If you’ve ever been on the internet, you
have probably seen someone pass around a list of “wacky laws” from various states in
the USA. These are usually laws that are still on the
books from decades or even centuries ago, were never constitutional, wouldn’t be held
up by any local judge worthy of their position, and were usually just passed by city councils
of small towns to make a point and throw their weight around. However, around the world many truly strange
laws have been passed that are either symbolically important, truly enforceable, or are judiciously
enforced in creatively interesting ways. In today’s article, we will go over the
top 10 strangest examples. 10. In The United States, There Are Some Exemptions
to Child Labor Laws On Farms In most developed countries, child labor has
been pretty much done away with and the world is all the better for it. However, in the United States of America,
a country that most would imagine got rid of that quite some time ago, there are a lot
of exceptions when it comes to farm labor. See, farmers in the United States often have
trouble getting enough people to work on their farms and get everything done, especially
at a wage that is affordable for the farmer. For this reason, having children work on farms
has been a thing for a very long time, and there are exceptions in the law to allow it. Essentially, as long as they are still getting
an education, whether by going to school or a state approved homeschool program, they
are allowed to be worked on a farm for no pay — even as a young child — without
any real restrictions on the hours (as long as they are working for their parents own
farm, regardless of how big or commercial a size it might seem). Furthermore, as wild as this may sound to
people from Europe, as long as you are just driving your tractor on the farm, you may
allow your kids to drive around in it without any age restrictions or training whatsoever. Of course, children die or get horribly maimed
due to this sort of nonsense every year, but the pressure from the farm lobbies has so
far stopped any laws with real teeth from going into effect to change things. 9. The Laws On Cruise Liners Are Complex, and
Different From How Many Imagine Legal jurisdiction can get extremely murky
when it comes to trying to prosecute a cruise liner, or anyone who did anything to you while
you were on one, but in general it is supposed to apply as follows: If you are within 12
miles of a country’s waters, you are subject to their laws and jurisdictions. End of story. If you are more than 12 miles out but less
than 24, you are not subject to their laws, but you have to allow them to board to look
for potential smuggling activity, regardless of your country of origin. After that, once you get to international
waters, you do still have to follow laws — the laws of whichever country your cruise ship
is officially registered in. That means if your cruise ship is registered
in the United States, you still have to obey the laws of the USA. This meant that from the 1950s to the 1990s,
no United States-based cruise liner allowed gambling aboard their ship. However, in 1991, after it was pointed out
to the proper regulatory authorities that there were only about three ships left that
were officially registered in the United States, they passed a competitiveness act that allows
US-based cruise liners to begin allowing people to gamble, in contravention of United States
law, once they actually reached international waters. It’s basically a huge exemption that has
been carved out so that the USA will not be entirely left out of the cruise ship game. 8. Diplomatic Immunity Has Led to a Plethora
of Unpaid Parking Tickets Worldwide Nobody likes parking tickets and, let’s
face it: if we could legally get away with it without any consequences, we would curl
the things up into a ball, throw them away, and move on with our lives without paying. Now, most of us simply don’t have the power
to do that. We can ball the thing up, but one way or another
the city is eventually going to come and somehow take their money from us. However, if you are a diplomat, you have diplomatic
immunity. Now, in movies like Lethal Weapon 2, we have
plots where diplomatic immunity is used in an attempt to get away with murder, but the
vast majority of diplomats abuse it in a much more banal way — they fulfill a fantasy
many of us have, by simply ignoring parking rules (or congestion fees) and doing what
they want anyway, as it doesn’t matter. When you have diplomatic immunity, no one
can force you in court to pay your tickets, and many from the United States have argued
the congestion fee that London has, for example, is just a tax on going in and out of the city
(tax being something diplomats don’t have to pay). The United States government shares this viewpoint. However, it isn’t just London, or even New
York for that matter, that suffers most from this, but Canberra and many other cities around
the world. If the city plays host to a lot of diplomats,
they often have backlogged debts for diplomat parking tickets ranging from the hundreds
of thousands to the millions. New York recently implemented a policy where
they simply wouldn’t re-register a diplomatic vehicle with too high a debt, and it helped
