mumbo jumbo

It took me 4 years to look up the word "ubi" (Latin) in the law dictionary. Not that I have a sudden curiosity but it's cos I'm amused (more irritated actually) by a judge who ignored all precedent and decided that awarding damages for non-disclosure in an insurance contract would be the fairest thing to do (stop offering new explanations! I don't have the energy nor time to analyze them =( Thankfully he was overruled by the HL) . So quoting Steyn J in Banque Financiere v. Skandia: "ubi jus ibi remedium" - where there is a right, there is a remedy. Right. Like it makes alot of sense.

Other "ubi"s I found in the dictionary:
"ubi remedium ibi jus" - where there is a remedy, there is a right
"ubi easem ratio ibi idem jus" - like reasons make like law
"ubi aliquid, conceditur et id sine quo res ipsa esse non potest" - where anything is granted, that is also granted without which the thing itself is not able to exist

Latin phrases either sound very proverb-ish or turn the simplest concept into a riddle. There must be some kind of jurisprudential reason why the law favours the use of befuddling Latin (I remember reading in Abraham's Promise that Latin is one of the hardest language to master which explains its demise).

I guess "ubi" in Latin stands for "where" in English.

There's another more pedestrian meaning of "ubi" and much closer to heart. Unfortunately, my neighbourhood is named after a vegetable - tapioca. I always thought that "Kampong Ubi" sounds a tad too ungalm for this rather nice neighbourhood.

I'm thinking of the literature we did in TK again (somehow my undisciplined mind chooses to wander at all the wrong times!) "What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet..." If Juliet does not have her head in the clouds, she will agree with me that names are extremely important. While a name does not make the man, it does affect first impressions. I can still remember the embarrassingly CRINGING incidents involving my name which probably explains why I have a habit of thinking of names for my future would-be children.