tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23972217326900407922024-03-14T06:33:19.796+00:00The Elwell PressAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15278292523531432633noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2397221732690040792.post-8819831048804904332013-08-01T16:15:00.000+01:002013-08-01T16:22:02.450+01:00Twitter Rape Threats: A Glimpse Of A Crumbling World<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since the Bank of England announced the presence of Jane
Austen on the new £10 note, Caroline Criado-Perez, who spearheaded the campaign
to put more women on UK money, has been subjected to a well-documented and
much-discussed barrage of abuse via Twitter and her personal email. It’s been
described as trolling, but the difference between trolls and Caroline’s
aggressors is palpable. Trolling is the act of being deliberately provocative
to elicit an angry response; a threat of rape is a criminal act. There exists a
gulf of meaning between trolling and threatening violence against someone whose
opinions you disagree with. It’s the difference between playing devil’s
advocate and leading a targeted campaign of aggression and hate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In addition to this, Caroline, her supporters, and other
prominent feminists including two female MPs have been subject to bomb threats
and racist abuse on the site. Twitter’s response to the tweets has grown
sterner and faster over the week, but still the threats keep coming. The senders
are quick to reiterate their numbers and resilience against banning, but
Caroline and the others continue to pass each new tweet onto the police. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the time of writing, two men have been arrested; the
first aged 25, the second just 21. Their youth is striking – born well after
the advent of the feminist movement, these young men won’t even remember a time
before the UK’s female Prime Minister, much less a time when women weren’t
welcome in workplaces or universities. For a generation who take women’s rights
almost for granted, for those who have never had to afford it much thought,
it’s a startling deviation from the party line.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For these men, the threat of violence is a means of control.
Like the cases of ‘corrective’ rape seen in South Africa, the threats are a way
to assert dominance over a woman who challenges their fragile, crumbling
masculinity. Regardless of whether they would actually act on their threats or
not, their weak self-concept and chauvinistic protection of outmoded gender
relations reveals a complicated and defensive psychology. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They system they know how to operate in has failed, and the
world has changed around them. Like a small child denied their own way, the
aggressors respond by lashing out – in short, they throw a tantrum. Unlike a
small child, though, they have sufficient knowledge of social convention to
channel their rage into the most effective form and target it at the most
vulnerable area. While they deny that they would actually commit rape, the
threat of sexual violence is still powerfully intimidating; fortunately, the
women in question refuse to be intimidated.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In response to the story, print and broadcast journalist Emma
Barnett gave the aggressors the right to reply on her radio show. Her callers
provided a telling insight into their mindset: they insist “she was asking for
it... if you put your head above the parapet, like she has, then you deserve
this type of abuse. It’s what you get when you are a woman shouting about
something,” that “feminists like Caroline are undermining what it is to be a
man” and subsequently require “sorting out”. They justify their actions by
claiming “men are predators... and this is what we do... <span style="background: white; color: #282828; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">these men
wouldn’t actually come and rape her. They don’t mean it. Rape is a metaphor.</span>”
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rape isn’t a metaphor. Rape is a tool of domination, of
control, of power. Rape is a taboo that these individuals have exploited to
intimidate a woman who, in their eyes, has developed ideas beyond her station
and must be brought back into line. As journalists, as activists, as feminists,
we must resist the fear forced upon us. These threats are an attempt to control
a woman who, in their eyes, has too much to say and too big a platform from
which to say it. They insist feminism will change nothing, has changed nothing,
but their fear is visible behind their anger and spite; in time the mask of
anonymity will slip and Caroline’s opponents will stand exposed for all to see.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Behind the explicit threats and creeping menace lies another
wave of attempts to discredit; the commentators, both journalists and private
citizens, who insist that retweeting threats is ‘attention-seeking’ and that
ignoring the problem will make it go away. Chiming in with these are the men
who write long articles and aggressive tweets claiming that feminism is no
threat - if this were the case, there would be no need to confront it or
publicly mock it. Ignore it and it’ll go away, right?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Those with a vested interest in maintaining the patriarchal
status quo have been ignoring feminism since its first faltering steps. It’s
100 years since Emily Wilding Davison fell under the King’s horse, 95 years
since women were given the vote, 48 years since the UK gained its first female
MP, 38 years since the Sex Discrimination Act, 19 years since rape within
marriage became a crime, two years since changes to the law of succession
allowed a Princess to take the British throne. Campaigners have achieved all
this with tenacity, patient effort, and a refusal to remain silent. We did not
submit to ignorance then, and we must not submit to it now.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15278292523531432633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2397221732690040792.post-38147268418173003712013-06-16T20:46:00.000+01:002013-08-01T16:22:13.125+01:00What Nigella Can Teach Us About Violence Against Women<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
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<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To outward
appearances, Nigella Lawson has things all figured out: she runs her own media business,
has a successful publishing career, and makes frequent public appearances looking
impossibly glamorous. She’s everything that an ambitious woman is meant to
aspire to be. And, it emerged on Sunday, she also appears to be a victim of
domestic violence.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At first, the
images published by the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">People </i>were
shocking, as you’d expect of any depiction of violence against women. But then
we started to think about what happened, started to ask questions, and a more
insidious suspicion took root: the casual and callous way in which Charles
Saatchi laid hands on his wife in public led some commentators to suggest that
this wasn’t his first attack on her.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For him to so
brazenly attack Nigella in full view of both passers-by and fellow Scott’s
patrons, without trying to conceal or disguise his actions, implied much about
the dynamic of their relationship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Witnesses told the newspaper that Nigella had attempted to placate her
husband by speaking reassuringly and kissing him on the cheek; many readers
will be able to identify this as the classic response of a woman threatened by
her spouse.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But Nigella
doesn’t fit the traditional profile of a victim of domestic abuse: she has
economic independence, makes regular trips overseas on business, and presumably
does not lack the resources to move away from her abuser. So, we wonder, why
does she stay? A 1998 study</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2397221732690040792#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> reported
by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Psychology</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Today</i> may provide some answers: “</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-themecolor: text1;">Emotional abuse plays a vital role in
battering, undermining a woman's confidence.”</span><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While it
seems that Nigella and women like her have sufficient self-esteem and personal
agency to succeed in business and personal endeavours, their intimate
relationships are far less clear-cut. What the events of this weekend
demonstrate beyond anything else is that even independent, capable women can be
bullied and manipulated into accepting physical and verbal attacks that, for
whatever reason, they won’t or can’t walk away from.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The emotional
manipulation used by abusers is well-documented and wholly discomforting; their
victims are isolated from friends and family, deprived of the resources that
would help them escape, and worn down to such a low ebb that they accept
violence they would never have tolerated previously. In the case of successful
or high-profile women, their visibility might discourage them from seeking
help; the gap between their private and public personas might seem so great
that to report being abused feels like admitting a weakness.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the time
of writing, the UK press is reporting that the police are investigating Charles
Saatchi following the publication of these images. Saatchi may later face
charges; in spite of his wealth, it seems unwise for him to pursue a libel case
when the evidence is so damning. It’s inappropriate to conjecture on the future
of Charles and Nigella’s marriage – perhaps she will remain with him in spite
of public condemnation of his actions.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">If nothing
else, we can hope that the story – so shocking when presented against a backdrop
of middle-class media comfort – inspires other women to seek advice and
assistance if they find themselves in similar situations. This week, like every
week, two women in the UK will die at the hands of their violent partners. This
week, like every week, all women deserve better.</span><br clear="all" />
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2397221732690040792#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199803/anatomy-violent-relationship</span></div>
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</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15278292523531432633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2397221732690040792.post-11078712412869986132013-04-23T18:12:00.004+01:002013-06-16T23:03:22.027+01:00Of Bread And Circuses<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Juvenal referred to it as ‘bread and circuses’, George
Orwell characterised its worst excesses as prolefeed, and Victorians despaired
of the corrupting influence of the penny dreadfuls. It’s plain to see, then,
that our love affair with escapism through entertainment is almost as old as
society itself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Marxists, echoing Juvenal’s and Orwell’s sentiments, fear
that focusing on the narratives of fiction – be it classic literature,
blockbuster films, or soap operas – would distract the proletariat from their
struggle towards revolution. In many ways they’re correct; even now, the
politically aware cringe as the country invests more attention in TV talent
shows than in the comings and goings of our politicians. But perhaps we
overlook a significant point – perhaps these distractions are important
precisely because they allow us to escape from our reality.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Times are hard, and they’re hard for almost everyone.
