Cartoon characters, Hindu gods summoned to court

The law courts are in the news for all the wrong reasons. No, I'm not referring to the Malaysian courts which, as you know, are also in the news for the wrong reasons too.

What I'm referring to are the law courts in Italy and India.

Two days ago, I read that Tweety Bird and Donald Duck have been ordered to appear in a court in Naples, Italy on Friday (that is, today) as damaged parties in the criminal trial of a Chinese man accused of counterfeiting products of Disney and Warner Bros.


Then, today, I read a bizarre account that a court in Jharkhand, India has issued advertisements in newspapers asking two Hindu gods, Ram and Hanuman, to "appear before the court personally" on Tuesday after the judge said that letters addressed to them had gone unanswered.


Okay, I can understand that names of American cartoon characters like Tweety, Donald, Daisy or Mickey may be a bit too deep for the average Italian to understand but it defies logic that an Indian judge in his own country cannot recognise that Ram and Hanuman are the names of their own gods that they worship every day. Common .... they're part of your daily lives, okay? Duh...