A caring employer - Queensland Health

I read about this the other day and just could not believe it.

A nurse, working alone on the Torres Strait island of Mabuiag, was raped late one night in February. She rang emergency, got diverted to Cairns police, 1000 km away, and told them she had just been raped and that the alleged perpetrator was still outside her building with several of his drunken mates. He’d also stolen a bottle of vodka and she feared he would be back. The police officer said he would immediately ring the community police officer on the island, but reported back to the victim that the local representative of the law had responded it was raining and he was not prepared to walk around to the crime scene in the rain, even though he was told the alleged perpetrator was still on the premises. The community police officer later rang a neighbour of the surgery and he came over to be with the nurse. The community police officer turned up at 6.30am, after the rain stopped.

At 7.30am the victim rang her director of nursing on Thursday Island. The woman director told her the rape and burglary was unfortunate and that she should return to work at 9am. Compassion plus!!!! The nurse insisted she wanted to be flown out and was told she could catch the only commercial flight at 11am. She replied that could not be done because police were coming (two hours by boat) from Thursday Island to inspect the crime scene and take her statement. She was told the next day when she repeated her request to be flown home to Sydney that she would be brought only to Thursday Island, no accommodation provided, no medical attention organised and that any days away would be deducted from her pay or leave. It was made clear that Queensland Health did not consider the rape worthy of reporting and they were not prepared to help her.

She mistakenly thought that Queensland Health, with helicopters, doctors, nurses, crisis counsellors, the Royal Flying Doctor Service on call and a Medivac helicopter available at Thursday Island, 30 minutes flight away, would activate an immediate response. I mean any decent employer would have done something like that had one of their people been harmed like this. In fact, they cut off her pay from that day, and did not pay out her contract until last Friday after details were published in the media.

In the end, her boyfriend, who worked on Horn Island, had to fly in by helicopter on February 5, take her by boat the 40 minutes across Torres Strait to Badu Island where she received her first medical help and examination. He then had to pay $800 to charter a plane to get her to Thursday Island by which time the Queensland Nurses Union had arranged for the department to fly her to Sydney.

Queensland Health and the Queensland government are blaming the nurse’s treatment on an administrative bungle. Northern area general manager Ms Roxanne Ramsey explained that the nurse’s treatment was the result of “a local breakdown in communications in organising for her to be taken from the island”. I just don’t buy that … it was actually caused by people in the organisation at various levels not giving a damn. It is a sign of a very sick organisation. I can’t help but contrast it with what I believe my company would do if faced with similar circumstances. I reckon senior management would be all over it and spare no expense in assisting her, and demanding that solutions be implemented so it could not happen again. I don’t know that for sure, but I’m very confident based on other things my employer does that it would respond well.

I’d also suggest there’d be heads rolling over inaction prior to the attack, which if acted upon properly, is likely to have prevented it. For instance, when the nurse arrived on Mabuiag, the clinic and quarters were filthy. There was no running water, no gas to run the stove, no air-conditioning working, intermittent power and no security on her building. Her report on arrival to her superiors set out that the flat was “filthy with mould and fungus growing everywhere; chewing gum in blinds, used ear-sticks in blinds and cupboards, stove covered with grease, bed bugs, no television, no water to wash with or flush toilets, security screen door at the front hanging off its hinges, no air-conditioning and no blinds or curtains in bedroom or bathroom”. Her complaints to the department were ignored. Just weeks ago a single woman teacher on Mabuiag left because she was frightened by peeping toms who stalked her at night, looking through her windows that had to be kept open because she had no air-conditioning in the oppressive tropical heat. The inevitability of the attack was sounded in a warning in a departmental internal report on all employee accommodation 16 months ago, where the risk was described by as “extreme”.

But I bet no one gets fired from Queensland Health. No accountability there. I’d have said that those presiding over a culture that allows such things to happen are clearly incapable of fulfilling their responsibilities, for example her manager on Thursday Island, the regional general manager, certainly the HR department, the property management department. There are clearly several people in the organisation who deserve immediate dismissal, judging from the organisation’s response.

The nurse is clearly more forgiving than me. As health officials today met community leaders on Mabuiag, Queenland Premier, Ms Bligh said the nurse was considering returning to work for Queensland Health. If I was her, I wouldn’t touch them with a bargepole.

The Premier acknowledged Mabuiag could be left without a dedicated health worker for some time.