Perhaps what we really need is to escape into someone else’s life for a while;
to try out a different set of burdens like a different suit of clothes, to look
out on the world from behind another pair of eyes, to walk a mile in someone
else’s shoes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The shoes may take us across Dartmoor pursuing a gigantic
hound, or to Stonehenge with our doomed love, or to the shores of Innsmouth
fleeing unthinkable horrors. They may stand on the green grass of the Shire,
the cobbles of Edinburgh, the grey earth of Winterfell or the dusty concrete of
London Below. But they bear us away from our own lives, our own problems, and
permit us to lose ourselves in impossible and fantastic worlds.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We submit to almighty terrors, to wrenching losses, to every
twist and machination of vindictive fate, because we know we can close the book
and walk away. We can explore our own strength and character without having to
experience what Shakespeare called “the thousand natural shocks that flesh is
heir to”. Here we test our emotional fortitude, pitching ourselves against blow
after blow to examine how well we weather the storm.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We solve mysteries, protect the innocent, play the hero or
the villain. Often we don’t decide which we are until the end. We meet
soldiers, lovers, wizards, murderers, queens, poets, tyrants, heroes, angels,
vampires, monks, prostitutes, revolutionaries, scholars, searchers and seekers,
mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, children. And in time, inexorably,
we begin to care.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We dedicate precious time and space in our minds to these
characters. We despair that the word ‘character’ makes them sound so flat, so
trivial; to us, they are people. We give them sequels, films, TV shows. We make
them real in our heads and then we try to make them real in the world. We share
them with our friends, discuss incarnations and iterations – are Sherlock
Holmes, Hercule Poirot, and John Rebus really so different? Whose face does
each of those names conjure up?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We need stories. Like dreams, we use them to explore and
make sense of the world. They speak to us about human nature, the subtle dance
of interaction and disclosure that takes a lifetime to master. Stories are how
we investigate and memorialise our humanity. Stories are what make us human.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15278292523531432633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2397221732690040792.post-56575823624935777792013-04-17T20:41:00.000+01:002013-04-23T19:33:26.395+01:00Too Many Protest Singers, Not Enough Protest Songs<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Today we buried one of the
most politically important Prime Ministers this country has ever seen. That,
I’m afraid, is the last good thing I can find to say about her. Like many
people who were left high and dry by her policies, I had little time for Thatcher,
her cabinet, or her legacy. While I agree that it’s distasteful to publicly
celebrate her demise, I was secretly pleased to observe that her detractors
marked the occasion with a uniquely British and increasingly popular form of
protest – inflating the sales of a particular song to register their protest
through the UK Top 40 chart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">In a post-Blair society
where a million people can march on Westminster and be utterly ignored, it
seems the nature of protest has changed. The UK pop charts, formerly the record
of an important yet ephemeral cultural progression, have become the
battleground for all manner of political and personal rebellion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">For years, music has been an
indicator of politics, ideology and cultural identity. Now it’s become a means
of registering dissent in a public arena in a manner totally removed from its
previous efforts. Gone, perhaps, are the protest songs of Woody Guthrie and Bob
Dylan; here instead are Cowell-baiting online campaigns featuring Rage Against
The Machine, inspired and perpetrated by web-savvy millennials who have
identified the potential that rapidly advancing technology can provide.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">A disenfranchised public,
seemingly aware that placards and chanting no longer carry as much weight as
before, can now convey their anger and disapproval by purchasing a 79p download
from iTunes. Surely even the most broadminded futurologists would have failed
to envision such a development in technologically-enabled civil disobedience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">It’s not a flawless system
by any means – on this most recent occasion, the BBC declined to broadcast the
entire song, and their track record for banning controversial songs has been a
matter of discussion for decades. Fortunately for those trying to make a point,
the nation’s news media have not been reluctant to publicise the campaign; even
as they condemn it for its disrespect, they provide the oxygen of publicity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Of course, the nature of the
legal download system – the only way to perform the act of protest is to
purchase the track from a recognised provider – means that to register our
dissent we must indulge in a singularly undemocratic act; we pay to protest.
But contrast this with the alternatives and the recommendations of the new
process become clear – rather than travelling to London, marching and chanting,
and risking arrest if the protest degenerates into violence, the objector can
make their point simply by clicking the button marked “buy”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Should we be shocked that
political dissent has now been rendered marketable, and that profit can be
derived? Maybe, but we should be more grateful still that individuals still
want to protest.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15278292523531432633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2397221732690040792.post-67568806959906482842013-03-07T21:23:00.000+00:002013-03-09T13:41:49.580+00:00Why Every Day Should Be World Book Day<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">“You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” </span>― Ray Bradbury</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I was a child, my parents used to hide my books while I slept. It wasn’t out of malice or sport, but necessity; hiding the books was the only way to avoid spending the entire day reading them to me. I didn’t learn to read until I was five years old and attending school, mostly because my mother doubted her ability to teach me, but once I had there was little that could stop me. Independently of the National Curriculum, I read Tolkien at age 10, Dickens at 12, Shakespeare at 14 and Chaucer at 16. Words had power, I knew, and they could take you places.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today is World Book Day in Britain and Ireland; something of a contradiction, since the rest of the world celebrates it on April 23<sup>rd</sup>. We’ve been marking the day since 1995, and I remember the first event. I went as pre-transformation Cinderella in an apron made from an old blue sheet – a poor substitute for my first choice of costume, the peach from Roald Dahl’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">James and the Giant Peach.</i> It was precisely my kind of event; from the moment my parents had read me <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Very Hungry Caterpillar</i>, books had been my favourite thing in the world. I appeared to be in the minority there, though.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For a bibliophile like me, it was never easy to get along with the other kids at school. I liked reading; I wanted to read the books they disdained. They wanted to watch obnoxious TV shows and talk about ephemeral boybands. It only got worse once I reached senior school. It wasn’t cool to know things. It wasn’t cool to actually understand and enjoy the Shakespeare the others pretended to read. They didn’t want to learn; I did. I wanted to go onto college and university and do nothing except inhale and exhale words for the rest of my life; I’d wanted to do nothing but that since I was eight years old.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The society I grew up in displayed – and still displays – a rabid anti-intellectual streak that imperils the potential of every intelligent, curious child within it. It’s not cool to be intelligent; a large vocabulary is a burden, not a blessing. Grammar is something that happens to other people. We communicate in writing more than ever before. We read more than at any other point in our history. We are never far away from words on a screen, if not in print, and yet so many people still struggle to make themselves understood. Eventually I found a place where I fit in, surrounded by university lecturers and creative types in pubs filled with vibrant conversation. There was no going back.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Books are amazing. They take us to places we could never go by ourselves, places that only exist in the landscape of the mind. I’ve been to the Shire, Wonderland, Narnia, the Discworld, other planets and other times. I’ve spoken with witches in the Highlands of Scotland, watched young lovers swoon in Verona, charged across bloodied battlefields in France and accompanied pilgrims to Canterbury. I’ve shivered in the trenches of World War One and battled dragons under mountains at the edge of a different world. I’ve run through moonlit woods with werewolves and hunted in the night with countless vampires. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve solved murder after murder and tracked the course of endless lives and loves. I’ve burnt books with Ray Bradbury, spiralled between blissful highs and desperate lows with Sylvia Plath, been on a boating holiday with Jerome K Jerome, and fled from unspeakable horrors with H P Lovecraft. I was in 1930s Paris with Ana<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">ï</span>s Nin, 1900s Dublin with James Joyce, and 1970s Las Vegas with Hunter S Thompson. I’ve lived more lives than anyone has any right to, and there’s no way I’m stopping now. The feel of a book, of paper under fingers, is a trigger no less powerful than the kiss of a lover, and I am not ashamed to feed the addiction.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15278292523531432633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2397221732690040792.post-86185563107924099512013-02-27T15:12:00.001+00:002013-02-27T15:12:14.326+00:00Basildon Hospital Have My Gallbladder, My Trust, And My Thanks<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A week ago, I had my gallbladder – and the numerous large gallstones within it – removed. For geographical convenience, the procedure was performed at Basildon University Hospital, part of the beleaguered Basildon and Thurrock NHS Trust. It wasn’t my first encounter with the hospital – I was born there, I’ve had migraines and disc prolapses treated there – and I doubt it will be my last. It was, however, possibly the best.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Speaking as the owner of long-standing and problematic phobias of both hospitals and needles, the experience was never going to inspire feelings of hope and contentment. No-one likes going to hospital, of course, but my fear was liable to make me tense, anxious, and, regrettably, unco-operative toward the medical staff treating me. To give this some perspective, previous visits have demonstrated that it requires no fewer than four qualified, experienced clinicians to insert a cannula into the back of my hand. I was never going to be Basildon’s biggest cheerleader, and stood a decent chance of becoming their fiercest critic.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the weeks immediately preceding my visit to the hospital, Basildon and Thurrock NHS Trust were named in the enquiry resulting from the Mid Staffs investigation – one of five NHS Trusts to be singled out for special attention. Concerns were initially raised over the hospital’s “persistent high death rates”, but as the story progressed, former patients came forward with tales of unchanged dressings, unheeded toilet requests, missed medications and Legionella outbreaks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">None of this inspired me with much confidence as the date of my operation drew closer. Gallbladder removal – or Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy, as it’s known to professionals – is a relatively commonplace procedure, but is not without risk. An unexpected bleed or overly large gallbladder can compel the surgeon to move from keyhole surgery to an open procedure, increasing healing time and necessitating a longer hospital stay. Given the reports circulating at the time, this wasn’t a possibility I was relishing. As it turns out, and to my considerable relief, the procedure went well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It now remains only for me to credit the staff of Basildon Hospital and the extended NHS Trust for ensuring that I’ve had such a smooth ride over the last nine months. My GP, for taking my bellyaching seriously, for pushing on for ever more diagnostic tests and anti-emetic drugs, and for calming me down when I thought I’d inherited the liver tumour that killed my grandfather. My surgeon, for answering my nervous questions when he was obviously up against it and keen to get on. His Senior House Officer, for talking to me like an intelligent, autonomous, informed adult with a degree of insight into their own condition. His registrar, for ensuring that the SHO had gone through absolutely everything I needed to know, and then drawing me a diagram so I was absolutely clear.