Text Your Way To A Divorce

Passionate SMS text messages sent to mistresses and girlfriends (and, so as not to be too sexist, boyfriends as well) can be used as evidence for a divorce in France. And if you don’t think there’s anything new in that – there is. France’s quaint, or should I say quirky, divorce laws have never allowed them to be submitted as evidence in the past.

Text messages and e-mails have long been accepted as official proof in murder and other criminal trials in France, and the new decision extends such practice into family law.

France's Supreme Court ruled that electronic messages are now acceptable as legitimate proof of adultery and obviously this will make it easier for the French to get divorced. Previously, French husbands and wives often had to wait for years to escape a marriage if they could not prove that their spouse was misbehaving or mistreating them. The decision overturned a 2007 ruling by a lower court which had declared, believe it or not, that using messages generated by phone or computer, in a court of law for divorce cases was a breach of privacy.

Getting a divorce can be a lengthy and painful procedure in France. If the spouses fail to agree to separate and live apart by mutual consent, those filing for divorce must prove that the spouse was cheating or abusing or mistreating them. If the judge is not convinced, a divorce will be pronounced only after two years of living separately. Up until 2004, French law required couples to wait as long as six years.

I’ve had quite a few friends divorce out here and sometimes the divorce process can go on so long you forget who the other partner was. Of course, the lawyers lap this up as the longer the divorce takes the more money they rake in. Still, I suppose this is the same the world over?

But getting back to these naughty text messages, I’ve been placed in a few situations where J picked up my phone when a text has arrived to find a rather naughty suggestion or two on the screen. On the first occasion, I had a new pay-as-you-go sim card which of course has its own unique mobile number. The problem is that these PAYG sim-cards have their numbers recycled, so on the occasion in question, a ‘friend’ of the person who had the number before me sent the text thinking that it was going to their old flame. J was not impressed and I had a bit of explaining to do. Luckily, and by a huge coincidence, that very week Sven Goran Ericsson (the ex England football manager) sent a text to one of his many girlfriends only to find she’d changed her number (or sim card) and the rather suggestive text ended up on somebody else’s phone. Embarrassment all round but the story did save me from a bashing at home.

Similarly, after I left BT a couple of years ago, I managed to obtain (purloin ?) one of the many hundreds of ‘lost’ mobile phones which are left lying around the company. For weeks I used to receive texts asking me out and saying, ‘don’t be late – I’ll be waiting for you’. These were obviously meant for the previous owner but J didn’t see it that way.

Women will never understand technology!

And just as if to ram my point home there are now 'send a fake/anonymous' text websites - so now you can stitch up anybody you like!

http://www.fakemytext.com/

J has had to fly off to the UK this morning to be with her mother who was taken into hospital yesterday and who is not expected to pull through. Kath, J's mum has been ill for a couple of weeks now and so her admission into hospital wasn't unexpected. J will meet up with her sisters, Cindy and Wendy and they will not only be at their mum's bedside but will also have to care for Fred, Kath's partner, who is also quite ill.

Let's hope the situation isn't a prolonged one for all concerned.

Billionaires Bay

I think I’d only been in IBM’s London office for a week after being transferred from Glasgow when my boss came wandering by and said, ‘Cupples – we need somebody in Monte Carlo. You’ll do and take your kilt with you’. This was in 1980.

And so a few days later I was off to work in Monaco for a week to try and sell some software. Don’t ask about the kilt – even I can’t remember why I was asked to take it.

Prior to that trip, I’d only been abroad a couple of times but on each occasion all the travel arrangements had been made for me. This trip was rather different though as I’d had to arrange flights, hotels and all the other things necessary for a week away.

When I arrived at Nice Airport there were two ways to get to Monaco – helicopter or taxi. I dismissed taking the helicopter out of hand and hired a taxi which took the coast road (the Basse Corniche) only to find later that the helicopter cost exactly the same – about £25. It was to be 25 years before I managed to get on one of those helicopters to Monaco but I’m sorry to say that whilst the 6 minute trip is quite magical, the cost has risen to around £90, significantly more expensive than a cab.

Despite the disappointment though (of not taking a helicopter in 1980), the one thing I remember to this day was passing the most glorious piece of land jutting out into the sea. It was covered in magnificent villas and pine trees and was, for a boy just out of Glasgow, the most exotic piece of real estate I’d ever seen. I remember saying to myself that if I could live anywhere, that’s where it would be. It was all fantasy of course. The piece of land I was looking at was St Jean Cap Ferrat, now apparently, the second most expensive place to live in the world. I don’t suppose it was much different all those years ago?

30 years later, I’m not too far from Cap Ferrat (about 35 minutes by car) and occasionally I’ve gone down there, where amazingly, you can eat on the bay front for a remarkably reasonable cost despite what the article linked to this post says. Vivienne, who is staying with us at the moment also had a condo apartment overlooking the western side of Cap Ferrat and it was almost like fulfilling my dream of 30 years previous when I sat on her terrace overlooking the bay and the mega yachts moored there. At dusk, the lights would come on in those magnificent villas and you just wondered who was in them and what sort of fancy dinner they’d be serving up.

