Liberal Road Blog Individual Freedom and Equality

I finally finished reading the book Putin’s Russia written by the killed writer Politkovskaya. A few facts to remind us all: Politkovskaya was a journalist who severely criticized Putin and she was shot dead in last October.

As I read her book “Putin’s Russia” one thing became pretty clear: she must have had many enemies. In her book she severely criticize Putin for the atrocities of the Chechen war and human right abuses. She also accuses the Russian court system for being completely corrupt (naming several judges who she thinks have been taking bribes). She even accuses some leading businessmen of serious crimes including bribery and using contract killers. All the accusations come with details.

That’s why I’m not at all surprised if she had many enemies who preferred to see her dead than alive. It’s very wrong that people are silenced by killing them. It’s a serious threat to the freedom of speech. The Freedom of speech is already in a bad condition in Russia as Putin’s administration has done a lot to silence criticism in the media.

Today the media has announced that the Russian police has arrested two suspects of the murder. However I think that we will never be sure who killed Politkovskaya as the Russian justice system is bad and malfunctioning.

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picture: A picture I took in Moscow in 2006.

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The news that a Russian hospital taped the mouths of small babies to stop them from crying
has created a scandal in Russia (see link for a picture). The hospital staff allegedly did it so that babies cry wouldn’t bother them as the hospital lacked staff.

This news raises the question of what rights babies and children should have. I personally believe that taping the mouth of babies is unacceptable. It is hard to understand why children shouldn’t have rights when adults have them.

If it is not okay to tape the mouth of an adult why would it be okay to tape the mouth of a baby?

I think it’s the same thing with corporal punishment of children by their parents (for example smacking): We are not allowed to hit an adult as a punishment even if he behaves in a disturbing way or does bad things so why should we be allowed to hit a child?

Unfortunately only 16 countries have laws forbidding completely the hitting of children. Sweden was the first country in 1979.

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