Fathers and Daughters – What are the issues?

With special guest:

• Professor Linda Nielsen

Our guest, Professor Linda Nielsen speaks to us today from North Carolina in the United States about a topic that nearly everyone has a stake in but on which there is very little guidance. How important is the relationship between a daughter and her father? This topic has been explored by Dr Nielsen in her latest book Father-Daughter Relationships: Contemporary Research & Issues.

Many studies have been directed at the importance of a mother’s relationships with her children. But a father may need some reassurance about the value of his relationship with his daughter particularly if he feels more comfortable with his son. The first thing we get to check with Dr Nielsen is what is it that fathers do for their daughters? Are they really needed?

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International Missing Children’s Day – 25 May

With special guest:

• Rebecca Kotz

The Global Missing Children’s Network (GMCN) is a network of 22 partner agencies co-chaired by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC). Participating countries range from Albania to the USA. The global campaign of this network is called Help Bring Them Home and it is being led by the AFP.

May 25, International Missing Children’s Day, is the day when people in Australia and around the world commemorate the missing children who have found their way home, the victims who did not come back and the continuing efforts to find those still missing.

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The Parental Alienation Syndrome

With special guest:

• Linda Gottlieb Kase

In this Parental Alienation Awareness Month we have previously spoken to an Australian expert, Stan Korosi, to find out what Parental Alienation means in the Australian context. In today’s program we go to New York to find out the latest on the way it is treated by the Courts and by therapists internationally. While Parental Alienation Syndrome (or PAS) still appears to be a controversial topic in Australia there is no difficulty in recognising this evil for what it is in the US.

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CAFÉ (Canadian Association for Equality)

With special guest:

• Justin Trottier

It may come as a surprise to many of our listeners that many of the problems we face in Australia relating to equality as it applies to all men, women, girls and boys are similar in a distant part of the world, namely Canada.

A hotbed of activity in Toronto Canada is CAFÉ so we speak to Justin Trottier who is the Founder and Board Member of that association about what is being done over there while we look for lessons on improvements everywhere.

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Splitting: Protecting Yourself While Divorcing Someone with a Borderline or Narcissistic Personality Disorder

With special guest:

• Bill Eddy

The word Splitting brings to mind a number of possibilities but in Bill Eddy’s book it is not the obvious meaning of breaking up with a partner. Here we are looking at “splitting” meaning a defence mechanism universally seen in people with Borderline and Narcissistic Personality Disorders. It means unconsciously seeing people as all good or all bad and is especially prevalent when there is stress such as in a break-up with someone the person afflicted sees as critical to emotional survival.

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Parenting today in Amsterdam

With special guest:

• Benjamin Wondergem

Our guest today brings a European flavour to the program. Benjamin has confronted both personally and professionally many of the problems we see in Australia relating to shared parenting and fathers gaining access to their own children if the other parent is unwilling.

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'Dad' the Documentary

With special guest:

• Karen Hodgkins

‘Dad’ is a documentary that Karen Hodgkins has made for a higher purpose than looking for film industry awards. This new film is a powerful and emotional appeal to the law makers and the law enforcers to do something for the Dads who are not travelling as well as frequently portrayed in our society.

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Continued Parenting

With special guest:

• Prof Robert Kenedy

Robert Kennedy was a famous American political leader but our guest today with a similar name is recognised around the world for other reasons. We speak in this program to Professor Kenedy in Toronto Canada to find out what he has discovered after conducting research in the areas of fathers, shared parenting and related issues for the last 15 years. This research has taken Robert to the UK, the US, Europe and most recently Australia and New Zealand where he has conducted thousands of interviews.

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Should Mums and Dads share parental leave?

With special guest:

• Adrienne Burgess

Our guest today talks to us from London. Adrienne Burgess has researched paternity leave around the world and she tells us what is important from both the parents’ and the children’s perspectives with a few surprises.

