Wake up and smell the coffee

As i watched the latest bad commercial with a cricketer in it, it occured to me how warped our perspective of celebrities really is. Have no fear, for this isn't another ad-bashing post. Far from it, in fact.
Correct me if i'm wrong, but from my perspective, this is how the media works:

• If a batsman loses form or is sacked from the Indian cricket team, the advertisements that he features in are promptly pulled off the air.
• However, if a celebrity politician is convicted of murder, he still appears large as life, endorsing products on television as if nothing ever happened.

Well the first case is quite common, but it is this second case that disturbs me the most. And it is rather unnerving to watch the man in the perfectly matched turban and tie be persisted with to endorse a brand of inverters, even after being convicted of culpable homicide. I for one, am not about to launch a scathing attack on the man himself, for we all have our faults and have made mistakes in life. But what comes through most shockingly is that the opinion of the viewers, i.e., the common man, appears not to be shaken in the least by such a reputation, while a player going through a slump loses appeal in a flash.

On the other hand, we have the judicial system.

"On a dark night, stars shine the brightest" ,he said after the conviction. Whatever that meant.

And i'm sure Navjot Singh Sidhu has many more inane witticisms (if you can call it that) up his sleeve right now to describe his current predicament. He has been convicted recently for killing a man no less than eighteen years ago, in a brawl and has been sentenced to three years in jail. Since the incident, he has played out an entire career in cricket, moved on to being a commentator, and then a politician.

Surely, a jail sentence right now has little meaning. I'm not implying that it is wrong to punish a man, but if a punishment was in order, it was eighteen years ago when the crime was committed. If i understand correctly, the main purpose of punishing a criminal is to ensure that he learns his lesson, and that that deters him from committing future misdeeds.

So, do we live in a society where our basic concepts of good and bad are irreversibly distorted? Does our judicial system in all it's slackness ultimately serve it's purpose?

It's your call.

"I think, therefore i am." - Descartes