Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

Young people make mistakes, sometimes egregiously. But even when the mistakes lead to people being deeply hurt, do the perpetrators deserve at least some discretion when it comes to negative publicity? The recent saga of several Cornell students being indicted for raping a female peer at a fraternity house left me with this question. There is no doubt that the seven young men deserved the legal penalties that the relevant court meted out. But while the female victim remained anonymous, and rightly so, the seven young men have had their names and pictures posted all over the internet.

Recently, I came across a review of a restaurant that opened in New York City. The luxury eatery, described as serving borderless, innovative cuisine, was praised above all for its environmental consciousness. To drive the point home, the reviewer raved about a lineup of dishes that use offal from organic animals the restaurant slaughters ethically in-house, which the review termed a clear motivation to let no part of the animal go to waste in the true spirit of a circular economy. I couldn't help but grimace at the glowing words.

When I saw fresh cucumbers at my local SPAR at 4 euros per kilogram and watermelon at 2 euros per kilogram, I couldn’t help but recall residents' and travelers’ YouTube videos about the cost of living in China. Some lamented the lack of job opportunities, and others marveled at the ubiquity of technology. But what I noticed was more trivial: a vegetarian all-you-can-eat buffet for 2 US dollars per person, with cucumber-based dishes galore, and streetside stalls peddling watermelons off the back of a truck, at the equivalent of less than 20 euro cents per kilogram.