Paid parental leave has stirred up a lot of feeling in Australia after being made the signature policy of Prime Minister Abbott. We are still uncertain about what is planned or even when changes are likely to be introduced. Minister Kevin Andrews stated recently that it was not yet possible to say whether a revamped passage would be ready for its scheduled start on July 1, 2015.

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Where is my child?

With special guest:

• Ken Thompson

Perhaps the most frightening experience a parent can endure occurs when their child goes missing. What if you then find out that you will not be getting any help or assistance from your partner or former partner because the partner has decided to disappear from your life with your child?

This situation is arising more frequently and Australia has one of the highest rates per capita anywhere in the world. When the child is taken overseas the practice is described as International Parental Child Abduction or IPCA and there is a growing recognition of the damage done to the victims.

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Men's Health Week - Part 2: We're not going to sit in silence

With special guests

• Professor John Macdonald
• Melissa Abu-Gazaleh

Today we present the second of our special shows to recognise Men’s Health Week which this year ran from 11 to 17 June 2012. Our guests today are activists, great people in our community who have recognised a problem and then decided to get out there and do something about it. Professor John Macdonald joins us from the Men’s Health Information and Resource Centre at the University of Western Sydney having recently returned from Zambia and he puts the local men’s health issues in an international context with his broad experience derived from a career which has taken him to Pakistan, Nicaragua, South Africa, Botswana, Hong Kong, France, New Zealand and Senegal among other countries. Our second guest is Melissa Abu-Gazaleh, a young woman who is passionate about the welfare of young men. Melissa realised at the age of 19 that young men were not engaging in the community and this was disadvantaging them as well as causing the community to miss out. This led Melissa to becoming the Managing Director of Top Blokes Foundation and being able to provide a platform for young men to shine.

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Raising awareness in our society while dealing with the myths

With special guests:

• John Forsyth
• John Cook

John Forsyth

John Forsyth is a Scottish journalist who was a co-founder of Men in Scotland a blog which has now developed into a registered charity Abused Men in Scotland (AMIS). The problem that John describes sounds all too familiar to us in other parts of the world, namely that when the issue of domestic violence is raised there is a silo vision restricting the view to only male violence against their female partners.

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Familists V Feminists

 With special guests:

• Kingsley (Kip) Miller
• Gil Ronen

Kingsley (Kip) Miller

Kip Miller is a fathers’ rights activist who is described by Lord Justice Thorpe of the UK Family Division as having a history of responsible campaigning and writing on issues relating to family relationships. He holds qualifications in Research Methods and is trained in Child Psychology and Child Sociology with a Teachers’ Certificate and a Masters Degree.

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The Stats that Matter

With special guests:

• Kyle Lovett
• Barbara Kay

Kyle Lovett

Kyle Lovett is a Research Editor and Author at A Voice for Men. Kyle is based in Washington DC in the USA but even at that distance he cannot help but be disturbed about the National Council of Australia’s plan supposedly directed at reducing violence against women.

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Europe for Christmas

With special guests:

• Benjamin Wondergem
• Ken Thompson
• Peter Tromp
• Robert Whiston

In our last show for 2011 and in the leadup to Christmas we have a European flavour. In the studio we are joined by Benjamin Wondergem visiting Sydney from the Netherlands and Ken Thompson who is well known to listeners in connection with the Hague Convention and more generally in the area of reforming the law on International Parental Child Abduction.

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Breaking the Silence on Male Victims of Domestic Violence

With special guests:

• Dr Elizabeth Celi
• Emily Tilbrook

In the wake of White Ribbon Day 2011 and the recent amendments to the Family Law Act relating to domestic violence our show today presents an opportunity to discover the real story.

We speak first to Dr Elizabeth Celi an internationally recognised expert in the field of men’s health.

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Our Grande Finale Salute to International Men’s Day

With special guests:

• Geneuvieve Twala
• Diane Sears
• Donald Berment

Today we present the final show in our series on International Men’s Day (IMD) 2011 where the theme is:

Giving Boys the Best Possible Start in Life

We start out in Africa going to the home of the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency, namely Botswana, and finish up in Trinidad and Tobago via the USA.

