Sunday, April 29, 2012

Weird Divorce

The subject of divorce is one many of us are qualified to comment on. I am one of the majority of  people in the industrial world who hs been married and divorced. But in the United States it's relatively easy to find a reason to divorce a spouse. The no fault divorce here means you don't have to have a reason other than "I've had enough".  But I saw an article about English divorce laws that was funny and thought it was worth relating and commenting on.  Because England does not have a no-fault divorce law, couples who wish to separate are coming up with some odd reasons for divorce...really odd ones.

A list of a few of them that was published  in The Times of London makes me feel sorry for both the husband and wife in each case.  One man complained his wife "would without justification flirt with any builder or tradesman, inappropriately touching them and declaring that she could not stop herself." Another man "insisted that his pet tarantula, Timmy, slept in a glass case next to the matrimonial bed," even though his wife requested "that Timmy sleep elsewhere." Then there is the husband told divorce lawyer Vanessa Lloyd Platt that his wife had maliciously and repeatedly served him tuna casserole, his least favorite dish.  Lawyer Platt advised him to come up with a better reason for the divorce and to start eating out more.,  And then there was the "Klingon"  is the fault divorce petition. One guy  who watches way too many Star Trek episodes  told his wife that she had to speak and dress as a Klingon. She probably should have skipped divorce court and just zapped him with her taser gun.

Under current British law, divorces can only be granted under one of five categories, which include adultery and abandonment. About half of all divorces filed in England fall under another category called "unreasonable behavior"........... as in the Tuna casserole assault story. In the U.S divorce is not only easier but far more often amiable, even friendly. But British divorce  procedure could be even crazier than it is.  A Saudi man, for example, recently used a shopping mall's loudspeaker to announce his intention to divorce his wife..while she had their three children along with her in the mall. In Israel, one man, Meir Gorodetzki, was sent to prison by the court for refusing to give his wife a divorce. And Israel's supreme rabbinical court of appeals upheld a ruling to keep a man imprisoned until he grants his wife a bill of divorce. He still sits in prison today.

Wow! I knew marriage as an institution was under assault, but who knew the once serious divorce matter has become so bizarre and almost fun. Maybe I should get married again just to have one of those kinds of divorces.

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