“Mabuiag is a very small island with a very small population,” Ms Bligh said.

“A number of their health needs for many years have been met by having visiting health workers and that is continuing.

“We are very confident that we will be able to provide another nurse into that community.

“But it might take a little time, as it does in remote communities.”

I’d be less inclined to do anything to help them myself. I think I’d be saying “fuck you” to the community, and leave them to their own devices unless they handed over the alleged rapist, and agreed to testify truthfully about anything they witnessed. I’m not big on helping those who won’t help themselves.

Getting into bed with developers

Councils and other levels of government may often have been accused of being “in bed with” building developers. In Wollongong, thats a statement of fact, not merely a metaphor for being corrupt, or at least in a friendly,cosy relationship. Council planner, Beth Morgan, has been the subject of evidence at the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) inquiry into dodgy dealings involving Wollongong City Council and some developers in that city. Ms Morgan had sexual relationships with 3 developers during a period when she was considering their multi-million dollar developments in her council job.

Now, there’s a whole bunch of slimeballs involved in this saga, but only one will come out of it with her reputation and career prospects completely shattered. No doubt all of the men will lie low for a while and get on with their development businesses. She will never work in planning or local government again. (Nor does she deserve to, but her partners in corruption should also be driven out of their businesses.)

It was quite amusing seeing the men squirm about the extent of their relationships with Ms Morgan during the ICAC hearing. One of them, Frank Vellar, was upfront and admitted he was sleeping with several women while having an affair with Ms Morgan. Another, Michael Kollaras, said he did not have a sexual relationship with Ms Morgan. Asked if he had some sort of a relationship with her in 2004 he replied:

“She was my closest friend.”

Asked how close, he said: “Extremely close.”

The third, Glen Tabak, tried the Bill Clinton angle - remember he did “not have sex with that woman” (Monica Lewinsky). He admitted he had a brief sexual relationship with Ms Morgan, who was married at the time. The affair included liaisons at the Novotel Hotel in Wollongong, Ms Morgan’s home and at Mr Tabak’s office.Asked if he had sex with her at his office, he replied:

“I wouldn’t call it that.”

So a blowjob doesn’t count as sex? Glen Tabak obviously shares that view with Bill Clinton. Wonder if he was into cigar play and blue dresses as well?

The broader issues of corruption and dodgy dealings in this story I’ll post about during the week.

WTF? This has got to be a joke

Shakeel Mirza, a medical student at the University of Queensland, tried to give an 11-year-old boy a penis massage.  The Pakistani-born medical student had been appointed as a mentor to the 11-year-old boy under the Lions Club’s “Aunties and Uncles” program when he tried to force his hands down the youngster’s pants at the family’s Brisbane home.  In court, it was said he had been rubbing the child’s head to relax him when he offered to massage the child’s penis instead because “it would feel better”.  The boy managed to fend off Mirza’s advances.

Mirza escaped with only 12 months probation.  No criminal conviction was formally recorded after his defence lawyers successfully argued that a black mark against his name could prevent Mirza, 27, from getting a government Blue Card - or security clearance - allowing him to treat children in hospital. Mirza’s defence barrister Brad Farr argued that in some cases, shame was enough to deter people from reoffending, and that a jail sentence - even a wholly suspended one - was not warranted.  He also maintained that a criminal conviction would cast a pall over his client’s promising future as a doctor.

What about the fact, entirely within Mirza’s control, that maybe he should have thought about the consequences before trying to grope the boy?

Regardless, the judge bought the defence’s arguments.  Piss weak!  Why not look at the alternate view that Mirza’s actions revealed a character flaw that should disqualify him from being a doctor?  Or anything involving contact with children?

At least in this case, the State has appealed against the inadequacy of the sentence.  Its barrister asked the court to resentence Mirza to 12 months’ jail - albeit wholly suspended - and record a criminal conviction.  Still pretty soft, but better than nothing I suppose … I think he needs at least some jail time to send a message that his behaviour is completely unacceptable.

Why does the legal profession always seek to justify the unjustifiable, mitigate the unmitigatable, defend the indefensible?   Does a client ever get told - “you fucked up, no excuses, front up and cop your medicine”?  And when they get appointed as judges, why do many seem so inclined to accept (often farfetched and lame) excuses for people’s bad behaviour?  Do their standards get distorted by constantly dealing with the scum of the community …. so that compared to the worst criminals, most seem halfway decent and reasonable?

