SMACK

Is it ok to smack children?

Three children, who were taken from their mother as she could no longer care for them, and were living with their grandparents when the grandmother smacked the boy for playing in a drain.

The Department of Community Services then removed the children from the grandparents, and, unable to find a suitable place for them, separated them into different homes.

Full story here: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23177403-5001021,00.html

And then the Community Services Minister himself, Kevin Greene, admitted of his own parenting that "There were times when our judgement has been that it was appropriate to smack the children. But we've moved past those days of toddler tantrums and disobedient kids." Just a tad hypocritical. Of course, this raises the question, did the DOCS (Department of Community Services) do the right thing?

Certainly there have been cases in the last year where children have died, after authorities being unaware of child abuse. So perhaps this could explain the hastiness to do something. Yet was it useful at all to SEPARATE the children from one another? No doubt this will only teach the children that they shouldn't tell people the truth (for the child said, when asked whether their grandmother smacked them, 'Yes, she smacked me last week.')

And of course it raises the old debate about whether or not it is ok to smack children. Often parents do it out of sudden anger and fear about their child's behaviour, and this is justified by that.

But its the holidays and I really wrote this post simply because I don't want you all to run away to other blogs, as the waning poll votes would indicate.

"I Was Raped By My Exam"

Well, its almost the end of the week, the end of the term, and a temporary end to school. And of course the school knew we'd want a trial exam for our VCE subjects (they really do think of everything). And of course, after the trial exam, there was the obligatory conversations:

"OMG, DID YOU SEE QUESTION 12? WAS IT C, WITH THE HAPLOID CELLS..."

"Was it just me, or was there hardly any "d" answers for the start of the multiple choice? I don't want to have gotten them wrong"

and then you get

"I WAS TOTALLY RAPED BY THAT EXAM!"

"It was worse than a touchy feely groping Santa with a sackful of Rohpynol"

"The exam paper just held me down and sexually violated me"

Which raises the question, (apart from the rhetorical one, "can an exam paper actually do that?") is it ok to take a word with such strong and horrific meaning as rape and use it to describe someone's disappointment with their performance in a TRIAL exam?

Sure, we do it all the time with murder - "I'd kill for an ice cream", and its generally accepted to be "a figure of speech". So then it would logically follow that flippant asides such as "lol, I raped that exam" will become accepted in the same vein. But does that make it ok?

I don't think so.

Firstly, its just stupid. Exams do not have any sort of autonomous will of their own. They can neither initiate nor object or respond to any sort of sexual activity.

Secondly, to connect a strong performance in an exam to one of the most evil and degrading acts a human being can commit on another is a gross trivialisation of the trauma, feeling of victimisation, and long term psychological issues which surround rape.

And by trivialising the issue, we create a subconscious acceptance of the term "rape", and we are desensitised to it - as many of us already are to hearing about murder and suicide.

So if you hear someone say it, just tell them they're idiots. And if they don't listen to you, just give them a jolly good rogering for their own benefit.

Awwww

Did anyone else catch the front page of The Age this morning? For those of you who missed the photo which went with a story about Malcolm Turnbull's leadership:












Malcolm Turnbull: MWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA, FROM THE DARKNESS I HAVE COME TO TAKE WHAT IS MINE!!!

RISE, MY MIDNIGHT MINIONS WHO HAVE RESURRECTED THEIR MASTER INTO SWEET LIFE GIVING FLESH AND BLOOD!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and did I mention that I'm a salt of the earth Aussie battler - we even RENTED a house at times, you know.


Nelson: .......*stoically sheds a tear...........


Well anyway, I thought it was quite a funny picture, and that Malcolm looked like a vampire, but maybe its just me...

A Meandering Ramble, or Meamble

Firstly, an update on the last post. "anonymous" eloquently made an excellent point in commenting that as Sydney is so urbanised, it is in the outer suburbs such as Camden that a large school would have to be built, serving as a central Muslim school for all of Sydney.

Which really makes a lot of sense and makes me feel that I should have done that Town Planning elective in Year 10. So there we go, no excuse for not building the school. Camden is just messed up.

And I know I keep mentioning it, but I promise this will be the last time (until we get to 50 votes) that I mention the poll. We did get past the 20 votes mark, so well done to you all for voting. I'm posting the story a bit earlier today, since I'm looking forward to seeing a school play tonight.

And I finally got around to seeing "Hole in the Wall", the Channel 9 game show that has been torn apart by generally everyone for being astoundingly crap - so naturally I had to see it. And I can verify that it is really bad. Not even in a "its so bad its good". Just bad. And boring.

More Stories

It was nice to see some politeness restored to the shoutbox today, and I am beginning to wonder how I ever misjudged "Guest"'s integrity of character. Now that order and peace has been restored, here is the next installment in the epic saga of Margaret and Mittens. And thank you everyone for your voting and contributions.

For those of you who might not have read the story so far (and can't be bothered, though I assure you its well worth the effort), Margaret tried to make a milkshake, but the power went out. She and her cat Mittens subsequently fleed a strange man, finding refuge with Emily, a Harry Potter fanatic who speaks using dialogue from the novels, and tries to live in the world of Harry Potter. Margaret was seeking an escape from this situation when we last left her...

