Men's Business

With special guest:

• Ian Watson.    
  

A leader in the field of mentoring his fellow man, Ian Watson is a shining light of hope and encouragement to those suffering at the hands of agenda driven zealots, who are hell bent on destroying the resilience and natural inner strength of men and boys. 

He runs popular monthly men’s gatherings where men talk men’s business. Ian’s well attended “Transit Lounge” gatherings, provide a welcome sanctuary from the many real life experiences men suffer at the hands of government sponsored agencies and the media, whilst many of their kids are forced to live in fatherless households.

While the gender war against men and boys rages unabated around the globe, we see an apathetic and ignorant community laughing at all the demeaning anti male advertising propaganda, that sees them easily drawn into joining the “all men are perpetrators ” domestic violence hysteria. 

However, there are encouraging signs that men have just about had enough, and are collectively starting to show their enthusiasm for more pro-active engagement with one another. Mentoring is fast becoming the accepted new communication tool to support those that have fallen victim to some of the worse excesses of male bashing persecution, the world has ever witnessed.
 
We also broadcast a recording made at the National Men’s Health Convention recently, of the presentation made by psychologist Drew Cowen who works in the Family Court in Newcastle, and who’s theme was “Giving Kids the Best Dad they can have: Helping Fathers and Kids to have strong healthy relationships when they don’t live in the same home”.
 
Now on the face of it, such a caring sounding title would indicate an understanding of what fathers and their kids are forced to endure , as they desperately try to keep their parent/child relationships intact following separation. But to many dads in the audience it appeared that the one preaching to them, was part of the problem and not the solution.

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Threats To The Family

With special guests:

• Barry Maley   
  

• Dr Elizabeth Celi and

• Sue Price.  

We start the program interviewing Barry Maley, who is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney. Barry has released a report Family on the Edge – Stability and Fertility in Prosperity and Recession in which there are surprising findings leading to some major recommendations. Birth rates have been studied between a low point of 2001 and a recent high point of 1.93 per woman in 2008. The increase is strongly associated with the rising prosperity of that period.  With the financial threats and the continuing prevalence of children bei ng born to single mothers Barry argues for a change in family law and policies to encourage family stability. This would be a major factor in being able to sustain the buoyant birth rate.

Our second interview is with Dr Elizabeth Celi, well known Psychologist and social commentator who in the course of her work in mental health has encountered examples of domestic abuse which are sometimes too subtle to affect our sensibility. Elizabeth discusses recent television advertisements that would cause immediate offence if a female character were to be substituted for the male character in the script. We also talk about communication strategies and ways that can improve relationships and mental health.

Our final interview is with Sue Price from the Men’s Rights Agency. Sue has been conducting a survey on the Family Relationship Centres and we discuss progress with the survey. One of the problems that has been identified so far is with regard to a particular psychological theory that may be imposed by the Centres. We might have expected that the Centres would use the Government money to mediate and listen to the parties rather than impose a particular theoretical approach on the parties in dispute.

In coming weeks we will be presenting interviews obtained at the National Men’s Health Gathering held in Newcastle last week, at which Dads on the Air was represented by Peter van de Voorde and Greg Andresen.

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Action On Men's Health

With special guests:

• Greg Andresen 
  

• Ray Kelly and

• Geoffrey Greene. 

We start the program by doing a live cross to the National Men’s Health Gathering 2009, being held in the city of Newcastle. Greg Andresen reports on the planned activities for the four day event. While a significant national event, which only takes place every alternate year, it sees Dads on the Air as the only member of the national news media to attend this important National Convention on Men’s Health issues, for the full week.

Greg Andresen and Peter van de Voorde, who are representing Dads on the air at the conference, will be recording a number of presentations and have planned a series of interviews with leading participants that will be aired in coming weeks on our program.

Our second interview is with Indigenous leader Ray Kelly, an academic based at Newcastle University, who gave the opening presentation at the 5th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Male Health Convention. This Convention was the forerunner to the National Men’s Health Conference and the National Family and Relationships Forum, and was devoted to Indigenous issues where men’s health issues are even more predominant than in the general community.

We also speak with Geoffrey Greene the President of the Shared Parenting Council of Australia, about the three separate inquiries into Family Law being conducted by the Rudd Government. He argued that despite the concerted push to wind back the Family Law reforms introduced by the Howard government, the Trade Union movement would be a force within the ALP to block these changes. The Union movement wants to avoid a return to the dark ages when fathers only saw their children intermittently, if at all, following separation.

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Men Caring For Men

With special guests:

• Paul Elam and

• Prof. Robert McLachlan.  

First up we speak with Paul Elam, who is the Editor–in-Chief of the world’s leading men’s website  Mens News Daily and the publisher of A Voice for Men.

