I hadn't heard things were not going so well in Dubai. We have extended family in the Gulf - as apparently everyone one does - but hadn't heard a peep about charms like debtors prison:
Now, like many of the foreign workers who make up 90 percent of the population here, she has been laid off and faces the prospect of being forced to leave this Persian Gulf city — or worse. “I’m really scared of what could happen, because I bought property here,” said Sofia, who asked that her last name be withheld because she is still hunting for a new job. “If I can’t pay it off, I was told I could end up in debtors’ prison.” With Dubai’s economy in free fall, newspapers have reported that more than 3,000 cars sit abandoned in the parking lot at the Dubai Airport, left by fleeing, debt-ridden foreigners (who could in fact be imprisoned if they failed to pay their bills). Some are said to have maxed-out credit cards inside and notes of apology taped to the windshield.
Wowie-kazowie! But we still have certain types of jailings for debts, though they are rarely used. Deadbeat parents who don't pay support might be hoozegowed. It was more common a few decades ago, though. PEI had another approach historically that was still in effect when I took the bar exam there: if someone thought you might skip off, they could seize your stuff based only on making a claim in court. Pre-trial garnishment. Court released the goods after the trial. You no show, it's gone. Neat and handy.
But who knew? I thought it was all golfing off skyscrapers and making islands shaped like trees in the Emirates. And who knew 90% of the population were auslanders? But no wonder I didn't know: "...a new draft media law would make it a crime to damage the country’s reputation or economy..." Remind me to stay home.
Comments
Ben (The Tiger) - February 12, 2009 10:07 AM
After a year in the insolvency industry, I came to the conclusion that debtors' prisons were an unfairly maligned institution. (It was truly amazing what people managed to run up...)
But -- they're only just if people know about them. If one runs up debts and only then discovers, oh, hey, I might end up in jail -- that's not fair.
Seanie - February 12, 2009 10:14 AM
I have zero sympathy for people that move to other jurisdictions to work/live without doing adequate research on that place's laws and rules, then cry foul, playing the "but we're canadians, come save us..." cards..
Ben (The Tiger) - February 12, 2009 10:39 AM
I do, too -- I'm the heartless SOB who wants us to do nothing about people like that death row inmate in Montana or young Master Khadr in Gitmo -- but I'd stretch a point for people in danger of heading to debtors' prisons in the Middle East.
Because it's just so random. I mean, the kid getting caned in Singapore for spraypainting a car, I had no sympathy whatsoever for -- it's obviously illegal. People who had a mortgage in Dubai who then are threatened with debtor's prison when the economy turns sour -- I'd favour helping them out...
Alan - February 12, 2009 11:53 AM
I actually don't disagree but have more sympathy for a brainwashed war child than a Dubai mortgage holder.
Chris Taylor - February 12, 2009 11:55 AM
I kind of dig the idea of debtors prison, but Islamic autocracies are usually wrong... So I am conflicted.
Alan - February 12, 2009 12:08 PM
I also had no idea that Dubai was the oil-less emirate.
Ben (The Tiger) - February 12, 2009 12:32 PM
Me neither.
seanie - February 12, 2009 2:31 PM
Yes, yes, I am with Alan. I retract a part of my statement in that I should have said I have little sympathy for the adults. Kids, child soldiers, brainwashed by their nutbar parents, whole other ball of wax.
Chris Taylor - February 12, 2009 4:20 PM
I have very little sympathy for child soldiers. Ignorantia juris non excusat, after all.
In the middle of a firefight, when a kid picks up a rifle and aim it downrange at one of our soldiers, that soldier will have no choice but to kill that kid in order to prevent him/her from spraying his comrades with lead. And then having done so, that soldier will have to live with himself forever after.
When you're in close contact fighting for your life, there is no time for niceties like "Drop the weapon" or "Put that down".
Is it tragic? Sure. Regrettable? Sure. Do I feel sorry for the kid? A little; he has no real sense of the value of the lives he is aiming to take. Nor of his own. But I feel much more sorry for the adult who does have that sense, who has to set aside all his natural instincts, put the kid in the crosshairs and contemplate turning him into red mist.
Alan - February 12, 2009 5:56 PM
Not to dissuade you from disagreeing with me but "ignorantia juris non excusat" does not apply to children.
Jay Currie - February 13, 2009 2:51 AM
Before we see the end of the deleveragng I suspect we'll be hearing more about debtors prisons - silly as the idea is.
On the one side we have to take contract seriously, on the other, no one had a gun to the head of the clever fellow who offered the unemployed guy a mortgage or a big limit credit card.
Ben is absolutely right when he says that it is astonishing how deep a hole people can get in. However, rarely have they dug that hole entirely by themselves.
In the US there was a whole industry, where people made very good money handing other people the shovels. The same industry - in a less insane form - exists in Canada. Money-Mart (or as my pal Kevin Grace calls it, "The Bank of the Damned" makes astonishing money cashing cheques at a price and lending money at 59%/a) And mortgage brokers actually write contracts which say that, in the event that the interest rate is deemed to exceed the Criminal Code rule against usury, they will be held harmless.
Our mainline credit grantors are catching up. Calling credit lines and refusing to finance even the best credits at less than extortionate rates.
While I might be willing to see debtors' prisons for those who abused the system, I would also want to see creditor's prisons for those who exploited it. Say a four to one sentence ratio.