Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Father raped daughters for 25 years

November 26, 2008 - 6:30AM

A man who fathered nine children after raping his daughters has been jailed for life in England.

The 56-year-old Sheffield man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted raping his two daughters over 25 years.

His terrified daughters fell pregnant 19 times and gave birth to nine children, seven of whom survived.

The case has disturbing parallels with that of Austria's Josef Fritzl, who fathered seven children with the daughter he locked in a dungeon for 24 years.

While Fritzl is still awaiting trial, the Sheffield man was on Tuesday ordered to serve 25 life sentences behind bars in England.

His daughters, whose identities remain secret, expressed relief that their harrowing ordeal was now over.

"His detention in prison brings us only the knowledge that he cannot physically touch us again," they said in a statement.

"The suffering he has caused will continue for many years and we must now concentrate our thoughts on finding the strength to rebuild our lives."

Sheffield Crown Court judge Alan Goldsack said the case was "the worst I have come across" in nearly 40 years.

"I have little doubt that many members of the public hearing the facts of this case will consider either you should never be released from prison or only when you are old and infirm," he said as he handed down his sentence to the man, who had refused to leave his prison cell to attend the hearing.

"I agree with that view."

The man, a self-employed businessman who liked to call himself the "gaffer", was arrested after social workers learned in June about the decades of abuse his daughters suffered.

He admitted 25 rapes and four indecent assaults during a hearing last month.

The court heard the abuse began when the man's daughters were aged eight and 10 and that he "took pleasure" in the harm he knew he was doing to them.

The eldest sister fell pregnant seven times, the youngest 12.

Of their 19 pregnancies, 10 babies were lost because of miscarriage or abortion, while two died on the day they were born.

Prosecutor Nicholas Campbell QC said when either of the sisters tried to end the abuse, their father threatened to kill them and their children.

They tried offering him 100 pounds ($233) a month from their child benefits to stop the abuse and tried to give him as much whisky as they could in the hope he would drink himself to death.

To ensure the abuse remained secret, the man repeatedly moved house with his family, including his wife and son. His wife left in the early 1990s.

"All the family were frightened of him," Campbell said.

"His younger daughter told of the frightening habit her father had of putting her head next to the flames of their gas fire and that when she struggled to get away on certain occasions she burnt her eyes."

In 1998 one of the sisters called a helpline run by the charity Childline and asked for a guarantee that she could keep her children if she came forward about the abuse.

But no guarantee was granted and the sisters' suffering went unreported.

Police and social services have launched an independent review into the case and why the abuse was not detected sooner.

Ian Keates, for the Crown Prosecution Service in South Yorkshire, described the abuse the sisters had been subjected to as "beyond comprehension".

"In his treatment of his victims the defendant sank to the most profound depths of depravity," he said.

AAP

Source

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Creationism v science: school on report

Anna Patty Education Editor

November 25, 2008

THE state school registration and curriculum authority has investigated the teaching of creation theory in science classes at a Christian school.

The Board of Studies responded to a complaint about Pacific Hills Christian School in Dural and will hand down its findings early next month.

The general manager of the board, John Bennett, told a budget estimates committee last week that the school was under investigation for "teaching creationism in science classes".

A spokeswoman for the board said it had acted on a complaint that the school had not properly followed its requirements for teaching the science syllabus.

The board referred the complaint to Christian Schools Australia, asking it to investigate.

The board also accepted the school's invitation to inspect its teaching and learning activities.

The board spokeswoman said its curriculum director was given a user name and password for the school's intranet, which allowed him to review the curriculum. He also attended several science classes and observed student work on evolution.

"Our inspector reviewed the school's educational programs for science, including student work samples and the assessment tasks set for years 7-10 science and year 11 biology classes," the board spokeswoman said. "The Christian Schools Australia investigation and report have been received and the board's own processes are close to completion.

"The matter will be finalised and the outcome communicated to the school and the complainant within the next two weeks."

The head of Christian Schools Australia, Stephen O'Doherty, said his organisation had found no reason for Pacific Christian School to lose its registration. "The whole thing is a complete furphy," he said. The school did not teach intelligent design or "creationism" - creation as scientific theory. He said the school had met the Board of Studies syllabus requirements in teaching evolution theory as science.