Paul worked as a men’s rights advocate for two decades in the mental health field, advocating on behalf of men that were affected by misandry and feminist doctrine in clinical treatment settings. Paul focuses his efforts now on exposing the mendacities of modern feminism, especially in their impact on the daily lives of men.

Our second interview is with Professor Robert McLachlan who is a Principal Research Fellow at Prince Henry’s Institute and is Deputy Director of Endocrinology at the Monash Medical Centre as well as being the secretary of the International Society of Andrology.

He specialises in the area of male reproductive medicine and has made significant contributions to the research in endocrinology, infertility and andrology.  He combines his academic career with active clinical practice as a consultant in these fields.

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Iron John

With special guest:

• “Athol”.  

This weeks show deals with American author, Robert Bly’s insightful interpretation of the Grimms brothers fairy tale “Iron John”.  “Iron John” tells the story of a boy who is mentored by a wild man thru various trials and tribulations to emerge a hero and eventually marry the King’s daughter.  

Iron John is also the name of a men’s group based in Sydney that meets regularly and deals with issues arising in its member’s lives. We are privileged to interview one of the members of this group who identifies himself as Athol. 

In his book, ‘Iron John; a story about men’ Bly interprets the original tale, explaining its relevance to the development of the pre-industrial male psyche whilst lamenting the failures of modern society to correctly initiate boys into manhood and the subsequent disastrous impacts upon the lives of modern men and women.

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Facts Versus Myths

With special guest:

• Sue Price.  

Once again we continue with the ever present need to put the record straight and expose the truth behind the myths and disinformation generally being presented in the media, regarding the many factors surrounding the family justice system.

Our editorial position is that, unless policies and programs are formulated as a result of sound research which is grounded in verifiable facts about the nature, extend and causes of the problems, we will never achieve a just and equitable outcome and separating families will continue to suffer as a result.

This week our guest is Sue Price of the ‘Mens Rights Agency’. As always Sue points out the urgent need for better reporting and the necessity for correct analysis of the operation of the current system and in particular the success or otherwise of the mediation centers which were set up by the Howard government, as a first point of call for broken families.

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Empowering Gender Equality

With special guests:

• Jeffrey Asher and

• Geoffrey Greene.
  

First up we speak with the newly appointed President of the Shared Parenting Council of Australia Geoffrey Greene, who was a key figure in the establishment of the Council 8 years ago and a key figure in pushing through the moderate reforms to family law by the previous Australian government; reforms which now look like they will be wound back by a Labor government and a few key feminist ministers.

Secondly we speak with Canadian academic Jeffrey Asher, formerly of Dawson College, who taught on the statistical merits of sexual politics and in the autumn of 1994, offered students at Dawson College the only course in Canada on ‘Men’s Lives’. Following 6 years of unrelenting pressure from extreme feminists, he was finally forced to resign and abandon the course in 2000. “My father taught me to respect ladies and that human rights were indivisible. In the 1970s, I lectured on sexual equality of opportunity and equality before the law. Like most men, my naivete about feminist politics was sustained by raging hormones”.

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The Mandarins and the Masses

With special guests:

• Amfortas

Over the past week father’s activists around Australia have been appalled by announcements from the Australian Labor government that it intends winding back the 2006 reforms to family law which promoted more cooperative arrangements after divorce or separation.

The government is conduction three separate inquiries into family law, inappropriately linking the inquiries with domestic violence. Not one of them consults the views of fathers or even the general public. There could be no clearer case of the mandarins regarding the great unwashed with contempt and not trusting their opinions, because after all there is strong public support for shared parenting.

Against this background, this week we play samples from the compelling podcasts compiled by a private practicing psychologist with 25 years experience who is driven by his own experiences and the experiences of many of his clients. He goes by the handle Amfortas, after the keeper of the Holy Grail. “I am a Men’s rights activist who is fighting against the excesses of feminism and the deleterious affects they are having on our public policies, particularly as they affect families and children,” he says. “I am not at all embarrassed by the use of the term Men’s rights, even if its unfashionable. Men’s rights are part of human rights.”

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International Men's Day: The Debate

With special guests:

• Clr Phillip Penfold
• Warwick Marsh and
• Dr. Elizabeth Celi.

Clr Philip Penfold says he is baffled by the opposition to the recognition that men have problems as well as women but is gratified by the media storm he has inadvertently created. Earlier this month The Newcastle Herald recorded that a motion for Maitland City Council to give equal support to International Men’s and Women’s Days has provoked a minor battle of the sexes with the city’s two female councillors voting against the proposal.

Warwick Marsh of the Fatherhood Foundation, who has been one of the leading proponents of the day, says everone needs encouragement: “It cuts both ways. Men need a day of their own. Father’s day has risen in the public sphere in recent years, and we hope that International Men’s Day will do the same. Councillor Penfold is ground breaking, he is a pioneer. Around the world the day is gathering momentum. It will become a very important day in the calendar.”