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Beyond the surgical team, there’s also the Day Unit nurses who clerked me in and helped me push my dodgy leg into the restrictive TED stocking. There’s the nurses in the blood clinic who looked after me when I began to faint in their chair, and didn’t even mind that needles make me panicky and subsequently ridiculous. There’s the Endoscopy team who were doubtless frustrated beyond the bounds of patience when they eventually abandoned all attempts to perform the biopsy I needed, particularly the nurse who succeeded with the cannula where six previous efforts had failed. There’s the doctor in the ultrasound clinic who finally confirmed a diagnosis of gallstones, showed me them on the screen, and looked only a little surprised when I laughed and told her I’d won a bet.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There’s the theatre nurse and anaesthetist who did everything they could to keep me calm when panic really set in, just before I went under. Most of all, there’s the nurse on Laindon ward who was there when I woke up, helped me to the lavatory when I was still dazed from the anaesthetic, carefully and attentively performed observations on six woozy patients every 30 minutes, brought me endless glasses of water, called my family to reassure them when she really didn’t have to, gave me the only painkillers my body would tolerate, kept me calm while she removed the cannulas from my hand and wrist, and discharged me professionally and patiently whilst running the ward single-handed and still called everyone “darling” like she meant it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Basildon might be struggling as a hospital. It might be a victim of circumstance, or it might genuinely have a minority of staff members who are incompetent or lazy or both. In this way, it differs from no other workplace. But what it also has is staff who are dedicated to their jobs and their patients, even difficult patients like me. Many of their staff are probably overstretched and likely feel underpaid, and many departments are underfunded and potentially understaffed sometimes, even if only due to occasional staff sickness. Basildon has its problems, but it also has a body of staff who perform difficult and often unpleasant jobs with professionalism, dedication and grace, and without whom all patients would be at a complete loss. When you denigrate Basildon Hospital, you denigrate them too.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15278292523531432633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2397221732690040792.post-68232694603013389162012-12-20T12:45:00.001+00:002012-12-20T14:04:40.558+00:00Words Matter<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';">Some time ago, I got involved in a Facebook debate over offensive humour, which rapidly disintegrated into an argument over free speech. We managed to avoid invoking Godwin’s Law, but we did successfully provoke the following comment, which typifies the public attitude to free expression: “FREEDOM OF SPEECH means you can say anything to anyone! That does not mean you are right or even moral but you can say it!”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';">To anyone that’s encountered the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the error will be obvious. Free speech is not an absolute right - most countries have laws which state that freedom of expression may be limited in "</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety; the prevention of disorder or crime; [or] the protection of health or morals”. </span><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';">Most mouthy schoolboys and drunken racists will insist that they have a right to say what they like about who they like, but a quick examination of statute will reveal that it's simply not so. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';">Additionally, the Malicious Communications Act and recent Hate Crime legislation, not to mention defamation law for attacks on specific individuals, have clarified the law on what you may or may not say in a public arena such as Facebook or Twitter. Freedom of speech should be invoked in countries where you're imprisoned indefinitely without trial for criticising your government, not bleated about by people who are cocky enough to think that their need to be funny is more important than respecting the feelings of other people around them. Freedom of speech is a conditional right, not an absolute one, and when you think about it, there’s a good reason for that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';">The truth is, words matter. Words are how we make contracts, build relationships, connect with others, and describe the human experience. We’re by no means the only species that communicates meaningfully, but we’re the only one capable of such subtlety and nuance. Albanians, for instance, can distinguish between 15 different types of facial hair, and are similarly specific about eyebrows. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Italians can name 500 different types of pasta, and the descriptions of colour in Webster’s dictionary are a symphony of shade and comparison.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';">There are currently more than a million words in the English language, their ranks swelled by new coinages like “vajazzle” and “selfie”. A tabloid newspaper will use about 8,000 individual words in a single edition. The average person regularly uses 35,000, a university graduate 50,000, and a writer as many as 75,000. Many are beautiful. Some are ugly, inelegant, or too often overlooked. All are powerful, but some are more powerful than others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';">Of course, with great power comes great responsibility. Some words can comfort, praise, and reassure, but others can sting, wound and affront. For some people, it’s difficult to respect the broad vista that language opens up for us. They would use it like an indentured servant, all the while claiming that by doing so, they protect its freedom from those who want to see it muzzled and caged.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';">Instead, we must treat language – all language – like the rare and delicate gift that it is. Where in the past we’ve hurled shards of it at women, disabled people, those of other races, religions and sexualities, to mock the wounds it makes on impact. The time has come to pick up the pieces. This isn’t being ‘PC’ or ‘leftie’ or any other such ridiculous notion; this is about not deliberately insulting the other people we share the planet with. It’s easy to imagine that our house, our marriage, our family is a tiny ship tossed on a stormy sea of outsiders, battered by the wind and waves – in fact, that’s how we should view our planet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';">In an unimportant solar system, in a modest galaxy, in one corner of an infinite and uncaring universe, intelligent life has struggled from a swamp and established an empire greater than that of Rome or Britain – the empire of the Earth. We have developed language, enabling us to begin to comprehend the vastness of our reality, or just gossip about inconsequential details. As I’ve said before, we have only each other – seven billion of us against the infinite coldness of space. We are fellow passengers on that storm-tossed sea, and yet we don’t huddle together for warmth and security; we keep confined to our quarters, the doors and stairwells blocked by obstructive, angry words. The worst of it is, we put them there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';">What I’m trying to say, I suppose, is best summed up by a seasonal message that we let our children sing but never actually heed. We’ll pick it up, remove its historical gender bias, and repackage it for use all year round. Dickens said it, Dawkins implied it, and I can only echo it: peace on Earth, and goodwill to all humanity.</span><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: #0400; mso-bidi-language: X-NONE; mso-fareast-language: #0400;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15278292523531432633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2397221732690040792.post-2484923936744417882012-11-25T22:15:00.000+00:002012-11-25T22:26:48.723+00:00Rape And Responsibility<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In today’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mail on Sunday</i>, <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2237909/Who-teach-boys-women-arent-meat-Men--means-footballers-singers-Top-Gear-presenters.html" target="_blank">Mariella Frostrup’s column</a> focuses on a report prepared by Deputy Children’s Commissioner, Sue Berelowitz. The report, entitled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Child Sexual Exploitation in Gangs and Groups</i>, was released last week and describes the number of girls forced into sexual activity by gang members. In response to the report, which is no doubt truly disturbing reading, she argues,“we need a Man Army determined to change cultural stereotypes, full of blokes that boys revere – footballers, musicians, actors and even Top Gear presenters (not normally short of opinions) – saying, loud and proud, that rape is for cowards, child abuse is despicable and treating girls like pieces of meat is simply unacceptable.”</span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 14.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Frostrup presumes that men can be immunised against committing rape by seeing anti-assault messages from men they respect and admire, an approach that suggests that men commit rape because they believe it’s somehow acceptable. She is sorely mistaken – men commit rape precisely because they know it is not acceptable. The power imbalance implied by the act, the misuse and subjugation of a victim by that assault, is very often entire focus of the act. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">For rapists of this type, rape is rarely about sex or the lack of it; it’s about power and domination, control and shame. It’s about telling a person that they mean so little that they can be used in whichever way their attacker chooses. Sexual assault, like domestic violence and emotional abuse, is a way to dehumanise someone; their aggressor shows them that they have so little power that they cannot prevent their own mistreatment. They become, as the article suggests, a piece of meat, lacking agency and control – the shock of rape emanates as much from the complete denigration of the victim’s personality and humanity as it does from any violent physical act.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">There is, of course, another type of rapist – one who misreads signals, assumes consent where none has been given, or fails to notice that his partner has lost interest in continuing. These men are not psychopaths, nor do they necessarily set out to cause harm, but the effect on their partner can be no less powerful. Some of these men notice their partners’ waning interest and stop in good time, some never notice and so continue, and some notice and make a conscious choice to keep going.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Some months ago, a discussion on Reddit emerged that allegedly contained contributions from men who had committed rape. Most were from young men who took a previously consensual act too far; few seemed to exhibit the psychopathic aggression we’re led to expect – perhaps these men were present but declined to post, understanding the negative reaction they’d receive. All those who posted were aware of what they’d done, and many knew they were committing rape when they were still in the moment of committing it. The following quotes are taken directly from the discussion, and seem to make little effort to excuse the acts of each correspondent. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">I ignored her and did it. She realized what was happening and tried to clamp her legs shut, but it was too late and I was much stronger than her.