Alpine divorce
When foreigners find out that the Philippines and the Vatican are the only two states left in the world without divorce, some of them will react with a joke, “You must have a very high homicide rate,” their way of saying that there must be a lot of pent-up resentment with fatal consequences. (No jokes about the Vatican, presumably because the marriage rate must be very low in the first place.)
I thought about the purported homicide-divorce link when reading several international newspapers about something called “Alpine divorce,” inspired by a short story written by the British writer Robert Barr in 1893. It was a crisp story with a sociological twist on the theme of divorce. Although the United Kingdom has allowed divorce for centuries, as decreed by Henry VIII back in the 16th century, it was a difficult process, and lawyers with rich clients seemed to be the main beneficiaries, with time being spent looking for ways to justify the divorce.
Alpine divorce, a short story, is fiction but with clever twists: a couple who have had to bear with each other for years because of the difficulty in getting a divorce. The husband eventually comes up with a scheme to murder his wife, something he would get done by luring her to a vacation in Switzerland. But the wife gets wind of the plot and schemes to make the plan benefit her in a most macabre way. When her husband invites her to visit a particular tourist attraction with a breathtaking view matched by its precarity, she agrees. They get to the ledge where she tells her husband she knows what he’s planning. She then throws herself off the ledge, a suicide that ends the marriage but literally becomes the husband’s downfall as well because she had informed friends that she was worried about her husband’s sinister plan (which had now become her even more sinister plot).
Sorry for the spoiler.
It’s not surprising “alpine divorce” is seeing a revival, reported in at least three international newspapers (The Guardian, The New York Times, Hindustan Times) after a series of criminal cases filed against men, accused of causing the deaths of their wives accidentally, through neglect or through a grand homicidal plan. The latest involved an Austrian woman on an alpine vacation with her boyfriend. The weather turns bad, and the boyfriend leaves the woman to get assistance, without thinking enough of what he could do to help the woman survive the hypothermia (low temperature). The man was contrite (endlessly sorry), but the court gave him a five-month suspended prison term and a fine of 9,400 pounds (almost P700,000) for “gross neglect manslaughter.”
This has led to newspapers reviving old stories of negligent men, including speculation on the stories: Was it really accidental, or a way for men to get out of a marriage where they felt trapped?
In Austria, they are now reviewing these cases, including looking for ways to cut the red tape out of divorces. The Philippines should share what we did, which was to make it easier to annul a marriage, which the Catholic Church allows.
But interest in these “alpine divorces” has also surfaced another issue: male sexism. The accidents and the neglect have always been there. I have childhood memories of seeing Chinese and Japanese tourists in the Philippines briskly walking in front of their women, even as the women had to carry big bags, coats, swim stuff, cameras.
And just last December, when I was visiting Mt. Fuji in Japan with my daughters, we were distracted by a Chinese middle-aged couple, the woman’s voice ringing across the mountain. Talk about mountain rage; she was furious and tired and not having her say on their taxing itinerary.
I jumped on the chance to test my daughters’ Chinese (Mandarin) and was pleased with their translation; they study Chinese in Xavier School and were fluent enough to follow the heated argument, which had a lot of “Wo bu yao” (No, I don’t want that option).
I told my daughters to learn from the Fuji experience. Don’t fight with your boyfriend or girlfriend while mountain climbing. Make sure you have contact information for other friends who can come to the rescue.
Don’t forget the gender angle. Beware the guys who keep hurrying you up when hiking, or who make fun of you. The articles also warned about sexist mountaineering/hiking/pilgrimage guides trying to show off.
—————-
michael.tan@inquirer.net