a little, but it has simply creeped back up over the years since. It seems when you give a government official
full diplomatic immunity, most just use it to toss aside all the petty bureaucracy that’s
part of the system they help maintain. 7. China Decrees They Must Approve Reincarnations,
In An Attempt to Control Tibetan Monks As you probably already know, China has, for
a long time, been trying to control the country of Tibet, and part of that involves trying
to squash the influence of the Tibetan monks. The entire situation is extremely political,
as a lot of religious sensibilities are involved, and if China came down too hard on the current
Dalai Lama, they could risk some kind of widespread riots, or even international involvement. However, that doesn’t mean they are just
sitting around with no strategy besides occupation and repression. See, the thing about the Dalai Lama is that
he is supposed to be a reincarnation of a previous Lama, and so on.The issue is that
the Tibetan monks generally get to choose their own successor, as it is supposed to
be their spiritual influence that is able to tell who is actually the next reincarnation. However, in the hopes of controlling the process,
China has actually decreed laws not allowing a Lama to reincarnate without going through
the Chinese government to approve it first — which means they basically get to hand-pick
their own Dalai Lama, which would give them ultimate control and influence over the Tibetan
people and anyone who still follows Tibetan Buddhism. However, the current Dalai Lama has already
fired back against this by stating the next Lama would likely be born in a free country,
and that one chosen out of China, by the Chinese government, could not be trusted as the proper
Dalai Lama. 6. In Russia You Can Be Fined Because of a Dirty
Car (Sort Of) Now, this isn’t exactly the law, as it’s
more of a law being misinterpreted by the police. However, in a country like Russia, arguing
with the police (or the local city council over your police’s corrupt behavior) is
not likely to get you much of anywhere. In Moscow, and other big cities in Russia,
drivers often simply stop driving for much of the winter as it gets too cold for many
older vehicles to operate, and then bring them back in the spring — sometimes without
washing them at all first. Now, the law — like in many countries — simply
states that a car is considered “dirty” as an actual offense if it’s dirty to the
point that the license plate is not visible. However, many police are using the law and
people’s ignorance of the details to fine anyone with an extremely filthy car, even
if the license plate can be seen just fine. The first time city authorities started doing
this back in 2006 after a harsh winter, they declared it was “clean car month” and
went on a rampage of fines. While it may not have necessarily been legal,
the city clearly wanted to do something to encourage people to clean up, and didn’t
want to have to amend the old law to do it… so they just sort of bent it a bit. 5. In China, You Must Have Social Visits With
Your Elderly Parents China has a lot of elderly citizens. When counted in 2014, their percentage of
elderly citizens was at 9%, which is higher than many countries, such as India, which
was only at 5% when the same estimate was made. It’s also one of the fastest growing elderly
populations in the world, with experts expecting their elderly population to roughly double
by the year of 2030. For this reason, elderly people who are lonely
or not particularly well cared for are becoming an increasingly serious problem. Elderly people have already even been occasionally
suing their children for not visiting them enough, or taking care of them, but a law
passed in 2013 in China helps give the elderly more teeth with which to sue their children. The law states that children should make an
effort to regularly visit their elderly parents; however, it isn’t really clear on how often
that should be. The law is difficult to enforce because of
the ambiguity, but the lawmakers have said that it wasn’t necessarily meant to be a
fully functional law, but more of a way to raise awareness of the issue, and make it
easier for parents to sue and get the court to order some kind of visitation schedule,
if they are being truly neglected when they need physical or emotional care. We feel like it’s important to emphasize
that last part, because obviously, this isn’t just your nagging mom wondering why you don’t
stop by for dinner more often. Some Chinese people are worried about the
law mainly because of the ambiguity, and also because oftentimes well intentioned children
don’t always have the means, or even the time off work, to visit. The law doesn’t really fix anything, but
it does serve to highlight the growing demographic problem in China and the tension between the
young and the old. 4. In Much Of The Caribbean, Camouflage Clothing
Is Illegal In the United States, it’s actually fairly
common to wear camo pattern clothes, so much so that people make jokes about whether they
can “actually see you there” because of your ability to “blend in.” While it isn’t exactly considered a high
fashion choice, it’s certainly not something the authorities would ever worry about in
