Random Observations of Life

Have you ever had sex on a work trip?

Posted by Robyn Dunphy on October 30, 2013 in General

Scans from Forty Years of Electrical Progress The Story of the G.E.C. A popular and informing account of a great British enterprise. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If I ask such a question, I should answer it myself, I suppose. I’m sure I must have at some point but right now I don’t remember any specific instances (so clearly any indiscretions were not that memorable!). I do recall several of us being asked to leave a spa pool at about 3 am one morning at a conference. We were being too noisy. Too many shots at the bar earlier in the night, I suspect.

Today I noticed the case by a female government employee for compensation for physical and psychological injuries incurred when a light fitting fell on her head during sex after being “pulled from its mounting” was finalised in the High Court. It is worth noting the claimant did require hospital treatment.

The court was split on the decision, with five judges agreeing and two in dissent. Justices Bell and Gageler would have allowed the compensation claim.

“For an injury to be in the course of employment, the employee must be doing the very thing that the employer encouraged the employee to do, when the injury occurs,” the joint majority wrote.

http://www.theguardian.com/law/2013/oct/30/motel-sex-not-work-related?CMP=soc_568

Tags: Australia, High Court, Injury, sex, travel, work, Workers' compensation Permalink

4 Comments

Reasons for Admission to Lunatic Asylum

Posted by Robyn Dunphy on October 22, 2013 in General

I just had to share this from the wonderful @MsPraxis. I have no idea where she got it from, but the reasons are interesting to say the least. I should point out I did go to the website given on the bottom to validate the authenticity of this list. What did I find? 😀

Tags: Asylum, health, history, Human Rights, Kirkbride Plan, Tran-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, United States Permalink

22 Comments

Should we send a woman pregnant with twins to Nauru?

Posted by Robyn Dunphy on October 15, 2013 in General

English: Nauru satellite picture (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Edit October 20: Since this and many other articles were published, Morrison has come out strongly denying there are any pregnant women with twins on Nauru. I note he does not say there never were:

Despite this, Mr Morrison used the once-weekly briefing to admonish assembled journalists for misreporting asylum seeker issues, including the widely cited presence of an asylum seeker on Nauru who is expecting twins.

“Again, this suggestion that there’s a pregnant woman with twins on Nauru is simply not true, it’s actually not true,” he said.

“There is not a pregnant woman with twins on Nauru. And this is why I’m stressing to you.”

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-18/asylum-seekers-refugees-manus-island-christmas/5031730

* * *

Under Australia’s new “no advantage” asylum seeker policies, we have sent an Iranian woman to Nauru. This woman is pregnant with twins.

I have watched heated debate from all sides. I have heard through the grapevine that Morrison will never let the mother return to the mainland because of the risk of encouraging a rush of (presumably) women pregnant with twins on boats.

I would like to look at some of the facts around this case. The first question is how common are twins: in other words, how likely are boat loads of mothers pregnant with twins? Not very. My husband’s people, the Yoruba, have the highest rate of twin births in the world, 45 – 50 per 1,000 births. South Asia and South-East Asia experiences rates of a much lower 6 – 9 sets per 1,000 births, while USA sits around the 20 – 30 mark (an increase that it is suggested is due to the use of fertility drugs).

I don’t know how many pregnant asylum seekers risk a boat, but for every thousand of them, we could expect maybe 2% to be carrying twins. In other words – NOT A LOT!

Let us look at the countries involved here. Australia, Iran and Nauru.

Continue Reading »

Tags: asylum seeker, Australia, children, Convention on the Rights of the Child, Morrison, multiple births, Nauru, Pregnancy, refugee Permalink

4 Comments

Are male doctors sexually harassed by patients?

Posted by Robyn Dunphy on October 8, 2013 in General

Symbol Table for Non Verbal communication with patients (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’d like to know the answer. I’d like to know for two reasons: A) to ensure we look at the issue from both sides of the fence and, B) while I’ve heard of male doctors being penalised professionally for inappropriate relationships (or worse) with female patients, I’ve not heard of the reverse.

A survey of Australian doctors has found that more than 50 per cent of female practitioners have been sexually harassed by a patient, with some respondents saying they had avoided examinations and after-hours shifts because of offensive patient behaviour.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/sexual-abuse-rife-towards-female-gps-20131006-2v2p0.html#ixzz2h7r5pGy0

This is disturbing. It is bad enough to be groped in a bar by an opportunistic stranger, but to be groped at work by anyone must be horrendous. Work is SUPPOSED to be a safe environment, but let’s face it a parade of strangers (patients) is hard to police. A hospital or medical clinic can’t do a character check of everyone who walks through the door.

Have I ever thought a male doctor attractive? Of course I have, I’m not blind! Have I ever “felt up” a doctor while he is examining me? No, because I respect the doctor’s role in the consultation. As an accountant, I don’t expect a client to grope me over an analysis of the profit and loss statement either.

A “drunk as a skunk” patient in the emergency department on a Friday night? Yes, I suppose that is part of the risks of working in ED – drunks are unpredictable and irrational at the best of times. I suppose there may even be examples of females draping themselves over the cute male intern. If you are a cute male intern, please share your experiences! Patients with psychiatric disorders may potentially be equally inappropriate for medical reasons.