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">“My hormones were going insane, I didn't have any empathy in my heart at that moment just my own concerns. She wasn't a person anymore just a path, a tool, a means to an end. Then once again, I can't remember. I don't remember what happened, I never asked her. I almost don't want to know. But I know I got off. I hate to say it but after it was done I went to bed, she stayed up crying. It wasn't until two days later that I realized I had done something awful.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Most girls don't really understand how horny guys are, how much stronger guys are, how guys will rationalize what they do. I see feminists and women on the Internet saying that no means no and women should be able to get as drunk as they want and not be sexually assaulted, and I couldn't agree more. But the reality of the situation is that women have to be careful because guys are one way when they're hanging out and another way when they're horny or worse drunk and horny.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">“My rapist (ex's best friend) told me he knew it was wrong, but would have probably done it again given the chance. He also was surprised that forced sex didn't make me want to be his girlfriend.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A further objection can be raised to Frostrup’s assertion that perpetrators of rape and sexual assault “</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">steal their [victims’] innocence and their futures</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">”. In recent decades, the feminist movement has made efforts to transform the perception of the raped woman from ‘victim’ to survivor’ – a semantic shift, but one that can make a powerful difference to the way a woman experiences the time following her assault. Tell her that her life is ruined and she may well believe you, but tell her she can recover and you give her the power to overcome the experience; it’s not difficult to imagine which is the better impression to give someone in that position.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span> <br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The kind of person inclined to commit rape for power will not be swayed by the words of a TV presenter or a football player, particularly words that have been put in their mouths by well-meaning authority. When one person decides to violently assault another, logic and government-sponsored messages play no part in the thought process. The kind of person who commits rape through misreading signals is unlikely to consider such advice in the heat of the moment; how can they, if they don’t realise they’re doing anything wrong?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Rapists commit rape for various reasons, none of which excuse the trauma they inflict upon their victim. Some do so to intimidate or punish, to inflict fear and denigrate their victim. Some do so because they misread signals or inaction from their partners, some do so because they simply don’t respect their partner’s wishes enough to stop. None of these situations can be remedied by a public service announcement or advertising campaign. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Rape is a cultural problem, but one that occurs in all cultures and throughout history. It’s not the job of public figures to tackle it with good intentions and a public service announcement; instead it’s the job of parents, teachers, sex educators, and then the media. From films like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Grease</i>onwards, certain media products have positioned men as pursuer and women as the person who must exercise control and resistance; through these stories, we normalise sexually threatening behaviour. Young women come to expect and tolerate it, and young men feel they are excused to act as their hormones allegedly dictate. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">To lower rape statistics, we much challenge the culture that excuses male sexual aggression and tells women that they must take sole responsibility for their own safety. We must abandon the macho culture that places to much emphasis on sexual experience, and instil a sense of respect and consideration for one’s sexual partners. It’s a difficult task, given the extent to which modern life is permeated with messages about sexual behaviour, but it can be done. We must start at the beginning and maintain a consistent message, and in doing so we can ensure that another generation of young women aren’t exposed to the same fear and exploitation as the ones that went before them.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15278292523531432633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2397221732690040792.post-82410896616664791192012-11-24T14:00:00.001+00:002012-11-24T14:00:08.734+00:00How We Failed Savita Halappanavar<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">On October 21<sup>st</sup>, Savita <span class="st1"><span style="color: #222222;">Halappanavar walked into </span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Galway
University Hospital complaining of severe back pain. A week later she was dead,
fallen victim to septicaemia and e. coli. But Savita could have lived had she
been offered one simple and common medical procedure – termination of a failing
pregnancy.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">When Savita was examined upon admission to the
hospital, she was found to be miscarrying, but doctors could still detect a </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">foetal</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> heartbeat. For
this reason, she was denied the termination – Ireland’s strict abortion laws
forbid the procedure unless the mother’s life is in imminent danger. Instead,
she was left to endure the pain and sorrow of a miscarriage, refused the option
of inducing labour to hasten the process. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The distress of the experience,
prolonged by those who doubtless wished they could help her, is unimaginable to
someone that hasn’t experienced it. Savita’s husband, Parveen, said that she
dealt with the situation well, even discussing trying for another baby. Savita seemed
determined not to let the experience ruin her life; instead, it ended it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The doctors and nurses who cared for
Savita surely saw how she suffered; even though they must have been wracked with
compassion and remorse, an unclear law said they could not help her. Whatever
their personal politics and morals, regardless of their religious position or
Hippocratic oath to protect life, they were compelled to manage and oversee the
death of a young woman that they could otherwise have saved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Savita's foetus was not viable, there
was no hope of survival; instead of working to save one life, her doctors were
forced to witness the end of two. They will have worked to combat the
septicaemia that is believed to have killed her; they will have tried to keep
her liver and kidneys healthy and functioning for as long as they could. But
the awful truth is that one procedure could have obviated the need for all of
that, and she was denied it - not by her doctors, but by the law.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Had Savita refused a termination, we
could respect the decision that she had made, assured that she had her reasons
for doing so. Had her doctors performed the procedure, there would be no news
story; Savita and Parveen could have returned home and slowly come
to terms with their loss. Instead, Parveen has lost not just his wife and his
child, but his hopes and dreams for the future; everything he thought his life
would become has been taken from him because of cruel and unsympathetic
legislation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Ireland's legal position on abortion
is well-known; a historic cause for concern. For generations, girls and women
have been forced to scrape together all the money they could and travel to
England in secrecy - once by ferry into Liverpool, now by Ryanair and Easyjet
flights into Heathrow and Luton. We cannot know their stories, but we may be
assured that every one was different: some were young girls in the first flush
of love who hadn't expected to conceive, some were victims of rape who now
faced an additional burden of Catholic guilt to add to their trauma, some were
women whose physical and mental ill-health meant that the strain of carrying a
baby was an unthinkable challenge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-language: X-NONE; mso-fareast-language: #0400;">Thousands of men and women have marched in London, Dublin, and New York
in Savita’s name. Across India, political and journalistic voices have been
raised, questioning the Irish system. Savita’s parents and her husband have
challenged the Irish authorities to explain why an Indian Hindu should be
killed by a law intended for Irish Catholics – they have yet to receive an
answer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">No-one who claims to respect the
sanctity of human life could pardon this unpardonable offence. Anyone who
believes that Savita's death was justified and that Irish law is correct has no
right to call themselves pro-life; they are pro-foetus, no more and no less. We
have permitted a religious position to influence the state, and by doing so
ensured that a Christian moral has killed a Hindu woman. If we do not insist on
the reassessment and abolition of this murderous legislation, we lose our claim
to humanity and empathy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It would be easy for us as atheists to
exploit Savita's death to serve our own moral argument; we must resist the urge
to do so. As feminists, we could hold her experience up as damning evidence of
the sheer ignorance and foolhardiness of the pro-life movement; we must not. We
must instead act in Savita's memory to ensure that this miserable, barbaric
chain of events never befalls another woman.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15278292523531432633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2397221732690040792.post-50673516466458649782012-11-08T17:58:00.001+00:002012-11-08T18:09:03.621+00:00Perfume, Professionalism And The Perfect Gentleman<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This week, I’ve mostly been deciding whether my body is a weapon or a vessel, and whether I’m more devoted to integrity or the drive for success. Like most people, the flesh-and-bone part of me seems to be there to extract energy from food and move me around; it’s not until something goes wrong with it, or until I’m surprised by someone’s reaction to it, that I really even notice it’s there.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As usual, this self-discovery trip has been prompted by a couple of incidents; goatish comments from a trusted advisor, the realisation that I perform better in job interviews when one of the interviewers is a man, and being approached and sniffed at uncomfortably close range in a supermarket by a stranger who was apparently so intrigued by my new perfume that he was willing to risk (and return) an aggressive reaction from both me and my fiancé. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We confronted him angrily and, despite the presence of his young son, he became abusive and threatened us. Plainly he felt it was reasonable to place his own face six inches from the face and neck of a temporarily unaccompanied woman, inhale deeply, and tell her she smelt good, and that she should “cheer up” when she looked perturbed; we disagreed. He eventually went away; I doubt my concerns will be so obliging.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’m currently in the process of taking on freelance writing work, with the help of a self-employment advisor on a Government-mandated employment program. When discussing the necessity of approaching publications and pitching articles - an intimidating but necessary part of the process - various people have suggested using my gender, “attributes” and “engaging personality” to “intrigue” editors; essentially, flirting my way into a job. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I remain incredulous. I’m not Samantha Brick; I’m simply not confident enough in my own looks and personality to try that. When I look into a mirror I see my father, and he’s overweight and bald with a face like that of a veteran scrum-half. Besides which, even if I looked like Angelina Jolie, shouldn’t a good feminist be outraged by the very suggestion?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is, at its heart, an entirely sexist issue: male colleagues are not forced to make the same decision. I’ve worked for male managers who flirted remorselessly with contacts of both genders, and for female managers who dispensed with sparkle and charm and got by on talent and professionalism alone, but it’s easy to understand that women surely spend more time agonising over their professional appearance. We must also consider if this approach confers an unfair advantage to attractive colleagues – an anecdote tells of a man who hired pretty girls to work in his office, “because they cost the same as plain ones.