most countries, and people would just assume you have an affinity for military-style garb
and/or enjoy hunting. However, in many Caribbean countries such
as Barbados, Jamaica, St. Vincent and St. Lucia, several African countries, and even
Saudi Arabia, wearing of camouflage patterned clothes is banned, unless you want to be fined
or potentially jailed. The issue is that they don’t want any civilians
being mixed up with members of the military, as most of the countries with these laws have
at least one uniform with a camouflage pattern. When you think of it that way, the law actually
makes perfect sense… although it’s unlikely someone wearing say, a pair of camo shorts
and a beach shirt, is going to be confused for active duty military of any kind. 3. The Town of Tuszyn, Poland Banned Winnie the
Pooh From Their Playground While it wasn’t exactly a law, the town
of Tuszyn, Poland made international news for a strange decision they made in 2014. They had been trying to decide a new mascot
for the town playground, and were going over innocent and wholesome cartoon characters
they could use that would be fun for the children. One of the names that came up was Winnie the
Pooh, and at first you would think this was a suggestion that would pick up some steam;
it doesn’t get much more innocent, fun, and generally banal than Winnie the Pooh. He is, in fact, a character that most people
would imagine would be impossible to be offended by… unless he is already associated negatively
with your dear leader, as he is in China. However, someone recorded the town council
meeting where it was discussed, and leaked the audio to the Croatian Times, who made
fun of the proceedings and their inherent silliness. Apparently, the idea was shot down and Pooh
was banned as the potential mascot mainly because he wasn’t wearing any clothes on
his bottom half, and was actually “half-naked.” Now, some would imagine you would argue that
he isn’t immodest because he has no genitals, and is just a cartoon. Oh, and also, a bear. Last time we checked, it’s more unusual
for bears to be wearing red shirts than it is for them to be without pants. Unfortunately, that did come up during the
debate, and some council members suggested that it made Pooh some kind of hermaphrodite,
or someone with some kind of other gender identity disorder, and that it therefore made
him even more inappropriate for children. We wonder what the city council of Tuszyn,
Poland, thinks of Donald Duck. 2. Japan Is Policing Obesity, But They Haven’t
Made It Illegal As Some People Think In 2008, Japan passed a “Metabo Law” that
left a lot of people scratching their heads and adding yet another one to the “weird
Japan” file. The rumor claimed that the law literally made
it illegal to be fat, and that if you were fat enough, the government could fine or even
imprison you. However, while a Metabo Law was passed, it
was not at all what many in the Western World thought it was. The way the law works is that if you are in
between the ages of 45 and 74, and you have a waistline of 35.4 inches or more for a man,
or 31.5 inches or more for a woman, then you have to have it measured every year and seek
proper medical advice from a doctor on how to shrink your waistline and improve your
health. The law does not make it illegal or even attach
fines to having extra weight; it just ensures that you get the medical attention you need
if you go beyond what Japanese legislators have considered the line for an early intervention
against dangerous levels of weight gain. 1. Turkmenbashi Was A Mad Ruler Of Turkmenistan… But They Aren’t Much Better Off Without
Him If you have ever seen the TV show Archer,
you may be familiar with an episode where they visit Turkmenistan and learn that it
has an insane leader named Gorbagun Gorbanguly, who has changed the words for both bread and
Friday to his dog’s name: Gurpgork. Now, while this isn’t at all true, it is
based on some true life events. Turkmenistan’s current leader’s name is
Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, and the previous leader of the country, a man named Saparmurat
Niyazov — also known as Turkmenbashi — was pretty much the undisputed dictator from 1990
until 2006. During that time he was known for being a
power-mad eccentric who not only ruled with an iron fist, but made utterly insane proclamations. He created a national melon day, after the
country’s chief export, and also a national day for horses. People used to wear gold fillings in their
teeth as a mark of status, but Turkmenbashi felt they were not a good thing, and soon
people were tearing them out of their mouths, spending their money on expensive dental work. He banned circuses and ballet because they
were “unnecessary.” He also banned beards because he didn’t
trust followers of Islam. On top of that, he changed the name of January
to his name, and April to his mother’s name. When he died and the new dictator for life
took over, he did do away with a lot of the more eccentric laws, but it still continues
to be an incredibly poor country where ethnic Muslims are distrusted, and the vast majority
of the country’s oil riches are going to the elites who run it all, or just sitting
in the ground not being used due to poor infrastructure and mismanagement.
