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.

Life is still full of good news

The fantastic stuff just keeps on happening. The latest for April is the appearance of Stephanie's first school report that came in the mail last week. The general comments read:
"Stephanie is a cheerful, polite, chatty and friendly girl who has settled into kindergarten routines well."
It goes on to desribe what she does with crafts, puzzles and cooking. There's also a picture of her included in the report and everything that is listed in the Learning Outcomes is very, very positive.
I'm so pleased the pre-school has done this, I didn't know they did, and to receive such positive feedback about her has brightened up everything! (especially given my concerns about her previous environment)
Uni continues to be 'the best'. I'm totally loving all my subjects, even Politics! Would never have thought that possible. Getting to know some really nice people too.
Halfway through Lifeline Counselling training, that is going well too.
My social life is perfect too.
I love being single. Have no idea if that will ever change, it's just not on the agenda.
Everything is going well, what more can I say? It doesn't get much better than this.

Some more Jewellery

Here's some more jewellery that has sold very quickly. I've been experimenting with beading.

Sold some jewellery

The good news for March is that I've actually sold some jewellery, which I'm really pleased about. I made 5 more necklaces the other night and have listed them on Ebay too, so hopefully the majority of them will go. I'm looking forward to my jewellery making class on March 29th.

Everything is coming along nicely. I've done the first week of Uni already and I think all the subjects are good for me, so I'm pleased about that. I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into them as the semester progresses.

Today my girlfriends daughter cut Stephanie's hair by cropping the front fringe. Her friend is only 5 and we're all glad that she didn't progress to around the back. An emergency fix up by the hairdresser may have helped but I think overall we'll just have to wait for her hair to grow! Never mind.

Things are progressing well, and I'm looking forward to seeing what good news April will bring.