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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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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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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BLACK DOG DAZE and R U OK?

Black_Dog_DazeWith special guests:

• Andrew Robb AO MP
• Rebecca Lewis

 

We welcomed Andrew Robb on to the show for the first time today. Andrew has distinguished himself in leadership positions for many years resulting in his high public profile. These positions have ranged from being the head of the National Farmers’ Federation (“the NFF”), the Director of the Federal Election campaign for the Liberal Party in 1993 and 1996, being a consultant to Kerry Packer and since 2004 being the Member for the Federal Seat of Goldstein. Andrew is currently on the shadow front bench as the Shadow Minister for Finance and Debt Reduction as well as Chairman of the Coalition Policy Development Committee.

What the public did not know until recent times is that Andrew Robb has for over 40 years been battling a debilitating condition, a condition that he could not admit even to himself. In 2009 Andrew with typical courage and determination decided to go public with his condition and take immediate leave from his senior position in the Parliament so that he could devote his full attention to dealing with his condition which now had a name, diurnal variation.

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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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Events Of The Week

Discussion of the week’s events:

With most of the team away during the school holidays, we were still able to muster a couple of stalwarts who engaged in a lively and informative discussion on the weeks events. There are many issues affecting parents and children today, that in the past were not a matter of concern or not even on the radar. However with modern technology and modern medicines, our lives have been changed considerably over the years, some things for the better while others for the worse.

How our society deals with some of these issues are the topic of discussion on today’s show, and well worth a listen if you are a modern day parent.

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Psychiatry and One Man's Story

With special guests:

• Prof. Miles Groth and
• ‘Tom’.

Our first guest this week is American Professor Miles Groth, who is full professor in the Department of Psychology at Wagner College, Staten Island, New York. He trained as a psychoanalyst in New York, where he has lectured residents in psychiatry on integrating existential analysis with traditional inpatient treatment. He has been in private practice since 1977.

Dr. Groth studied at Franklin and Marshall College and Duquesne University, and completed his PhD at Fordham University. He is the author of three books, and co-editor of Engaging College Men: Discovering What Works and Why, chapters in five books, twenty-six articles and fifty book reviews in nineteen different peer-reviewed journals. He is past editor of the International Journal of Men’s Health co-founding editor with Diederik Janssen of Thymos: Journal of Boyhood Studies.

Professor Groth will be in Australia soon to present at the Australian Institute of Male Health and Studies’ first Male Studies Symposium in Adelaide in June, at the Adelaide Convention Centre, where his topic will be ‘The Boy is Father to the Man’. As part of his presentation, he will speak about the state of the nuclear family, in particular the missing father and the effects of this on boys’ lives.

We then speak with “Tom” (not his real name for legal reasons), who tells his own story of how he was dispossessed of his children, by a legal system that he once foolishly believed to be fair and just, as it adjudicated the sensitive issues surrounding parental separation.

He made the mistake of trusting a system which has built a huge industry out of personal misery, and appears to have as its main objective the need to create the greatest amount of conflict possible, in order to fleece the greatest amount of the family wealth from warring parents.

Not taking it laying down however, “Tom” has embarked on a personal mission to warn an unsuspecting community, of the destructive practices employed by the divorce industry, and tells of the tactics he is using to expose such practices. Well worth listening to, especially for all those who are at a point where perhaps they feel there is nowhere else to go, and that there is nothing they can personally do.

Editor

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Hypocrisy Of Our Political Leadership

With interesting comment by:

• Ian Purdie and
• Ray Lenton.

When the ‘Social Inclusion’ Minister Tanya Plibersek MP spoke in Parliament last week of her disappointment at the “meowing attack” on her colleague, she followed with “As the Minister for Social Inclusion, I don’t think it’s right that half our population should feel excluded by this type of language.” All of which on the face of it sounds perfectly reasonable.

The hypocrisy of her comment however, defies logic in the face of her enthusiastic support for the sexist language of the blatantly gender divisive and bigoted, annual ‘White Ribbon’ campaign. This multi-million dollar taxpayer funded campaign, of  ‘Social Exclusion’, which excludes half our population and serves to stigmatize them all as violent abusers and sexual predators, is vigorously promoted by this Minister without the slightest concern or empathy for the underlying damage it inflicts on the nation’s decent fathers, sons, brothers, male partners and families.   

Without doubt, the vast majority of Australians are concerned at the level of all violence and abuse in our communities and certainly do not condone the behaviour of the perpetrators.They also fully support the obvious need to protect all of the victims.

It is therefore not surprising, that so many people vigorously object to the spectacle of hateful, openly sexist, Government sponsored, scare campaigns, which appear to be ideology driven and seem specifically designed to drive a gender divisive wedge into the debate. Most thinking Australians consider such campaigns to incite hate, social division and exclusion, rather then promote social inclusion and harmony. 

