Protester... or not

Euripides seemed to know, thousands of years ago, what came from evil. These days I see evil on this planet. Oh I know it's not “new”, it's been around for so long, but evil-thinking people probably don't even think that their thoughts are evil – they simply don't know anyone in poverty.

Thinking this was supposed to be sending me to the March for March in Brisbane today. I'd put my name down to go there, I'd worked myself up so much against far too much evil I see in the government. Except now I'm over-excited; I can't go today. I can't talk to anyone, I would be there entirely alone.

On Wednesday this week there was a march to protest education becoming far too expensive. It should be free, unless, of course, some church runs their own. Yes, pay for that. Not everyone has – or takes – the choice. I'd planned on going to that protest, but on Wednesday I was even too tired to really enjoy the Streetbeat rehearsal. I took the train home after that and lay on my bed, hoping that the education march would be successful. They'd never miss me.

My intention to go to the protest today is something I've done often for the last 5 or more years. I had friends who came with me, I met up and chatted with people. I felt so strong about the protests for the reef, domestic violence, education, mining, tax, you name it. Anything under the previous ALP government, and much, much worse under the current LNP government. Today I would have gone along as a disabled person who suffers from my stroke with aphasia and is pretty close to poverty with no personal choice... but aphasia would stop me from talking to people. Chatting to people.

No government should cut the tax charged to huge businesses. No government should cut the unemployment or disability payments. No government should play with the child care allowance. No government should roll over unions when they can't even prove whatever they think! Euripides didn't know anything about how our planet now lives, but he knew why evil happens.

Too many people – even rich or well-off people – object to poverty. Most people who live in poverty or very close, like me, did not choose. I didn't choose to have a stroke. I didn't choose to have aphasia. I didn't choose to stop working. Dame Jane Morris Goodall DBE, a “British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace”, according to Wikipaedia, said that 80% of the people living in poverty should have their standard of living raised. What's happening in this country looks, to me, like it's getting worse.

I know I'm not alone, proverbially. The unemployment ratio has grown. The part-employment has grown hugely! ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) said that the unemployment percentage was 5.8%, and the “labour underutilisation” (part employment) is up to 14.4%. Female underutilisation has increased to 16.8%. In February, according to them, the participation rate remains at 64.6%, employment increased, but so did unemployment. By 5,200 nationally.

Read the Labour Force Commentary February 2017 on this page. 

The protest is also reacting as a result of the penalty wages change; perhaps you needed to be aware of what the Commission said about this. I absolutely disagree with what they did, and I object to how they turned down the submission by the unions. For me, unions are extremely important to many “normal” workers, because that's how we got to where we were/are. Have a read of this link.

Mining is a huge protest, especially Adani mining which is setting up in Queensland, with a port into the reef area (Abbott Point). That is absolutely unreal, yet the government – and the Qld government state government – will give Adani $1 billion. Right now Aus doesn't even make a profit on whatever fossil fuel we are selling! ABC's PM program on Wednesday 22^nd March said that Adani protest groups were “vow[ing] to launch mass protest against mining giant Adani.” Perhaps they'll be separate from today's protest – but I don't think they will start separately. I've walked in their protests before.

Within this country, right now, there is far too much communication: “misunderstandable” communication, “fake” news, long articles, short articles, “shares” throughout media, Twitter, Facebook, too many groups who oppose whatever the government does. Too many people have stopped reading anything, because they can't understand it – or politics turns them off. Most of those people won't go to the protest today, or any other day. But every government action hits them. I don't know “rich” people; I do know many beneficiaries. I didn't choose where I am. I didn't choose to have a stroke. I didn't choose to be on DSP, yet this is my present reality. Whatever is being passed through this government now will not be in my favour.

Today I can not communicate with anyone.

 

Who am I?

Depression can be very soul breaking. It can lead too many people to attempt suicide. Some win – they die. For many others, depression can be moving inside yourself, shutting the doors against people, staying inside your home and inside your self. Both happened to me. So who am I?

Yesterday I read an article about Nikki Gemmell, how she didn't understand what her mother did. Elayn Gemmell committed suicide in 2015. “She simply sat down in her lounge, took overdoses of prescriptions and washed them down with Irish Bailey.” Nikki told about her pain in ABC's Australian Story last night. I knew exactly what Elayn suffered.

So who am I?

I've changed in 5 years. I lost my grandkids in 2012, lost my husband in 2013, found out about my brain aneurysm in July 2013, ended up in hospital in April 2014, and have “lived” very differently since then. I don't like my life. 

I don't like that I have been through what I consider evil. Far too much. I loved Scarborough but I couldn't deal with 'it'. I moved up to Noosa. I couldn't deal with 'it' up there. I moved again. I couldn't even deal with 'it' when I was at Bethania. Far too much evil for me. I attempted suicide. Too many stories inside me.

I don't like that I have lost too many friends. I live now in a tired, worn out suburb, just me and Jordie, a lonely, shut-in life. People no longer come to visit me. My story is inside me.

I don't like that my body is feeling far too older than I really am. I've put on weight; my right eye is red, full of blood; my back caused me pain a few days ago. Just about every second day I pluck some wiry hairs from my chin – I never grew them, where are they coming from?? 

My story is inside me.

Finding out the Nikki Gemmell story made me stop and think. These days I feel very much alone, and I only have two things that I do which really lift me – I go to Mylestones and I go to SOHK.