Dr Elizabeth Celi, author of Regular Joe versus Mr Invincible: The Battle For the True Man, said International Men’s Day was more than just about men’s health, it is about celebrating masculinity and the wide variety of roles that men play in the community. In her book, when she asked men to list the strengths they bring to their relationships, many fell silent. Celebrating IMD might help men recognise the many strengths and abilities that they bring not only to their relationships but to their workplaces and to the community at large.

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What Lies in the Hearts of Men

With Special Guests:

• John Simpson
• Sue Price
• Warwick Marsh
• Greg Andresen
• Robert Gordon.

This week we covered a great deal of territory, from a fascinating interview with the creative director of a powerful new movie Men’s Group, to International Men’s Day to the debate which has erupted over the potential jailing of men who dare to get a DNA sample of their children without the mother’s permission.

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Does Feminism Discriminate Against Men?

With Special Guests:

• Dr Warren Farrell
• Warwick Marsh and
• Kay Knight

This week we interview Dr Warren Farrell, world renowned author of countless books on gender, including The Myth of Male Power, Why Men Earn More and Father and Child Reunion. With women’s and gender studies courses dominating our universities; where the next generation of leaders learns contempt for men and their traditional roles and are taught to hate males and fathers and the so-called patriarchy, Warren Farrell has set out to address exactly this audience with his new book, produced by leading academic publishers Oxford University Press, Does Feminism Discriminate Against Men? A Debate.

Next up we will talk with Warwick Marsh from the Fatherhood Foundation and Greg Andresen (from DOTA), who organised the recent Men and Fathers’ Health Forum in Canberra. We close today’s show by talking with Kay Knight from the Thanks Dad Photos competition, run by a group called Community Connections on the NSW North Coast.

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Dad Stories

With special guests:

• Doug Doran and
• Ann Bressington MLC.

Doug Doran is the editor of a sterling new book Dad Stories. What happens when you ask twenty of your mates to tell you a story about their dad? You get Dad Stories. Dad Stories covers vast emotional territory. While these stories remember many of the good times, they never shy away from the sad or the tragic. Ultimately, they reveal that our fathers are much like us; sharing the same passions, hopes, fears, strengths, joys and disappointments—qualities that can pass from father to son across generations. Dad Stories is a totally self-funded, non-profit venture. The book costs $20 and all proceeds will be distributed throughout the Central Victorian community to support men’s health.

Ann Bressington, is a South Australian MLC, and one of the few politicians in this country with the courage and decency to speak out on behalf of men, no matter that their cause is presently unfashionable or even politically incorrect. She speaks out against proposed South Australian rape laws, which while purporting to protect women, may well do many of them great harm by falsely demonising their sons, their brothers and their lovers. If a woman goes home with a man and sleeps in his bed, this Bill will assume he has raped her if at the time of intercourse, she was “intoxicated” or “asleep”; she is not satisfied that he was entirely honest about his identity; she withdraws her consent for any reason and at any time but does not state so; there was any miscommunication about his or her intentions. A man may spend a life in jail as as consequence of a one night stand if the woman changes her mind afterwards, even if she doesn’t tell him so.

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Fathers' Day Special

With special guests:

• Eric Burch, US serviceman and musician
• Matt O’Connor, leader of Fathers 4 Justice UK
• Jacinta Hawgood, from the Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention, at Griffith University
• Warwick Marsh, from the Fatherhood Foundation
• Colin George, from the Fatherhood Festival in Bangalow (Northern NSW).

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Suburban Heroes

With special guests:

• Allan Turner, Chief Executive of the Zaidee Rainbow Foundation, urging all families to sign up for organ transplants.
• John Ashfield, author of a number of books including Matters For Men, The Nature of Men and Looking After Your Family and
• Harry Hill, author of a new book He Was My Father.

As well our researcher Greg Andresen will be calling in from the UK, where he has been interviewing a number of leading figures in the fatherhood movement and a fortnightly new segment, Research Central with Tom Mok will kick off with a look at a new paper De-constructing the Essential Father.

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What Men Don't Talk About

With special guests:

• Maggie Hamilton, author of What Men Don’t Talk About says “writing this book… was prompted by my growing unease at the many assumptions I had made about men. While I’d been happy to believe that… men were never vulnerable, when I took a closer look at men, I began to realise this wasn’t the case… I realised that the many dilemmas men grapped with, the pain they felt, were largely invisible.”
• Nick Gleeson from Vision Australia has two children, lost his sight when he was seven years old after colliding with a supermarket door. After successfully competing in the gruelling Comrades 90km marathon run in South Africa in 2000, he climbed the challenging Mt Kilimanjaro, highest peak in Africa and was the first blind Australian to make it to the summit.

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