OzOne wrote in message news
On Wed, 18 Apr 2007 23:00:26 GMT, "Maxprop"
scribbled thusly:


Almost verbatim what the girl's mother said about her daughter when she
went
to Aruba.

I hope she has a wonderful time. Tahiti is ausgezeichnet.

Max


Yeah, I've been a few times, spent a hurricane season in Bora Bora,
beautiful place.

On kids...I've encouraged my kids to get out and enjoy life, as have
most parents.
We've had broken arms, a few chipped teeth and countless cuts and
bruises but they araware of how situations can get out of hand.
Take my daughter at a Chillis concert Tuesday night, front row/centre,
a woman behind was getting agressive about needing to get to the
front...daughter asked security to help..the woman was removed after
they had watched her escalating bad behaviour.

Oh did I mention she's now into rock climbing, using that strength
developed with 6 years of rowing.

Life is all about living after all.

By all means. I'm not hypocritical on this issue. As a technical mountain
climber, avalanche control/explosives coordinator (as a ski patrolman in
Colorado), sky diver, and motorcycle racer, I've not lead a sheltered life.
As for my daughter, I made sure I never sent her into harms way
deliberately, but allowed her to spread her own wings. Example: she and
three of her sorority sisters wished to go to a Florida location for spring
break her sophomore year in college. I declined to fund the trip, and so
did the other parents. All four kids were still terribly naive and prone to
succumb to the peer pressures found in such places. As a senior I paid for
the same trip with the same four girls. By then she was wiser and had
demonstrated to my satisfaction (as had the other girls to their parents)
that they were able to steer clear of the pitfalls. The trip was great for
them all. It likely wouldn't have been two years earlier.

Other countries are a different matter. Most US citizens tend to naively
believe that the same system of justice prevails elsewhere, which simply
isn't the case. The son of a friend was only recently released from prison
in the Philippines, at age 28. He had been incarcerated since his 21st
birthday for simple possession of marijuana. As an American student
studying in the Philippines, he had been informed of the country's policies
on recreational drugs, but chose to ignore them. I spoke with him
recently--a very changed person, to be sure--and he told me that he and the
other American students simply "couldn't believe that the penalties for
simple possession were as severe" as the law stated. His life is ruined,
essentially. He's a mess mentally and probably won't recover to achieve any
of his original goals.

Some of the laws in French Polynesia are arcane and provide for severe
penalties as well. And sexual predators are everywhere, including Tahiti.
As the song said, "Teach your children well . . ."

Max