Mylestones is an employment group which contracts to Centrelink. At the start I had no positive thoughts – I'd been previously mis-treated by Max and Help – but Mylestones, which is run by CPL, has proven to be an excellent “friend” for me. I was introduced to Natalie, who I now see is a sort of “carer”. I'm not expected to have to do anything except sit and talk to her. She's very well trained, she doesn't make me feel that I'm being “questioned”. I find out that Mylestones will pay for my re-joining SIA (Safety Institute of Australia – I used to be an WHS adviser), will pay for my gap exam for RABQSA (I'm an auditor). Pay for some clothing for an interview. And pay for my haircut. I've got one coming up, 30 March, at a salon I used to go to 3 years ago. And Natalie, at Mylestones, looks for work. I am not required to sit and ring, when I couldn't even do that! I'm feeling excited!

And School of Hard Knock? I think I mentioned this group earlier. I belong to their choir – Absolutely Everybody – and to their percussion jam group, Streetbeat. SOHK works from South Bank, so it's a long way away from me. I take the express train – only 5 station stops - to get there, walk from the station, and even when I don't feel good I won't miss those rehearsals.

So now, just who am I?

I have other stuff I'm doing or have checked up on. I've meeting a psychologist called Emotional Balance, in Waterford. My doctor sent me there due to my attempted suicide. It keeps me thinking. I joined SPA (Suicide Prevention Australia) – so far I haven't heard from them but I wanted to be a volunteer speaker. This remains to be seen. I have looked through NDIS to see if I qualify for that, but Brisbane isn't set up until 2018. And I found another choir in Beenleigh called Mixed Beans. I've been there once but can't make it this week. Maybe I'll go again.

Yesterday it was raining outside. I sat in my lounge and blankly watched TV, or laid on my bed and thought. This morning I will go to the gym. I need to, haven't been there over a week. I have walked the treadmill at around 6 for 35 minutes. I think I need to do 60 minutes. Will I ever? My challenge!

Today I'm driving up north. I'll drop Jordie at my daughter's home, carry on to Redcfliffe where the Harmony Day is happening, even if it is raining. I am playing with the Streetbeat group up there. I need to be there. My challenge!

I know I'll be in front of 'self' for now. I know I'll fall behind again in the near future. Last night I watched the program about Elayn Gemmell. I felt how she felt, but I don't think Nikki knew or understood. It's like me. She looks at it differently now.

Who am I?

Asylum: never right, then or now

Today I remembered Oakley.

I had found an article about Australian NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) which I read because I thought I'd known quite a bit about NDIS, yet I didn't really know anything about the history of how people who were disabled were cared for. The article mentioned how the psychiatric hospitals were shut down from the 1970s, and I remembered the Tokanui hospital south of Hamilton in NZ. That one I had driven past quite a few times during the 70s, even before I'd met my first husband. I knew it was shutting down, but I didn't know, until I read up on it today, that it wasn't completely closed until 1998. That seemed strange – I thought I had remembered it shutting down well before that.

I looked up other hospitals in Wikipaedia and found one I didn't think I knew about, the Whau Lunatic Asylum. That had been renamed, over the years, to Auckland Lunatic Asylum, Avondale Lunatic Asylum, Avondale Hospital, Auckland Mental Health Hospital, Oakley Hospital and Carrington Psychiatric Hospital. It had been called Oakley in the 1960s. I knew Oakley. Many years ago, living in my first home (built by my dad), I would occasionally see my Uncle Brian when my Gran brought him down from Oakley Hospital in Auckland where he lived, to Hamilton for a holiday. I went to Oakley one day for a drive with Gran when she picked him up. I have no idea of how old I was, but I don't think I was more than 10. I never had much to do with Uncle Brian, but that was because he died when I was still very young. That was some time in the 60s, I think.

Uncle Brian had epilepsy. Most people who I had met over my future who also had epilepsy didn't seem anywhere near mentally disabled as my uncle was. I never even asked my mum about that, not even when he died. But later I found out how mum had looked after him. She had to take him out of the house where she and her family were living because her mum was to be beaten up by her husband, mum's father. Gran would urgently tell mum to take him out, and mum and Brian would run. Eventually, Gran walked away from her husband and found housekeeping work so she could look after mum and my uncle. She then became a well-known seamstress, especially wedding dresses.

She got married again in the 60s. I remember a photo of mum and dad with Gran and Pop at their wedding. I think it was some time not too long after that – certainly before we moved house - when Brian died in his hospital from an epileptic grand mal seizure. For a few years I didn't believe that happened; I thought that the hospital had hidden him. I never even went to his funeral.

"There is no greater disability in society than the inability to see a person as more."

~ Robert M Hensel

Many years later, after his death, I had worked in an IHC home in Palmerston North when one of the young men in there died from grand mal seizure. He was also epileptic, and very similar to my Uncle Brian. Today I read an article which said that “[s]udden death, a mysterious and devastating outcome of epilepsy, could result from a brain stem shutdown following a seizure”. I thought of Uncle Brian, and the young chap in Palmerston North. They'd both died with very little I knew about epilepsy. I recommend this reading if you know anyone who had epilepsy.

I said at the start of this blog that I had found an article about Australian NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) which I read because I thought I needed to know more about NDIS. This write-up wasn't just about the history – which I thought was excellent because it encouraged me to remember my own history! That article said: “Forty years after community care started, people with disabilities are living longer. Yet in 2009, a report based on consultation with people with disabilities found there was still little social inclusion, poor quality disability services and high unemployment.” That is now something I have personally walked into, after my stroke in 2014, and I know that too many other disabled people live as I do, with little social inclusion, with pretty much no contact or no help about their disabilities and with little or no work. The lack of work for someone as experienced as me cuts too many other disabled people, who have not worked much or at all, out of employment. I remember some articles I have read which glow about how some disabled person has gotten into some very good job, yet that person will say that getting the job was very hard.

