'The execution was too fast'

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• Two child killings, two societies

  In brief: Ajahn Brahm recalls an article comparing two similar tragedies. In England, a toddler (Jamie Bulger) was abducted from a Liverpool…

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  Some few years ago, I should've kept this article because there was a brilliant article, it was concerning the killers of Jamie Bulger, (whatever his name was) this young -- was it two or three year old -- who was abducted in the shopping center in Liverpool tortured and killed on the railway track by some, was it, eight or nine year old children. And the whole culture of England at the time especially driven by the tabloid press, was wanting the blood of those two killers even though they were very, very young and they'd done a terrible terrible thing. To take the life of a two year old, and it's not just one person's death it's all the tears and the anxiety and the stress and the devastation of all of the people who knew that child, let alone the parents. But what I never knew at the time was pointed out in this article was that at about the same time a similar event happened in Norway in the town of Trondheim, north of Oslo where I think, two boys lured (I think) a girl into the snowfields, and had similarly killed her. And the similarities between the crimes were very close. But what was very dissimilar was the way those two societies dealt with the problem. As many of you know, the Jamie Bulger case, those two kids were put into some detention center, and the tabloid press just wanted them to be really punished hard and the parents were just waiting for them to be released so they could kill them. And even the public did not want them to be released. I read in the newspapers there was some idea of sending them to Australia where they wouldn't be known, new identities so they could live their life and the British public was saying, "No they don't deserve any freedom." That's what I read. With those other two kids the following day after they were caught they both went to school accompanied by psychiatrists and a social worker. They were not put into any punitive institution. Very, very soon, the mother and father of the child who died came to a closure, came to forgiveness and moved on in their life. Whereas the parents of Jamie Bulger never moved on as far as I know. The whole town of Trondheim came to a closure. They realized a terrible act, but the only way to move forward is not to wish harm on the killers. So many years later, one of the killers of that (I think it was a) little girl in Trondheim is perfectly well adjusted having a successful life completed the education, had really moved on, and so did the family and the rest of town. There's one of the killers still has social problems and some psychological problems, but nowhere near like the pain which was spread around England because of the Jamie Bulger case. To see those two separate accounts of a similar tragedy, one where there were many victims and their victimhood was, I dare to say, cherished and attached to and made much of. And the other one, where rehabilitation was the main aim and goal, to see the effects of those two cases I sure wish I'd lived in Norway than in England.

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• The widow who hugged her husband's killer

  In brief: At South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where those who truthfully confessed their crimes were granted amnesty, a white…

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  That the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa just after aparte was dismantled and Nelson Mandela was made the president of that country and uh instead of seeking Revenge instead of punishing all those people who punished him he with Desmond Tutu establish the Truth and Reconciliation Commission brilliant way of dealing with the past at this commission anybody who had done what would be a crime was able to go to this commission and in front of everybody else to confess honestly what they done and as long as they truthfully said the horendous thing which they did they would be given amnesty you're just being honest admitting and they would be forgiven that's exactly just what I learned in Buddhism so many years ago which these days now so people can remember these things I've called the AFR code you know which you many of you know they acknowledge forgive and learn a forgive and learn from it that's all one needs to do that's basic Buddhist teachings call it AFL because you know that's the Australian football league people can remember those words AFL acknowledge forgive learn that's exactly what they were doing this because uh Reconciliation Commission acknowledging what they done in public amnesty with forgiveness everyone could learn from them and uh one of the most moving events it was most moving but typical of many things happened in that Truth and Reconciliation Commission was when one of the South African policemen was recounting how he tortured and killed a black African activist an activist from the ANC in front of the man's Widow can you imagine this scene there was a woman whose husband had disappeared probably in the middle of the night and she suspected what might have happened but never knew the true story and now she was facing the man who is confessing in detail how he tortured and killed the husband of this woman the father of her children the one she loved and apparently if I remember accurately this police officer this white police officer was shaking trembling as they recounted the details of what happened facing the wife of the man he' murdered at the end of his testimony shaking the wife Rose from her seat and went for him the guards were supposed to stop her but they froze she went for him the murder of her husband and put her big black arms around him hugged him and said I forgive you not just those two people but apparently the whole room wet

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• The man sentenced for having a cold

  In brief: Ajahn Brahm recalls Samuel Butler's satire Erewhon, read as a student: a society where what we call crime is treated as sickness needing…

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  there's a wonderful book written written over a hundred years ago it's called "Erewhon," by Samuel Butler. And apparently, that really influenced the great British playwright George Bernard Shaw. It changed the way he looked at some of these social problems and the reason why it was a very effective argument against the way we treat "criminals," or people who've done harm, with punishment, was that it used the satire. It envisaged a society in which, what we call crime today, is looked upon as being a sickness and therapy, therapy, therapy is the only response to crime. If somebody steals, they go and see a doctor. If somebody rapes, that's looked upon as being a sickness. Punishment is not really looked at at all. But somehow, a rehabilitation of trying to work out and remedy that glitch in human nature. But, when it came to health matters, if you were sick and ill, that was because you were careless and you were punished. Part of that book, a chapter which I will always remember, was of a court scene in which there was a poor man who had a cold. And when he had a cold (there's many colds going around right now [directed at audience], there's a cough already, you'd be in trouble in this society), because he had a cold he was in the dock, charged with being sick. And because he was sniffling, he had no defense and so the judge pronounced him guilty of having a cold and he, before he gave judgment, uh, sentence sorry, the punishment, he said, "This is not the first time you appeared before me, you were here last week or three weeks ago with a cold. I warned you then, if you don't eat better, take better care of your health, let go of your stress, it's your responsibility to be healthy and you have been negligent, and your cold is causing a danger to other people! You're being heedless, you're not caring for others, you're spreading your germs to other people, that's not appropriate, you should be punished: three years in jail for having a cold, being a repeat offender!

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• The tribe that praises the wrongdoer

  In brief: Ajahn Brahm recounts an email about a tribe untouched by other cultures: when someone does wrong — steals or hits someone — he stands in…

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  somebody sent me this interesting email the other day and it was some tribe which has you know been totally untainted by other cultures that in this try when anybody makes a mistake or does anything wrong or bad like steals or hit somebody or he stands in the center of this circle and all the members of the tribe stand around him he's done something bad but do they punish him no for two or three days he has to stand in the middle and they all tell him wonderful things about himself what a great person he is for three days when he's done something wrong

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