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In my previous post, a reader (Destination Infinity) wrote the following comments. 

“I wonder how a competitor was not shown the finish line beforehand. These are standard procedures at that level. In spite of that if someone is confused, it's a UX issue which is rare at big events. It's possible that the entire episode was rigged to generate a newsworthy incident. I hope not.” 

I was going to reply there. Then I thought it may be a long reply. So I decided to make this reply a blog post by itself. 

Thanks for your comments Rajesh. I certainly do not think it was rigged to generate a newsworthy incident. What could be their benefit in rigging this? It was an international competition and already a newsworthy incident. 

Make a mistake or a gaffe is entirely possible however meticulous you are. Here are a few example. 

S. M. Krishna, India’s then Foreign Minister was about to speak at the United Nations Security Council. Behind him seated and helping him with the speech were 4 Indian Foreign Service Officers and his deputies and secretaries. What S. M. Krishna did? He read a prepared text from the speech given by the Portuguese Ambassador. Five minutes into the speech Indian team realized the mistake. Then Mr. Krishna took the correct Indian prepared text and started to read. 

President Bill Clinton was about to give an important State of the Union Address to the joint session of the Congress in 1994. All the House of Representatives, all the Senators, the entire cabinet members (except one*), all the 9 U.S. Supreme Court Judges, and chiefs of different U.S. military branches, and ambassadors from almost every country in the world were present. And, millions of Americans were watching. 

When he started to give his speech he realized his teleprompter was loaded with the wrong speech. He had to stop and ask his assistants to load the correct speech in the teleprompter. 

In 1976, President Gerald Ford was speaking in a conference. His prepared draft speech was reviewed by several people. President Ford said “There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and there never will be under Ford Administration". 

Everyone in the world knew, in 1976 Russia was completely dominating the entire Eastern Europe. 

Therefore Rajesh, mistakes can happen anywhere however prepared you are.

* Before the President gives the State of the Union Address, he always designates a Cabinet Member to stay away from Washington, DC, during his address.  Reason: In case the whole U.S. Capitol Building came under attack and everyone dies, at least one Cabinet Member will be alive to take over as President.

Real Hero

It was December 2012. Cross Country Race in Burada, Navarre. Kenyan Runner Abel Mutai was leading followed closely by Spanish Runner Ivan Fernandez. A few yards before the finish line, Mutai got confused where the finish line was and stopped running thinking he crossed the finish line and won. 

Ivan Fernandez realized Mutai did not know where the finish line was. He shouted in Spanish asking Mutai to keep running and finish. Mutai does not understand Spanish. Ivan Fernandez then pushed him from behind to cross the finish line and win the race. 

After the race was over, a reporter asked Fernandez why did he let Mutai win the race. He said I did not let him win, he was going to win. The race was his. 

The reporter insisted you could have won the race by overtaking Mutai. His reply was a class act.

 “What would be the meaning of my victory? What woud be the honor of this medal? What would my mother think of this medal?"

Two Different Extreme Judgements

A Bombay High Court Judge Pushpa Ganediwala has ruled that groping a child through their clothes  not amount to sexual assault. The guy was fondling a 13 year girl’s boobs without removing her clothes. That is OK with that Bombay High Court Judge. According to the judge the accused did not make skin to skin contact. 

The same judge, in a different case, ruled unzipping a girl’s pant or holding her hand do not amount to sexual assault. 

This is one extreme judgement. I wonder how the judge would have ruled if the victim is her own daughter or any relative. In my opinion she should be dismissed from the job. 

Indian Attorney General called the judgement “very disturbing” and brought this to the attention of the Indian Supreme Court.  

Different country, different judge, similar case – same day 

In Malaysia, a female judge Gunasundari (Malaysian Tamil), for a similar case (a man sexually assaulting a 12 year old girl) sentenced him to a corporal punishment of 24 caning and 1050 years in jail. 

This is another extreme judgement. Caning 24 times as a corporal punishment is fine. But 1050 years in jail? Is this a show off? Does the judge expect him to live 1050 years? If she wanted him never to get out of prison, she could have given a judgement of 125 years in jail without parole. (He may not live for more than 100 years,  125 years just to be on the safe side.)

What do you think?