The Violence and Abuse victim community and their supporters, comprising all men, women and children, now looks forward to an apology from the ‘Social Inclusion’ Minister, for her sexist language and behaviour in relation to that campaign, and hopes such gender discriminating campaigns in future take account of all the available evidence, and presents any and all such evidence in gender neutral terms.

Furthermore it is hoped that in future, misleading and selective cherry-picked advocacy research, provided by cherry-picked advocacy researchers in support of such campaigns, is better scrutinized by our elected representatives for accuracy, quality and soundness, in order to better protect the community from the subsequent damaging outcomes of bad policies.    

The question must be asked what the underlying motives of this Government are, when such gender or race hate campaigns are allowed to establish such a foothold and flourish in a modern society, which claims to pride itself on being socially inclusive, multi cultural and anti-racist. Surely only a balanced and truthful approach can provide for a sound and reasoned outcome and lead to better policy development.    

Of particular concern is what the confusing, double standard message of such covert hate campaign, may be sending to the nation’s young boys. On the one hand for some it could become a self fulfilling prophesy, for others it will undoubtedly create deeply felt feelings of unworthiness and lead to depressive illnesses.   

Is it fair to expect our young boys to treat everyone equally, while at the same time ask them to silently accept all their fathers, brothers and themselves, being unfairly labeled as violent thugs by the opposite gender?

Does our society really wish to continue down this bigoted path, or are we intelligent enough to see the hypocrisy of such direction and demand social justice and equality for all, irrespective of race, ethnicity or gender? To teach no respect is to receive none!

Editor

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Australian MP Slams 'Trojan Horse' Family Law Amendments

With special guest:

• Greg Andresen.

The proposed Australian Family Law amendments came under attack from one of Australia’s more enlightened Federal Parliamentarians, George Christensen MP, this week, who likened them to taking the George Orwell approach to ranking considerations in his classic novel ‘Animal Farm’. Mr Christensen slammed the proposed amendments as being like a ‘Trojan Horse’ loaded full of terrible consequences that will undermine some of the most basic human rights of parents and children.  

On this week’s program we take another look at the proposed Amendments and speak with Greg Andresen, spokesperson for Men’s Health Australia, who has exposed many of the domestic violence myths being promoted by the Gillard Government and draws attention to some of the misleading claims made recently under Parliamentary privilege, by the Federal Minister for the Status of Women, the Hon Kate Ellis MP.

This is particularly troubling as it is impossible to develop fair and just legislation based on flawed information provided by self-interest groups, whose main focus in life is to protect their government funded existence, while the evidence provided by victim groups has been discounted, ridiculed and ignored.  

While Men’s Health Australia and the Minister both agree that child abuse and Family Violence are real, Men’s Health rightly question the alleged need to throw away due process in order to protect children from abuse and violence. They correctly point out that it is impossible to protect people from both abuse and false allegations of abuse at the same time as is proposed in the amendments, especially since each of them are considered abuse and cause immeasurable harm to the lives of the victims.   

George Christensen maintains that “what is inside this Trojan horse, the malicious code that will infect society, is an attempt to undermine equal access for both parents. This change would invite the court to ignore the requirement to consider the second pillar—the benefit to the child of having a meaningful relationship with both parents”.  

In his address to Parliament, George expressed his concern about the proposed broadening of the definition of family violence and made a passionate plea for sanity to prevail.  “The broadened definition of ‘family violence’ would mean that a wide range of everyday activities could potentially be construed as violence.

The broader definition includes as violence such things as repeated derogatory taunts. Under the proposed definition, much of what happens right here in the parliament would be construed as violence. Also included as violence is this little nugget: ‘preventing the family member from making or keeping connections with his or her family, friends, or culture.’ Under this broad definition, a parent could not prevent a young teenager from spending 20 hours a day talking to friends on Facebook, for fear of being accused of family violence”.

“What happens when a parent acts in a way that a reasonable person would describe as good parenting? What happens when a father says to his 13-year-old daughter, ‘No, you can’t go to Julia’s party because there will be alcohol and no adult supervision’? I will tell you what happens. An upset teenage daughter talks to a vindictive mother, who then claims the daughter is a victim of family violence—and it is their right under this definition. Another child loses the right to have a meaningful relationship with her parent. Under this definition, a parent would be too scared to ground a child as punishment for bad behaviour, for fear of ‘depriving a family member of his or her liberty.’  