"It doesn't breach Darwinian theory to ask who set up the world to work in this way or even to say who was there before the big bang," he said. "We are not arguing for the ability to replace science with some other theory."

Chris Bonnor, the former head of the NSW Secondary Schools Principals Council, made the original complaint about Pacific Hills after viewing a television clip that briefly showed how a science class was taught.

He said he did not believe the school had implemented the Board of Studies science syllabus in its teaching of evolution.

"The science lesson in the school was not balanced," Mr Bonnor said. "It is fine to teach God behind evolution, but not in a science class.

"Notwithstanding the integrity of the organisation, I would question whether Christian Schools Australia is the appropriate body to investigate a complaint of this nature for the body that frames the syllabus."

Mr O'Doherty said Mr Bonnor was "whistling in the wind".

"The school does not teach creation as science or intelligent design," he said. "When they talk about faith-based perspectives on creation they tell students that it is not part of syllabus.

"We invited Mr Bonnor to look at the teacher programs and to look at the documentation and he declined."

A state Greens MP, John Kaye, said no private school in NSW had been disciplined for "pushing creationist propaganda in science classes".

"That's not surprising given that the board handed over its only investigation to Christian Schools Australia," he said. "The fox has been put in charge of the hen house."

Source

Kidnap victim still lives in fear

Ruth Pollard

November 25, 2008

IT WAS 6.30am when her husband and his brother came to her unit and smashed through her two security doors with an axe.

Screaming for help, Klaudine Fajloun was dragged down the stairs of her apartment block by her hair, a hand over her mouth to try to keep her quiet.

She tried to get away but the men were too strong for her - they shoved her in the back seat of a car and her husband held her head in his hands and banged it repeatedly against the car door.

He said: "I want to kill you and take you somewhere where nobody will know."

His brother said: "I can do anything to you and nobody will stop me and nobody will know."

Klaudine thought she was going to die.

They took her to an empty house, where her husband slapped her, bashed her with a metal rod and kicked her repeatedly. Nearly nine hours later her husband fell asleep. Klaudine crept outside and alerted a neighbour, who called the police.

Suffering broken ribs and other injuries, she was treated at Westmead Hospital, then moved to a hotel for her safety.

"After that I go to a refuge, I go to many refuges, and my kids tell my husband where I am and straight away he comes and I have to leave the refuge again."

Tired of running, she appealed to the police for help, and in late February 2006, three months after the attack, she went to Lebanon to escape, returning two months later to attend court.

Soon after, police helped her move to the United States, where they thought she would be safer. She returned to Australia last year for further court proceedings against her husband.

Raad Fajloun was found guilty of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault occasioning actual bodily harm and break and enter. He is in jail awaiting sentencing. His brother Michael was convicted of aggravated kidnapping and break and enter - he is on bail awaiting sentencing.

Even with the convictions, Klaudine is terrified of her former husband and his family and lives as a virtual prisoner in her home, cut off from three of her four children and suffering severe post-traumatic stress disorder.

"I cannot sleep and I dream about the kidnapping and the assault," she said.

"I am always looking over my shoulder fearing Raad and his family might be following me. I have lost contact with my three boys due to the violence I have experienced, and as a mother, that is heartbreaking to me."

Before her kidnapping ordeal, Klaudine had sent her daughter to live in the US, after her husband indicated he wanted the girl to marry his cousin in Lebanon. "My daughter, she does not want this marriage. That is why I send her to America to stay with my brother - my husband was very upset."

Both Klaudine's brother in the US and father in Lebanon had witnessed her husband's aggressive behaviour and urged her to leave him. "How can you live with this man?" her father asked.

It was just days after she told her husband she wanted a divorce and that she would take out an apprehended violence order that he kidnapped her.

In an act of great bravery, Klaudine wants people to know of her experience and has chosen to be identified for this story.

"I want to tell everybody, especially the Lebanese, what happened to me," she says. "My daughter said to me, 'Don't be scared … Say what happened to you, because you know you did not do anything wrong.' "

Source

ATM bandits strike

Peter Hawkins

November 25, 2008 - 6:15AM

Masked men have blown up three ATMs across Sydney early this morning, exploding machines in Clovelly, Chester Hill and Guildford, police said.

