Justice Revisited or Revised?

Well, it’s that time of year again – Amirfest, or perhaps Rabinfest.  For those of you who are not in Israel let me explain how this is traditionally observed.  Towards the end of October, the local media start writing inflammatory articles designed to whip up a public frenzy against the murderer of Yitzchak Rabin, the goal being to see who can inspire the most radical responses possible.  So far the one that sticks in my mind for this year is one individual who suggested that Yigal Amir’s wife and week old infant be strung up by the neck with him.

Make no mistake.  By no means do I condone assasination, and Amir certainly deserves to serve every day of the punishment handed down to him.  Like those far to the Left of myself, I believe that the legal system must be allowed to operate and that justice must be served.  The difference is that those on the Left seem to believe that that the legal system only applies until it comes to Amir.

Unfortunately the Left still fails to comprehend the true nature of Amir’s greatest political crime.  Yes of course he killed Rabin, but those on the left will be the first to concede that Rabin as Rabin was no different than any other victim but will tell you “it’s what Rabin represented that Amir killed and that’s what makes this different.”

That’s exactly the point.  What Rabin represented was the democratic process of letting the people choose their leaders and deciding by the ballot rather than by the bullet.  But by the same token he has caused the Left to encourage the destruction of the same democracy under the guise of “justice.”

It amazes me to see how eagerly the talkback lefties on news sites and the interviewees on the radio consistently speak of creating new laws with which to punish Amir and apply them retroactively.  Creating and applying a punishment to someone which wasn’t in existence at the time they commited the crime is the antithesis of democracy worthy of the most totalitarian of countries.  If Israel were to create a law that would in any way work retroactively to worsen the situation of a single arab terrorist sitting in an Israeli jail the entire Left would raise a howl and every one of its lawyers would beg to represent the “victim.”  But the moment it’s a Jew under discussion they rush to invent new punishments and pile them on. Amir can barely ask for a roll of tissue paper for his cell without the media reporting it and 600 talkbackers suggesting reasons why Amir shouldn’t be allowed to go to blow his nose for the rest of his life.  Yet this seems normal to them.  With a straight face they will explain to you why “Amir is different.”  But that’s just the point – Amir isn’t different – not under the law that existed on Novermber 4, 1995.  Perhaps it should have been different…but it wasn’t.  Post-mortem, people often rewrite history.  Already the Left has managed to focus Rabin’s legacy on his miltary career and his victimhood in search of “peace.”  His willingness to give away parts of his country for a peace guarantee from Arafat (whose greates legacy was that he never kept a promise in his life), his slaughtering of fellow Jews (including an attack on his later successor Menachem Begin) on the illfated Altalena, and his history of alcoholism while in office are glossed over.  But that’s the difference between law and history.  It is safe to rewrite history only to the extent that it affects the past and safe to rewrite law only to the extent that it applies to the future.  In the case of Rabin and Amir, history is being rewritten in order to encourage people to demand that the law be rewritten to affect the past.   

That, in the end is Amir’s greatest (by his calculations) “success.”  He, by himself has become the catalyst for the Left’s unveiling of its own hypocrisy.  The Leftist who calls for Amir to suffer punishments that were not on the books when he committed his crime, effectively negates ANY possibility of fair justice.

There are many, yes even on the right, who wish that there had been a more stringent law under which to punish Yigal Amir.  But to do so now under a newly created Yigal Amir law does nothing but grant victory to Amir by admitting to him that he’s caused a state of affairs where the left considers the laws of the state to be subject to the individual whims of the moment.  Even the call to allow such a state of affairs is so repugnant as to cause many to sympathize with Amir and place him in the role of the victim of a witch hunt.  The man got his punishment, let him serve it anonymously and without celebrity.  Giving him a stage is a victory for noone but himself and our national tabloids.

Technical Wronging

Recently I’ve noticed a reemergence of people asking about technical writing courses and the advisability of investing in such a career.  The people asking almost inevitably have one thing in common – they’re not cut out for technical writing!  Why do I say this? Simple…because the Israeli market is so glutted both with experienced unemployed hitech people (especially technial writers) from the days of the dot com bubble, and inexperienced holders of the same technical writing certificate these questioners are only now considering investing in, that there’s less than no room out there for new technical writers. 

Now forget about having missed the boat (which sailed in the late 90s). At this point the questioner’s essentially considering whether to invest thousands in learning how to sail for the privilege of someday being able to stand on the dock already filled with unemployed sailors hoping that if an ocassional sailboat wanders by that he’ll be the one of hundreds that they’ll hire!  The only exception might be people with a strong technical background and exceptional writing skills.  But for the most part those people already know technical writers personally and understand what they do (having worked with them from the technical side in their places of employment) and go to them directly for advice or search on technical or professional lists for such rather than grope around on general information lists looking for information.

Now don’t misunderstand me.  I’m not blaming or making fun of these people.  I sympathize with them.  After all, these schools, which sprang up like mushrooms during the dot com bubble era, have been trying to sell people for years on the idea that “if you know English you can be a technical writer and earn a nice fat salary check.”  As a result, the market is glutted with technical writing students, both with and without talent, whose main qualification was that their check to pay for the course didn’t bounce.  Once you’ve reached the end of these courses, however, you discover there really aren’t that many jobs available.  I recently saw an ad in which they offered people internships for which you’re expected to pay to work for them!  

I studied at one of these schools, and as a top student (i.e. one of the ones who actually DID get sent to job interviews afterwards which, as I found out, they only do with those students who they feel will best reflect on the school for use in furthering the school’s reputation in the hi-tech world) was even invited to teach at the school afterwards, which I did for a number of months, so I’ve seen the inside of such a school and how it works from the point of view of both student and teacher  

The fact is, most of the people taken by these schools should never have been accepted into the courses in the first place.  The schools take them because it’s big money (and no extra expense to them) for each student they add to a class.  The hi-tech companies (who are glutted as it is and already were when I did the course back during the dot com bubble when there were jobs everywhere relatively) know that’s the case and as a result don’t really want to waste their time on what 9 out of 10 times are people who are barely technically savvy. They’d rather pay more money and get someone with proven experience which is why you’ll see all the ads out there looking for a minimum of 2-3 years experience as a technical writer while no one is offering to give said experience.  Meanwhile there are a few companies who take advantage of this fact and knowing that new techwriters are at the mercy of anyone who’ll give them a chance they take newbies at bottom of the barrel wages and cram them with work knowing the newbies don’t have much choice.  True those people will leave them after 2 years, but as PT Barnum said “there’s a sucker born every minute” and they know they can get more humanities majors who fancy themselves working at hi-tech salaries.  These schools are more than happy to sell the dream to people who don’t know what else to do to make money with their English.

Now I’m sure there are many perfectly nice people out there in the qualify quickly computer school world and I’ve no doubt that most of the schools will at least give you basic technical writing skills and tools.

But if they don’t demand you take a rigid entrance exam to get into the course – beware!

If they tell you that there are lots of jobs out there and we have good connections – beware! 

If they tell you “there’s potentially good money in this field down the road but it will be hell at first and if you’re not tech savvy then don’t think you can make it in the field on your skills in English 101 alone – the country’s full of unemployed experienced techwriters let alone English Majors with techwriting certificates,” that may be a school to consider.

If you already have a technical background you may be able to find yourself a niche, but if not then it’s a caveat emptor period in this field!  If you’re truly convinced this is the field for you, then go for it after first checking out the schools references very carefully.  But if you’re in it because you’re looking at it as a quick easy way to big money don’t bother.  In either case tread carefully, and best of luck to you!