Speaking in one voice with hundreds of thousands of powerless, dispossessed Australian parents and children, he concludes his Parliamentary address with:

“These amendments should be seen for what they are. They are a Trojan horse, full of malicious code designed to deprive fathers of their rights. The best thing we can do to protect the safety of children and to prevent family violence is to leave this act as it is.”    

While the rest of his Parliamentary colleagues prance about like frustrated show ponies, desperately chasing media attention to feed their inflated egos, George Christensen is scrupulously researching the subject matter of his Parliamentary responsibilities.             

Fortunately and belatedly, the Australian public has finally discovered a quite achiever to represent them, who is ethical and has the intelligence, ability and courage to challenge some of the many injustices, that an uncaring, self-centred establishment has caused to be imposed on an unsuspecting electorate over many decades.

We look forward to seeing and hearing a lot more in the years to come, from George Christensen, a principled man.  

Editor

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Do Politicians Really Care About Ordinary Australians?

With special guests:

• Sue Price
• Paul Mischefski and
• Tony Smith.

The Doomsday Cult appears to have moved their headquarters to the environs of the Australian Federal Parliament building in Canberra, where scaremongering  and the spreading of apocalyptic predictions of meter high sea level rises and pending invasions by hordes of uninvited boat arrivals, preoccupy the national debate.

We live in a chaotic environment, that sees our Political leaders fall over themselves to see who can deliver the most outrageous daily prophecy of pending catastrophic disasters, in order to feed the frenzy of the 24 hour media news cycle.

As we watch this childish, unstatesmen like display by our Political leadership, ordinary Australians shake their head and go about dealing with the everyday concerns that affect their personal daily lives.  

As the picture illustrates, from the Prime Minister Julia Gillard down, contempt by our elected Parliamentary leadership for the real every day concerns of the Australian public is obvious, and nowhere is this more evident than in the area of Family Law.

The Nation’s, nowhere to be seen Attorney General and his equally invisible opposition counterpart, simply refuse to debate some of the most outrageous proposals ever tabled in our National Parliament by an Australian Attorney General.  This is in the form of the proposed Family Law Amendment [Family Violence] Bill - 2010,  and on today’s show we discuss a number of the contentious issues which have raised so much concern amongst the non-custodial parent groups.  

Our first guest is Sue Price of the Men’s Rights Agency, who co-hosts today’s show from her headquarters in Brisbane. Joining her from Brisbane, is well known journalist, researcher and magazine editor Paul Mischefski,  who is also executive member of Men’s Wellbeing Inc, Queensland. Our final guest is Tony Smith, a senior Queensland  lawyer, who represented the people of Queensland as a Federal Politician, when he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1996.   

With a shared wealth of knowledge about the ravages that Family Law outcomes have inflicted on unsuspecting litigants, today’s guests speak out against what some have described as “another dogs breakfast of new Family Law Amendments”.

Of greatest concern is the apathy and disinterest shown by so many of our elected representatives, when they deal with such important, sensitive human rights issues as are involved in Family Law matters. Particularly in the way they repeatedly allow themselves to be so easily manipulated by various unsubstantiated claims, made by a plethora of  self interest groups, who rely on the indifference or lack of intellectual ability of many of our Parliamentarians, to challenge the accuracy of the information provided.

It is therefore not surprising to see such a rash of poorly drafted legislation being presented to Parliament, especially when so many of our elected representatives appear to lack the knowledge, experience and commonsense to understand much of the underlying meaning and possible ramifications of what is really being proposed. For responsible parents, its a very good time to be vigilant!

Editor

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In Support of Men

With special guests:

• Paul Elam and

• Mark Brooks.
  

On today’s show, as we cross from one continent to another, we witness the widespread, humiliating, emasculation of men and boys, which is now deeply embedded in the way we view equality and social justice in the western democracies.   

The manipulated silent majority which makes up our communities, blindly accepts the incredible debasement of the male of the human species, and laughs at their demise and discomfort, as they struggle with the constant attacks on their dignity and persona.   

As happened with other human rights abuses of the past, an ignorant community led by weak leadership, unquestioningly accepts the demonizing, stereotyping and marginalizing of members of a particular societal group, and fails to recognize this bigoted behaviour as an abuse of fundamental human rights.    

First up we speak to American social commentator Paul Elam, former Editor-in-Chief of Men’s News Daily and founder of A Voice for Men, who speaks about his new AVfM Radio program and issues around marriage and chivalry in modern times. Paul makes the following observations: 

“We live in an age where men are open targets.  Family law has developed into a dystopian system of government tyranny against men, on the supposed behalf of women, that represents the biggest roll back of civil rights since  the age of Jim Crow.  False accusations against men for all manner vileness including rape, child molestation, domestic abuse and the like have become epidemic and the perpetrators remain largely unpunished”. 

