Today is a sad day. My maid is going to be sent back to her hometown soon. She had been stealing from us these past two years. I'd been wondering why the money in my wallet gets lost sometimes. And the red packet that mum gave me this year, a hefty $120, was lost from my table too. Still i accounted it to my forgetful nature. But the cat was let out of the bag when my mum counted her money and found hundreds lost. So now she'll be gone... I'm pretty bad with such situations. I have never given a farewell hug, or any presents or last words of appreciation to my maids.

I'm not really bothered to have found out that she steals. In fact i don't think of stealing as something wrong. Think, for example, the story of Robin Hood. Often, when we hear of theft or any other crime, we conceive an impression with all our previous notions and experience about it at one go, and condemn it all too easily. Feelings mar our judgement. Why not let go of our anger, our contempt towards the act or person, and perceive it from a fair point of view?

Perhaps she has stolen hundreds from us over the past few years. But what does she do with the money? Much of it is used to provide a better life for her poor family back home. Would you have done the same if you had a needy family, a sister who dreams of going to school, a young female toddler who hasn't seen her mother for years at the time she needs her most? Do we need the money as much as her family does?

My maid indulges in getting a fanciful handphone or electronic device sometimes, that is true. But would you begrudge an occasional pleasure to a living and feeling person, lonely and lost in another land, with hands and legs shackled to work as a servant for months, maybe years? Would you begrudge her a little happiness of her own, to let her momentarily forget about her family of four mouths dependent on her back at home, to give her something to look forward to at the dawn of each day?

I never believe that justice is giving people what they deserve, distributing due rewards to the good, and meting punishment to the evil.

We have another word for that. Karma. You reap what you sow. Kindness begets kindness, and usually earns a tad of popularity. Sins arouse a guilty conscience, or at least the ire of others. Robin Hood, an intriguing mix of good and bad, has earned a fulfilling life and the adoration of the masses, but has also riled the contempt of the rich, and losing the chance at a peaceful and atable life.

Doubtless, we all have questions about the efficacy of this system. The assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr comes to mind. All of us have come across seemingly unfair treatment and situations in society. But who is to say what is fair or not, when we can only look from behind our own skins?

Let us not forget either that before humans rose to civilisation, there was no good and evil. There was only the survival of the fittest, the natural world bloody in tooth and nail. Nature has no room for the petty squabbles of angels and demons. No, I believe that cosmic justice is above such petty issues as good or evil.

Any person can persecute a criminal, but no man is fit to judge another. Let us call the judicial chambers a court of Law, and not misdeem it to be a court of Justice.

Why, indeed, do countries spend millions and billions of dollars on judicial systems, courts and fees, when these money could save the millions of needy children and people out there? Why do courts spend years over the trial of a murderer of a child, while we let twenty million children die from hunger in that time? The murderer has a guilty conscience at least. But do you feel the slightest pangs of guilt over the deaths of others that you could help avoid? What is law and order when it is merely reduced to the bureaucratic administration of societal rules?

Justice should be about giving people what they need. And in this time and age, we need this justice more than anything else. This is a century of need; we hear cries all over the world to save Mother Earth from pollution, from industrial waste and human exploitation. Millions over the world still live in starvation, poverty and contamination. And for goodness sake all the world needs peace and happiness.

Isn't it time to open up our minds and perceive the needs of others? Shouldn't we lend a helping hand to the needy, adopt an african child, and spend funds researching the cure to AIDs instead of the elixir of youth? Take this as a guiding principle: what others need is more important that what you want. Make that sacrifice, and make this world a better place to live in.

Let us do my maid justice by forgiving her for everything she has done. I'm sure Robin Hood would feel the same way.

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