China to Execute Mentally Ill Man

I'm all confused about China.

As a jewelry maker, China is the best place to get cheap, cheap, cheap gems and beads. And, Lord knows, there would be no Wal-Mart, Nike, faux Louis Vuitton, and bootleg movies without China's presence in the global economy. I'm reading about the Dalai Lama and I'm not really feeling they way China snatched Tibet back in the day.

But the way they're treating Akmal Shaikh is shameful.

Shaikh is a mentally-ill British citizen. He has bi-polar disorder. After a breakdown in 2003, Shaikh went to Poland without a cent to his name to start an airline. There, he met someone who promised him he could record the song he was sure would establish world peace (lyrics: "come little rabbit, come to me"). Long story short, the fake music impresario and Shaikh head to China and fake music impresario puts 4 kilos of heroin in Shaikh's suitcase. Yikes.

Now China wants to put Shaikh to death.

China's capital punishment system makes Texas look like judicial mercy. China performs 140 executions a week by a single bullet or lethal injection. You can get sentenced and killed in the same day. But as serious as China is about capital punishment, executing the mentally ill--which Shaikh clearly is--is morally repugnant.

British actor Stephen Fry, who also battles bi-polar, is pleading with the Chinese government to spare Shaikh's life. He told the BBC that this was "a real case where China can demonstrate that it does understand that mental illness can provoke people into doing things that are otherwise intolerable." Amnesty International is also working for Shaikh's release.

God bless Fry for speaking out and standing up for someone with mental illness.

Boo, China, boo!