Contract Rights and the Chinese Concubine

Contract Rights and the Chinese Concubine

Although the practice of concubinage was not abolished until 1971 in Hong Kong, concubines in a recognized relationship before that time may still have some legal rights.

The degree of the legal rights of pre-existing concubine relationships have not been re-examined until recently. The recent concubinage debate is between a property mogul, and his concubine "partner" of 46 years.

Lim Por-yen, property mogl argues that he lent Koo, his former concubine $74 million U.S. dollars in a schedule of 60 payments between 1994 and 2001. Koo argues that this large sum of money was a gift because she was a "third wife", lived with Por-yen for almost 50 years, and has two children with him.

Koo also contends that Chinese tradition should be adhered to and a concubine should be treated as a wife. This tradition is a foreign concept to the former Colony's British legal system, which upheld that marriage is a monogamous union.

In 2003, the Chinese Court ruled the couple's status was outside the scope of the case, and the real issue was whether the money from Por-yen was a loan of gift under contract law. Recently, an Appeal's Court overruled the 2003 judgment, and the question of whether a husband should take care of a concubine has resurfaced.

How the Wall Street Bailout works in layman's terms

Young Chuck moved to Texas and bought a Donkey from a farmer for $100.

The farmer agreed to deliver the Donkey the next day.

The next day he drove up and said, 'Sorry son, but I have some bad
news, your donkey died.'

Chuck replied, 'Well, then just give me my money back.'

The farmer said, 'Can't do that. I went and spent it already.'

Chuck said,'Ok, then, just bring me the dead donkey.'

The farmer asked, 'What ya gonna do with him?'

Chuck said, 'I'm going to raffle him off.'The farmer said: 'You can't
raffle off a dead donkey!'

Chuck said, 'Sure I can. Watch me. I just won't tell anybody he's
dead.'

A month later, the farmer met up with Chuck and asked, 'What happened with
that dead donkey?'

Chuck said, 'I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars a
piece and made a profit of $898.'

The farmer said, 'Didn't anyone complain?'

Chuck said, 'Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars
back.'

Chuck now works on Wall Street for AIG.

From a recent email newsletter by Rabbi Shea Hecht :
http://sheahecht.com

Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job

WASHINGTON—African-American man Barack Obama, 47, was given the least-desirable job in the entire country
Tuesday when he was elected president of the United States of America. In his new high-stress, low-reward position, Obama will be charged with such tasks as completely overhauling the nation's broken-down economy, repairing the crumbling infrastructure, and generally having to please more than 300 million Americans and cater to their every whim on a daily basis. As part of his duties, the black man will have to spend four to eight years cleaning up the messes other people left behind. The job comes with such intense scrutiny and so certain a guarantee of failure that only one other person even bothered applying for it. Said scholar and activist Mark L. Denton, "It just goes to show you that, in this country, a black man still can't catch a break."
http://www.theonion.com