Tags: Australia, doctors, sexism, sexual harassment Permalink

A passionate man speaks for his country

Posted by Robyn Dunphy on October 2, 2013 in General

Social evolution moves at different paces across the many societies of the world. Remember the Salem Witch Trials of 1692? Yet in Saudi Arabia women still cannot drive in 2013 (in case they damage their ovaries, no less, is the belief of one cleric) and in 2010 a certain American called Shimkus still believed we don’t have to worry about the environment because God promised Noah all would be well.

In Nigeria, writes Bamidele Adeneye, “as at 2010 it was reported that over 50,000 children were either killed,maimed or rendered homes less due to the false accusation of witchcraft.”

Bamidele Adeneye is someone I met on Twitter through our common interest in atheism. He writes with passion and intelligence about a country he loves, his country. Even if you are not an atheist, what he writes about self-reliance is still applicable.

If any of us believe too blindly in anything, we achieve nothing.

“Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their peers, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change.”
― Robert F. Kennedy

Read the words of a man willing to brave the disapproval of his peers in the hope of engendering change for his people.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Nigeria: Superstition, Religion and the Economy.

Nigeria is a blessed country, so we say. We are blessed with oil and many other natural resources. We are so special to God, he ensured that we never get to experience natural disasters like earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis and mudslide to mention a few. As Non sequitur (Latin for ‘it doesn’t follow’) as that sounds, many hold it as sacrosanct. Why? Simply because the reverent religious leaders and our elders have affirmed so. No need to investigate whether we are in a seismic zone or not. Even though there are other ways of explaining, our religiosity has hampered the need for many to ask critical questions, hampered the need to research. All we know is that we are blessed by God not to have such horrific natural disasters, end of story! That is why we have an ex minister of aviation who believed hurricanes in America are dependent on the whims and caprices of President Barack Obama (whom he called the “anti christ by the way). We have geography graduates who believe there are ways humans can spiritually halt rainfall. What a shame!

Read More….. (The link is to blogspot.co.uk, just for the record)

Tags: Barack Obama, freedom, God, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, science, United States Permalink

5 Comments

I wrote a little opinion piece

Posted by Robyn Dunphy on September 25, 2013 in General

I wrote a little opinion piece which has been published on Independent Australia. I love the cartoon!

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/tony-religion-and-the-dumb-country/

Hope you find it interesting. 🙂

In 24 hours it has proved remarkably popular.

Tags: Australia, news, politics, religion, science Permalink

20 Comments

Five Reasons Pillar Posts are good for your blog

Posted by Robyn Dunphy on September 24, 2013 in General

When I started writing this website in November 2010 I knew nothing about this particular part of the digital world. I do mean NOTHING! I started on the platform then offered by Bigpond.com, disliked the buggy interface and moved to Blogger then moved to WordPress.com at the urging of my oldest daughter.

I frequented the Support Forums and TimeThief’s immensely helpful One Cool Site. At some point I read about these magical things called Pillar Posts.

It seemed the experts agreed pillar post characteristics are:

They are longer posts.

Their content is timeless.

Their content is original and unique.

They offer a clear value to the reader.

They outline expertise around a specific topic.

They attract links from other bloggers.

Read more: http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2008/05/05/blogging-characteristics-of-pillar-posts/

I never set out to actually write any of these magical posts, I just wrote articles to try to assist others understand the minefield that is the Australian Partner Visa. It seems, however, I wrote pillar posts!

Pillar Post Stats

Maybe not the sex one. Definitely unintentional, that one!

Tags: blog, blogging, pillar posts, Wordpress.com, Writing Permalink

26 Comments

Where, oh where, are the women of calibre?

Posted by Robyn Dunphy on September 19, 2013 in General

There must be something really strange happening in the Liberal Party (and, I suggest, the coalition overall). Is there really NOT more than ONE woman of sufficient calibre in the Liberal Party to rate a cabinet position? The ONE woman that did make it has, effectively, been demoted. Julie Bishop was the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and could reasonably have expected to be Deputy Prime Minister, but no, that position is now filled by yet another man. Well, there was a choice of 17 men in Cabinet other than the PM himself!

The current Australian Cabinet

Tony Abbott made a big song and dance about ensuring we financially enabled “women of calibre” to be able to breed. Clearly breeding is much more important for women than being involved in RUNNING THE COUNTRY!!! Oh, dear, I forgot the ironing: breeding and ironing.

Tags: Australia, Cabinet, gender equality, news, politics, Tony Abbott Permalink

27 Comments

Grass roots women and gender equality

Posted by Robyn Dunphy on September 14, 2013 in General

Trigger warning.

Recently one of my articles about feminism where I used the decal on the left received a readership of some considerable numbers in the USA. Apart from a large number of comments, I also received emails. One in particular struck me.

The email was from a woman in the USA (we shall call her Jane Doe) who is an undercover feminist. I replied to Jane asking if I could publish her letter anonymously. Her response both pleased and shocked me. Jane said yes, I could publish her letter, but she also said:

Plus, I don’t really need prospective employers dismissing my resume just because I’ve been perceived as a ‘radical feminist’.

Are American employers so sexist? I do hope not!

Tags: feminism, gender equality Permalink

16 Comments

Elysium: movie review

Posted by Robyn Dunphy on August 26, 2013 in General, Our New Life

After seeing the trailer when we went to see Word War Z, I really wanted to see Elysium. I heard reports of what a great movie it was. Icing on the cake was Matt Damon criticising Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers when he visited to promote the movie.