The first ATM hit was the Bendigo Bank on Clovelly Road at Clovelly in the city's eastern suburbs.

About 1.45am four men exploded the street-front ATM at the intersection of Mount Street using gas cylinders, sending glass and debris flying as far as the other side of the road.

The ATM and front of the bank were destroyed.

In the explosion, the thieves' dark grey Audi getaway car parked out the front of the bank was also damaged, forcing them to abandon it, police said.

Police established a perimeter around the bank and told nearby neighbours to evacuate their homes until the gas cylinders in the boot of the car are deemed safe.

Police closed Clovelly Road as well as several surrounding streets and conducted Polair and dog squad searches throughout the early hours of this morning.

About the same time another group of three masked men exploded an ATM at a bank on Waldron Street at Chester Hill in Sydney's west.

Police said the ATM and front section of the bank was significantly damaged and the area has been cordoned off while officers investigate.

The three men, also using an Audi, but this time silver, as a getaway car, then managed to escape, police said.

The third attack in the space of half an hour happened about 2.15am, with men this time targeting an ATM at the front of a physiotherapist shop on Guildford Road at Guildford in Sydney north west, police said.

Guilford Road between Cross Street and Station Street have been cordoned off.

Police said it is not yet known if the Guildford and Chester Hill explosions are linked or if any of the men escaped with cash.

This mornings three ATM explosions make it seven robberies or attempted robberies using gas cylinders in the last week.

Detectives from Strike Force Piccadilly, who are investigating a spate of ATM explosions using gas cylinders across Sydney since July, have been notified.

Source

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Imam blessed polygamous marriage: report

Barney Zwartz

November 22, 2008

CIHAN, an Arab woman with three adolescent children, was given an unpleasant surprise last year. Her husband told her that four years ago he had taken a second wife, an Anglo-Australian who was now expecting their third child.

The husband and second wife wanted a polygamous arrangement, involving a close supportive relationship of the wives and children, but Cihan separated instead.

The financial settlement took into account the second family, and left her struggling.

The second marriage was performed by an imam who knew it was polygamous. He allowed it because the husband was willing to perform his marital obligations to the first wife and was thus "entitled to a little bit of comfort on the side".

Now Cihan, whose story is told in the Islamic Women's Welfare Council report, is under constant pressure from her family and community to accept her husband and second wife.

She cannot get a religious divorce because her husband does not agree.

Source

Cleric vows to end segregation in mosques

Barney Zwartz

November 22, 2008

Australia's most senior Muslim wants men and women to pray together.

AUSTRALIA'S most senior Muslim has said he will end segregation of men and women in mosques, in a bold response to Islamic women's anger at entrenched discrimination.

The Mufti of Australia, Sheikh Fehmi Naji el-Imam, said he would put his proposal to the next meeting of the Australian National Imams' Council and consider how women could share the room with men during prayers.

Sheikh Fehmi said segregated worship had been introduced long ago, as a cultural change, not a religious one, and he would argue to end it.

"It is good to hear the complaints of the sisters, and to try to find some solution to their concerns," he told The Age in an exclusive interview.

"My duty is to propose, to discuss and try to convince. I can't guarantee the outcome."

Sheikh Fehmi said that in the time of the Prophet Mohammed 1400 years ago, women were not segregated.

His announcement is likely to attract international attention and may spark fierce debate among highly conservative mosque communities within Australia.

In some mosques overseas, there are no physical barriers between men's and women's areas but in Australia almost every mosque separates men's and women's sections.

Sydney lecturer Jamila Hussain this week told a conference at the National Centre for Excellence in Islamic Studies that women found facilities at some mosques "insulting" and that they were treated as second-class citizens.

Last night, Ms Hussain welcomed Sheikh Fehmi's promise to try to end segregation.

"It's an excellent start. But I'm a bit hesitant about when or whether it will happen — it will be a while."

She said many men would oppose such a move and, sadly, some women too. Imams didn't necessarily have much say.

Islamic Council of Victoria vice-president Sherene Hassan said it was a fine initiative, and it was good to see imams being proactive. She said it was in line with true Islamic teaching.

