Ep 13 -Meddling, Antidepressants, and Kalgoorlie
Audio version of this post is available here.
Western Australia passed a bill in the lower house to allow child sex abuse victims to sue their abusers. I reckon this should also be an option for people who were physically, mentally, and emotionally abused as children also, but this is a good start.
I am glad that the vote was unanimous and there are high hopes for this being passed in the upper house as well. I honestly would not have even thought to sue. You might seem to just be for a monetary gain, but this could bring closure to a lot of people who were victimized in their childhood.
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Australia isn’t ranking so well in the global corruption rank which is pretty disturbing. I believe they rank 180 countries in total, and Aus is currently 13th least corrupt. Its measured on a score system of 100 points. The article says that the lower the score, the more corrupt the country is. In 2012 we scored 85 but last year we dropped to a score of 77 which is kind of a big deal in my opinion.
New Zealand was ranked number 1, followed by Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Switzerland. Canada, Luxemburg, UK, and Netherlands were tied at number 8. The US tied are 16 with Austria and Belgium. The surprising one for me was Saudi Arabia at 59. I thought they would’ve been way lower. I was also surprised that North Korea scored the rank of 171, but I guess it makes sense with the bottom of the list comprising of Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Afghanistan, and Sudan.
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The aussie ABC News reported on catholic family clinics in Papua New Guinea. The fact that these clinics are religious is horrifying to me. Papua New Guinea has enough issues with an estimated 55% of women being forced to have sex at least once in their life. Abortion is illegal unless it needs to be performed to save the mother’s life. It is also estimated that 67% percent of women experience intense domestic violence. So, what do the Catholics there do? They set up so-called family planning clinics.
These clinics are suspected of not providing all services because of their religious position. Family planning clinics are supposed to help but these clinics are pushing the point of birth control = bad. There have been reports of bishops sending preachers into more remote errors discouraging people from using contraceptive methods that are man-made. There are calls to use non-denominational, or just get non-religious groups to run these clinics so that all services can be used by the people who need their help.
In a country where they have a lot of issues with domestic abuse and sexual violence, it is disgusting to serve up sexual health services as a side to your preaching and propaganda while pretending you are there for the people. This honestly makes me feel sick.
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Anti-depressants: Major study finds they work. No fucking shit Sherlock. I thought we already knew this? I guess they spent a butt load on this study to try and shut up the haters and doubters, but they will still complain.
522 trials with 116,477 people were analysed and found 21 common anti-depressants were significantly more effective at reducing symptoms of depression than the fake shit. Who woulda thunk it hey. I guess now we can prove its not in our head and big pharma isn’t tricking us. I doubt this will be the end of it though. You just know that someone will find a way to argue with this.
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Gordon Klingenschmitt is such a weird guy and his last name sounds like a super dirty taboo fetish if you ask me. What does this guy look like? …. yes, he looks like he has some sort of illegal fetish. Anyway, right-wing watch posted an article titled LGBTQ Activists Are Forcing Christian Business Owners to Participate in A ‘Perverted Threesome’. To be fair, he would probably think all sex acts that aren’t the missionary position are perverted.
Apparently not being allowed to discriminate against LGBT+ people is the same thing as a forced threesome. what?
“This lesbian couple, like so many other activists, they are not content to have their sin in private, they have got to flaunt it in public,” Klingenschmitt complained. “And not just in any public, they have got to come into the Christian business owner’s place of business and force them to join in a sort of perverted threesome … Those demonic purveyors of sodomy are trying to force Christians to participate and in them is the spirit of persecution.”
What is with the amount of super popular nutball preachers in the US? Calm your tits, American conservatives.
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There seems to be a big issue with racism in Kalgoorlie. It’s being spoken about after the death of a young indigenous boy. He was hit by a car driven by a white man who chased him down after the kid stole a bike. That man should have been done for murder, but he wasn’t. In fact, he might get parole soon. It’s been about 6 months or thereabouts. He takes the life of an indigenous kid and he gets six months. I guarantee that if the races were reversed, he would’ve got a much heftier sentence and there would have been outrage.