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International Men’s Day on different continents

With special guests:

• Glen Poole
• Cathleen Williams
• David Hatfield 

International Men’s Day (IMD) 2011 will be celebrated in over 50 countries around the world on 19 November and the 2011 theme is:

Giving Boys the Best Possible Start in Life

This week we drop in on the IMD coordinators in the UK, the USA and Canada to hear directly from the organisers some of their achievements since being appointed and what they have planned for 2011. The speakers are all entertaining and inspiring as we go across the world to hear from them. IMD is fast approaching as we devote the second of three shows to this important event.

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What International Men’s Day Means to Me

With special guests:

• Mick Kenny
• John D Evans  

International Men’s Day (IMD) 2011 will be celebrated in over 50 countries around the world on 19 November and the 2011 theme is:

Giving Boys the Best Possible Start in Life

IMD interfaces with MOVEMBER and also with Universal Children’s Day on November 20 and in focussing on the main challenges boys all over the world face, asks how we can come up with local solutions to global problems.

At Dads on the Air this week we explore what IMD means to organisers in Ireland and the USA. Listeners are invited to share their own thoughts on giving the best start to boys by contacting the IMD coordination team at http://www.international-mens-day.com/ The best solution oriented approach will be awarded a prize certificate for the IMD FLAGSHIP PROJECT.

Across the sea to Ireland

Our first guest today is Mick Kenny, the Chair of Men in Childcare Ireland coordinating a celebration of IMD in Ireland. Mick has been working in childcare for 19 years, for the last 15 years in the early years sector (preschool / kindergarten) and he speaks to us from Kilkenny.

Mick is fortunate to be working in an area he loves. He is working towards his vision of seeing children feel it is normal to be cared for by both men and women.

Hear what the community gains from accessing men for this career and also the benefits to the male childcare workers themselves.

Mick’s efforts to increase the contribution of men in raising boys fits neatly with the IMD theme in 2011 and it is told with a lilting Irish accent.

The IMD Poet in the USA

Today we are honored to welcome back to Dads on the Air John D Evans who is the Illinois Regional Coordinator for IMD in the USA. John is an educator, humanitarian, folklorist, author and poet whose literary work Diary of a Renaissance Man was named Children’s Choice 2008 by the International Readers’ Association, the Children’s Book Council and 10,000 school children.

In talking to John we find out how IMD will be celebrated in the Illinois area of the USA in 2011 as well as hearing something of what was achieved in 2010. We hear about a writing competition that is open to writers around the world.

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The Journey

 With special guests:

• Ken Thompson and
• Heath Cole.  

 
 

Both our guests today have been on a bicycle journey.

Ken Thompson became well known when he decided to take direct action after his child was abducted overseas by the other parent. After riding on his bicycle around Europe publicising his quest to find his child Ken was contacted by Interpol with news that his child had been located. Ken is now part of an international movement to help parents who have been the victim of this destructive behaviour and to agitate for changes in the law to make this type of child abduction a crime in all countries, including Australia. Ken presents a lucid explanation of the problem of international parental child alienation, what is being done about it and what we all hope is the way forward.

Our second guest is Heath Cole. Last Friday Heath completed with his team of four other riders a 1000 kilometre ride in the Riverina to raise funds and awareness of mental health. Heath received a warm welcome in the towns of Tumbarumba, Tumut, Cootamundra, Temora and Griffith and finishing the course where he started in Wagga Wagga. Heath spoke candidly about his own battles with the “Black Dog” and how the bike ride has helped in raising his own spirits as well as raising funds for Riverina Bluebell, the local charity dealing with mental health issues. Heath talks about the warning signs of depression and what you should do about it. This is very to pical in view of World Mental Health Day on Monday 10 October 2011 and the ongoing Mental Health Month in NSW.

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