All of this nostalgia came about after reading an article in the London Evening Standard -‘Billionaire’s Bay’ - who lives there and where to eat and be seen. Read it at the following URL.

http://londonabroad.standard.co.uk/2009/08/living-it-up-in-billionaires-bay.html

Blogs – No More Nasty Stuff

This first bit is paraphrased from a newspaper article I read last week ………

Liskula Cohen, a Vogue covergirl, has won a court ruling asking Google to reveal the identity of an anonymous blogger who called the former model a 'skank' . Miss Cohen, 37, went to the Manhattan supreme court to discover who had attacked her so she could sue for defamation. The ‘Skanks in NYC’ blog featured photos of Miss Cohen and described her in a series of unflattering terms.

In what may prove a far-reaching ruling, Joan Madden, a New York supreme court judge, rejected the blogger's claim that the blogs were a "modern day forum for conveying personal opinions, including invective and ranting" and should not be treated as factual assertions.

Ms Cohen said the blogger would now be sued for defamation.

The blogger’s lawyer warned that the ruling on Monday has "potentially damaging implications for free speech on the internet".

End of paraphrasing ……………

So, next week I expect a deposition from all the Frenchies I’ve insulted and in some cases, defamed. Those whose driving I’ve derided will be queuing at my front door with their avocats. The various restaurants I’ve accused of ripping off tourists and locals alike will black-ball me and sue me for demanding that my steaks are cooked ‘bien cuit’. My neighbor will cut down my palm trees safe in the knowledge that he has the full weight of the law behind him and all the builders I’ve featured as ‘rip-off merchants’ will put their prices up even higher knowing that they are safe and they’ll also get a nice little bonus from the French courts when they demand damages. My surgeon will be waiting for me the next time I have a ‘problem’ and god knows what state I’ll be in when he finishes with me – he’ll be safe as houses no matter what he does to my poor body.

Maybe I should just stick to poetry from now on?

Megrahi's Release - The Pan-Am 103 'Bomber'

I had another blog ready for today but I couldn’t let the Pan-Am 103 ‘terrorist’ Abdelbaset al Megrahi’s release just drift, although it’s unlikely that the press, on both sides of the Atlantic, will let it go quickly.

Right from the start, you need to acknowledge, not accept, just acknowledge that this conviction was highly unsafe and to do that you need to understand how this Libyan’s trial found him guilty.

Of course, we have two sets of views on this. The Americans who suffered the vast majority of the appalling loss of life think he’s guilty and should not have been released, but the 11 Scottish families, almost to a person, and many respected legal commentators, think the conviction was a travesty and undermined Scottish justice.

A quick review of the evidence which convicted Megrahi needs to be considered. He was a Libyan intelligence agent and was obviously on MI5 and the CIA’s radar otherwise he wouldn’t have been a suspect. The Libyan’s only gave him up after it was agreed that a ‘Scottish court’ be set up in Holland where he could get a fairer trial. There was no jury, just a bench of judges who considered the evidence and declared him guilty.

The evidence against him was based on the reconstruction of the cassette-radio which held the bomb and which was then reckoned to have been placed within a suitcase which in turn held clothes which were traced to a shop in Malta. The Maltese shopkeeper was then able to identify Megrahi as the purchaser of these clothes and hence the conviction. But, and this is a very big but, the Scottish police had groomed the shopkeeper (before the trial) and the Americans gave him a ‘cash bonus’ after the trial. The shopkeeper had also seen pictures of the suspect prior to identifying him.

The evidence, to say the least, was highly circumstantial and given the nature of the ‘bribes’ made/given to the only witness, it all seems to be something a ‘normal’ judge would have thrown out.

Whatever the circumstances, Megrahi was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in Scotland. I remember following the trial and thinking that this was a mockery. Somebody had to be made responsible for Pan-Am 103 and Megrahi was him.

Fast forward to last week when the Scottish justice minister decided, that as Megrahi was dying, and in theory only had a few months to live, he should be released on compassionate grounds.

Apart from the ‘being soft on terrorists’ angle I’ve found it interesting that many commentators are describing the release as a deal to further economic cooperation between the UK and Libya, all started by Tony Blair who famously visited Colonel Gaddafi in his tent in the desert a few years ago.

The conspiracy theories are that the UK Government, who has absolutely no jurisdiction over Scottish justice affairs, agreed with the Scottish parliament to release Megrahi although they are vehement in their denials about this. Another theory is that the Scottish parliament wanted to show its independence of England and to get the US back for its highly unfair extradition laws, which the UK Government stupidly signed several years ago.

All I know is that if developed, Libya’s oil reserves would make it the 9th largest oil producer in the world, and as we all know, anything can happen when oil is involved. Think Iraq. Think Kuwait. With 37 billion barrels of oil sitting under the Libyan desert I wouldn’t be surprised at anything which comes out in the next few weeks about a ‘deal’.

There is an interesting review of Megrahi’s trial at the following URL.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/crime-courts/this-shameful-miscarriage-has-gravely-sullied-the-scottish-criminal-justice-system-1.823828#