The MLDA and its real effect

The legal age when young Americans can start drinking alcohol is 21 in the United States now. However, I don't see that the MLDA (Minimum Legal Drinking Age) has real influence on young people because most young Americans have already tried alcohol drinks by the age of 21. Moreover, many of them drink alcohol regularly. Adults and police pretend that everything is under control and young people follow the law. But they know that it is a normal practice when many high school and college students drink at parties. It is illegal theoretically and legal in practice. What's the point of having this law then? I think it should be changed. The government should lower the MLDA to 18 years. It would make legal what is already half-legal. Another reason for changing the law is that college students are mature enough to make decisions about alcohol drinking. They have all rights of adults but can not drink a sip of champagne on friend's wedding or a bottle of beer when watching a football match. Do you think it is fair?

Italian artifacts in the Getty Museum

When The Los Angeles Times published an article about a trial process against the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, I was happy with a decision the museum made. They agreed to return forty cultural objects to Italy in august 2007. Italy sued the museum because its detectives discovered that Marion True, the Getty's former antiquities curator, bought some illegally excavated Italian artifacts. The criminal case affected the museum's reputation negatively and the Getty's officials were able to bring back the museum's good name only after they negotiated the conditions of returning back to Italy forty of the most outstanding artifacts. I think every museum which owns artifacts with the questionable ownership history should consider returning them to countries of origin. The Getty's case serves as a good example for such museums.

Cultural artifacts from my country

I have not heard about any cultural artifacts from my country being stolen or illegally taken out from it. If that happened, I would not be happy with this. Cultural artifacts that were excavated in Kazakhstan are the property of the country and its people. We are legal owners of the material culture of our ancestors and responsible for preserving and displaying it. However, there are many cases when artifacts from Kazakhstan are being displayed outside the country legally and it should only be encouraged because such events help to popularize our culture. Through exhibitions of Kazakhstan's art in world museums people in other countries discover new for them country and it is great.