Drei Mal muß ein scheidungswilliger Mann nach islamischem Recht zu seiner Frau sagen „Ich lasse mich von dir scheiden“. Strittig ist, wie der Mann seine Frau von dieser Absicht in Kenntnis setzen kann – oder muß. Ein Gericht in Malaysia entschied Ende Juli, daß eine Kurznachricht per Handy den formalen Kriterien genügt.

Schon vor zwei Jahren wurde in den Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten eine SMS als ausreichende schriftliche Erklärung akzeptiert, was Präzedenzfälle in anderen muslimischen Ländern auslöste. Singapur lehnte Handy-Kurznachrichten als gültige Benachrichtigung ab. In Katar erklärte ein Gericht die Scheidung über E-Mail für gültig. Das Urteil rief Proteststürme von Frauenorganisationen hervor.

In Malaysia, wo rund zwei Drittel der Einwohner muslimischen Glaubens sind, gelten in den Bereichen Religion und Familie die Regeln des Islams neben den auf britischem Recht basierenden bürgerlichen Gesetzen. Diese Verbindung kennzeichnet das Land nach Aussage von Ministerpräsident Mahathir Mohamad als fortschrittlich und demokratisch, aber auch als religiös – er sieht Malaysia gern als Vorreiter für andere islamische Staaten.

Während der Regierungsberater in Religionsfragen, Abdul Hamid Othman, nach der Gerichtsentscheidung über die Scheidungs-SMS erklärte, sie sei „nur eine andere Form von schriftlicher Unterlage“, wies Mahathir dies zurück: Wer sich von seiner Frau scheiden lassen wolle, solle „etwas persönlicher an die Sache herangehen“. Schnell wurde eine Überprüfung des Ehe- und Scheidungsrechts angekündigt. Und Abdul Hamid änderte seine Meinung. Ehemännern sollte es nicht erlaubt sein, mit einfachen und unpersönlichen Methoden die Scheidung einzuleiten, erklärte er kürzlich.

Wer mit dem Handy am Steuer erwischt wird, muß schon jetzt 30 Euro blechen. Nach dem Willen von Bundesverkehrsminister Manfred Stolpe (SPD) soll die Strafe nochmals angehoben werden. Und das Verschicken einer SMS am Steuer kann sogar zur Verschärfung einer Verkehrsstrafe führen. Dies entschied das Bayerische Oberste Landesgericht.

Die Verwendung des Mobiltelefons zum Tippen von Kurznachrichten während der Fahrt zeige eine „erhebliche Verantwortungslosigkeit“, urteilte das Gericht. Ein derartiges Verhalten könne zur Strafzumessung auch dann herangezogen werden, wenn ein Unfall nicht dadurch verursacht worden sei, hieß es im Urteil.

A report from St. Louis describes how crazy carp have invaded Missouri’s rivers. Two species of nonnative carp have been jumping into boats, injuring occupants and damaging the watercraft. A state fisheries biologist motoring near Columbia had a filling knocked out of his tooth by a high-flying fish that struck him on the side of the head. Another state biologist in the St. Charles area was seriously hurt when he was hit by a giant carp.

On August 26, the Missouri Supreme Court in a 4-3 decision overturned the death sentence of Christopher Simmons, who was 17 when he killed a woman 10 years ago. The court said it based its decision on a June 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Writing for the majority, Judge Laura Denvir Stith said it is clear that the U.S. Supreme Court also “would hold that the execution of persons for crimes committed when they were under 18 years of age violates ‘the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.’” My question to Laura: Why have those standards of decency not yet evolved in the United States of 2003?

A mechanic from in Wichita Falls, Texas, who claimed two doctors removed his penis without his consent after mistakenly believing he had cancer has reached an out-of-court settlement during his civil trial.

Hurshell Ralls, 67, had surgery in November 1999 after his doctor told him a biopsy showed he had bladder cancer. It was never mentioned that the cancer could be spreading and that they might have to remove other organs, Ralls said. The suit alleged that doctors did not test a tissue sample to determine if he had penile cancer – a procedure that could have been done at the clinic in 30 minutes to an hour. Another doctor looking at cell slides later found that Ralls did not have penile cancer, according to the suit.

According to a study reported in the Dallas Morning News, the average age of workers reporting to a manager can affect his or her compensation. The further the ager is from 40 – younger or older – the less the manager is likely to earn. Another factor determining manager pay is the gender of the people supervised. The more women there are in the group, the lower the manager’s pay. Once the group is 90 percent female, a manager could be paid an average of $10,000 less than someone who has all males in their group.

“I know a transsexual. His only ambition is to eat, drink, and be Mary.”

I came back from Los Angeles on Sunday, diving back into the hot and muggy weather in Missouri. Out there, on the left coast, the skies were blue, the temperatures balmy. Here you can see the mold grow. Tomorrow, I am off to DC. I hear it is a good bit cooler on the right coast. With all this travelling, I have been totally out of the loop and I am looking forward to the end of the month when I get back and stay put until November. Meanwhile, the Old Heidelberg restaurant and bar in Columbia was completely destroyed by fire early Monday morning. Since I was born in Heidelberg, I never felt compelled to visit bars or restaurants with that name, but I was sorry to hear that Osama’s Coffee Zone right next door has to stay closed for at least a week due to smoke damage. They have perhaps the best coffee in town.

Perusing Alisa Sanada’s weblog “RealJapan,” I was intrigued by a list of Japanese chat phrases. I think “4649” for “よろしく” (nice to meet you) takes the price.

I was visiting the Foreign Language Forum on CompuServe the other day, when I read a message posted by Gabe Bokor of Accurapid Translation Services in Poughkeepsie, New York. He wrote: “I entered the first words (‘Conveying your message across linguistic and cultural barriers’) of my website (accurapid.com) in Google, and I found no fewer than 6 (six) sites, ranging from Russia to Thailand, that had copied the exact wording of my site. It seems to be SOP for Asian translation agencies to cull text from U.S. & British sites.”

This did not seem that surprising to me, but what really threw me was a reply by Kevin Hendzel of ASET International Services Corporation in Arlington, Virginia: “A few years ago, we had a TC in Argentina copy our entire site, word-for-word. They even included all the images, buttons, text; everything. We were very suprised to find pictures of ourselves under their ‘staff’ section!”

Now that had to be a surprise.