Unfortunately, I found out recently that many disabled people have been treated badly. The government says: “We provide financial support and help to people with disability, illness or injury so you can study or find and keep a job.” Would they? Why do they move people off disability pension? Why don't they consider that a person who was on disability pension is still disabled?

  

"Being disabled should not mean being disqualified from having 

access to every aspect of life."

 ~ Emma Thompson

So if a person has been moved from the disability pension to the Newstart, are they still eligible for NDIS? I don't think so. Is this what the government/Centrelink has started doing, just to save themselves some NDIS funding?

The legislation, called the NDIS Act 2013, (available) was passed in March 2013 when ALP was still the government, and revised in May 2013, still under ALP. When LNP won the election the Act was superseded and compiled 5 times since September 2013. There is a full website which includes a history page. The details at the bottom of that page gives, for me, a frustrating change of the name: “After the Federal election on 7 September 2013, the incoming Government discontinued the use of the name 'DisabilityCare Australia', reverting to the National Disability Insurance Scheme.” I would have stuck with DisabilityCare Australia because, for me, that showed that the scheme was set up for care, not for insurance.

The NDIS website gives information about what NDIS means and what it is here for. In June 2013 821,738 people received DSP. That has dropped, and the approval of DSP is much less than it used to be, even when people with real disability applied. Now the NDIS website says only 460,000, aged under 65, would be eligible for the NDIS support. There is no connection to the government change of retirement age. Why not? And how are so many people on DSP not eligible for NDIS?

NDIS isn't available in every Australian area until 2019. It is being introduced slowly, and the growth isn't as high as NDIS themselves said it would have been. From 2014 the government gave information about the increase in the pension age – from 1 July 2017 that will be 65 years and 6 months. I reach the new retirement age of 66 years and 6 months on 1 July 2021. So for other people this affects, is the NDIS eligibility missing between 1 July 2017 and 1 July 2023? Is this leading to more people cut off NDIS?

The NDIS website provides an “access checklist” so any person who claims they have a disability can see whether or not they are covered by NDIS. The huge problem is that any person in this country who is now on DSP, is not eligible for NDIS if they do not have a permanent (lifelong) disability. And that, the worst of NDIS, seems to have been the reason that so many people on DSP have now been moved off. Even if they are disabled. Even if their disability might be lifelong.

If they aren't eligible for DSP, they will never receive NDIS support. And many who are eligible for DSP but for less than their lifetime, will never receive NDIS support.

“Asylum” in the Oxford dictionary is defined as “Shelter or protection from danger:‘we provide asylum for those too ill to care for themselves’”. Despite every “asylum” hospital closed, despite the fact that so many disabled people have been cut off from help, no disabled person can claim asylum. It doesn't happen. NDIS should have been set up as an “asylum”. It wasn't.

Never right, then or now.

 "Disability only becomes a tragedy when society fails to provide the things needed to lead one's daily life."

~ Judith Heurmann

One Billion Rising

At the end of 2012 and the start of 2013 I started my own website www.itsokaytobeangry.com which told my story and compared that to what happened to a beautiful woman in India. There was a blog too, but now I couldn't get into it. Why? I have contacted Blogger but haven't yet had a response, so this blog is here and should be read by every person who supports One Billion Rising.

What is One Billion Rising? According to the OBR website, it had started in 2012 and the first OBR dance was in 2013. They said: “One Billion Rising is the biggest mass action to end violence against women in human history. The campaign, launched on Valentine’s Day 2012, began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. On 14 February 2013, people across the world came together to express their outrage, strike, dance, and RISE in defiance of the injustices women suffer, demanding an end at last to violence against women.”

Four years ago, at the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013, I started a One Billion Rising dance group in Brisbane to get people involved in OBR around the world. The intention of the group was raising knowledge in public on 14 February. Valentine's Day here is usually romance. We were trying to turn it to understanding abuse. Ours was a very small dance group: only 30-odd turned up for the strike dance in Brisbane's Queens St Mall, but it went down so very well. We had our pics taken at the end of the Queens St Mall and we felt as if we had won against the world – or at least a part of Brisbane – for the OBR.

Later that year I was also involved in the Vagina Monologues, an excellent play written by Eve Ensler, which raised knowledge about how women are abused. It was real. I met some people who had danced in OBR with me, and other who became friends.

Around that time I had already started the One Billion Rising Brisbane Facebook page, which still exists and has 244 followers. If I had attended to that then maybe it would have grown, but I had a stroke, with aphasia, nearly 3 years ago and I haven't done anywhere near as much as I should have. I asked in a public message if there were any followers who would take over this page, but no response.

This year, 2017, was celebrated at midnight as the end of 2016, an extremely bad year for so many people. Yet I can't see ahead for 2017 because, for me, there are too many things happening throughout the world which will continue to happen – and will get worse. Australia has been writing from Centrelink to beneficiaries about what they owe, when the beneficiaries know they don't owe. Too many people in this country committing suicide. Too many politicians have been kicked out of the front bench – and all of them should resign. Too much abuse against women. Too many work safety injuries and death. Too many pensioners robbed by the government when their own

politicians just make money. And more... and more.

In the USA the President-elect, Trump, should never have been elected. What I see that happened – anger about how poor people are really living – is very similar to what happened in Australia as One Nation was elected, even though Hanson is no better than Trump and nothing will ever get better. UK last year voted Brexit, Prutin from Russia cares very little at all about the rest of the world, nuclear weapons are growing alarmingly between governments who are supposed to be running their country for their people, and far too many TPPAs.

Two countries, China and India, between them have one third of the entire population of the planet. Where does that leave us, those who protest against abuse against women, coal mining, break-down of the Barrier Reef, water issues, politicians, health, education et al et al et al?