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We know shouldn’t happen, but we know beyond a doubt that it does. It’s just another dubious journalistic practice, and it carries over into other trades too. The approach is likely to be of limited use against female editors; not only is it unlikely to work against them, it will also prove utterly transparent to a woman who has at some point faced the same decision. That said, it’ll prove transparent to anyone, male or female, who is shrewd and perceptive enough to have made it to the top of their industry. A good journalist can read people, break down pretences, and identify dodgy motives in a heartbeat – there’s no way a self-consciously flirty woman in a too-low sweater is going to get past them. Editors will notice it, and colleagues will surely resent it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This isn’t a problem of my own creation; left to my own devices, I’d make the same effort when I meet with people as I do on any other day, the self-defined minimum appropriate degree of care and attention. The conundrum is thrown up by other people’s reactions to me, not my own opinion of myself. This is another point, one of many, at which I have to decide what kind of person I am. Can I really adopt this approach? Does it devalue my education and skills? What does it say about my feminist principles? Could I – or anyone else – respect a career based on titillating middle-aged men in positions of power? Can I be confident of the integrity I thought I had, or am I as motivated by money and success as the people I thought I stood against?</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15278292523531432633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2397221732690040792.post-26196877180500462022012-11-04T23:33:00.000+00:002012-11-04T23:33:20.255+00:00Romney, Republicans, And Rape<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Ladies and gentleman, welcome to the uterus. A number of important and complex things happen here, and each of us owes our existence to this useful and multi-talented organ.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">You've seen one before, of course, and understand what it spends its time doing. Of course, depending on our biology and education, some of us have a better idea than others of its purpose and function. Women, for instance, will understand it, perhaps, as something they don't have cause to consider unless something unusual happens there. Some men may think that it transforms the normally placid and genial women in their lives into raging hellbeasts with no grasp of logic or reason - indeed, some women may agree with them. But if you're a male Republican politician in the United States, you may believe that it's equipped with a top-of-the-range security system to repel invaders, or that it's an item that women aren't responsible enough to control independently and so must be marshalled and regulated by legislation.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
If you are a Republican who subscribes to this school of thought, there's an excellent chance you've already shared your profound insight with the rest of us. Below, with the assistance of many of righteously angry bloggers and commentators, I present a list of some of the most ignorant and insensitive statements ever to issue forth from Republican mouths.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Todd Akin: “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways of shutting that whole thing down” - 2012 Senate Campaign </span></li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Clayton Williams: “If it’s inevitable, just relax and enjoy it” - 1990</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Chuck Winder: “I would hope that when a woman goes in to a physician with a rape issue, that physician will indeed ask her about perhaps her marriage, was this pregnancy caused by normal relations in a marriage or was it truly caused by a rape. I assume that’s part of the counseling that goes on.” - March 2012 </span></li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Ken Buck: “A jury could very well conclude that this is a case of buyer’s remorse … It appears to me … you invited him over… the appearance is of consent.” - October 2010 </span></li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Rick Santorum: “I think the right approach is to accept this horribly created — in the sense of rape — but nevertheless a gift in a very broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has given to you… rape victims should make the best of a bad situation.” - January 2012</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Richard Mourdock: "I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God. And, I think, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happened." - 2012</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">North Carolina state Rep. Henry Aldridge: “The facts show that people who are raped — who are truly raped — the juices don’t flow, the body functions don’t work and they don’t get pregnant. Medical authorities agree that this is a rarity, if ever … to get pregnant, it takes a little cooperation. And there ain’t much cooperation in a rape.” - 1995</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Delaware state Rep. Stephen Freind: “The odds that a woman who is raped will get pregnant are one in millions and millions and millions […] The traumatic experience of rape causes a woman to secrete a certain secretion that tends to kill sperm.” - 1988</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Dr. Richard Dobbins, 20-year GOP contributor: “Most women either are not fertile during assault or do not become pregnant because the trauma prompts a hormonal response that prevents ovulation.” - 2006</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Judge James Leon Holmes, Bush appointee - “Concern for rape victims is a red herring because conceptions from rape occur with approximately the same frequency as snowfall in Miami.”</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
I don't even know where to begin addressing these, and I'm frankly disgusted that I should have to. If a British politician said something so crass, so ignorant, so entirely devoid of fact, he would be seeking new employment within days. In May this year, Justice Secretary Ken Clark was broadly castigated for making a reference to "serious rape" (which he later clarified as "forcible rape... with a bit of violence") - in response, his party were urged to sack him, and he will surely struggle to escape the contempt his comments provoked. Beyond a considerable online outcry, few of the men (and it is usually men, isn't it?) quoted above experienced any censure.</div>
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<br /></div>
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America, you can do something about this. You can prevent repeated challenges to Roe vs Wade. You can halt the decay of women's hard-earned rights. You can protect other countries from following you into disaster; your decision, and the political moves that result from it, will affect people the world over. You have a chance to stop this aggressive ignorance from spreading, and you can achieve it simply making an 'X' in a box. America, it's time to make the right decision.</div>
</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15278292523531432633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2397221732690040792.post-55975039882760429592012-10-21T15:42:00.000+01:002012-10-21T15:42:28.453+01:00Assisted Suicide: A Debate<h3>
<em><span style="font-size: small;">This article first appeared on </span></em><a href="http://www.dancinggiraffe.com/"><em><span style="font-size: small;">www.dancinggiraffe.com</span></em></a><em><span style="font-size: small;"> in April 2012. We reprint it here, entirely unabridged, to mark 10 years since the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland first opened its doors. With thanks to Dancing Giraffe and Peter McAllister, my collaborator and anti-AS opposite number on this piece. </span></em></h3>
<br />
<h3>
<em><span style="font-size: small;">Since this article was published, campaigner Tony Nicklinson has passed away. We have chosen to leave the article intact as a respectful tribute to the discussion that Mr. Nicklinson's efforts produced.</span></em></h3>
<em></em><br />
<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In March 2012, </span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/mar/12/right-to-die-hearing-tony-nicklinson"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Tony Nicklinson</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> approached the High Court seeking
leave to pursue a clarification of the law surrounding assisted suicide. Mr
Nicklinson had a massive stroke in 2005 while on holiday in Greece and was left
paralysed save for slight movements of his head and eyes – a condition known as
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locked-in_syndrome"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">locked-in syndrome</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">. His mind is unaffected and he
is entirely conscious, but unable to move or communicate.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Since the stroke,
Mr Nicklinson has been able to communicate only by using a voice synthesiser
that interprets his blinking. When approached for comment following his appeal
to the legal system, he has stated that he wishes the doctors in Athens had not
saved his life. He described his current existence as, “dull, miserable,
demeaning, undignified and intolerable”. The UK legal system is by now
well-accustomed to such challenges.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 2009, </span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jul/30/debbie-purdy-assisted-suicide-legal-victory"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Debbie Purdy</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> went through the courts in an effort
to discover whether her husband would face prosecution if he accompanied her to
a clinic such as </span><a href="http://www.dignitas.ch/index.php?lang=en"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Dignitas</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">. The House of Lords agreed that it was a
breach of her human rights not to know, particularly since this information was
likely to play a large part in choosing when and how to end her life. The BBC
reports the case of </span><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/19/newsid_2520000/2520581.stm"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Tony Bland</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">: “crushed in the Hillsborough disaster
[...] allowed to die through the withdrawal of feeding tubes. He was in a
persistent vegetative state after suffering severe brain damage and the judges
said that it was in his best interests to be allowed to die.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet despite these
legal successes, and no shortage of discussion in debate amongst medical
professionals and within the national press, little actual legal change has
been effected. The consultation process for any change in the law is likely to
be lengthy and complex, as befits such a weighty issue. Any change in the law,
even a relatively minor one, will doubtless alter our society; our attitudes to
disability will affect and be affected by the eventual outcome. To investigate
the issue further, Peter McAllister and Christie Louise Tucker present a
debate of the issues at hand.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Argument <em>Against</em> Assisted Suicide<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Firstly I would
like to make it clear, I am not an apologist for antediluvian values, nor is
this a polemic discourse on the dangers to spirituality of assisted suicide. My
intentions are as much a deep-seated personalisation as they are borne of any
religious conviction. I do concede, however that religion has played its part
in my disagreements to assisted suicide and indeed suicide, but not exclusively.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">One of the most
ardent opponents to assisted suicide is the Christian Faith. Suicide of any
form is morally wrong because, having given life; God is the only one who has
the right to take it away. The Fifth Commandment, 'Thou shalt not kill' (Exodus
20, verse 13), makes the point quite unequivocally. I have always found this
particular Commandment non-negotiable.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There are arguments
raising the point about serious concerns in legislating assisted suicide due to
unsavoury family members and shifty doctors who would rather persuade a person
to end their life, against the person’s will. Are there selfish reasons
involved from particular family members? Do they stand to gain financially?
