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Mitzi's Dilemma

Sorry but this post turned out longer than I had wished, but I hope you will consider reading it and responding anyhow.

A moral dilemma is a situation where: 

1) You are presented with two or more actions, all of which you have the ability to perform.

2) There are moral reasons for you to choose each of the actions.

3) You cannot perform all of the actions and have to choose which action (or actions when there are three or more choices) to perform.

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The background
SecondLife is an immersive 3D virtual reality world that is owned and operated by Linden Lab. In this world people can create one - or more accounts. Once the accounts have been created they can be logged in-world as residents.

The residents can interact with each other in almost every conceivable way and through more than two but less than three of their five senses (the full exceptions being smelling and tasting, whereas "touching" can sort-of be achieved). 

However, apart from breaches of the Terms of Service (ToS) for SecondLife (which all residents have to accept on login) Linden Lab is not a party to and cannot resolve disputes between residents. There are no laws and no judicial system to solve disputes between residents, other than their own personal ethics and morals. 

Introduction of the participants

Mitzi and Barbie have both been residents in SecondLife for eight years. They are acquainted with each other, but have never really had much to do with one another except some friendly interaction at social events.

Mitzi has chosen a life on the sidelines which is mainly concerned with her lover, her family and her friends. Alongside that Mitzi has a passion for gardening and landscaping and is a member of an in-world garden society, "The SecondGarden". Mitzi has a blog where she gives an account of her life and experiences.

Barbie, on the other hand, is a high profiled business woman and entrepreneur and has been involved in a land owning company and many major events and business ventures. She is a well known and respected woman. Barbie also has a blog where she promotes her events and ventures and recounts her life and experiences,

The deal

SecondGarden annually hosts a huge inworld event for it's membership and everyone else who may be interested in participating. Due to the size of the event the society needs more than it's regular sim to organize the event.

At a late date Mitzi learns that the society is having problems acquiring support from it's previous supporters for the use of an additional sim and offers to step in. She starts looking into the problem, but as it all is a strange and new territory for her and time is short. Mitzi therefor comes to think of Barbie, whom she believes must be familiar with similar issues through her previous business and large scale events. 

Mitzi and Barbie have an amicable chat and Barbie agrees to help in renting a sim for the soon upcoming event. They agree on the following:

1. The sim is to be rented for six (6) weeks at L$19,000 per week (4 weeks before the event, 1 week for the event and 1 week for cleanup)

2. The cost of moving the sim prior to and after the event, L$37,500 (both ways).

3. The sim to be delivered as soon as possible. (Barbie assures Mitzi that this should only take a few days.)

Mitzi pays Barbie the full costs of the arrangement, L$151,500, and thanks her profusely for her kind assistance in the matter.

Ensuing events

The sim is not delivered to SecondGarden until some 10-12 days later. This doesn't bother Mitzi too much as she believes that it could be due to some mess up in communications and actions for which Barbie is not solely responsible.

On the last day of the event Mitzi wakes up to find a barrage of emails informing her that the sim she has rented through Barbies kind assistance has been closed and no one can get in. Mitzi tries to get in contact with Barbie to have the issue solved, both on social media and inworld without success. 

When nothing is heard from Barbie during several hours, Mitzi instead contacts the land owning company directly and asks for information about how she can solve the problem.

The company informs her that the rent for the last six days have not been paid (nor for the clean up week). When Mitzi asks if she can solve the issue by paying the arrears (the back rent) and for the coming week on behalf of Barbie, the company kindly acquiesced to let her do so. The sim was opened again immediately afterwards and the closing ceremonies could continue as planned.

When paying the arrears and for the coming week Mitzi sees that the cost is not L$19,000 a week, but L$17,777. This in itself doesn't bother Mitzi as she assumes that Barbie has gotten a better deal than the going rate due to her previous dealings with the company. 

However, Mitzi doesn't feel that it is fair that she should pay for the two weeks twice and asks Barbie to reimburse her for the additional costs of L$35,554.

No reimbursement has been made and Barbie no longer responds to messages from Mitzi on social media or inworld.

The dilemma

Mitzi feels she has two choices in the current situation.

1. To forget all about it and go on with her happy life and avoiding all future contact or dealings with Barbie, after all the amount is really not that substantial and it is mostly her own fault for not having protected her interests better.