Sheikh Isse Musse, imam of Werribee mosque, agreed that at the start of Islam men and women had prayed together, "but it's not allowed that a man stands to the right of a woman or to the left of a woman".

At his mosque, all pray in the same room, with men in rows at the front, then children in rows, then women. But he did not think this was palatable to many Muslims, especially as many new mosques gave better facilities to women in their own areas.

Several Muslim women spoke out about discrimination and disadvantage this week at the conference.

In particular, a report by the Islamic Women's Welfare Council of Victoria highlighted problems with imams, claiming some were condoning domestic violence, polygamy, rape in marriage, welfare fraud and exploitation of vulnerable women.

Sheikh Fehmi, who is also secretary of the Victorian Board of Imams, acknowledged there were problems.

"Imams are human beings, and every human being is fallible, so if one imam errs on a point we should not generalise and say all imams are the same."

Sheikh Fehmi also addressed many of the criticisms in the council report.

On divorce, he said the committee of the Victorian Board of Imams that dealt with applications always spoke to both parties before ruling, and required men to give women their full due, especially dowries that had not yet been fully paid.

On rape within marriage, he acknowledged this could be a problem and said the solution was to link legal divorce with Islamic divorce — something the board was working towards.

On domestic violence, he said imams taught that men should never strike their wives. "The prophet said, 'I never hit a wife in my life', and everybody should do the same."

On polygamy, he said Islam allowed a second wife only if the husband guaranteed he could treat both exactly alike, which almost amounted to a prohibition.

"Polygamy in Islam is not willy-nilly. There are a lot of restrictions, which sometimes make it impossible."

On a charge by educator Silma Ihram that Muslim women could speak out in the mainstream community but not in the Muslim community, Sheikh Fehmi said women should "tell us what they are going through. That's the only way we can rectify mistakes and wrongdoing." He said that if Muslims received unsatisfac- tory advice from an imam, they could consult another imam or the board of imams.

Ms Hussain said this week that provisions for women and children in mosques lagged far behind men's. In most mosques, men entered the prayer room through large front doors, but women usually had to enter a small door at the rear, often competing with traffic while leading small children.

Their space was always considerably inferior to the men's, and was sometimes entirely blocked off so that they could not see or hear the service.

Ms Hussain, who studied Sydney mosques, said that in some, women had to pray in the yard under a blazing sun while men enjoyed the cool interior, or to pray in a kitchen between stoves and sinks, or to pray in a tent in full view of a pub over the road.

The chairwoman of the Islamic Women's Welfare Council, Tasneem Chopra, said Sheikh Fehmi's response made her optimistic that better outcomes could be negotiated.

She said she had not received much critical feedback from the Muslim community yesterday, but a lot of questioning.

THE ISLAMIC WOMEN'S WELFARE COUNCIL ON … VIOLENCE

IMAMS favour preserving the family over protecting them, and sometimes advise women to endure beatings. Legal workers report that Muslim women are particularly vulnerable due to a lack of information and community backlash against women who take legal action.

Police and legal workers say Muslim women often drop charges after husbands come to court with family members and religious leaders and put pressure on them. These conversations are not in English, and police say they are frustrated that because of it, they cannot carry out Australian laws.

Some women who were legally separated but not religiously divorced reported that their husbands entered their homes and forced them to have sex, and imams said this was permitted because there was still a valid marriage. Legal workers also had concerns about allegations of sexual assault as part of under-age marriages. The report says imams must speak out against violence using Friday sermons, other public forums and the media.

THE ISLAMIC COUNCIL ON … YOUTH

MANY Muslims report instances of racism and discrimination, and one community worker says he has never known racism worse than now. Lebanese youths, in particular, feel under siege.
Women who wear the hijab (headscarf) say they are discriminated against in jobs, though not in telemarketing (where they are heard but not seen).

Government funding has moved more to African youths than Arabs but their need has not lessened, as racism and emotional trauma persist.

One community worker says: "What we save from parenting programs we may have to spend on security."

There is a shortage of facilities in northern suburbs where many Muslims live and recreation funding has dried up. Police also expressed concern about this.

A community worker says about one school: "You wouldn't put your dog in there. In an environment like that, school loses its meaning, the teachers don't care, the kids drop out and it eventually closes, having ruined the life chances of many young people."