You know Canberra is the porn capital of Australia when …

…. you start seeing things like “Mould a Willy” kits in a gift shop in the middle of Westfield Belconnen Mall.  Not exactly hidden away either, it was on display in the front of the store, so no, I did not have to go purposefully looking for it down the back of the store.  And it wasn’t the first thing that attracted my attention as I walked past the shop.  Not really the sort of things I’d expect to see outside the porn emporiums of Fyshwick.

NSFW warning

To see what a “Mould a Willy” kit entails, go here.

Choice

Clementine Ford in today’s Sunday Mail discloses that she has had 2 abortions.  She says that it wasn’t a hard decision for her to make, in fact is was “really, really easy”, and also that she felt no shame over terminating her pregnancies, just intense relief.  She says she is “pro-life” - pro the life of women who have lived for years as opposed to cells that have lived for weeks.  She says she doesn’t believe a 12 week old clump of cells is a baby.  I think the main point in her article is  that women have got to stop feeling like they owe the world a truckload of guilt simply because they exercised their legal right to govern their own reproduction.

I don’t have a problem with any of this.  I would generally say I’m pro-choice, to a point.  I don’t believe life begins at the moment of conception like many of the “pro-life” advocates do.  But equally, I find the idea of late term abortions wrong.  At what point does the foetus’ right to life outweigh the woman’s choice …. I don’t know to be honest.  Fortunately I’ve never had to be involved in a decision like this, so I’ve never had to take a firm position on it.  So I guess I’m pro-choice to a point, a point which I can’t define.  To be honest I’d also say that I find the idea of women who have serial abortions distasteful …. a sign of carelessness and stupidity.   I understand mistakes happen, but repeated ones do suggest carelessness on the part of the woman and her partner.

What really attracted my attention in this article was the comments.  Clementine Ford summarises her response to the theme of some of these comments, but reading through the couple of hundred comments, there are obviously many pro-life/anti-choice people who cannot argue rationally and immediately resort to personal abuse of those who don’t share their view of the world.  Some examples of this form of intelligent debate include:

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde: To lose one (child) may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose (two) looks like carelessness . The real issue here is not abortion, its carelessness. If women want to take control etc etc etc - then bloody well take the proper precautions and dont get pregnant in the first place. Keeping your legs together would be a good start.

From Jonty of Aldgate.

keep your legs shut …

From Alex of Adelaide

murder! no other word for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From HWD of Port Augusta

In the process of having her numerous abortions and exercising her choice of convenience, we can all hope Ms Ford has rendered herself infertile and will not be able to procreate in the future.

From BJ

I cant believe what I just read…….for a so called ‘educated woman’ have you ever heard of birth control or is abortion your birth control? I am getting tired of you trying to ’shock us’ with your immature columns…… I suggest you grow up and avoid sharing all the details of your STDs next week!!

From Tracy of Adelaide

Oh, you’re such a tough little women aren’t you, and totally unabashed to admit. Pull your head in, why don’t you. Such a good influence for the young promiscuous girls around. How did the father(s) feel about these homicidal decisions? Or, were the fathers unknown? Tracy of Adelaide had a good point, try another form of contraception other than the brutal, immoral act of abortion. It’d be a real shame to be later wanting to have children knowing that you just threw away your last chance. Bloody coward, stop killing poor little innocent babies. As Alex of Adelaide says, “..keep your legs shut..”

From Benjamin of Adelaide

I hope you have a miserable life from now on. Hope you lose your job too. I wish the advertiser had direct competition.

From Jason of North Adelaide

Of course Clementine is entitled to her own opinion about her body. The same as I’m entitled to believe she’s stupid for having unprotected, unsafe sex on at least two (but probably hundreds) of occasions. I can’t wait for the next column on have having AIDS is her choice too…

From Henry Jonkers of St Kilda

At least the visitors know where to go in Hicksville for a good time with no after effects and no obligations and it’s cheaper than a bought one.

From Jack Farmer of Hamilton

The real question is - how could someone so butt ugly have managed to get laid at all - let alone TWICE!

From Jason of Adelaide

murderer. god gives you this great gift and she kills it. maybe she better try keeping her pants on, she now deserves nothing from life as she has killed two.

