Resurrection

By way of resurrecting the blog after nearly 2 years' hibernation, I want to relate a little story. There may be no point in it, as it is not my intention to make one.

Anyhow, weary after work one wintry day I sat on a steel green bench in front a crowded cafe called Sakeena. It was a beautiful day, a little sunny, though nobody seemed to notice. I looked at the the shy sun with eyes closed. If it stared back at me, I never knew how it looked. My temples did feel warm.

This bloke came over and asked me, quite politely: hi howzit going? Can I share the sun?

With an affirmative nod, I replied. Sure.

About a minute later he snapped out a butt from his pocket and began puffing. Now, I didn't quite like this. As a matter of fact, I had wanted to be able to eventually say "I'm finished with smoking", I tried to avoid exposure to the nail's coffin. Quitting smoking as some of you may know, is real easy. No big deal, in my case, I've tried several times ;p)

Finally I threw him another nod. Must go now, mate. It's all yours now.

Excuse me?

I pointed upwards and said" "The sun."

Tempus Fugit & Mea Culpa

It's been quite a while since I last dropped a line in this Blogger blog!

Just 5 minutes ago I clicked on the link, only to learn its css reference no longer worked. O, tempus fugit; and maxima mea culpa!

Since I started this weekly journal in the Indonesian, called Akal & Kehendak, I have grown more inclined to cogitate there. (Hey, why not paying it a visit? Just a click away, anyway.)

I'll update my Once Upon A Weblog every once in a while--it's a promise.

Worse Than Robbery

This news from AFP in the Jakarta Post got my attention. Short enough for a full quote:

Sisters in Japan hide millions in boxes: official

(AFP) — Japanese authorities on Tuesday arrested two sisters for allegedly hiding some 58 million dollars in cardboard boxes to evade tax on their inheritance, an official said. It was the largest sum of inheritance money ever concealed from authorities in Japan, said the official from the National Tax Agency, which arrested the women in cooperation with police in the western city of Osaka.

Hatsue Shimizu, 64, and Yoshiko Ishii, 55, inherited money after their father, who was in the real estate and financial business, died three years ago."They concealed most of the money in cash" in a shed attached to Shimizu's house, the Osaka tax official said. "We have confiscated 50 cardboard boxes" packed with cash, he said.
The sisters, who hold South Korean nationality, allegedly failed to declare 5.9 billion yen (58 million dollars) out of a total of 7.5 billion yen they inherited from their father.

Once a friend of mine, a Jap’s working for the MOF, told me about the horrible inheritance tax in his country. No inkling to it anywhere in the news, of course; the reporter's lense might have been geared toward justifying the process of culpritization of the innocent. Or perhaps s/he'd been simply unaware of it.

My sympathies go to the sisters.

Some things our eyes can’t see, but sometimes we are compelled to see them clearly. This is the direction most governments are going to: paternalism, governmentalism or statism (or whatever name attached to it) that rips off citizens of their own property further and further.

Brutally honest writers have likened taxation as robbery--a legalized one. Close enough, but nay: it’s even far worse! Unlike robbery, taxing can turn an evil into an angel, a good man criminal.