“This is just a part of a modern system of feminist governance that has gone to such extremes that we now have women who are murdering their husbands, often shooting them in their sleep, and walking away because they claim it was an act of defense from domestic abuse”.

“Our sons presence in institutions of higher education is dwindling rapidly, as is there performance in grades K-12. With 40% representation in college compared to women, and falling, there is also expected to be 18 million American men between the ages of 25 and 54 in the near future that will be unemployed and unemployable”. 

We then speak with Mark Brooks in the UK, who is chairman of the ManKind Initiative (UK).  In an article written by Mark on the 14th October 2010, he  draws attention to the gender divide and how comfortable the establishment is to engage in the bigoted denigration of men.    

“When Judge John Milford was sentencing Dennis Long, who stabbed his partner of 30 years to death, he said “You are a placid, unassertive, rather weak man”, as well as stating that as the bread-winner he should have permanently moved out of the family home”.

“The key litmus test is whether the judge would have made the same comments if the genders had been reversed. Rightly, I cannot see any possibility where a judge would say or even feel comfortable in stating that a woman who had been a victim of domestic abuse for 30 years was “a rather weak woman”, but the judge felt comfortable in saying this to a male victim”. 

“The same applies when Long was told he should have left because he was the ‘breadwinner’ - an irrelevant issue. Would a judge say that if Long was female. I think not. What is so appalling about these out-of-date, out-of-touch and sexist comments is that at its heart it places the responsibility on the victim not on the person carrying out the domestic abuse”.  

“Male victims, like female victims, are not weak, and it sends out the wrong message to say they are. No wonder twice as many men as women choose not to tell anyone about the domestic abuse they are suffering when this is the attitude of the judiciary. No victim of domestic abuse, whether female or male, should ever be described in this way and the judge obviously needs a better understanding of the power and control that perpetrators hold over their victim”.  

Editor

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What Our Attorney General Doesn't Want You To Know

With special guests:

• Toni McLean and
• Dr. Kim Halford.

The disturbing worldwide trend of disenchantment with the quality of Parliamentary representation is not without good reason. Witness the growing abandonment of all the major parties in recent democratic elections around the globe, and it becomes clear the electorate is tired of being treated with contempt by their elected representatives.  

A case in point is the secretive, evasive behaviour of our AG, Robert McClelland, who, without providing one shred of documented Police evidence to support his hysterical rhetoric of many children being abused while on Court ordered contact visits with their non-custodial parents, is now in the process of attempting to ram through draconian legislation without proper public scrutiny.  

Mr McClelland claims that more than 70% of public submissions support his proposed legislation, and incredibly considers this to indicate that the majority of the community supports his proposed legislation. However, despite repeated requests from the public, he refuses to release these submissions to public scrutiny.  

In a Democracy, transparency is required in order that justice is not only done but can be seen to be done, this is what the community demands and expects. The continuing aversion to public scrutiny by our AG, will only help to increase community suspicion and concern, about the hidden agenda and competence of the Gillard Government.   

On today’s program, we again take a look at the facts behind the hysterical Domestic Violence debate, which is widely used to label all men as perpetrators in order to separate them from their children, and underpins the proposed Family Violence Legislation.  

Our first guest is Toni McLean, Counsellor, Psychotherapist, Coach, Workshop Presenter, and Trainer, who is the principal counsellor for the “Think Twice!” suite of services. She offers a complete range of options for individuals and couples experiencing difficulty in their relationships from normal conflict through to all forms of abuse, as well as physical violence.  

Toni is an experienced counsellor and psychotherapist, with particular experience in the areas of relationship counselling; individual counselling; abuse and violence; trauma; anxiety and depression; and self-harming. Toni has significant experience in working with victims of domestic violence and with those who are abusing in their relationships.

Toni is also an experienced group facilitator and an accredited Myers Briggs Personality Type practitioner. In group counselling, Toni is assisted by experienced and supportive group facilitators. In addition to working with couples experiencing normal conflict, Toni has also developed a framework, based on current best practice from around the world, for assessing the complexity of the violence in a relationship, in order to tailor the solution to the situation and the couple.  

Our second guest is Dr Kim Halford, Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of Clinical Programs at the University of Queensland speaking about his recent research finding on Relationship aggression, violence and self-regulation in Australian newlywed couples.   

His past work includes that as a Visiting Professor at the University of Oregon (1989), Manchester University (1993), University of North Carolina (1997) and Chinese University of Hong Kong (2006), as well as being a regular visitor and collaborator with colleagues at Denver University, Brigham Young University and the Technical university of Braunschweig. These experiences have sparked a keen interest in him, regarding cross-cultural issues in family psychology.

