TWO INTERESTING PUNISHMENTS

A major crop of the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan is cotton. During harvest season, it can be difficult to hire people to pick it. In recent years, the nation’s government has received scrutiny from human rights advocates who claim that children often supply labour for this task. The country has lost several Western buyers who refuse to do business with them for this very reason, including Gap and Levi Strauss. To address these concerns, Uzbekistan has had a nationwide campaign to encourage adult workers to join the harvest, even closing shops and businesses in the cotton-growing region until 7:00 PM to prevent labourers from leaving the fields early. Sending traffic violators to help in the fields also seemed like a natural choice. According to several European news sources, Uzbekistan's traffic inspectors have been instructed to temporarily suspend driving licences of traffic violators and send them to the cotton-growing region ‘for a week or so’ to contribute to the country’s cotton harvesting operations.

At the end of their service, their licenses are returned to them. In December 2002, Jessica Lange and Brian Patrick vandalized a nativity scene in front of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Fairport Harbor, Ohio, USA. The 19-year-olds had stabbed the statue of baby Jesus and scrawled ‘666’ on its forehead. When the teenagers confess to their crime in early 2003, they were ordered to replace the ruined statue and lead a donkey through the snowy streets of their city as a punishment. According to Judge Michael Cicconetti, this was much more about learning a lesson through public humiliation than it was about religious symbolism. And to clear up any confusion from onlookers, the donkey (provided by a local petting zoo) wore a sign saying ‘Sorry for the offence’.