THE ISLAMIC COUNCIL ON … DIVORCE

IMAMS apply sharia (Islamic) law selectively against women, using it to perform polygamous marriages and grant divorces but saying they cannot use it to enforce compensation to Muslim women because Australia does not have a sharia court.

When wives seek a divorce, some imams say they must leave with only the clothes on their backs, leaving their assets and children.

One imam told a woman she should not seek maintenance, saying: "It is not necessary in Australia where women can get Centrelink benefits."

Women and community workers say it is extremely difficult for a woman to get a religious divorce.

Some women say imams have declined divorces if they are intimidated by the men or are friends with them.

Imams are supposed to charge $200 to consider a divorce, but some (not members of the board) allegedly exploit women by asking a large fee, then more fees to register the divorce in the country of origin.

THE ISLAMIC COUNCIL ON … POLYGAMY

SOME imams have performed religious marriages knowing that the man was already married.
Traditionally, Islam allows a man to have up to four wives under certain circumstances.

However, because this is illegal in Australia, second wives are treated as de facto relationships and often receive welfare.

Women whose husbands took other wives have blamed Centrelink benefits for easing the way to polygamy because one wife or the other will claim it.

Marriage celebrants are required to ask whether the parties are already married, but many imams are not doing so.

Asked about this, the Board of Imams said it was the woman's responsibility to ensure the man was not already married. However, some imams say the husband does not have to tell his wife he is marrying another woman.

Source

Local Muslim clerics accused

Barney Zwartz

November 21, 2008

SOME Muslim religious leaders in Victoria are condoning rape within marriage, domestic violence, polygamy, welfare fraud and exploitation of women, according to an explosive report on the training of imams.

- Rape and violence condoned within marriage: report

- Study says Islamic law applied to benefit men

- Mufti of Australia denies claims

Women seeking divorces have also been told by imams that they must leave "with only the clothes on their back" and not seek support or a share of property because they can get welfare payments.

And the report says some imams knowingly perform polygamous marriages, also knowing that the second wife, a de facto under Australian law, can claim Centrelink payments.

The report is based on a study commissioned and funded by the former Howard government and conducted by the Islamic Women's Welfare Council of Victoria.

It was presented yesterday at a National Centre for Excellence in Islamic Studies conference at Melbourne University.

It is the result of extensive community consultation, interviews with police, lawyers, court workers and academics, and meetings with and questions to the Victorian Board of Imams.

The board's role is to provide an Islamic view and religious guidance to the community and represent it to the media. The report claims that the 24-man board ignored or did not directly answer many of the questions.

It says women, community and legal workers and police involved in the consultation were particularly concerned about domestic violence, and suggested that imams aimed to preserve the family at the cost of women.

When cases came to court they were often dropped after family and community elders pressured women to withdraw charges.

The report says some women who were legally separated but not religiously divorced had their husbands enter their houses, demand sexual intercourse and take it by force.

"Workers who have assisted women in this situation said that the advice women received from the imams was that it was "halal" — permitted — because there was a valid "nikah" — marriage," it says.

The report also cites sexual assault allegations connected with under-age marriages.

It says polygamy is steadily increasing and gaining acceptance among Melbourne Muslims, and Shepparton police report many "de facto" relationships that are really polygamous marriages.

"Community workers who have provided support to women whose husbands took another wife religiously said that women blame the availability of Centrelink benefits … since one or the other wife will be claiming it, relieving the husband of the responsibility of supporting two families," the report says.

Community members quoted in the report believe that imams' narrow religious training in an increasingly complex world, lack of life experience, poor English and lack of understanding of Australia create problems for the community. For example, ill-informed comment by imams drew a wedge between the mainstream and Muslim communities.

The report suggests the Muslim community believes many imams are ill-equipped for the role, which involves much higher expectations in Australia than in predominantly Muslim countries, including marriage counselling, pastoral and spiritual care, marriages and divorces.

"They come from their own little village and culture and say this is what Islam is," one woman is quoted saying.

"They come from a village where there is no running water and electricity, and they bring their dark ideas into this country."

