More of the odd from abroad… (Bad) India ink Lots of times in the past, I've written Daily Dose items about India, a commercial juggernaut and largely vegetarian state often lauded as model-for-the-world on how to run a peaceful and tolerant democracy. Yet today, I've got some ink on India that would have fit nicely into a future "Weird, Wild and Wacky" compilation - but was just too timely and relevant to wait another month… As you may recall, most of the things I've written about India in the past center on some of the medical practices there. Now don't get me wrong - it's not like you can't find a competent doctor in India. In fact, you can find some of the best abortionists in the world there, owing to their long regional history of the sex selection of babies. So it all depends on what you're looking for. And to be fair about it, some of the best young doctors in the U.S. are indeed coming from India and other countries in the region. But speaking of "young doctors," India may NOT be the place you want to go for obstetric care - at least not if you expect it to always come from a licensed physician… According to the AP and other sources, the 15-year-old son of two New Delhi doctors was recently allowed to PERFORM A CAESARIAN SECTION under their supervision. Was this because the two doctor-parents spontaneously lost the use of their arms while trapped in a cable-car with only their son and a pregnant woman whose water broke? Nope, it was an attempt to get their son into the Guinness Book of World Records under the category of "youngest surgeon." The operation was a success in the sense that everyone lived. It was a terrible failure in the sense that the medical system in India is capable of producing doctors that believe they're justified in taking "bring-your-child-to-work" day literally AND that also think it's OK to compromise the care of their patients for their own familial fame and glory… According to the AP report, when "Doctor Dad" got the official 3rd degree from their district's medical board after showing the recording of his son's unlicensed obstetric debut, he accused them of pressing charges out of jealousy at the boy's achievement! To the board's credit, they commanded authorities to arrest BOTH parents. And to Guinness' credit, they refused to even consider for world-record status such unethical medical practice. But this isn't the only weird news from Gandhi-land… Rebel without a… pacifier? I don't know whether to classify this as "Keystone Cops" funny or "Big Brother" scary. According to another recent news story (this one from Agency France-Presse), authorities in the Gandhi-land city of Patna - following a January clash between cops and villagers that turned violent - are pressing charges of rioting and shooting at police against a 3-YEAR-OLD BOY. Claiming that camera surveillance footage proves the tot led a group of rioters while firing guns at security personnel, Indian police showed up at the house of toddler Raj Kumar's flabbergasted parents and demanded that the child be relinquished to authorities… Little Raj's parents say the child has an airtight lullaby - er, alibi. They say he was at his Granny's, and they can prove it. The article did not say whether or not Indian police have proved that the child can indeed hurl a rock or even LIFT a gun. But they are allowing for the possibility that the arrest is the result of an administrative error of some kind. Apparently the "probable cause" standards - not to mention criminal identification methods - are somewhat less stringent in India than they are here in the U.S… Sounds like a great democratic model-for-the-world, doesn't it? | 