Editor

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'New' Versus 'Radical' Feminism

With special guests:

• Erin Pizzey and

• Dr. Elizabeth Farrelly.

Most young women today no longer support the extreme views expressed by radical feminists, with many of them considering these views to be held by “hairy legged man haters”, who will not be satisfied until all power and control over every facet of our existence rests in the hands of women. Today’s women know, that if they wish to attain high positions of power in our modern society, being a woman is no longer a barrier to their ambitions.   

Modern women actually love their men, and already know that the only barriers to achievement depends on their willingness to commit to the long hours and dedication required in their chosen field of endeavour, and not the fact they are a woman. Female role models in powerful positions abound in the western democracies, thus forcing the radical feminists to resort to hysterical anti-male fear  campaigns, such as the alleged world wide Domestic Violence epidemic, in a desperate attempt to remain relevant.    

On today’s program we explore these modern expressions of feminism and take a closer look at the history of feminism, with two highly respected ‘NEW’ feminists.   

First up we speak with Erin Pizzey, founder of the Modern Women’s Shelter Movement and International Author. We will discuss her new book “This Way to the Revolution - An Autobiography” which is is ready for pre-order.  

The opening of a small community centre for maltreated women in Chiswick in 1971 was to bring Pizzey to the front line of what was becoming a national issue in a time when feminists were still treated with hostility and derision by right-wing figures, but also when left-wing radicals scorned anyone, like Pizzey, who put humanity before ideology.  

By the mid-seventies, Pizzey found herself under bomb threat and picketed by feminists for allowing men to staff refuges: this led to a long exile from the UK where she kept up her activities and achieved international recognition, while also re-inventing herself as a best-selling writer. Erin Pizzeys life and trials have been unique: her story is a compelling one, vital to any understanding of a more revolutionary age and burning issues that still resonate today.  

Next we speak with Dr. Elizabeth Farrelly, who is  an opinion writer with the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’, Author and Architect.  Elizabeth writes a weekly opinion column and has written critical columns on architecture, urban design and planning for the Sydney Morning Herald. She has also written insightful essays in the Sydney Morning Herald’s Spectrum, and articles in international journals as well as The Age, the Bulletin, the Architecture Bulletin, Architecture Australia, Architectural Theory Review, Interior Design, Pol Oxygen and Monument.

An articulate and engaging speaker, Elizabeth Farrelly has made several television and radio appearances and spoken publicly, often sharing the stage with Hon. Paul Keating.   

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New Feminism

With special guests:

• Dr. Elizabeth Celi and

• Barbara Kay.
  

Today is International Women’s Day, and in sharp contrast to the struggling International Men’s Day, thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate their achievements. On this day a global web of rich and diverse local activities, connects women from all around the world ranging from political rallies, business conferences, government activities and networking events through to local women’s craft markets, theatre performances, fashion parades and more.         

Women now hold many positions of power in a huge variety of endeavours and rightly so, yet the catchcry of victimhood continues to dominate the debate and is promoted by the views of the vocal radical feminists, who relentlessly attack and ridicule men at every opportunity. Unfortunately these extreme and outdated relics of a past era, persist with blaming all men for the world’s ills and support their distorted view of reality with a steady flow of corrupt data and statistics.          

They speak about the gender wage gap and the great need for equal pay for women. However, in most countries it is illegal to engage in paying a woman less for doing the same job and working the same hours as the man. We therefore challenge them to produce just one woman who finds herself in that position.

The fact is that some industries and professions just happen to pay more than others, and it therefore has more to do with women working less hours and/or that many of them work in industries or professions that happen to pay less. Or are they perhaps suggesting that every industry and profession should have the same rate of pay?          

Thankfully, the next generation of NEW Feminists are the more enlightened women in our communities who have moved on, and can see through this facade of victimhood and consider it counter productive to persist in engaging in a destructive power struggle with men. They understand the need for true equality and readily support the needs of men, and in turn are supported by the men.         

We speak to two such women today, and begin the show with an informative interview with Dr Elizabeth Celi, Psychologist, Author and social commentator. Dr. Celi completed a First Class Honours degree in Psychology and Psychophysiology and successfully achieved her Doctoral qualification from The Department of Psychiatry at The University of Melbourne. In addition to her workshops, advocacy and clinical practices, in regional and inner city, Dr. Celi currently sits on the Board of the Australian Psychological Society.          

Through regular TV and radio appearances and interviews, lectures, workshops, seminars and publications, Dr. Celi helps to debunk the negative myths and stereotypes about Men – our fathers, husbands, uncles, grandfathers, sons and brothers. Elizabeth champions the need for more positive male role models through a renewed appreciation and mutual respect for the strengths and skills of men and masculinity, as they now apply, in the 21st Century.          