The secretary of the Board of Imams, Sheikh Fehmi Naji El-Imam, said he could not understand how the council could write such a report and denied the complaints "absolutely".

"They must have heard stories here and there and are writing about them as though they are fact," he said.

Sheikh Fehmi, who is also Mufti of Australia, said no authorised imam would conduct a polygamous marriage, and it was absolutely wrong that women's rights were ignored in marriage or divorce, or that imams ignored domestic violence.

"I haven't heard of any case where the board disregarded a woman or did not try to help her," he said.

Islamic women's council chairwoman Tasneem Chopra said: "We are hoping we can negotiate with the appropriate authorities a better outcome for women, whether through law reform or education.

"This is a crucial, necessary beginning but it is part of a much larger picture."

Source

Friday, November 21, 2008

'Go to hell' - Digger bashing accused's message

By Gemma Jones

November 21, 2008 12:00am

A DAY after war veteran Ernest Evans was laid to rest the alleged 50 cent thug who is accused of bashing him has shown his contempt, declaring: "Go to hell."

Kristopher Cowie, 30, today said the six weeks of hell Mr Evans endured, including a return of horrific post war trauma and injuries which never healed before his death last Friday, was "not my problem.''

He then raised his middle finger to a news photographer and shoved him in the chest outside Downing Centre Local Court.

Ernest Evans' funeral: Bashed digger laid to rest.

Cowie is accused of punching Mr Evans, 83, as he sat on a park bench outside St Vincent De Paul at Miranda, where his wife was shopping for a war history book for him last month.

"My apologies for their loss, it has got nothing to do with me,'' a slurring and unsteady Cowie said as he prepared to face Downing Centre Local Court on unrelated charges.

"Not my problem.''

When asked if he had a drug problem, Cowie shot back, "No, none of your business and no I don't so you can go to hell.'' He then expressed his dismay at featuring on the front page of The Daily Telegraph minutes after he had thanked a magistrate for releasing him on bail last month. He had already been on bail for other offences. "Putting me on the front page of The Daily Telegraph....you are a bitch,'' he said.

This tragic story has generated huge amounts of reader feedback - while we thank everybody for contributing, because the case is ongoing we are legally limited as to the comments we can post. If you wish yours to be posted, please refrain from mentioning the accused man.

Police allege Cowie demanded 50 cents from Mr Evans before returning with girlfriend Tracey Prater, 29 and punching him, sending him flying over the bench.

She allegedly threatened Mr Evans elderly wife Una.

Mr Evans died, six weeks after the attack, with the leg lacerations he suffered never healing and tormented from nightmares in which he would yell: "The bastard wants 50 cents.''

The night terrors he had suffered after the war in which he would jump up and try to shield his mates from Japanese fire also returned.

Cowie was appearing on unrelated charges relating to an airport offence and Sheriffs had to come to the court while he appeared.

When he saw them, Cowie began barking at them.

Read the original story about Ernest Evans' bashing and Cowie in court

Source

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Muslims more disadvantaged

Dewi Cooke

November 18, 2008

AUSTRALIAN Muslims are more socially and economically disadvantaged than their non-Muslim counterparts, despite being, on the whole, better educated and more youthful.

Research to be presented at a Melbourne conference tomorrow shows Australian Muslims have significantly higher rates of high school completion and are also more likely to go to university than are non-Muslims.

But only 15% own their homes compared with 30% of non-Muslims, twice as many live in public housing and unemployment among Muslim youth is double that of non-Muslim Australians.

"One would expect that they should be able to participate in the economic and social life as other educated people are and they are not doing so, and I think that's nothing to do with their religious beliefs," Flinders University sociologist Riaz Hassan said.

"That's something to do with the larger community, whether it's discrimination, or prejudice or exclusion prompted by other factors."

Analysing 2006 census figures, Professor Hassan found that of 340,391 Muslims recorded on census night (1.7% of the population), 38% were born in Australia and the rest born overseas in countries including Lebanon, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Despite their higher rates of high school and tertiary education — 24% of Muslim men and 26% of Muslim women had completed year 12 compared with 15% and 17% of non-Muslim men and women respectively — Professor Hassan found Muslims were not equally represented in well-paying white-collar professions.

However, they had higher rates of work in skilled blue-collar and labouring jobs.

