Punish

At a typical conference on “raising healthy children and teaching… a good husband” of a village’s women’s association, a wife from an elite class was solemnly invited by the audience to report on her experience in taming… her husband. After a few poetic introductions, she revealed the secret to reforming her husband as follows: “Dear sisters, husband is a material concept that exists independently and objectively, the nature of a husband is to stand on this mountain and look at that mountain, so reforming those amorous men is not only a duty but also an art. In addition to the 11 secrets that have been popularized in previous conferences, today I officially affirm that there is no more effective way to tame wild men into pets than to increase punishment.” When the hall began to murmur, she concluded: “Don’t laugh too soon, just boldly follow me, remember the heaviest punishment is to ban love affairs. Yes, that’s right, when your husband makes a mistake, force him to sleep separately for a week! That’s the most brutal but also the most humane punishment.” The whole hall applauded loudly, only the overly strict neighbor lady laughed. “Why are you laughing?” the excellent husband-teacher asked. “Yes, I’m not hiding anything from you, every time you ban your husband, he comes to sleep with us. The amount of punishment you give him offline is the same as the amount of reward we give him. Haven’t you noticed that your husband has been making mistakes very often lately?”

Dear reader, of course this is just a joke. It is one of those street fables for drunkards to laugh about over tea and wine.

Fines are a form of punishment for those who violate the law. Depending on each case, motive, purpose, and level of violation, there will be different forms, methods, and levels of punishment. Fines are not simplypunishmentbut the important thing iseducation, preventing violators and the community. Fines are not cousins ​​with comedy.

But stillThinking back to the above story, it's quite interesting. It turns out that sometimes we say "fine" but it's not a fine. We say "fine" but it's actually a reward. We say "penalty" but it's actually a joke. There are cases where the word "penalty" still has the original form of irony. "Penalty" is a deterrent to protect the right, but sometimes it's the very word "penalty" that is full of steel that bluntly attacks the right. Examples are everywhere. Last year, the visual organs of tens of millions of people had to witness a massive project of a very massive public servant, built blatantly on agricultural land. Not only were there horizontal and vertical buildings, not only were there hanging gardens or swimming pools, not only were there ancient trees or rockeries, but there was also a cable-stayed bridge! The scale is unquestionable! Inspectors got involved, the press rushed to publish articles, social networks were flooded with updates and shares... and finally the most familiar and humorous term of administration was still stamped "Punish for existence". That's it, that's it, no, that's great! Being fined, fortunately being fined! If people weren't fined, wouldn't the results of years of hard work on each motorbike taxi trip be wasted? People say that they had to "run" dozens of rounds to get the most severe penalty decision on earth. Without a doubt, this is definitely one of the most painful penalty decisions in administrative history. More painful than castration, a hundred thousand times more painful than castration, except that the pain doesn't belong to the violator.

When it comes to penalties, perhaps no one is better than football referees. If I observe correctly, it seems like they control the match only by blowing their whistles. After each "toe" sound, a penalty is recorded in the match log. Lightly, the opponent is awarded a penalty kick, a little more serious is a yellow card warning, and if any player is unlucky enough to repeat the offense, they are simply given a red card and expelled from the match! That's it. Red cards can be used many times! While talking about football, I remember a few days ago there was a story about a 100% real penalty that seemed like a joke. In round 22 of V-League 2018, referee Tran Van Lap controlled the match between Becamex Binh Duong and Than Quang Ninh. The referee in black gave two yellow cards to warn a player, but he forgot the obvious addition: two yellow cards equal one red card! The incident broke out when this player assisted in scoring a goal. Suddenly remembering, the referee had no choice but to put out the fire with a "cold penalty" and deny the goal. According to the latest information, in the house of referee Tran Van Lap, he had to hammer in another nail to... hang up the whistle! Oh well, hanging up the whistle was right. Only in the profession of giving penalties, he also gave the wrong penalty, and if he gave the wrong penalty, he had to accept the penalty! That's only fair. It's just a pity that this seemingly elementary principle, or more accurately, the scope of application of this principle, can only be seen in football. Looking at the "administrative" side, oh my, giving one yellow card but 10 yellow cards and still letting the player continue to "play" is too normal, even allowing him to play as a striker, which is amazing!

There is probably no country in the world that says no to punishment. Even a civilized country like Singapore uses punishment as a “weapon”, but for us, when self-discipline and culture are still too expensive, punishment should of course be given top priority. However, the problem is that people punish, punish to remember, punish to fear, punish to prevent reoffending. Those who are punished will become propagandists for the management agency. The forms of punishment are also diverse, and very profound, including community service punishment, even imprisonment!

Fines don't necessarily scare people, not to mention that sometimes fines can even make some sensitive parts of people... excited! A company that manipulates the stock market to earn hundreds of billions... fined 20 million! Not long ago, the police discovered and arrested a case of transporting 1,212 kg of animal products (including pig and chicken intestines and stomachs) of unknown origin. The value of this shipment was about 300 million VND. The transporter was administratively fined 5 million VND!!! I also understand a little about the so-called fine, but honestly, I can't explain what a fine is for? Is the saying "fine to scratch an itch" true?

People used to exchange about the regulations on punishment that are not for the faint-hearted: Flat chested people riding motorbikes are fined, reading their husband's text messages on their phones is fined, even teachers who teach extra classes are fined! Once, the author of this article was leisurely walking on the street and happened to see on the fence of a house "No public urination, if caught, fine 200 thousand and confiscation of evidence". I know it's funny but it clearly has a propaganda effect because it's easy to remember! It seems that people are more interested in the additional punishment, after all, the punishment of "confiscation of evidence" and "punishment of extra classes" are not much different, they're just for fun!

Last week, there were two decisions on fines that caused a stir online: a worker in Can Tho who went to the counter to exchange 100 dollars into Vietnamese currency was fined 90 million VND and a woman who threw a sandal at her feet at a delegate during a meeting was fined 750 thousand VND! 2 people, 2 spaces, 2 actions, 2 purposes, 2 very different attitudes. They were both fined, of course.

The issue that has netizens “excited” is the fine. Luckily this is an administrative penalty decision, otherwise if it were a TV game show, the worker’s fine would be enough to throw 120 slippers! Oh, the law is the law, the law is not a game, don’t mess around! Fine!