To get an International perspective we speak to well known Canadian journalist Barbara Kay, who is a Columnist for the National Post newspaper. Barbara has an Honour BA in English Language and Literature, University of Toronto, and an M.A. in English Literature, McGill University as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow.          

She is an outspoken supporter of the equal rights of Men and Fathers, to enjoy the same rights as those currently awarded to women through the feminist inspired policies of our Governments, and is appalled at the bigotry and gender divisive mentality which continues to dominate in some of our Government Departments and Agencies, such as the Family Courts and the Domestic Violence Industry. Barbara will be talking about her upcoming column on feminism which is being released later this week for the Centenary of IWD.   

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The Dad Factor

With special guests:

• Dr. Richard Fletcher and

• Dr. Jonica Newby.

Our first guest this week is Dr Richard Fletcher, who leads the ‘Fathers and Families Research Program’ at the Univer­sity of Newcastle and is the author of ‘The Dad Factor’. In the 1990’s he pioneered the study of Men’s health and Boys’ health and founded the community-based group, Fathers Against Rape, to conduct workshops with teenage boys in schools. He developed the Engaging Fathers Project at the University of Newcastle and worked to have it implemented in communities nationally.

As a lecturer in the university’s Family Action Centre, he designed and deliv­ered courses and seminars to teachers, nurses, occupational therapists and medical students. In his PhD, he researched fathers’ attachment to infants and children. He is the convener of the national fatherhood research network. He is also the co-editor of the book ‘Boys in Schools’.

Next we speak with Dr Jonica Newby, who is a former veterinarian turned reporter / producer for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s flagship TV science program, ‘Catalyst’. While her days of trying to read the minds of furry patients are long gone, her fascination with the lives of animals remains. Before joining Catalyst, she provided the original research and concept and wrote and presented a five part feature series for ABC TV on the domestication of animals, called The Animal Attraction. She is also author of an ABC book of the same name, and a contributor to various science media across the country.

Her ABC book (formerly titled as The Pact For Survival) was recently made into a documentary feature for Britain’s Channel 4. The book has been reissued under the title The Animal Attraction to accompany the screening of the five part series.

In her follow up to ‘Fatherhood: the Male Pregnancy?’,  Dr Jonica Newby presents ‘Fatherhood: Secrets of the Superdads’ and catches up with our new dads to find out how they are coping with their first year of fatherhood, as we ask the question: can science tell us what makes a good dad?

In part 1 of Fatherhood, Dr Jonica Newby followed three dads-to-be, testing their hormones and their humour - as they made the transition to fatherhood. It revealed the biological changes that turn human males into caring dads, and examined couvade syndrome - a sort of sympathetic male pregnancy.

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Celebrating Our Boys, Men And Fathers

With special guests:

• Jason Van Genderen and
• Stephen Toon.

First up we speak with Jason Van Genderen, Creative Director of Treehouse Creative, a communications and design studio – based in Gosford, Crows Nest and Melbourne — who talks about his film ‘The Unspoken’ written as a tribute to his father who is dying of lung cancer, which was awarded the runner-up prize at Tropfest 2011 .  

This year’s batch of brilliant short films, selected 16 finalists  from more than 700 entries. The main event was held last Sunday 20 February in The Domain, Sydney and public viewing sites were set up across the nation – Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Hobart, Adelaide, Surfers Paradise and Perth – giving all Australians the chance to be a part of the anticipated 150,000 strong live audience.

Each year, Tropfest’s competition attracts aspiring filmmaker’s worldwide, eager to share their stories and craft with the public. 2011 had a distinct international flavour – entries flooded in from all corners of the globe and one of the Finalists came all the way from South Africa.  

Jason started out making comedies but is building a reputation for emotional short films. His film ‘My Town is Broken’ about urban decay in Gosford, won an award at the Sydney Film Festival in 2008 for films shot on a mobile phone. Another film “Mankind is No Island’ about homelessness won the first Tropfest New York in 2008. He also won 3 awards at the Geelong 24 hours Shoot Out Film Festival in 2007  

Our second guest is Stephen Toon, Director of Consultancy & Community Programs, AIMHS,  Australian Institute of Male Health and Studies – talking about ‘From Boyhood to Manhood’, Stephen has extensive experience in working with men and boys and in developing and delivering a range of male health, preventative mental health, suicide prevention, and personal development programs. These programs have been taken up by government, and NGOs, and have spanned health, education, and welfare sectors. 

Stephen has been responsible for the State-wide rollout of the highly successful Men in Communities Program (awarded the South Australian government, Dr Margaret Tobin Award for Excellence in Community Mental Health Education). He has played a pioneering role in the development of men’s health in South Australia and has been a commentator, educator, and male health consultant in much demand.  