It's Spring

Yep, the title pretty much says it. One month of blogging and we've already reached Spring. For the record, my birthday is on the 23rd of September, and I like hand made cards and picnics.

We have 10 votes on the poll, which isn't too much - but I'm anticipating a last minute "HAVE TO VOTE ON GELATI GECKO'S BLOG" rush which will no doubt crash my server through the 2 or 3 people clicking away frantically. So please vote, you don't need to have an account or anything. And in other news, we will no doubt be a little saddened to hear that boooo, or mk, has decided to stop posting in an attempt to bring some balance by challenging my incoherent babbles. I don't think mk will actually stop, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

We are always hearing about the joy that Spring brings, giving birth to new life, starting nature's cycle anew, rejuvinating the fields, etc. And it does make you wonder what the other seasons must think when it comes around to Spring...

Winter (seeing Spring skipping gaily along, approaching from a distance): Oh look, its Spring come to take my place.... clearly the favourite....why do I even bother...

Spring: Hello, Winter! Been a cold and wet one?

Winter: No, its been dry and hot. What the fuck do you think?

Spring: .....well, I'm sure its been great weather-

Winter: You know what people say?

Spring: No, I expect they-

Winter: "What shitty cold, rainy weather. At least its something for the farmers."

*awkward pause

Spring: Oh, come on, I'm sure they're just joking arou-

Winter: Just shut up. You're pathetic. I hate you. Go die. Seriously. Go. Fucking. Die.

*Autumn enters

Autumn: Oh...its you, Spring. (melancholically) I will never compare to your splendor....

*Autumn trudges away sadly, scuffing dead leaves.

Winter (under breath): Autumn's just as pathetic. Go die. Go. Die.

*Winter leaves. Spring shrugs, and cartwheels into place with a beaming smile.

I know, I know, I have far too much time on my hands. Actually, that's not true. I have very little time on my hands - I simply waste it on this. There, don't you feel priveleged?

*Note: I'll probably regret this post later...but I've written it now so, as Macbeth would say "to go back were as tedious as to go o'er"...

Perspective

The other day we had some grandparents visiting because someone in the family had passed away and there was a funeral (seems about the only time they DO come down and stay with us, which is a bit sad...). And it reminded me how elder people seem to have such a strange sense of perspective. It's like this:

Things concerning babies: Breathing, walking, eating

Things concerning toddlers: Thomas the Tank Engine sets, sandpits, hand paintings

Things concerning teenagers: School, relationships, their own self centred sense of disillusionment with the world

Things concerning adults: Jobs, money, families, responsibilities

Things concerning elderly: How to make the perfect flourless chocolate cake (use less egg yolks apparently), whether the begonias are flourishing as well as they should (or should we use extra rainwater collected in the new rainwater tank?), the name of the new presenter from Better Homes and Gardens that was doing the Japanese style pagodas.

Can we see a trend?

Older people can often get bogged down in the smallest details. It can be quite funny when your grandparents are insisting they couldn't eat more of the green beans at dinner (which were probably a tad overcooked anyway), or asking if it might be possible for the television is free at 7.30 so we can watch the episode of Jamie Durie's makeover show where they put the pizza oven in.

And funnier still when they tell you about how they went to someone's house and they were served up some muffins/cake/miscellaneous foodlike comestibles, and they were incredibly tough/tasteless/dry, and so then they didn't want to offend the friends so they ate it, but "oh, it was tasteless as anything, I tell you!"

Or the latest expedition to ALDI, the cheaper supermarket store that stocks only one brand of each product. A good 10 mins was spent discussing the 'adventure' and thrill of ALDI. And then you have the conversations like this around the family dinner table (I changed names, any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental):

Mabel: "We went to ALDIs, didn't we George?"

George: "Yep."

Mabel: "Oh, and they have SUCH a selection, didn't they? No, they really do. I honestly and truly believe they are really, really, good, high quality, good value..."

*ticking each off her fingers as she speaks

*obliging nods from people round table

Mabel: "We told the McPattons to go there as well, didn't we? And what did she say to us? What did Mary say to us?"

*blank looks

Mabel: "She said "MABEL, I can't believe it! I bought all this" and she had all these tins of tuna, didn't she, and it was tuna with good quality olive oil - you can't get that in other supermarkets now-"

*everyone thinks "Yes you can" but doesn't say it

Mabel: "And she said to me, "Mabel, that is the best buy I've had in YEARS!" Didn't she?

George: "Yep, she was pretty happy."

Mabel: "And we were there just the other day.....oooh....what did we buy....we got those lamingtons, didn't we? They were nice lamingtons. About this big" *shows us how big with hands. And we got some of those Italian biscuits, didn't we?"

George: "Yeah, they're big biscuits" *shows with hands

Mabel: "Oh, and they had ice cream - not lite ice cream, proper vanilla ice cream - we didn't get any though because you're not meant to eat ice cream, are you George? Remember what the doctor said? What did he say..."

and so on for ninety billion years.

I suppose its the gift of living for so long and putting up with life. It must be nice to wake up and only have to wonder whether or not they still stock your favourite Assorted Biscuits at Coles.