The eleventh commandment has just been handed down, thou shalt not annoy pilgrims attending World Youth Day events in Sydney this July. Whatever “annoy” actually means…
Linguistics expert Nick Riemer, from the University of Sydney, said the word annoy had its origins in the French word for annoyance - ennui. The Oxford Dictionary defines ‘annoy’ as causing “slight anger or mental distress”, but Dr Riemer said the word was extremely ambiguous. “One person’s annoyance may be another person’s freedom of expression,” he said. Dr Riemer said the wording of the new laws would be a nightmare for those tasked with enforcing the legislation. “One guess is that [the lawmakers] did it very quickly and on the run. Or it may be that they wanted to pass the laws to placate someone but make them totally meaningless when challenged,” he said.
Firstly I’d have to disagree with Dr Riemer’s comment about the use of a vague term like “annoy” making the law much easier to challenge. On the contrary, using a term so vague and nebulous as “annoy” means that a very broad range of activities can come under it ambit. Very poor and dangerous lawmaking.
I read this whole story with horror. The rise of the Christian right, the fall of freedoms so hard won over the last couple of hundred years. What’s the opposite of “The Enlightenment”?
I think he’s saying a competent enough lawyer could still successfully challenge an “annoyance charge” on the grounds that the word annoy is sufficiently ambiguous. Mind you the legal fees would almost the same, if not more, than the $5500 fine for being an annoyance.
I live very near Randwick Racecourse and all I can say I will be very pleased to see the horses back there as soon as possible :) (Hope that statement doesn’t annoy anyone…)
He, yeah :) I think it was one of the REMO shirts I saw that says “Dear Pope, good luck at Randwick. I for one have never had there myself”.
Did you see some of the WYD t-shirts on the backpage section of Friday’s SMH? One a little like the one you mention that goes something like “I hope the pope gets a miracle at Randwick, I’ve been waiting years for one.”
Thankfully I only bet like a $5 year on the horses… usually the Melbourne Cup.