Currently, Stephen is conducting research for the University of South Australia, concerned with establishing an evidence base and developing a best practice framework for conducting group work with men. He is also a PhD candidate in the University of South Australia’s Centre for Regional Engagement. 

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Family Court's Reward Perjury, Punish Victims

With special guest:

• ‘Rick’

Welcome to 2011, a year that will see more Australians denied access to their families than ever before in our history. At the start of this new decade, 5.2 million Australian men, women and children find themselves having been forcibly torn from their loved ones, since the Family Justice Industry began waging its reign of terror in 1975.  

We live in a dark period of our history, where, under the self serving leadership of six different Prime Ministers, not one politician has had the courage to stand up in Parliament and challenge this multi billion dollar juggernaut, by saying loud and clear “this is wrong and indefensible and I will no longer offer my support”.

Instead, collectively, we choose to silently tolerate the following examples of reprehensible behaviour by those engaged in the perjury riddled Family Justice Industry, which richly rewards perjurers and punishes the victims. Incredibly we continue to remain mesmerized by the mythical ‘Best Interest of the Children’ slogan, so deceptively used to remove many million’s of Australians from their families, and causing 35,000 of the nations’ father’s to commit suicide since 1975.  

If anyone should still be in doubt about the abhorrent extend of the family destructive outcomes meted out by a judiciary, which goes about rewarding perjurers and punishing the victims in our Family Courts, while at the same time fraudulently claiming they have no alternatives, please note the following:

Perjury Rewarded 1
Perjury Rewarded 2
Perjury Rewarded 3

In order to further illustrate the depth of Government complicity through the multitude of agencies which administer their family destructive policies, on today’s program we speak to one such dispossessed parent ‘Rick’ [not his real name for legal reasons], who was jailed for sending a birthday card to his young daughter.   

Today’s newsletter, the first for 2011, has been forwarded to every Australian Politician, who has been elected to represent all Australians in our Federal Parliament, taking away any future option to plead ignorance.     

We repeat our invitation to any Australian Politician who would like to join us on air, to publicly defend and justify the proposed Family Law Amendments, which stand to further encourage perjurers, destroy family relationships, and cause increasing numbers of the nation’s children to be abandoned into the care of the most dysfunctional of their parents.   

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Wrap-Up of a Men's Month

With special guests:

• Diane Sears
• Warwick Marsh and
• Yousaf Jamal.

This week signals the end of November, a month which has seen a number of men centric initiatives take centre stage around the world, as it celebrates and honours the importance of men in our societies. The Movember campaign, along with International Men’s Day, head the list of actions taken by men, to draw attention to societies’ current devaluation of the role of Men, Fathers and Boys. 

Our first guest is Diane Sears, who is the USA Coordinator of International Men’s Day [IMD] 2010 and who is a member of the IMD Coordination Committee. Sears is a member of the University Council for Akamai University’s Fatherhood and Men’s Studies Program, which is located in Hilo, Hawaii.  She advises the President of Akamai University on Fatherhood issues and assists him in the enhancement of the institution’s Fatherhood and Men’s Studies curriculum and in forming strategic alliances with national and international Fatherhood organizations.  

Diane Sears is also a celebrated author and the following is an excerpt from one of her books ‘IN SEARCH OF FATHERHOOD’. “Men play an important role in our lives. They are the glue that holds our families, our communities, and our world together. Yet, despite the valuable contributions Men make, as a whole, they are generally taken for granted, summarily dismissed, ridiculed and negatively stereotyped in television situation comedies, and mis-characterized as emotionless automatons. Men laugh, love, grieve, dream, and cry. They are very complex individuals. Their hearts and souls can be easily crushed. Men want to be treated with dignity and respect. They have valuable life lessons to teach about integrity, courage, sacrifice, faith, commitment, compassion, loyalty, unconditional love, transcending boundaries, and successfully navigating the world outside of our immediate environment”.

“When Men know deep within their heart of hearts that we respect them and when we have demonstrated that we are nonjudgmental and willing to listen, they will bare their souls. It is a magical and moving moment when a Man shares his innermost thoughts and feelings – when he tells his story. The next time your father, uncle, grandfather, son, brother, husband, cousin, nephew or “significant other” engages you in a conversation, stop what you are doing and listen —really listen with an open mind and an open heart. He is telling you his story.”  

Our next guest is Warwick Marsh, who is the Media Coordinator for IMD 2010 and Founder of the Dads4Kids Fatherhood Foundation. The Dads4Kids Fatherhood Foundation is honoured to work with the founder of International Men’s Day, Dr Jerome Teelucksingh, as well as many other family-friendly men and fatherhood groups all over the world. Working together, in order to promote a unified celebration of manhood and the positive contribution that men make to society.  