From Dominic Carbone

Those of us who believe in creation over evolution and that life begins at conception can be comforted that yet another Adelaide serial killer’s victims are already in a far far better place having died without ever having sinned and that this killer will have to answer for two murders when she faces the ultimate judgement.

From Peter Fanelli of USA

So, we have some common themes here … and this is only from the first half of the comments.  First, obviously she must be some sort of slut having rampant sex with dozens if not hundreds of men.  Second, she is a murderer and will burn in hell.  Then we have those lovely people (no doubt calling themselves Christians) who wish all sorts of misfortune on her.

Nothing like rational debate is there.  No wonder there are like-minded idiots in the USA who go around murdering doctors who provide abortions and bombing abortion clinics.

Masturbation - couldn’t resist the urge

Well, the sub-editor who came up with this headline just couldn’t.

Masturbators come together in Copenhagen | NEWS.com.au

Copenhagen is to host a masturbate-a-thon in May which organisers hope will help break lingering taboos about self-love.  This follows previous such events in San Francisco and London.

10 year old Brazilians?

A while back I noted that “10 year old pussy” was a popular search term from which people arrived at my blog.  Well, I’m going to cater for that demand now.  Sort of.  Actually, I’m writing about sexualisation of young children, in this case, 10 year old girls being encouraged to wax whatever body hair they have off, including getting a brazilian wax

.Last year Nair, makers of hair-removal products, released their Pretty range, aimed at 10 to 15-year-olds, or, as they call them, “first-time hair removers”. Yes, you heard right. Ten-year-olds. Girls — children — in grades 5 and 6, encouraged to wax and chemically remove hair from their barely pubescent bodies.

The Australian arm of the company has claimed its target audience is slightly older, in an attempt to distance itself from the US campaign, which involves phrases such as “Pretty isn’t a look. It’s a feeling,” “Nair will leave your skin smooth and totally touchable!” and this pearler from Stacey Feldman, vice-president for marketing at Nair’s parent company, Church & Dwight: “When a girl removes hair for the first time, it’s a life-changing moment.”.

And then we have website girl.com.au, supposedly with a target audience of 9-14 year old girls, having a feature about brazilians, which includes this gem:

“So why does it appeal. Nobody really likes hair in their private regions and this removes it.”

According to the article in The Age, this site also had “and it has a childlike appeal” - but that is nowhere to be seen now.

It just strikes me as wrong to be encouraging prepubescent chlidren and teenagers that this is some sort of desirable thing to do.  I just don’t see these as things kids should be worrying about at these ages.  It is foisting adult concepts and images of sexual desirabilty onto them at too young an age.  Why?  So some company can sell some pointless product that no-one actually needs and add to their bottom line?  Are the marketers who thought of this shit some sort of uber-paedophiles …. is 10-12 not young enough for them?  Do they prefer them to even younger?

What sort of adults would encourage children to wax their body hair off?  What sort of parents would allow their children to do it?

Wankers needed

Apparently there is a severe shortage of sperm donors.

The Royal Hospital for Women has had no new sperm donors for more than 12 months.  Reproductive specialists say attracting enough men to satisfy demand has always been difficult.  Changes to NSW legislation this month requiring donors to register their names on a mandatory central register had turned potential donors off, said Professor Michael Chapman, from IVF Australia, which has a waiting list of two years.  The Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill guarantees children access to their father’s name, date of birth, education and medical information once they turn 18. It may also require details of the donor’s partner and other children to be listed.  Dr Anne Clark, from Fertility First Hurstville, said the sperm shortage would be compounded by the new laws, which legislate that one man’s sperm can go to only five families, down from 10.

This is a rather surprising problem.  After all, there’s certainly no shortage of wankers around.

Nice pussy

Heidi Klum, in pussy cat costume.

Whatever floats your boat

Colin Lazarus, from Melbourne, has an extremely interesting fetish.  He bought an 11 year old girl black pointy platform shoes then persuaded her to wear them so she could kick him in the genitals.  On another occasion, he asked the girl to kick him in the genitals and put her shoed foot into his mouth.  He also got her 8 year old brother to join in the kicking.  One time, he told her to stand on his neck while her brother kicked him.  He admitted to police he had a sexual fetish for shoes and people standing on him.

Judge Lance Pilgrim said it was the strangest case he had dealt with in his 49 years in court.

No shit!!!!