One Billion Rising is a very valuable protest against abuse, but as the world population grows alarmingly, as the majority of people in control of this planet are male, as women in every single country throughout this sad growth have no control over their true futures, how do we look forward? I know that protests will still happen from OBR, protests against us will still happen from anti-OBR, but what else will happen? Will this protest, which I am still very proud of, keep happening? Will the abuse which happens against women throughout the world actually stop? If not, why? Why??

Does anyone – any man who is against rape, abuse, mistreatment – read this? Would any of those men have danced with us in 2013? Are you dancing this year?

OBR acknowledges each event throughout the world, and there is one here in Brisbane at the Powerhouse at New Farm, run by Vulcana Women’s Circus, WaW Dance, BDVS and Nia Australia. I hope there are many people who will go to this, many people who will write about it, share it, talk to people about it.

I hope that Brisbane will dance for OBR.

Dear Friend

Dear friend, I remember you. Kindy was so much fun. We played every day. We stuck together throughout our school years because we were best friends. We had other friends too, but we were the best. I left school earlier than you, and you took different training than I did. You moved. You came back many years later but you no longer see me. I still love you. I miss you.

Dear friend, I remember you. You were a bouncy, wonderful young person. We had a wonderful friendship, and we would talk about who you could date, how you should party, what was happening to me. I ventured out of my town. I heard the news: you died far too early. I still love you. I miss you.

Dear friend, I remember you. You taught me in the gym, so much I learned! You were a lovely, friendly teacher. We'd join a group for a coffee early in the morning, we chatted. Your career shot ahead, you moved. I watch you, I still love you. I miss you.

Dear friend, I remember you. You lived so far away from me, but we talked so much! I tripped up and down the country and visited you, you cooked dinner for me, we went out with our mutual friends, we danced, we played pool, we drove around, you came up to visit me. You died far too early from a stupid cancer. I still love you. I miss you.

Dear friends, I remember you. You were all of the wonderful people I met after I came out of my shell. We'd meet for coffee, parties, singing, dancing, enjoy each other, travel with each other. I'd come up the island to you, you'd come down the island with me. We had such a lot of fun, so many silly things we did together and we loved it! I moved. My own silly fault. I went back over there a few times and I visited you. I still love you all. I miss you.

Dear friend, I remember you. We met at trivia. You were making so many friends, I was losing too many of my own. I drove you around when you were recovering, you came to visit me when I was recovering. I still went to your trivia, but not as often these days: it seems too far away. It seems I'm too far away from you. I still love you. I miss you.

Dear friend, I remember you. You came into town and met me and we danced. We got very close, you came to visit me when I was recovering. I would visit you often and every other often you would come to visit me. We sat and yakked, we hugged, we messaged each other. I moved and I'm too far away from you. My own silly fault. I know that you have your own illness problems, but I rarely see you. I still love you. I miss you.

Dear friend, I remember you. You joined me in a stage play, you made me so many beautiful necklaces, you made a mask of my old keys, you painted my face for the Zombie parade. I would go visit you in your home. You were a beautiful, wonderful person. I know that your family have their own illnesses: I haven't seen you for too long. I still love you, I miss you.

Dear friend, I remember you, even for a very short time. You were at the retirement village when I moved in. We quickly became friends, we understood how we thought of ourselves and what other people would think of us. You were sick, sicker than me. You chose not to eat because you didn't want to live in this village. You died. I miss you.

Dear friends. Dear, dear friends. So many I lost. I know that they have their own lives, have their own death. I'm not included. Maybe it's me who moved away from them. Maybe it's me who is old, who is still in recovery, who can't go back to what I used to do. Do I tell you about how I feel? Do you tell me how you feel? Why don't we talk? Why don't we listen? Why don't we help each other?

Dear friends, I remembered you, but I knew you didn't need me. I still love you. All of you.

I miss you.

Annus horribilis 2016

This was my personal annus horribilis, but I know that 2016 proved to be a very bad year for far too many people. I didn't have any decent stuff happening for me until August after I moved back to Brisbane – I had a lot of things to do in my diary! In October I got into the School of Hard Knocks choir, but the next month I lost a friend. This might just tell you something you hadn't read about – there are a few of my blogs mentioned. I live differently.

January: David Bowie died 10 January as a result of his cancer. Alan Rickman from the Harry Potter series died 14 January also from his cancer. Glenn Frey from Eagles died 18 January. Blog “Welcome to my hell” printed 31 January. Unemployment increased to 6.0%, highest jobless number in 4 months.

February: Looking for work. Blog “Looking for work?” printed 11 February. Trade deficit up to $3.41billion. Unemployment at 5.8%

March: Jon English died 9 March from post-operative complications from his aortic aneurysm. Keith Emerson, from Emerson, Lake & Palmer, committed suicide 10 March by shooting himself in the head. Wrote a blog called “I wish...” on 22 March which reflected my thoughts of wishing for work – and help. Unemployment dropped to 5.7%.

April: Blogged “The Decision” on 10 April about how I was frustrated about the lack of decision “10 months and 27 days (and a few hours, give or take)”. Got my result from QIRC on 22 April: even though the Commissioner found in my favour (I read: section 32(3)(ba) ), he read section 32(5)(b) of the Act which wouldn't allow it. He found for Q-Comp. My brain stopped working... I didn't think at all about what I was doing, just a reaction towards my severe depression. I gave notice at my rental property as it was now too expensive for me. Singer Prince died 21 April. Unemployment at 5.7%.

May: Moved up to a farm property just north of Noosa. It started well, blogged “Sweet Home Cootharaba” on 15 May, but it went downhill for the next two months. No NBC at the farm. Unemployment at 5.7%.

