making a detour like Americans.


"...God will do what is right; He will bring sufferings on those who make you suffer..."