2. To write about the incident on her blog and name Barbies name, show the proofs she has collected for her case (transaction records, chat logs etc.) and warn everyone from future business with Barbie, after all the amount is not insignificant and Barbies actions show poor business ethics. 

What do you think Mitzi should do and why?
Please leave your thoughts in the comments. 

Causing A Disturbance in Second Moscow

The Red Square and the Vasilij Cathedral in Second Moscow looked calm as usual from afar yesterday, but if you got closer you could see that there was something out of the ordinary going on.

A handful of women and three men had gathered outside the cathedral. One of the men was The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm, prince of Cascade Falls and sovereign ruler of The Southern Enchantment Region with Outer territories. All of us wore the brightly colored knitted balaclavas that have become the trademark of the Russian feminist punk rock protest group Pussy Riot.

Pussy Riot is of course well known for staging unauthorized provocative guerrilla performances in unusual public locations. Their lyrical themes include feminism, LGBT rights, opposition to the policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom they rightfully regard as a dictator.

The gathering had been - or so I believe - organized by Vanessa Blaylock, virtual world artist and blogger, today going under the name Yoko Ono. We were there for a Pussy Riot Solidarity manifestation and I was also there to protest the infamous and homophobic Russian "gay propaganda" laws.

We started crawling all over the place, some of us assembled on a statue while others somehow managed to get up onto the roof of the cathedral itself. A while later I jumped up on the roof of a police car parked nearby.

When my buddy, the sexy, sublime, brilliant, humble etc., etc., Butch Diavolo arrived I started using him as part of my protest by pointing at him and shouting: "Look at Butch Diavolo, he is the incarnation of GAY PROPAGANDA!"

I was at the manifestation for an hour and 49 minutes and had loads of fun. However, my bosom buddy Apmel Goosson, who was there in the guise of his alt Ms. Apmelina Slingshot, reports on his blog "My Avatar's Name Is Apmel" that the real fun didn't start until after I had left. Apparently all the protesters and the Moscowites that had joined them were thrown off the sim and banned.

It seems totally unfair to me that Apmel always gets to have all the fun. That man has been banned in more places than the infamous performance artist SaveMe Oh, whom I for some reason am starting to suspect is non other than Vanessa Blaylock, but it may be my post-election paranoia playing pranks with me.

Accepting Facts

The American radio and television journalist Andy Rooney is quoted as once having said, "People will generally accept facts as truth only if the facts agree with what they already believe.”

The Swedish legal system is based on what is sometimes called the Continental European legal system, where laws are codified in statutes that are passed by the elected legislatures. The laws are then interpreted by the courts in the cases that come before them. The courts are however bound by the the wording and framework of the laws and the intentions of the legislature and cannot interpret the freely or without basis in the wording. The Swedish Supreme Courts interpretation of the laws (precedents)  then limit the lower courts and their own future interpretation of disputes where the facts of the cases are the same. 

I have been at a tiresome meeting today. The object of the meeting was to inform and advice the 74 attendees on how the existing laws in Sweden regulate a specific dispute and what the relevant precedence is that would be applied by the courts when deciding their dispute.

The biggest problem to deal with was that about 25 of those at the meeting (the loudest naturally) were not there to listen or to be informed but instead to argue, from a purely emotional standpoint, how they believed - or would have preferred - the laws and the precedents to have been different.

I do not mind working for a change of existing or laws or how they should be interpreted. In Sweden such a change cannot be achieved in the courts solely but needs a lot of political footwork and lobbying against the legislature.

The 25 people at the meeting had little or no knowledge of the Swedish legal system and had probably seen too many American films and television dramas - where the legal system is completely different - of how victories and change of law comes about through valiant court battles with cunning and impassioned lawyers. Any explanation of how their disputes would be adjudicated by a Swedish court was meaningless to them, but instead only proved to them that there was something lacking with the lawyer.

New Littering Laws

Photo courtesy of Bengt Nyman, Stockholm, Sweden

Sweden gets new legislation against littering on July 1st, 2011.

According to  the new law dropping cigarette butts, spitting out chewing gum or sachets of snus (Swedish moist snuff) and leaving beer cans, used condoms or hamburger and kebab wrappings in the park can lead to a fine between SEK 200 - 4 000 (which is approximately USD 30 - 650).

The new law has been adopted because it was found that the existing legislation on littering was not effective against such petty littering.

As I understand it there will be no exception for champagne corks or confetti but spitting will still be allowed.