Surely their motives are not borne out of a selfless empathy?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In free will there
is another potential problem, that of capacity. Is the person contemplating
assisted suicide competent to make such a decision? Are the drugs that people
take for pain relief compromising their ability to make clear decisions? From
experience, yes this is a factor. Psychiatric conditions may make someone
desire suicide. Conditions such as </span><a href="http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Depression/Pages/Introduction.aspx"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Depression</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> and </span><a href="http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/schizophrenia/Pages/Introduction.aspx"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Schizophrenia</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> disorder can go undiagnosed; people
who suffer such disorders could in fact choose to be unnecessarily supported to
take their own lives?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Many people fear
that assisted suicide will create a climate in which some people are pressured
into it. The old, the poor, or minorities and other vulnerable groups might be
persuaded to shorten their lives, rather than to "burden" their
families. Will the definition stop short of a human’s ability to be productive?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">People with severe
and enduring disabilities may in turn have to justify staying alive. Is this a
situation we really want to embrace? Writers such as The Times columnist, </span><a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/profile/Melanie-Reid"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Melanie Reid</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> use emotional tactics to further the
cause for assisted suicide. But in my view this masks a very self-pitying
nature, expounding their self-interested agenda and turning it into an exercise
in scaremongering a civilised society.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Argument <em>For</em> Assisted Suicide<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The distinction
between suicide and physician-assisted dying is at times subtle, but always
important. For a coroner to return a clear verdict of suicide, the Government’s
legal definition states that it must be apparent that the deceased, “took their
own life whilst the balance of their mind was disturbed.” But for a change of
the laws surrounding assisted suicide to work, establishing sound mind prior to
acting would be paramount.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is already the
case at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland, where each client must consult an
expert psychiatrist and submit medical records to an affiliated doctor before a
prescription can be written, and there can be no doubting the value and
importance of this requirement. Currently the only medical procedure in the UK
to require the consent of two doctors is an elective termination; of course
assisted suicide should be the same, and for the same reasons.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The loudest
protests against changes to the law are usually from religious groups arguing
the sanctity of life, or those concerned about potential misuse of the eventual
act. But when retired American Episcopalian bishop, </span><a href="http://johnshelbyspong.com/"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">John Shelby Spong</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
states that “the right to a good death is a basic human freedom”, it’s plain
that the debate is a long way from conclusion.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Much is made of
“valuing life”, the implication being that those who support assisted suicide
lack this conviction. Nothing could be further from the truth. Valuing a
worthwhile and fulfilling life is central to our argument; not wanting to
continue a life shattered by absolute incapacity is merely a continuation of
this.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It’s vital to make
clear that it is severe incapacity that is under discussion here – the end
stages of degenerative disease, or massive injuries caused by accident or injury.
The argument is made best by the individuals attending court to challenge the
law, and those close to them: the initiator of this current challenge, Tony
Nicklinson, describes his life as “dull, miserable, demeaning, undignified and
intolerable.” The parents of </span><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8536475/Daniel-James-GP-knew-he-would-go-to-Dignitas-but-did-not-tell-police.html"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Daniel James</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">, who ended his life at a Dignitas
clinic in 2008, characterised their son as "an intelligent young man of
sound mind" who was "not prepared to live what he felt was a
second-class existence".<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A southern African
saying once related to the author of this article comes to mind; upon the death
of a relative, the grieving family are reminded to give thanks to God for “a
long life, well lived.” Even non-religious readers will acknowledge the truth
and value in this. This is truly when assisted suicide should be considered; at
the end of a long and full life, when all other options have been exhausted and
the loss of faculty is too great for the individual to accommodate.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In Conclusion<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The purpose of the
assisted suicide debate is not to imply that the lives of disabled people, or
anyone else, are in any way miserable or intolerable. Instead, the aim is to
enable individuals to make their own decision about when, where and how to die,
and to do so with dignity and comfort.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">At present, someone
seeking physician-assisted suicide must travel to the Dignitas clinic in
Switzerland: previously an anonymous, nondescript concrete tower block just
outside Zurich, now a pleasant house in a residential district of the city.
Many opt to make the journey alone; to have a relative accompany them could
expose their companion to prosecution for attempting to “aid, abet, counsel or
procure” suicide, a charge that carries a 14-year sentence.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Both sides of the
argument talk about dignity, quality of life, control, and ethics, but in the
end, the decision is nothing more than a personal choice. What is needed now is
discussion – in Parliament, between ministers and the sick and dying, between
doctors, between couples and within families. The onus should not be on
individuals to ask permission to be allowed to die peacefully.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Assisted suicide is
an act of mercy, no less than the actions of a doctor or nurse on any other day
in their career. The real enemy is silence and hypocrisy; wishing a dignified
death for oneself and others isn’t selfish or unfeeling, it’s human. And our
humanity is what necessitates the freedom to make our choice.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15278292523531432633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2397221732690040792.post-2178156712701003412012-10-20T16:46:00.000+01:002012-10-20T16:46:27.327+01:00Doctor, Doctor, Are All These Pills Really Necessary?
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It’s always the same; you wait a week for a story
and two come along at once. Just as I was settling down to write about Ben
Goldacre’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bad Pharma, </i>the BBC broke
a story reporting that doctors will now face annual appraisals and five-yearly
license revalidations. Whereas a doctor could previously work for 40 years
without further testing or formal training, as Goldacre’s book observes, these
new proposals will ensure that from December, their clinical knowledge and
competency will be exposed to regular scrutiny.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">In the coverage that resulted from the GMC/DoH
announcement, we learnt that perhaps 0.7 per cent of doctors have shortfalls
that would be regarded as threats to patient safety. The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Telegraph </i>talks about “more than 1,000 bad doctors” – with </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">129 foundation trusts and 151
primary care trusts in England, this works out to three or four per trust. This
might not sound like many, but it’s enough to have the GMC and the Health
Secretary worried, and is more worrying still if you’re actually receiving
medical treatment.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And here we reach the heart of the matter – public
perception. We might like to watch medical dramas, but our understanding of
present clinical concerns is far sketchier. Fortunately for the patient, they
need never consider medical ethics or whether the benefits of surgery outweigh
the risks; they are only compelled to attend appointments, submit to
examination, take the prescription they’re offered, languish on a waiting list
and sign a consent form. We complain about cuts, budgets and those waiting
lists, but we forget that we’re benefitting from a system that remains free at
the point of cost – many despair at the state of the NHS, but many others know
that they’d be at a loss on their own without it.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">For the average patient, seeing phrases like
“clitoral enlargement” or “suicidal thoughts or behaviour” on an information
sheet, or noting that their newly-prescribed anti-emetic was originally an
antipsychotic and can cause dangerous side-effects, is very alarming. Are these
conditions permanent, or reversible upon withdrawal? Can I really not even have
one drink on these antibiotics? How likely is it they’ll make my contraceptive
pill fail? How serious is this headache? Do I need an aspirin, or an ambulance?
Who do we even take our questions to? The pharmacist can discuss side-effects
and interactions, but may lack the knowledge of the existing condition or
potential prognosis to make the right call.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">When you consider the complex nature of drug
therapy for even a relatively simple symptom, it’s easy to see why a clinician
must train for so long: antihistamines used as sleeping pills, antipsychotics
for nausea, blood pressure drugs for erectile dysfunction, anticonvulsants for
anxiety and migraine, and anti-depressants for seemingly everyone. While each
specialism has their own arsenal of relevant drugs, and each consultant will
have his own personal favourites, an ongoing and intractable condition can
often lead to secondary or off-license uses for unexpected or seemingly
unrelated drugs. In this case, a side-effect can become a positive boon. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">A number of years ago, a charity I worked for began
to see a large number of people with various conditions all being prescribed
the same drug; previously used to treat epilepsy, it was now being prescribed
for anxiety, depression, personality disorders, neuropathic pain in diabetes,
nerve damage through trauma, insomnia, migraines, cluster headaches and sundry
other problems. Some patients saw considerable improvements; still others
experienced disruptive headaches, terrible nightmares, and serious confusion.
Some had it far worse; they found themselves troubled by unwelcome ideas that
disrupted their thinking, by suicidal thoughts and urges. It seemed as if the
local doctors were throwing the drug at everyone just to see where it worked;
we considered ourselves lucky that none of our clients had actually given in to
the suggestions and harmed themselves, as had been seen previously with certain
antidepressant medications.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As Ben Goldacre observes in his book, doctors cease
their lengthy tuition and “spend forty years practising medicine, with very
little formal education after their initial training. Medicine changes
completely in four decades, and as they try to keep up, doctors are bombarded
with information: from adverts that misrepresent the benefits and risks of new
medicines; from sales reps who spy on patients’ confidential prescribing records;
from colleagues who are quietly paid by drugs companies; from ‘teaching’that is
sponsored by industry; from independent ‘academic’ journals that are quietly
written by drug company employees; and worse.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Perhaps the new checks, dubbed “medical MOTs” (by
people who have forgotten, or don’t care, what “MOT” stands for) will assist
with this – if a lack of ongoing training make it easy for pharmaceutical
companies to exploit knowledge gaps, then maybe identifying and sealing these
gaps will make it harder for them to exert their considerable influence.