The boys’ grandfather planned a peaceful rally with the release date of the man approaching. They walked through the streets of Kalgoorlie with signs held high. They were met with nasty flyers and posters saying this like cull a thief day and “If a thief was to steal my motorbike … I would run him down with my Nissan Navara”. Firstly – that second part couldn’t be more bogan if it tried. Secondly – a life for a bike. That’s what you are saying? Someone takes something that isn’t theirs, and they deserve death? I didn’t realize I was living in a developing country with severe death penalties.
Victor Smith is a health worker that tries to help the indigenous youth with health-damaging behaviours like smoking and drinking.
He said “All these blackfellas here; we all work, we all pay taxes — my whole life I’ve put two dole forms in. But we all get painted with the same brush; this bloke doesn’t work, that bloke doesn’t work. If a white bloke can run a kid over and walk out in 18 months, what does that say about Australia?”
Too fucking right, Victor.
– Donna Down Under
Further reading
Child Abuse Sue Bill
https://thewest.com.au/politics/state-politics/bill-allowing-child-sex-abuse-victims-to-sue-abusers-passes-wa-lower-house-ng-b88752416z
Corruption Index
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-22/australia-slips-in-global-corruption-rank/9472114
https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2017#
Papua New Guinea
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-21/family-planning-in-papua-new-guinea/9455454
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_violence_in_Papua_New_Guinea
Antidepressants
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-43143889
Down Under Happenings
An audio version of this post can be found here
The first thing I want to touch on is the Australian Marriage Equality plebiscite and the results from that. I checked out of the whole plebiscite bullshit about halfway through because I just did not have the patience for all the yes vs no and super religious and antigay bullshit that was flying around and escalating. A lot of my queer friends and queer ally’s felt the same way that I did about it. I was arguing for fair treatment and Marriage Equality way before I came out as a Lesbesian and when you are arguing for thing for that long, you feel numbed by all the bullshit flying around.
I was convinced that nothing would come of the plebiscite because it was clear how the libs wanted it to go. I was surprised that they decided to introduce it to parliament and it actually got passed. To be fair though, it got passed because the libs seats were few due to all the resignations over dual citizenship. It still hasn’t really sunken in that I can get married now, but my fiancé and I have set a date for 2020.
I am not going to discuss the shootings in the US or their Cheeto president because I feel that it is already getting a lot of air and blog time from other people across the globe and me echoing their thoughts and opinions doesn’t actually achieve anything. Instead, I am going to talk about something closer to home in Australia.
A Transwoman by the name of CJ Palmer is a sex worker and was recently sentenced for infecting a client with HIV. I read an article or two about this and I cannot tell if she knew she was HIV positive or not, but that is not the point of me talking about this story. The thing that really pissed me off about this story was the fact they felt the need to point out that she had male genitals. What the actual fuck, why is that my business? Why is that anyone’s business? Why does it matter if she was preop or post of? The fuck ABC News?
The other thing that pissed me of is that she has been sentenced to a male prison without access to hormone treatment. That is going to fuck her body around and add to the dysphoria she must be experiencing right now. On top of that, they would not give her access to razors for shaving or shampoo because they deemed her a suicide risk. Maybe if they hadn’t sent her to a fucking men’s prison and allowed her to continue treatment, she would be coping better with recent events. Fuck, man.
– Donna Down Under
Further reading
CJ Palmer
Plebiscite
https://www.ft.com/content/22d86cb6-c042-11e7-b8a3-38a6e068f464
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-19/anti-gay-religious-prejudice-study-mental-health/9061606
https://www.nova100.com.au/news/horrific-anti-gay-ad-never-made-it-australian-tv-screens
‘Gay Marriage’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_Australia
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/the-gay-couple-who-oppose-same-sex-marriage/8871286
Big Chesticles! 