Finished Uni

Well, it's almost closing on 2008 and what a fantastic year it has been. To end on a high note I have received my Uni results for 2nd semester and a distinction for each topic! I am so surprised by this, I only expected 2 distinctions at the most. So to end my first year at Uni with 7 distinctions and 1 credit is fabulous. Not only have I got a great result but I've thoroughly enjoyed it too.

I'm looking forward to starting more studies in March 2009, and I've booked Womens Studies as an elective, I'm sure to be able to get my teeth stuck right into that.

Stephanie is all booked in for her new school too. We've decided to go private for her, so it's Woodcroft College she'll being Reception in February 2009, she's so looking forward to going, she's got her uniform already and she's met her teacher, Ms Nagle, who is getting married soon so will have a different name next year, so I'm told.

I've booked myself to do Lifeline shift on Christmas Eve 6 - 10pm and then again on New Years Day starting at midnight through to 6am. I'm looking forward to them as well, it will be interesting to see how they go. Wondering what is happening with other people over the festive season, perhaps a call to Lifeline will help them get their Christmas and New Years into perspective.

Hi-5 Birthday Party!

Well, after many, many months of planning and expectations by Miss S, we finally had the Hi-5 birthday party! We did well. There was hand clappers, Hi-5 plates, cups, placemats, party blowers, hats, serviettes, and Hi-5 Party Street DVD constantly playing. David got some totally fabbo gas balloons, pictured here is a very large Unicorn and a Happy Birthday balloon. He also got about 20 others filled with helium too. All the kids had a great time, with one mother commenting it was the best birthday party she'd been to for kids.

Stephanie totally loved her day. I can hardly believe she's 5! She got some great gifts including a Baby Alive that wets it's nappies! Oh, how wonderful. But Miss S is into all those types of things, she's very caring and mothering type, she doesn't take after me at that age!

I think she was a bit disappointed it was all over, considering how long she'd been planning the Hi-5 theme! Oh, and the Hi-5 cake was a smash too.

She's currently planning her 6th party now, it's to be a fairies one.

Why is this news?

Today, the Daily Telegraph's reporter Kelvin Bissett He's Not my Kid reports that one man who paid $71,000 got ripped off. A further story Paternity Tests Prove Hundreds of Men Duped gives some more details, still by the same reporter that 18 women have orders of about $171,000 against them to pay back wrongful paternity money paid, and that 300 women have had DNA checks of their kids and the wrong father has been cited. So why is this news?

Kudos to the reporter for his tenacious digging into finding these obscure numbers and stories. But surely, there's a much bigger, more newsworthy story in the number of $6 BILLION in unpaid child support? Surely, that's bigger news that's more interesing, no? What about the 6,000 men who have defected to New Zealand to avoid paying child support? Is that not a bigger story? Why didn't the reporter track down the one man who's fathered kids to seven different mothers and has never paid a cent in child support? He just keeps on forgetting to keep it zipped up and carries on regardless of his consequences, goodness knows how many terminations may have resulted from this one man's irresponsible lifestyle.

Why are women singled out as folk devils in the media? What good does it do society to think that incorrect accusations of false paternity are rife? When they are not. 300 is a piddling number in the grand scheme of things. It wouldn't even be comparable to the number of men who have falsely denied paternity. I wish I had that number, now, that would be newsworthy, yes? We could probably add a few noughts to the 300 number.

Good on ya, Kelvin Bissett, are you going to set the record straight and print the opposite side of this gender story?

However, getting to the heart of the story, is that with the Child Support Agency 'forcing' women to pay back will only disadvantage the child/ren in their care. In all of this, it's the kids that are the losers, as well as their Mum's and those who thought they were the Dad. The winners? Perhaps the real fathers that walked away scot free.

Australia Lagging Behind in Protecting Women

This is an excellent article by The Age on November 3rd in regards to how we are doing, as a nation, to combat violence against women.

The article compares us to Albania, with similiar statistics on the domestic violence front, and looks at the campaign they initiated in 2005. Scotland has a "Zero Tolerance" program and it mentions how Norway, the Netherlands and Denmark have a "whole of Government" approach. What the article doesn't state is that those three countries have the highest reports of rape than any other industrialised nation. It is not yet been established if the percentage of reporting of rapes is higher. On that subject, did you know that in 2003 in South Australia there were 786 reported rapes. South Australia stipulates that 25% of sexual assaults are reported, but globally, it is estimated that only 15% of sexual assaults are reported. But anyway, we'll go with South Australia's anomoly of 25% which means that approximately just over 3,000 rapes occured in 2003. Of those, 100 made it to court, and 12 were found to be guilty as charged.