Actively involved with improving the image and well being of men and boys, the Dads4Kids Fatherhood Foundation is also an Australian Harm Prevention Charity. Formed in 2002, their aim is to help turn the tide of fatherlessness as well as resource and encourage fathers. The mission of the Fatherhood Foundation is to improve the well-being of children by increasing the proportion of children growing up with involved, responsible, committed and loving fathers.  

Our final guest is Yousaf Jamal, who is the Pakistan Coordinator for International Men’s Day and the President and Founder of the first and only Men’s activism organization in Pakistan Rights and Rights International. Yousaf lives in Kot Addu and is the father of 8 children - 3 boys and 5 girls.   

Yousaf has observed in Pakistan over the last few years, that a lot of feminist organizations paint the whole male gender as cruel. Likewise in some prevailing laws there are many discriminatory clauses against men, particularly in Family Law. The Harassment in the Work Place Act is totally anti-male. And he has witnessed the steady decline of male participation at Higher Education and University level.

He also believes that the observance of an International Women’s Day by the United Nation without a counterpart is discriminatory. In order to highlight the issues being faced by men in Pakistan he started the male activist organization Rights and Rights International, this year in 2010.  

Yousaf Jamal held a very successful seminar on International Men’s Day, with many lawyers, educationists, social activists and representatives of Women’s organizations attending the seminar. Special tributes were paid to prominent male role models. Problems such as the under-representation of males in university and other education settings were discussed at the seminar. Female students in Karachi University total 90%, in Punjab University 70%, while in BZ University 52% students are female. This is really an alarming situation for males in Pakistan.  

Yousaf cautions that we should avoid the “EACH GENDER FOR ITSELF” approach and instead promote better gender relationships. He proposes that we should celebrate both Men’s Day and Women’s Day and asks everyone to join hands with Rights and Rights International for the elimination of Gender Based Discrimination.

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The New Manhood

With special guests:

• Steve Biddulph and

• David Hatfield.      

Our first guest this week is Steve Biddulph, ‘The New Manhood’, who is one of the world’s best known psychologists and a celebrated author of many books. We will discuss in detail the content of his latest book ‘The New Manhood’. His books, including Secret of Happy Children, Manhood, and Raising Boys, are in four million homes and 31 languages. They have influenced the way we look at childhood and especially the development of boys and men.

Steve was voted Australian Father of the Year in 2000 for his work encouraging the role of fathers. He lives in Tasmania with his wife Sharon, a large extended family, and assorted wombats.

Speaking about his first new book in 6 years, Steve says “The New Manhood contains everything I have learned about being male, from working as a therapist and educator with men, and living for almost sixty years, struggling, reflecting, and researching about how a man’s life either works, or does not.” The central message of the new book is the importance of purpose, and the idea that there is a single change that delineates a man from a boy. A man is someone who has gone beyond self, he enjoys life, but he lives for others.

The New Manhood is influenced by much powerful and new thinking – from elders like Richard Rohr, David Mowaljalai, David Schnarch, young men like Donald Miller. It features special sections on outstanding practitioners in education and therapy – preventing rape in South Africa, teaching manhood to boys in Melbourne, healing family violence in Northern NSW. Its message is for teenage boys, young men, family men, mid-life men and men growing old.The book is full of stories and is simple and easy to read. Steve counts this book as his best effort, perhaps of a lifetime, to affect the course of the times we live in.

Our second guest is Canadian David Hatfield, “Manology” who is an independent facilitator, experiential educator, trainer, and consultant. His professional interests revolve around issues of social justice, masculinity, and leadership. His passions lie in the meeting place of gender empathy and empowerment, rites of passage, conflict transformation, creativity, communication, and leadership training.

David’s engaging program design, facilitation, and keynote addresses are masterful and have been contracted nationally and internationally. As a specialist in male issues, David is a powerful guide in exploring notions of masculinity and a catalyst in illuminating and supporting new possibilities for both genders.

David is also the Canadian coordinator for International Men’s Day, and is proud to host the IMD event in Vancouver.  This is Vancouver’s first public celebration of International Men’s Day. The event will begin with an introduction to men’s day, a proclamation from the City of Vancouver, and several speakers and entertainers. Then everyone is welcome to mingle and meet the numerous participating organizations who will be sharing information and inviting participation in diverse ways. There will be games to play, food, fun, and creative opportunities to add your opinions and ideas into the mix!!

This event celebrates Men’s positive contributions, offers information about issues facing boys and men, and a chance to meet a diverse number of organizations in the community that are working to support the needs of boys, men and families.

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