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the personal blog of paul vernon

Thank you for taking the time to view humblethorn. The purpose of this blog is to have an outlet to share my thoughts, quotes, ramblings and the occasional item of interest as I serve as a missionary to the Akha in Northern Thailand. Mostly, this is an outlet (in English!) for me to feel like someone out there is listening. So, to whoever you are, thank you for being my listening someone.

Many people have asked about the name "humblethorn". I would love to explain it, but I honestly don't fully understand it myself. In very simple terms, it is an identity that I have come to realize in Christ. I do not claim to be humble, rather that I am often humbled by my own weakness.

Feel free to navigate through the links on the top of this site to read more about me or just to view the photo galleries, videos, podcasts and journals about our lives with the Akha. Now... on to the posts!

HELLO OFFICER

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Still waiting the arrival of our baby girl - have you made your prediction yet? - I have been spending the morning hours (before Lori is up and able to face another day of lugging around a basketball-belly) by reading my news feeds and checking my new favorite social network - facebook.
HELLO KITTY armbands will be required attire for Thai policemen who break the rules
This morning, while reading through my 120+ subscriptions, I came across a great article that I felt was worth sharing. It seems that the Thai police, in an effort to curb more serious offenses such as abuse of power, illegal bribes and mistreatment of the public have decided to crack down on the policemen who commit minor offenses such as littering, parking in illegal zones and tardiness.

The punishment? The offending officer will be required to wear an armband depicting the schoolgirl icon "HELLO KITTY" for an entire day.

"Simple warnings no longer work. This new twist is expected to make them feel guilt and shame and prevent them from repeating the offense, no matter how minor," said Pongpat, acting chief of the Crime Suppression Division in Bangkok.

"(Hello) Kitty is a cute icon for young girls. It's not something macho police officers want covering their biceps," Pongpat said.
Full Story (Yahoo)


The punishment is "in-house" only, as officers will not be required to wear the armbands in public, but as we all learned as children peer pressure can be a powerful motivator... I think the measure will be effective.

HT: Boing Boing

Comments on "HELLO OFFICER"

Blogger Paige said ::

now THAT is funny. ;-)

11:30 PM  

Blogger leilani fumiko said ::

wow! such an expression of Asian culture that's for sure. it's too bad shame's a motivator.

4:09 AM  

Unknown says ::