That's quite a pitiful effort, so it is worth looking at other nations to see how they handle their judicial systems for a higher conviction rate, thus, more protection for women.

The link to The Age article by Kate Gilmore is here: Australia Lags on a System to Protect Women

The Murder of Prostitutes is not all that important

I've been wondering for a while which direction to take this blog in regards to my current interests. After completing a Literature Review on Community Attitudes of Violence Towards Women and how the Research Reports and Media perpetuate the myths, I figured I'd start pointing out some media reports that do just that.


Here's one. It's about Jeremy Clarkson, as reported by the SMH, saying that calls for his dismissal are being made by insulted truck drivers from all over the UK. He said, on the show, Top Gear, about a day in the life of a truck driver, "Change gear, change gear, change gear, check mirror, murder a prostitute, change gear, change gear, murder. That's a lot of effort in a day," added the 48-year-old.

Earlier this year a former lorry driver, Steve Wright, was convicted of murdering five prostitutes in Ipswich, southeastern England, in a case which attracted a huge amount of publicity.

Although someone from the Labour Party who governs the community where the murders were done, does make a point of saying that to "make light of the murders is a dismissable offence" but it appears that the general consensus is that the biggest thing that Clarkson did wrong was to insult truck drivers.


It's another media story with the message that the systemic slaughter of women is unimportant.


Here's the link to read the full story: Clarkson Faces Sack

Almost finished 2nd semester

Gee, the time really flies by, I can't believe I've almost completed 8 Uni topics. The last time I was Uni it took me 3 years to get as far as 8 topics completed, including the foundation year. Exams are during the end of November.
I've qualified as a telephone counsellor at Lifeline now, and I do a regular Sunday afternoon shift. I continue to keep up with additional training, such as a Mental Health Workshop I attended for a full weekend, and this week I'll be going to more training about Youth As Perpetrators of Abusers in families, and then another presentation of the Impact of Toxic Stress on Young Children's Brain Development. Coupled with my Uni studies in all things social, I'm on a big learning curve, and loving every minute of it.
Stephanie is coming along really fine. Her speech has leaped ahead, her stutter has gone, she's not as anxious as she was before and her confidence is up. She's adapted to the routine of living at Mummy's and visiting Daddy's. It seems to be working well with David too, he's seems to be appreciating his private time.
October is Domestic Violence Awareness month, and I'll soon start putting up some posts about violence within our community when somethings of interest come along. I have a literature review to do for Sociology and that has taken my reading into some very interesting places. Domestic Violence, Violence against women and social justice has become such a large part of my life now that not posting about my findings would be remiss of me.
That's about it. Life is really good, I am actually doing a bit of scrapping here and there. I have an album that only has 5 pages left to do and I really should finish it.
Stephanie's fringe has started to look back to normal after her friend chopped her hair earlier this year. Here's a pic with her best friend and neighbour - Lilly.

Life is still fantastic

Well, although there is nothing new to report, I thought I'd update with the latest. I just got my results for my first semester at Uni and I'm totally stoked with my marks. I got a Distinction for three topics, Introduction to Social Work, Introduction to Social Planning and Australian Politics - A Comparative Study which has surprised me as I didn't think I would enjoy Politics at all, but this particular course, I did. I got a Credit for Aspects of Psychology, which is something that I'm pleased about but the exam was multiple choice and I'm not very good at those, plus the topic contents I found boring, such as areas of the brain, the only section in the course, Childhood Development, which I found of incredible interest wasn't a large component and that was disappointing. Still it took my reading to lots of areas of interest.

Lifeline - I've just come off supervised shifts, having passed all the criteria with comments such as "good use of skills".

I've been enjoying the school holidays, Stephanie is continuing to blossom into a lovely pre-5 year old, which has it's challenges (such as every sentence that starts with "I want" tends to drive one nuts) but other than that she's growing into a young girl who's speech has continued to improve, as has her confidence, particularly with talking to adults.

Life is good, life is great, having fun enjoying it and making the most of my time.