Overall, 52% were in rental accommodation — private or public — more than 20% higher than other Australians.

Average household incomes also tended to be lower and Muslim children were twice as likely to live below the poverty line.

Professor Hassan said the findings were significant because of public concern about religious radicalism. He argued that radicalism was more likely to rise out of socio-economic inequality, negative stereotypes and discrimination.

Source

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Legalised polygamy a good option

By Anne Taylor

The Courier-Mail

November 18, 2008 04:25am

WITH the introduction of "alimony payments" to mistresses, the comedy of equality of the sexes is turning into a farce.

There can be no equality; the sexes are simply different. During sex, a woman sometimes conceives; that's her downside. Her upside is that while she's bearing and rearing her infant(s) she and her infant may legally demand protection and financial support from the biological father. That's his downside.

Monogamy suits a wife and her children for practical reasons, but modern middle-class and upper-class women have gone beyond the practical. They want continuing romance, excitement, and a fulfilling career.

The women in the lower echelons have no choice but to work, as they have done since the Industrial Revolution. No flowers and wining and dining, boardrooms and glass ceilings for them.

Let me relate a "true confession".

I was deserted by my husband in 1970, and left with two infant sons. I was a middle-class housewife, totally naive about my rights and about government benefits. Unaware that I was entitled to a Deserted Wives' Pension, I went to work.

First I obtained factory work, but the meagre wage was impossible to live on with rent and child care to pay. It probably still is for single-income parents. Spare a thought for factory workers, you politicians and feminists.

I battled my way back into the clerical workforce I'd been in before my brief marriage, but I didn't have the equal pay and the childcare subsidy working mothers have today. The stress carried me off to a psychiatric hospital.

Those institutions were not what they are today. I came out hardened and bitter and wanting only to protect and nurture my sons at all costs.

I accepted the advances of the first presentable man who offered me his protection and became his mistress. Until my sons were of an age for me to go to work with ease of mind, I then had a succession of "protectors" who all told me the same story.

I could have been sceptical, except that my own husband had been a genuine cad. These men said their wives had lost interest in sex, criticised them, nagged them, constantly tried to "change" them.

I am reminded of a quote: "A man marries a woman thinking she won't change, and she does. A woman marries a man thinking he will change, and he doesn't."

I'd grown up in a household of men who never said a word if I left the toilet rim down, and explained to me once patiently that if I didn't like wet towels on the floor, it only took me a moment to pick them up as opposed to five minutes to find the culprit and complain. Thereafter they turned deaf ears to my complaint.To me, these men whose wives nagged about their thoughtlessness and laziness were gems. They provided for their wives, and most of them still loved them despite being mystified and disillusioned.

One of them asked me plaintively: "What does she want from me? She told the marriage guidance counsellor that I never remember wedding anniversaries and never give her flowers, so I got a standing order at the florist to deliver her flowers on our anniversary and Valentine's Day. The very first bunch of flowers she got she threw them at me."

Do you see what you're dealing with here, you fluffy-headed females? You're dealing with brains that are programmed differently from yours.

In the meantime let's just accept it, the way our mystified menfolk accept and are enchanted by us.
Women talk a lot about "communication" and "empathy". But it's men who communicate concisely and precisely, and I suspect women have an airy-fairy idea of empathy, or there would be far fewer divorces.

Once upon a time I put forward the idea of legalised polygamy as the answer to broken marriages, fatherless children, and women wanting to have children and still be part of the workforce.

The idea was that working wives could help provide financially, while the stay-at-home mums could provide child care.

With the present madness of Family Law legislation upon us, I put forward the suggestion again as being more sane. If all the wives, mistresses, de factos and girlfriends of any particular Lothario were to co-operate for the sake of their mutual children, instead of pulling against each other and the father, we might get some stability back into society.

Source

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

ATM bomb bandits go on Sydney rampage

Peter Hawkins

November 18, 2008 - 6:31AM

A gang of four men are believed to be responsible for blowing up three ATMs across Sydney early this morning.

A St George ATM exploded through a shopfront window at Milperra in the city's south-west about 2.30am.

Debris and glass was sent flying across the carpark of the Ashford Village shopping centre on the corner of Bullecourt Avenue and Ashford Avenue.