June: No NBC at the farm. Had to drive to Noosa Library every second day. Blog on 22 June was titled “Courage and strength”. Unemployment up to 5.8%.

July: No NBC at the farm. Did not enjoy the area, arranged to move back to Brisbane to a retirement village in Bethania. Car into mechanic for repairs and blogged about that - “Going down, going up”, 10 July. Daughter came to vet with me and Jordie, arranged for exams, medicals and prescriptions. Unemployment at 5.7%.

August: Big communication problem with HELP about registering me for employment – I wanted to, they didn't. Blog “Communication problem”, 18 August. Unemployment at 5.6%.

September: Had seemed to be okay when I first moved in, but started going downhill from this month. Induction held far too long after I arrived, I asked questions and got growled at! Dog owners were banned from walking some retirement village paths (not against the law!). Train issues became a problem. Blogged about that, “Too much to handle”, 10 September. Unemployment at 5.6%.

October: Wrote a positive blog - “Snuggling up”, 12 October. Got into School of Hard Knocks choir! Began my severe low depression with my fight with the property manager and site manager. Unemployment at 5.6%.

November: Wrote a blog about site manager calling me names - “Nutcase” 1 November. Dom (friend) committed suicide – self-invoked hunger while he waited to die from asbestosis. Blogged about him in “Asbestosis” on 7 November. Leonard Cohen died 11 November. Attempted suicide later this month; taken to hospital and kept overnight. Locked out of my unit by the site manager when I got back, illegal. Ongoing communication with police, Tenants Qld, Q-Star, YFS and others for help. Application to QCAT against property manager. Unemployment at 5.7%.

December: Moved into (2brm) unit in Eagleby, felt so good because I was self-contained, had a decent yard for Jordie, and same rent as single bedroomed unit! Wrote a blog about what I suffer, “Dyspraxia”, 17 December. George Michael died 25 December. Unemployment figures not available for this month yet.

So now it's 2017. Last night I didn't watch the TV which was set up to show the Sydney NYE stuff. The noise over the back neighbour's fence seemed to have disappeared - it had been there almost the entire day, but around 10pm it just... disappeared! (Maybe they'd all gone to sleep...) And I was tired. Every day tired. I have attended many years of celebrations, but these years they just aren't for me. The only thing I want to see is the new year, the best new year, the decent new year. I hope this year works for all of you.

Have a wonderful 2017!

Old roads

On my V-Star in 2009, visit at Nimbin

A few years ago, between 2005-2011 after we'd moved to Aus and joined the Mt Lindesay Ulysses riders group, Stan and I had ridden our motorbikes along many old roads around the SEQ Brisbane area. Today I decided to go over some of the old roads and see if I remembered them.

At the start, I drove the back way from Waterford to Park Ridge – a road which I'd already done years ago. We got into Park Ridge and had to head north along the Mt Lindesay highway because there was no road I would remember which would have taken us to the BP. We got off the highway at the Greenbank exit, went under the highway and got back onto it heading south.

I took Jordie to the dog wash at the BP which is just off the highway – possibly it's called the Regents Park area. A few years ago, when I used to take Jordie and my English bull terrier Bundy there, after their bath we used to walk from the BP a short way north, then up onto the footbridge across to the other side of the highway. Jordie seemed to remember the area, and her bath cooled her down. Even though I used the drier, I'd taken some towels to wipe her over with – they were needed!

The Browns Plains – Beaudesert roads didn't look any different than they had years ago as we drove on roads I had ridden on. It wasn't quite lunch time, so we didn't stop in Beaudesert; I'd only previously had a stop at a pub for lunch, very little that I'd seen anywhere else throughout Beaudesert.

We drove on to Tamborine and decided to go up to the top. That place I've been to a few times in my recent history, but this morning we drove around the South Tamborine instead of the North Tamborine I had been through years ago. We stopped at what seemed to be the main village, and I shouted Jordie a bottle of water and an ice cream. We didn't taken the main village road because I knew that would be very busy during holidays. I had seen cafes and wineries where I wished I'd been able to stop, but I couldn't leave Jordie alone in the car – in the heat!

As we passed another pub I'd been to fairly recently, I wanted to go down the very steep road to the Gold Coast road but decided to go back the way we'd come up. I felt pretty good about my own driver behaviour - I sat in 3^rd, little braking necessary, going down that hill behind a car which was probably automatic and needed lots of brakes.

At the bottom was the Dragon pub, where I'd been around 2008 and had my pic taken with a snake hanging over my shoulder! Nowhere there that I could have taken Jordie, and no shady parking, so we kept going.

The roundabout looked like it had changed. Years earlier, I had already driven on the Waterford road, so I chose to go on the Tamborine-Beenleigh road. I drove some old roads, thinking I'd never been on them, and yet after I saw a bridge going to Yatala from that road I knew I'd been there – years ago with the Ulysses group I'd ridden across the bridge from Yatala and turned left to head towards Tamborine! I went through Windaroo too, which I hadn't remembered from my history, but I saw an old yellow building which was a cafe with a carpark which we (the Ulysses group) had already been to – which I can't even find on a map! (Had I imagined it?)

Beenleigh looks very familiar, mostly because I now live in this area and have very recently driven around Mt Warren roads. I drove today for nearly 3 hours, and I knew how to get us back home. I hope to do this sort of drive again, because reminding myself where I've already been is ongoing recovery for me. Jordie and I enjoyed it.