Perhaps this recommendation was introduced as a response to concerns like those
shared by Goldacre; perhaps the timing is purely coincidental. We’ll never
know, but we can hope that the plans will lead to improvements in clinical
education and patient care. We must hope so; we all stand to benefit from it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">This is, of course, the opinion of a lay individual
who has spent eight years depending on the NHS’ best and brightest – the pain
clinic consultant willing to exhaust every possibility, the patient and gentle
GP who took the time to explain the surgery and was more annoyed by the
six-month waiting list than I was, the safety net that provides free
prescriptions, regardless of quantity or regularity, when one’s luck runs out
and unemployment bites. I’ve seen the NHS at its worst, and at its very best. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It is doubtlessly flawed – jetlagged by bureaucracy,
slowed by overuse, hobbled by budgets and dented by news story after news story
bemoaning all of these faults and more – but it remains the best system
available to us. In the main, those of us born after 1950 take it entirely for
granted, and those who remember the public reaction to its inception are
becoming thin on the ground. It’s been accused of being alternately bloated and
pinched, and its relationship with pharmaceutical companies is obviously in
need of close examination, but it remains one of our greatest assets. It is, in
every possible sense, a lifesaver.</span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15278292523531432633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2397221732690040792.post-4103066312123156082012-10-15T22:43:00.000+01:002012-10-15T22:43:13.947+01:00The Ghost of Sexism PresentWhen you're of a mind to set the world to rights, even listening to the radio can be fraught with danger. Having resisted the pull of commercial TV and radio for a quarter of a century, I finally yielded. Contemporary music criticism has been done more elegantly by more knowledgable writers elsewhere, so let us just conclude that swapping a non-commercial station for a commercial one was ultimately trading one set of frustrations for another.<br />
<br />
I'd managed to successfully limit my exposure to awful music, but had opened myself up to a whole new world of problems: radio advertising. Eschewing my local station for a national one took off most of the rough edges, particularly when it came to maddening double-glazing jingles, but it was while listening to aforesaid national digital station that I encountered the Ghost of Sexism Present.<br />
<br />
Plunged into my own Dickensian fantasy, I quickly assessed my surroundings; the Ghost of Sexism Past faded away with the passing of grubby seaside postcards, the miniskirted typist-cum-secretary and woeful situation comedies; in short, around the time the '70s surrendered to the rampaging '80s. The Ghost of Sexism Future, more's the pity, does not limit its moaning and chain-rattling to the company of women. Instead, as did Dickens' rosy-cheeked host, it spreads its arms wide and cries "come forth, and know me better, man!"<br />
<br />
This restless spirit, made bold by years of uncorrected manifestations and liberally sprinkled phantasmagoria, approaches both men and women with equal vigour. It's subtle, though, and has distinct approaches for each gender. Its main failing, as with so many bad teachers and politicians, is that it tries to tell us what, and how, we should think and feel. This afternoon, as if to demonstrate its multiplicity, it taunted me with whispered tales of spent headlight bulbs in the darkening autumn night.<br />
<br />
It told me that I wouldn't be able to change the bulb - not because of my feminine dearth of technical skill, but because my nails - obviously long, and immaculately lacquered - would weaken and break the very second I lifted a screwdriver. Apparently this is undesirable. Speaking as someone that frequently uses their thumbnails as a makeshift flathead screwdriver for the purposes of spectacle repair and basic home maintenance, my suspicion was piqued from the start.<br />
<br />
Next, as if sensing my mistrust, it endeavoured to convince me that my husband - which I don't actually have - would be unwilling or unable to do the job for me. Because of course, as a helpless princess awaiting rescue with attendant melancholy, only a man could possibly fix my car for me. Whether it was due to fecklessness, laziness or technical ineptness, my husband would never fix my car. Of course he won't; like I said, I don't have either.<br />
<br />
But, as with Scrooge's ghosts, this entity's message was one of hope as well as foreboding: a modern-day white knight could fix the thing for me. He would do this on the condition that I return to my house (haven't one of those, either) and remark to my pseudo-husband that I'd found "a real man" to complete the Sisyphean task that so far had defeated both of us. Joy! Jubilation! Some orange-clad spanner with a spanner can suck his teeth at me and charge me a nominal fee for performing a chore that my obligatory feminine beauty rituals had until now prohibited me from achieving! Sing Hallelujah, and pass the bucket...<br />
<br />
The job of feminism today is basically as it always was; to achieve parity and equality between the sexes. It must achieve this in every sphere of our lives; from the workplace, to the bedroom, to the TV screen. And at the same time that it combats pay and hiring discrepancies, social expectations, threats to healthcare provision, sexual aggression, domestic violence, genital mutilation and wrongheaded laws, it must also manage the hinterland between the experiences of Team XX and Team XY.<br />
<br />
When women first cried out for equality, they were addressing the gulf of power and possibility that existed between men and women at a time when, if you wanted to get your entitled male hands on a woman's property, you could simply have her conveniently shipped off to the nearest insane asylum. While we have made headway enough to allow us to own property, we're still insulted when it comes to obtaining more or maintaining what we already possess.<br />
<br />
I don't believe that all men, as a symptom of being "a bit blokey", are truly feckless, impractical, selfish and lazy, any more than I believe that women really are all vain, duplicitous, gossipy and obsessed with 'naughty' food and effective cleaning products. But this is what advertising says to us, and I resent its malicious whisper. The cry for equality, now and in years gone by, was an effort to improve the lot of everyone involved, men and women both.<br />
<br />
Had I been born male, I would have resented the implications made about me as surely and as strongly as I do having been born female. When we push to attain an equal footing, we aim for higher ground, not the reeking swamp of mutual negation. The aim should be mutual improvement, not the denigration of both. In literature and film, we use prayer and religious iconography to lay restless spirits; in reality, our toolkit is different, but no less important. Words, balanced, thoughtful and tenacious, are our holy water and crucifix. The power of Christ may not compel advertisers, but the power of popular opinion certainly can.<br />
<br />
Each of the spirits that visited Ebeneezer Scrooge vanished again within the course of one Christmas Eve. Can we expect our restless phantom to disappear overnight? No, I fear not; but we can tear away the clanking chains and unmask it like the Scooby-Doo schmuck it really is.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15278292523531432633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2397221732690040792.post-46778427787760868792012-10-10T14:36:00.000+01:002012-10-10T14:37:48.217+01:00When I Say I Grew Up On An Estate, I Didn't Mean Downton Abbey<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Earlier this year, <em>the F Word</em> ran an article concerning feminism and working-class women. The piece included a quote from a teacher in a senior school in Lincoln, “</span>slap bang in the middle of one of the Midlands' largest housing estates,” who is concerned about that lack of feminist influence her students receive.<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><em>"When they get older, middle-class girls know the talk, the language to use, and so they have louder voices when it comes to the feminist movement. They're more educated, more confident, and feel they deserve opinions, maybe because their role models were professional women with assertive attitudes. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You're not going to be like that if your mum struggled on benefits. Girls from low-income families have had to struggle more so they can be excellent at debating, but not necessarily in the very intellectual way that debating is taught in private schools. It's not deliberate, but our voices and issues can be drowned out, so we don't relate to it all because we're not part of it."</em></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The basic premise of the article is correct; yes, feminism should be open to women of all classes. But to achieve that, we must shed our prejudices about those who belong to other classes. The patronising tone so often adopted when discussing working-class women bears an unpleasant aftertaste of the treatment disabled feminists and feminists of colour still resist – we are a subject to be written presumptuously about, not a group to accept contributions and insight from. It seems they would sooner discuss us than listen to us; rather talk about us than to us.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Rather than being limited by watching a mother “struggle on benefits”, some children are enlightened by it; they develop tenacity and resolve, and a precocious understanding of the workings of the world. While the teacher grants that “girls from low-income families have had to struggle more so they can be excellent at debating“, she still condemns the absence of “<i>The Guardian's</i> women's section lying on the coffee table, or political discussion ringing around their ears”, which she takes as an indication that “they are less likely to access feminist discussion early on.”</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">But why ought this be the case? Who is more inclined to espouse feminist principles; a single mother, struggling with underemployment, a feckless ex, a tiny income and no childcare, or comfortable middle-class couple with two jobs, two cars, and an after-school childminder? Who, more importantly, is this childminder that the middle-class mother in full-time employment is so beholden to? Even if they don’t know it, the girls in question will be absorbing feminist principles like background radiation – they might not discuss the works of Germaine Greer and Camille Paglia around the dinner table, but they’ve little doubt about their own ability to hold their own in a world that's set against them.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The teacher’s reference to “benefits” in general seems to expose ignorance of the system; are we discussing unemployment benefit, disability benefit, child support, or just working family tax credit? Or, to this woman, are “benefits” just something that only poor people need concern themselves with, like puffa jackets, pound shops and ITV? