Proverbs

I am very fond of proverbs, because through the ages they have been passed down from father to son, from mother to daughter, from generation to generation, so there must be some truth in what our ancestors intended to give as a heritage to their inheritors.

One of my most favorite proverbs is the Dutch "ondank is 's werelds loon", or literally "ingratitude is the reward of the world", or perhaps it is the equivalent of "biting the hand that feeds you". Here is a short story I translated from the Indonesian language newspaper Bisnis Indonesia dated April, 24 1998.

"Only the second injection was lethal. The executioner's first attempt to impose the death sentence on the prisoner, Joseph Cannon, 38, failed because a problem with his veins. Cannon murdered a woman who saved him from a prison sentence when he was 17 years old.

"He shot dead Hers Walsh, 45, from San Antonio in 1977.

"The victim's sister is a lawyer, who had previously helped him by persuading Mrs. Walsh to drop charges of robbery against him. In order to avoid imprisonment, the lawyer asked Mrs. Walsh to allow Cannon to stay with her in 1977.

"However, as the saying goes 'like raising the offspring of a snake', Cannon shot dead the mother of eight children one week later when she came home for lunch; in the course of the investigation it was found that Cannon had been under the influence of alcohol and drugs. He had also tried to sexually abuse his rescuer.

A. DJUANA

Jakarta