Regret the Error

 

A couple of days ago I bought a new set of shelves for in my bedroom/office, and decided to sort out the excess books on my lounge bookshelf. I moved some of the women's writings, and some writings which interested me – including “The Stories that Changed Australia” - a 50-year look at 4-Corners, Jane Caro's “Destroy the Joint” and Richard Dawkin's “The Greatest Show on Earth: the Evidence for Evolution”. Another one I found in my lounge was “Regret the Error” by Craig Silverman. It was published back in 2007 and I bought it some time after that, but it sat in my bookshelf and I hadn't read it. I started this week.

This book seemed to be close to information I had already gotten from Snopes: “rumour has it”. Founded by David Mikkelson in 1995, Snopes has grown since then because it is “widely regarded by folklorists, journalists, and laypersons alike as one of the World Wide Web's essential resources.” Often, when I found something which didn't sound right, I'd check it out in Snopes. (I also used to check facts with the ABC, which now doesn't seem to be doing what they used to – the most recent I found was 1 July 2016.)

Craig Silverman's original website was regrettheerror.com. It's now part of Poynter's, which advertises as “a global leader in journalism”. Silverman's last issue was in March 2015 and the Regret the Error page in Poynter leads to some issues written by other writers as late as August 2015. Whilst Poynter says about themselves that “[t]he Poynter Institute is a global leader in journalism. It is the world’s leading instructor, innovator, convener and resource for anyone who aspires to engage and inform citizens in 21st Century democracies”, Silverman is now the media editor on BuzzFeed in Toronto.

Reading his book intrigued me. Checking other websites he mentioned, I found FactCheck, which is a “Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center” and says “We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases.” NewsBusters is a Trump supporter website, which says they are “exposing & combatting Liberal media bias”. PolitiFact is “a fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others who speak up in American politics.” Why don't I believe NewsBusters? Perhaps Politifact are more believable because they don't simply say they support one political party.

Two other websites in the book don't seem to be available online – at least, not for me today: NewsTrust.net and StinkyJounalism.org. 

Silverman looked at early publications of newspapers by Hearst and Pulitzer during 1897-1898 which fought a writing war, saying “That time is commonly viewed as a low point in journalism, a period when the two press magnates sought to outdo each other with the most lascivious, outrageous, and attention-grabbing reporting possible. In the course of trying to destroy each other, they came close to destroying the reputation of the press itself.”

Later, throughout the book he provided sections called “The Corrections” where newspapers, who had themselves printed incorrect information, reprinted what could have been classed as an apology. The sections looked at various issues, and I've printed some that amused me. Have a look.

“Multiple offenses” (p87): “A brief report incorrectly referred to Nottingham as the gun crime capital of England and the least-secure university town with a third students beings victims of muggings (University crime, August 17). In fact, the first description is untrue, the second was based on statistics for the whole of Nottinghamshire, not just the city, and the third was a national statistic. - Times (UK)”

“Names and titles” (p98): “Wednesday's editorial about the lobbyist Jack Abramoff gave the wrong name for the President of Gabon in one reference. It should have been President Bongo, not President Gabon. - New York Times”

“Typos” (p107): “A review of Wikinomics on Tuesday should have said, “This is not another book about profitless Internet start-ups.” The word “not” was inadvertently omitted. - USA Today”

“Fuzzy numbers” (p128): “Any number divided by zero is undefined, not zero as reported last Sunday in a Starship article about the number zero. Zero divided by zero is also undefined. The Star regrets the error. - Toronto Star”

“Death by media” (p181): “Because of incorrect information provided to The Sun, an article about Charles Village in Sunday's Maryland section reported that Precious the Skateboarding Dog had recently gone “to the great skateboard in the sky”. Precious is still alive. - Baltimore Sun

This correction was printed in June 2006. Precious, unfortunately, only lived for a further month – see the article at the bottom.

“Misidentifications and personal errors” (p203): 

 

A picture on the cover of the Real Estate Section Friday was incorrect. The picture was not the gangster Al Capone, but the actor Rod Steiger playing Capone. - Newsday (New York)

“Strange and sublime” (p249): “For the Record... In the December issue, we mistakenly ran the box cover art of the first “Swallow My Squirt” from Elegant Angel with our review of “Swallow My Squirt 2”. Here's the correct box. We swallow our pride and apologize. - Adult Video News”

If you read this book, enjoy it. If you don't, then take notice of what you read in newspapers or online – errors happen every day. I hope there are many editors or publishers who, for errors in their newspaper or online, will say that they“Regret the Error”.

Call the Midwife!

ABC had a 2015 BBC program advertised as “Call the Midwife: Christmas Special” on TV last night. I hadn't watched the program before – or any maternity programs for such a long time. I didn't, at the time I watched it, realise that it was from last year, but it wound my memory back. This program introduced an event involving one woman giving birth to twins, and a second woman giving birth to the baby she didn't even know she had! I'd known I was pregnant, but my birth was so different to this!

Call the Midwife was set at the end of the 1950s and into the start of the 1960s. Wikipaedia has a history of it, very interesting to read. During the 50s and 60s my mum had produced our family in the Waikato (Hamilton, New Zealand) hospital. Midwives had helped, but Jane Stojanovic (RM, RGON, MA [Applied], ADN) wrote:

 By the 1950s birth took place in a room very similar to an operating theatre, under very similar conditions to a surgical operation. These procedures persisted; in the 1970s, as a student midwife I remember spending a lot of time acquiring the skills of sterile technique, learning how to cover the woman correctly with sterile drapes which, of course, required the woman to remain in a horizontal position and that necessitated the use of the lithotomy position and ‘stirrups’ to hold her legs in place.

 My brother was kept separate from his new mum each night in his own cradle in a “sleeping room” filled with babies. I don't know if this happened for me and my sisters in the 50s. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any photos of the Waikato Hospital back then but I do remember the old ward when dad took me and my siblings to see mum and my youngest sister born in the 60s.