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">In the interests of transparency, I should explain that the reason I’m so provoked by this is because that’s me they’re talking about; a writer for <em>the F Word</em> has just insulted my mum. Are my opinions worth less because I wasn’t dressed in Boden or sent on skiing holidays as a child? Because we had spaghetti on toast, not penne al pesto? Tesco Value rather than Waitrose? Were my lecturers at University correct – should I have taken voice training classes to eradicate the wide Essex sound? If the cut-glass vowels of the Fawcett Society fundraiser at the end of the line are anything to go by, the answer’s a well-enunciated “yes”.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What writers of articles like this seems to overlook is that anyone, anyone at all, can be compelled to claim benefits – an employment advice service in the next town over regularly sees doctors and lawyers claiming Jobseekers’ Allowance; even the most qualified and privileged can fall ill and require sickness benefits. What’s more, the authors seem to be missing a salient and important point: high intelligence leads to increased likelihood of mental illness, as do divorce and unemployment. Bouts of mental ill-health are statistically likely to lead to periods of unemployment, financial difficulties and longer-term incapacity – all factors that drive an individual to seek financial support from the State.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">For too long commentators have disseminated the myth that only the working classes – ill-educated, understimulated, petty, ignorant or deprived – need to claim benefits. For too long, also, have they ignored the improved social mobility that post-war society has facilitated. Does the education process make one middle-class? Maybe the increased earning power and career potential of a successful graduate do lead to a perspective shift, entry into a brave new world of mortgages, not housing benefit; dinner parties, not chips on the way home. But few people that grew up in an impoverished household will forget their early years – however much they might want to. For many, those early experiences will be what drives them on through college and university, always pushing onwards to better results, more pay, a less uncertain future. And when they reach that point, if it takes two years or twenty, they’ll be proud, anxious for dignity and recognition. And after all that, someone who doesn’t know them, who has only a tiny window onto their experiences, belittles their struggle, repudiates their opinion, and – most heinous of all – insults their mum.</span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15278292523531432633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2397221732690040792.post-91086217680184340382012-09-29T16:19:00.002+01:002012-09-29T16:22:21.788+01:00An Atheist Finds Hope<br />
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Losing faith
in God - or never having had any to begin with - means creating a worldview
free from the usual guarantees: no eternal life, no supernatural punishment for
'sins', no comforting hand on the wheel when we feel we're losing control. It
requires the ultimate reality check - the realisation that we alone are
responsible for our actions, with no heavenly third party to refer to when
things go wrong. For many people with faith, this proves a difficult concept to
understand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When
atheists face questions from those who have faith, often the same few enquiries
come up. With no holy text to dictate our morals, what stops us from committing
heinous crimes? With no fear of hell, what prevents us from mistreating those
around us? Many atheists find this notion hilarious - the threat of judgement
by God is all that prevents a decent, moral believer from committing murder?
The sense of right and wrong that we imbue young children with is insufficient
to this end?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Perhaps the
issue is one of simple and understandable ignorance: if a believer has spent
their entire life taking their moral cues from the Bible, maybe they simply
don't appreciate humanity's ability to regulate their own behaviour without
that hand on their shoulder. If you'd spent your entire life breathing oxygen
from a canister with a mask, would you trust your ability to breathe the air?
Would you be prepared to slip the mask off and take the risk?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">One of the
finest (and most surreal) questions of this type, though, is an example that
was circulating on the Internet this summer. Discussing a post on another blog
entitled "20 Questions Atheists Struggle To Answer" the author
applauds her comrade's efforts to "engage with a group who simply don’t
understand Christians" - a curious description, given that a great many
atheists have become so after moving away from the religion of their youth. But
her crusading counterpart has been remiss in his interrogation; he has missed a
vital opportunity to ask a question which these godless heathens will be
completely disarmed by.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">"How do
you live without hope?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">"This
really is a cruel world that almost seems to be thinking of ways to disappoint,
damage, or ultimately destroy us. So I ask, how do you live without a hope in
the after-life? I simply cannot understand how someone faces life each day,
believing that their existence and that of those they love can be permanently
snuffed out in an instant. Believing that they will never meet again with those
that have died. Believing that ultimately this short life is all there
is."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We concede
that this is a painful conclusion for any new atheist to come to: that we will
not see our beloved friends and family members again, that innocent people lead
good lives and die meaningless deaths without the promise of heaven to console
those that loved them, that death really is the end. No-one likes to consider
that they can be "snuffed out in an instant", or to realise that they
too will be passed over and forgotten by history, their efforts trivialised by
the passage of time. But acknowledging the absence of an afterlife is not the
same as giving up on the future: it forces a shift of focus to the present and
the people we share it with.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It takes a
special kind of ignorance not to look around and notice the struggles and misfortune
of those around us. Between countries torn apart by war, communities decimated
by famine, natural disasters and disease, and the private struggles against ill
health, addiction, poverty and hopelessness fought by families and individuals
the world over, one could be forgiven for briefly wondering if the fabled
Horsemen of the Apocalypse already rode amongst us. But it is our response to
this suffering, rather than our beliefs about the cause of it, that defines us
as human beings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Let us
consider the online responses to a natural disaster like that which affected
Japan in 2011. Facebook, 21st-century almanac of public opinion, lit up with
emergency appeals for assistance. But the specific requests varied wildly in their
nature. Some asked for money - in the UK, the Disasters Emergency Committee
were quick to set up a dedicated number to facilitate the giving of donations
to the Red Cross, Medecins Sans Frontières and similar aid organisations. Some
asked for donations of food, clothing, blankets and children's toys to be sent
out to those in Japan who had lost everything. Some asked people to petition
their government to pledge millions in aid, even in countries struggling
against recession. And some asked people to pray.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">To pray. Not
to give money AND pray, not to send warm clothing AND pray, just to pray. As if
prayer alone would solve the problems. As if prayer alone would provide shelter
for the displaced, food for the hungry, and comfort to those who had watched
loved ones swept away by the endless, swirling, dirty water. As if prayer would
induce God, whose involvement with the human race has been at best minimal from
the alleged moment he placed us on this earth, to return from his current
residence on high, look at what one of his creations had done to another, see
that it was not good, and somehow fix it for everyone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Maybe I am
mistaken, or being too literal. Maybe God was present. Maybe he was in the
hearts of the rescuers, and in the minds of the people that tended to the
injured, comforted the bereaved, and sheltered the dispossessed. Maybe he was
in the actions of everyone that donated money to the charities on the ground,
and of those that helped to rebuild the shattered cities. Maybe he was in the
hearts of the men that walked into a compromised and dangerous nuclear
facility, securing and controlling the material that threatened to cause a
bigger disaster than Chernobyl, in the certain knowledge that doing so would
lead to a desperate illness and a horrible death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Or maybe
that was not God. Maybe it was something far more real, and far more useful to
us as a fragile species clinging to the face of a lonely planet: human
compassion. The simple concern for another human being that comes from a place
that psychologists and evolutionary biologists still cannot agree on. When you
accept that God doesn't exist, and you consider our planet, circling endlessly
under a cold and empty sky, you realise that all we have is each other. If God
will not help us, all we can do is help one another. If God will not provide a
blissful eternity for those that suffer, we must do what we can to make things
better for them in this life. If this is the only life we have, we must use it
to make our flawed and difficult world better.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Let us
return to the words of the blogger mentioned earlier. She continues, "the
Christian believes that behind a broken world there is a sovereign God who will
one day fix it all, and in the meantime is working everything round for good to
those who love him (Romans 8:28)"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Of course!
How silly of us to forget! God's going to fix things for everyone, and we
needn't worry about taking any action at all. We don't need to give money to
support cancer research or treatments for catastrophic spinal injuries. God
will "fix it all", and if we want him to move a bit more quickly, we
can just pray! That's why you see so many of those appeals on Facebook:
"pray for my friend's sister, she has cancer" or "pray for the
people of [disaster-struck country]". Conversely, of course, those who don't "love him" can expect to receive none of his goodwill - an atheist fallen on hard times deserves it, then?</span></div>
<br />
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">If God
exhibited even the slightest inclination to assist the day-to-day struggles of
the sick and the dispossessed, these requests for prayer would be far easier to
swallow. If you believe in God, pray for sick children if you feel you must;
but be ready to donate to a group who do practical things to make their lives
better. As it is, we're asked to believe that we're his greatest creation and
he still doesn't seem to give a damn about us. Instead of praying, we must
continue to support organisations taking practical steps to combat these
problems. If God will not remove them, then humanity must strive together to
overcome them. And that, Christian bloggers, is where atheists find hope.</span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: #0400; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: X-NONE; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: #0400; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15278292523531432633noreply@blogger.com0