Others hit in the rampage included an ATM at Birwood Avenue, Georges Hall, about 2.50am and an ATM in Penshurst Avenue at Penshurst about 3.10am, police said.

Both are also in Sydney's south-west.

It is believed the same men were disturbed attempting to rob a fourth ATM on Railway Street at Chatswood in Sydney's North Shore.

Police said a member of the public stumbled across the men setting up an explosive device about 4am and was then threatened with a firearm.

Startled, the men fled in a dark sedan. No shots were fired, police said.

The device did not detonate and is still in danger of exploding.

The bomb squad have sealed off the area.

Police said they are unsure how much money the men escaped with, if any at all.

Specialist forensic police remain at all the ATMs and State Crime Command are investigating.

Police said they are not ruling out the possibility of all four robberies being linked.

They also said it is too early to determine any link between the men and previous ATM robberies using explosives this month.

Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1300 333 000.

Source

Friday, November 14, 2008

Suspended sentence for Vic uni rampage

November 14, 2008, 6:36 pm

A volunteer fireman feared he was part of a US-style university massacre when a Melbourne student pointed what appeared to be a semi-automatic weapon at him and told him he was about to die.

Warren Davis' life flashed before his eyes as Dylan Thomas Kennedy, dressed in army fatigues
and wearing a red bandanna, stood just metres from him and pointed the imitation gun at him, Davis told AAP.

Kennedy shouted: "Get the f*** out of here, I am going to f***ing get you, I am going to f***ing kill you."

The media student had just trashed dorm rooms at Swinburne University's Lilydale campus and was running around the grounds armed with the toy gun and yelling he was going to shoot people.

Kennedy on Friday has been handed a 15-month suspended jail sentence by the Victorian County Court for the rampage in the early hours of September 10 last year, just months after the Virginia Tech massacre in the US in which 32 people were killed.

Mr Davis, the Lilydale Country Fire Authority (CFA) captain who was at the university in response to a fire call, said Kennedy came running towards him shouting and pointing the gun at him.

"It was like one of these massacres that you see in America, that is exactly what we thought it was going to be," Mr Davis told AAP after the sentencing.

"Myself and the other crew members we thought we are all going to get shot here.

"I thought I was going to get a bullet."

Kennedy then pointed the gun at other members of the volunteer CFA crew.

"It all happened that quick, they say your life flashes before your eyes and it did for the four of us," Mr Davis, a father of three, said.

The situation ended when a policeman recognised the weapon as an imitation gun used for computer games, and subdued Kennedy with capsicum spray, the court was told on Friday.

Davis and CFA lieutenants Mark Owens, Trevor Dean and Michael Satori had been called to a building fire at the campus.

"You wake up in the middle of the night to attend a fire, expecting to get there and see a room or building on fire and you are confronted by something totally different," Mr Davis said.

"We are all volunteers, we are not paid for that."

All the firefighters involved had undergone counselling, and one of them still had nightmares about the rampage, the court was told.

Sentencing Kennedy, Judge Margaret Rizkalla agreed the firefighters feared for their lives.

"Even though the weapon you were using was imitation, those involved were not able to ascertain that," Judge Rizkalla said.

The court was told that a month earlier Kennedy showed a group of men in a McDonald's restaurant a cap-gun that also appeared real and claimed he was a contract killer.

Judge Rizkalla also ordered Kennedy, who pleaded guilty to charges including threatening to kill, destroying property and possession of an unregistered general category handgun, take part in a community based order that includes treatment for drug and alcohol addiction.

Source

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Vic man charged over plane bomb hoax

ABC - November 4, 2008, 9:59 am

A Victorian man has been arrested in Cairns, after allegedly telling police there was a bomb on board a plane that had left the far north Queensland city last night.

It is alleged the 31-year-old called 000 about 11:00pm AEST last night and said there was a bomb on board a commercial flight from Cairns to Melbourne .

Police say the call was traced to a mobile phone registered to an address in Hampton Park in Victoria.

They called the number and a negotiator spoke to the man who surrendered himself to police a short time later.

He has been charged with the use of a carriage service for a hoax and is due to appear in the Cairns Magistrates Court this morning.

Source