This again changed a lot by the time I was pregnant in the early 1980s. By then, in the Elizabeth Rothwell Building, (based in the Waikato Hospital) there seemed to be no midwives unless you had chosen them. For some reason, midwives had disappeared. I had a back injury which annoyed me so much that the anaesthetist gave me an epidural in my back – I had a very easy birth. I had my daughter in the Taupo hospital, but they didn't allow epidurals. I could have chosen to go to Rotorua hospital, but my mum had come to Taupo to look after my son while I was in hospital so I didn't want to leave her. I screamed so much during my birth; I even remember just wanting to get up and leave the hospital and I'd be okay outside! Of course, that didn't happen... Yet I cannot remember midwives in either of my births in either hospital.

Midwives are now back full time. The Ministry of Health page lists Waikato Hospital as a supplier of “teritary maternity facilities”, and the other 9 facilities throughout Waikato are called “primary maternity facilities” - although “[y]ou can choose where you have your baby – at home, in a birthing centre or small maternity unit, or in hospital.” 

For my own birth and for the births of my children my memory has its own story, just very briefly mentioned here. Anyone who watches Call the Midwife might never have been to London, but for me it was a good reminder of my own city when I was little. It also intrigued me enough to look up more information about midwives then and now.

I think I might watch it again.

Waikato Hospital, Hamilton NZ

What does it mean to you?

Sunny... or snowy? Hot... or cold? Where would you prefer to be at Christmas? Can you go anywhere throughout the world where you'd like to be?

Or are you stuck, now... forever... in Australia. Because you're on Newstart or DSP. Maybe homeless. Maybe no family in your area, and very few friends?

Erin Stewart, Sydney Morning Herald journalist, wrote an interesting article on how she felt that Australia is the “best place to celebrate Christmas”. She had been to Britain before and saw how brown it was. Not white. Not even colourful. At the Christmas meal the dinner plate, apparently, reflected “brown”. And yet the pics in this article were very colourful – and the non-colour was mostly what people wore!

Pictures and explanations on the WorldPic site showed different celebrations throughout the world – including Russia (picture 4): the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas on January 7^th, not December 25^th! In India only 2% celebrate the Christian reason for Christmas, yet the entire population celebrates a national holiday! And in Italy the witch La Befana distributes presents to children on 5^th January, the eve of Epiphany – I wish all witches were treated so well as there!

Have you every thought of Mexico? And piñatas? According to Marco Polo (voyager b1254 d1324) they were from China and used for their own New Year celebration. Mexico still uses them now, but the use has seemed much more commercial.

Or how about Venezuela? Seems to be the most colourful place to be! And every morning, before the church services from 16th-24^th December, the roads are closed from 8am just to let people roller skate!

If any of you have the world to choose from, good luck to you! Christmas, for me and for thousands others, is just here. ABC's “Splash” site showed a video of the celebration of Christmas in Australia in 1861 (Chapter 9), and that looked, to me, like how Christmas should be today. Back then “simple gifts made by hand” and wonderful family feelings made Christmas. These days, for those of us who either don't celebrate or will be alone, watching this video made me feel so calm.

Homeless and poor people are helped wherever there is a charity which feeds them. These events happen because of wonderful charities which exist for people in poverty - “Basket Brigade” of the Magic Foundation, Mission Australia (they're running a picnic in WA's park), Exodus Foundation in Brisbane, Manna – also in WA, Samaritans, the Smith Family and so many more!

At the start of this period, when you've planned your celebration or heading overseas (or both), please remember the people who can't celebrate here – too poor, alone, very, very depressed. Donate, if you can – especially if you are going overseas, because if you can afford that, you can afford a small present for someone in need.

Have your own Merry Christmas.

 

Animals or people in poverty?

I don't believe that any person is an “animal”. Many people I've read about have been called “animals”, yet people are not animals. Even – especially – politicians are worse than any animal could be. Cutting benefits isn't something that an animal would do – or could do.

Live Science said that “We lie, cheat and steal, carve ornamentations into our own bodies, stress out and kill ourselves, and of course kill others.” This behaviour isn't in comparison to animals, but according to Live Science it is compared with most animals. I don't know any animals who do any of this sort of thing other than killing others – that is their food, they have to kill it!

But animals don't have benefits which they can cut.

Live Science listed 10 of the “destructive human behaviours”:

1. We lie
2. We crave violence
3. We steal
4. We cheat
5. We cling to bad habits
6. We bully
7. We nip, tuck, plump and tattoo our bodies
8. We stress out
9. We gamble
10. We gossip

Out of those 10, for me there are only seven destructive behaviours: number 7 is your personal choice to get any of that done to you, number 8 isn't behavioural – it can be short-term, long-term or chronic – and number 10 is social (although it can be destructive if it is verbal bullying). I might write about those in the future. So let's go through the others.

People lie. Many do. Children tell wee lies when questioned by their parents. That is simply what they are learning. Older children tell small lies when they are questioned about something they shouldn't have done; that also is learning. Adults, young or old, tell lies when they are asked about a crime they might have been involved in, or when they make their own choices, or when they don't want people to know what's happening to them. Learning how to tell lies – or how not to - happens years before people really grow up; adults who lie haven't still learned.

Lies, when they are picked out, can cause a lot of grief. Adults should be aware of how lies can hurt your family, friends or workmates – and should care. Have a look through Dawson's Blog, How to Stop Lying, or through the Uncommon Help website for suggestions about how you can recognise these problems and, hopefully, fix them.

Politicians should learn how lying hurts too many of this population. Why do they do this? Maybe they just don't care.

