Pleas for Clemency from Across the Globe


No, I'm not really going to offer any pleas for clemency hahahahhah.

Well, Ok. Lets just say that since some of the World's most 'respectable' citizens have taken up with various warlords, drug dealers, rapists and murderers from the central Asian region ; that it's as good a time as any to mention one or two of the world's less fortunate denizens, reflect on the virtues of our own comparatively happy fates and ponder briefly the virtues of modesty and humility.

Tales From the Bankok Hilton

In an age when sexual equality is so much a talking point, why should it be only young females who can elicit the merest hint of a moiety of 'compassion' from stony faced and flinty bosomed representatives of foreign judicial systems, hehehehehe, ahemmm.

Lets just briefly mention the case of Andrew Mcgarrity ex paratrooper who some short while after having naturally unwillingly committed the remains of his demob fortunes on a couple of sizeable packages of controled substances whilst being threatened by Asian pirates down at the back end of the eighties was soon, 'jumped,' in his Hotel Room in the kingdom of Thailand by representatives of said Kingdom's Police Force, whom he naturally and/or foolishly enough lashed out at during the course of his arrest.

Mr McGarrity was told he was 'lucky to be alive' having been condemned to death and then had this commuted to fifty years, or was it life? I shall have to look up the details again sometime. Anyhow it so happens to be an interesting fact that this was about the same time as the Smith and Cahill affair which as you may recall involved a couple of 16 year old darlings who had been silly enough to get caught smuggling heroin and were, after a media furore, sent to serve their abbreviated sentences in a British Jail awaiting a fairly early release.

What possible comment can one make on such events other than to point out that there is never any time like the present to brighten up the world with a little astutely conceded mercy, if only to display that people aren't the toys of the media. I am minded of Portia's speech on the virtue of compassion from Shakespeare's play the Merchant of Venice, 'The quality of mercy is not strained, it falleth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath, it is twice blessed, it blesseth him that gives and him that takes....drone woffle splutter etc.

Now of course One could drivel on endlessly about the sort of 'allowances' that such rotters get in this country and the kind of protocols that exist for dealing with these unfortunate situations: one could also point out that as an ex paratrooper Mr McGarrity is a highly trained killer and that this apparent Act of rebellion was merely a reflex action by which he meant no insolence and for which he is truly sorry and repentant. One might also add that there are probably millions of cases all over the world at least as deserving of a little compassion and forgiveness: now I'm not God and I cannot right all the wrongs of this World though to honour my Grandfather's name I shall try. The fact of the matter is I have to admit that my maternal Grandmother's name was Mcsomething or other and when I first read about this case it struck me with a chill that was fierce. Not just because of any empathy with others of Celtic British descent, not because or in spite of the fact that I am related to Thais but because I know, that this sort of tactless heavy handedness can do immense damage to society, not just any society, but a society in which I have friends whose welfare, well being and prosperity, to a certain extent I really care about: when the people see less than perfectly wise government, they become restless, it causes Wars and Revolutions.

The fact of the matter is that amongst other things I recently became acquainted with my Thai half brother and was sorry to have to say to myself that he was about the most disgusting personality I have ever met: if there was a single shred of virtue anywhere in his grasping, fat corporeality it was hidden with the most extraordinary cunning. If those Officials, Policemen and Lawyers who have overlooked the very real sins of their compatriots which have been an attempt to rob, defraud and pauperise myself, wish to enjoy and benfit from being my acquaintance and have their own sins overlooked they might do well to seriously consider the wisdom I proffer: which is to say nothing of the hopes of my Thai relatives of profiting from their association with the UK. I cannot help but feel that some part of the Thai nation understands this diplomatic sense, insofar as I understand it their history is one of having to constantly bargain for dignity with hostile surrounding nations. With regard to the fact of drug abuse being a very serious problem the World over, especially in the case of black market heroin. let me just say finally that I can understand the exasperation of the Thai Judicary with their own drugs problem; but the World can change and is changing ever more rapidly, that big fat bald Eagle for example, which has been ruling the roost since it calculatingly let the British Lion bleed itself white in honourably defending the World against Nazi tyranny (not that it has honoured all it's moral debts as the Karen and the Kachin? people will not hesitate to explain); without which it could easily be the case that all the dark coloured races would have been exterminated and the King of Thailand perhaps never existed or subjected to slavery, has the beginnings of a nasty gutache, which could easily become debilitating and who knows what might happen then.

I duly invite further contributions for this page.