People crave violence. This suggestion demonstrates how humans fight to live. The law relating to parents physically reprimanding their children changed somewhere in the last 50 years, saying that hitting your child is violence. Too many children I see these days who have had no reprimand and behave extremely bad, yet most people don't crave violence until too many changes have hit us.

ABS reports about violent assault which includes domestic violence, yet too many assaults are from a stranger. Australia doesn't have a “war” within our country, but politicians send soldiers overseas to fight someone else's war. Do they really need to? Do soldiers crave violence? Maybe we would all crave violence to fight to live – after all, it started with “Mad Max” in 1979... was that too early? Or too late?

Just stop cutting the benefits – very low benefit income will send too many people into crime and violence.

People steal. Do they do this in need, or for the thrill? Do children learn throughout their young age what stealing is? Do adults steal for fun? In Australia crime goes up when benefits go down. Be sure of that – it's not planned, it happens because benefits reduce. The reduction of the benefit has pushed people too far into poverty. If you can't eat, you would steal. I'm not just making that up; it happens. In Italy, apparently, it is not a crime, thankfully.

Why do Australian politicians keep making access to the benefits so much harder? Do they decide that crime is okay? They should start to really think about how and why people will steal. Stealing to eat is real. Stealing to sell something to live on that income is real.

People cheat. This is just what the politicians have blamed beneficiaries for. Apparently many of us aren't even eligible for a benefit. Maybe we don't get to job interviews. Maybe we don't really have a brain injury. Maybe we should work even when we have children to love, look after and support.

In May this year ScoMo provided cuts to far too many programs to “save money”, including reforming the “Work for the Dole” program (saves $494.2 million over four years from 2016-17), “ongoing administrative efficiencies” in the Department of Human Services (saves $80 million over four years), changes to the Medicare benefits (saves $56.5 million over four years), ceasing the Job Commitment Bonus from 31 December 2016 (saves $242.1 million over five years) and so much more. Saving?

Do you know what the NDIS is? It is a National Disability Insurance Scheme which has been supported by the government, yet to support this they have cut welfare benefits. By $27 billion. I have attended two meeting from NDIS in Brisbane, but I still don't understand how this organisation would help people. Why are we supporting this? The government is cheating us.

People cling to bad habits. Personally, I think this is because bad habits seem to work for us... until we actually find out otherwise. According to news.com.au, our bad habits have taken over in 25 years. For people my age, that makes sense. As a kid I lived a very good life. Then Maccas came along, followed by KFC, Burger King and so on. As a kid, later as a young adult, these things were treats, not “every day” food, yet by the change of the century the price worked for beneficiaries because they could afford this. Takeaways were starting to cost our health. Maybe Maccas et al should be taxed for the bad food preparation.

Smoking has been taxed... and taxed, and taxed, until it's too expensive. Why does the government charge people who do not smoke against the law? By increasing the percentage of young people who don't smoke (age 12-15, had never smoked, up from 53% to 77%) means that the adults who still do will always pay more tax. Why charge them that, if there is no real proof that smoking will kill you? I don't believe that smoking causes breast cancer, or prostate cancer, or dementia, or stroke, or brain tumours, or diabetics. Don't say that sort of stuff, because you can't prove it!

People bully. Very recently a young gay boy, Tyrone, killed himself. He had been bullied far, far too much at his school. I know other people who have tried or committed suicide because they have been bullied more than they can handle with it. Three weeks ago that happened to me.

The Australian Human Rights Commission wrote on their website:

“Bullying can happen anywhere. It can be in schools, at home, at work, in online social spaces, via text messaging or via email. It can be physical, verbal, emotional, and it also includes messages, public statements and behaviour online intended to cause distress or harm (also known as cyberbullying). But no matter what form bullying takes, the results can be the same: severe distress and pain for the person being bullied.”

According to the Bully Zero Australia Foundation, “[v]erbal bullying is the most common form of bullying in Australia”. Bullying is happening from politicians who seem to believe that heavy-handed or disgusting verbal treatment of people who are on a benefit will send those people to work, even though those politicians don't understand that there are not enough jobs.

People gamble. Have you played the machines in the local pub or RSL? Do you know why they are there? Or have you been to a casino – a large, glamorous casino with hundreds of machines, card tables and too much other stuff? There are 12 casinos in Australia, spread out between every state and the two territories. There are 974 RSLs throughout Australia, and more than 5,500 other pubs or clubs which carry pokie machines. When Gillard was the PM she introduced reforms to deal with the gambling addiction problems (115,000 were usually low-income people – figure that out), but that was dumped by the LNP and state governments which “introduced changes to make life easier for serious poker machine players”.

Why make life easier for serious poker machine players? Why include that sort of thing in pubs, clubs, casinos, RSLs? Why make it too easy for beneficiaries to get into those places, when they are desperately trying to get more funds than the government gives them?

Why not increase their payment, rather than cut it?

As I wrote this, I felt worse. Sicker, maybe. Politicians never take real attention of how people on a benefit will live. Or whether they will live. Poverty is unreal, but it is definitely happening here in Australia. Most people aren't bad; they simply don't have a choice when they are dumped from their previous employment. Most people on DSP should be on DSP, because disability isn't what they chose. Penalties for the unemployed are unfair; why are there too many “jobsearch” contractors who will always get paid for cutting the benefit to almost everyone they see? Why are the politicians cutting benefits? WHY are they cutting benefits?

Every politician should have to live on a benefit for four weeks when they are elected. No other assistance. Every politician needs to understand how people way down there in poverty – or so close to it – live. We did not ever choose poverty.

Politicians would never choose that either.

And real animals never have to.