Still a Pygmy

With special guest:

• Isaac Bacirongo

When you are born and raised in Australia you know little about life as a refugee despite it being a frequent topic for conversation and opinion. Most of us have never spoken to a refugee.

Our guest today is Isaac Bacirongo who arrived in Sydney in 2003 with his wife and ten children as refugees after surviving the effects of Rwanda’s civil war in his own country, Congo.

In his book Still a Pygmy Isaac tells us about his struggles to save his identity as a Pygmy from extinction. In Africa Pygmies are regarded by some other groups as less than human. Against that background Isaac fought to go to school and get an education. He went on to establish successful businesses, owned several properties and a fleet of cars but all that was lost when the invading army arrived.

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The Lion, The Switch, and the Cuckoo: Adultery in a test tube

With special guest:

• Jonathan Grindon

A cuckoo has achieved its notoriety due to its practice of laying its eggs in the nests of other species, tricking parent birds into raising unrelated offspring when they hatch. Our guest today is Jonathan Grindon who due to the deception of his then wife, Annette, experienced firsthand that this behaviour is not confined to the animal kingdom.

This is not the usual way that husbands may be cuckolded. Jonathan was a sperm donor, the biological mother is an unknown Spanish woman and the embryo was placed in the womb of Annette. But wait, it was revealed some six years later that in fact the sperm had been substituted, the biological father of the child was not Jonathan at all but a previous boyfriend of Annette’s who happened to be in the vicinity of the IVF clinic when they were implanting the seed.

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Not All Superheroes Wear Capes

With special guest:

• Quentin Kenihan

Quentin crashes Dads on the Air?

Our guest today is Quentin Kenihan who first came to public attention over thirty years ago when he was interviewed by Mike Willesee for national TV. All these years later we hear again from Quentin about a series of extraordinary experiences, superhero adventures and also trips to the other end of the spectrum when it all seemed very bleak.

At times Quentin has battled depression, loneliness, fear, anxiety and pain. But Quentin has never let disappointment keep him low for long. Before you know it he has his zest for life back again and he is off chasing another goal from his bucket list that is constantly being updated.

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International Men’s Day 2016

With special guest:

• Diane Sears

Today we are lucky that we get the chance to go to the heart of an international movement by speaking to Diane Sears in the USA about the 2016 International Men’s Day (IMD). Diane is the USA Co-Ordinator for IMD and is a dynamo in the movement with a special interest in caring for the increasing number of incarcerated men and boys.

The theme for IMD this year is “Talk About Male Suicide”. Throughout the world the number of deaths by suicide is in the order of 800,000 per year. And in 99% of countries the majority of these people are the men and boys of the community. In the USA and Australia the ratio of men to women who take their life by suicide is three to one. We must find out why we are losing so many men and boys leaving others to grieve when even one death is too many.

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Stop Men Dying Too Young

With special guest:

• Sam Gledhill

Movember is a classic example of someone having a great idea.

In 2003 a few blokes came up with the idea of combining fundraising with a fashion statement for men and 13 years later that idea has led to over $700m being raised to benefit men’s health in some areas that are not fashionable.

Our guest today is Sam Gledhill who is the Men’s Health Program Manager at Movember. We had a fantastic interview with Sam last year in Movember and this year there is a lot to talk about as the movement keeps expanding.

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Help Change the Debate

With special guest:

• Bettina Arndt

When Bettina Arndt talked about sex on Australian national television and radio it was relatively easy to get the truth out in an area that tends to be covered up.

But our guest today must sometimes feel like a voice crying in the wilderness when she turns her attention to the domestic violence industry. It is hard to get the real story out when institutions such as the ABC and the daily newspapers generally contribute to the beat-up regarding domestic violence in our community.

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Parental Alienation Awareness Day Australia

With special guest:

• Amanda Sillars

Sometimes good can come from the most horrific events in a person’s life.

Amanda Sillars is our guest in this program and Amanda has experienced extreme parental alienation both as a child and a targeted parent. Her reaction has been to become an energetic campaigner against parental alienation which affects so many children and parents in our community.

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Hunter Valley Men’s Crisis Support

With special guest:

• Philip Penfold

Charity starts at home.

Philip Penfold, our guest today, was born and raised in Maitland NSW. When he spent 18 months in the USA he witnessed first-hand how community minded the Americans were and it inspired him to do something for his own hometown.

Philip did not have to look too far before he realised that homeless men in the Hunter region desperately needed someone to care. This led to the establishment in 2011 of Hunter Valley Men’s Crisis Support which provides assistance to homeless men in Maitland/Lower Hunter. This support group aims to give blokes a hand up when they are at their lowest point. They do this by providing practical, short-term assistance to men experiencing or at risk of homelessness or financial difficulty.

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Broken Lives Broken Minds

With special guest:

• Pamela Roche

The attitude of politicians towards International Parental Child Abduction seems to be “It ain’t broke and I ain’t gonna fix it.”; Our guest today is Pamela Roche who tells us how the system is broken and we need to get the word out to politicians, judges, lawyers and professional therapists.

When the father of her children breached English Family Court orders and refused to return them after a visit to the USA Pamela expected that she could rely on the legal system and the various institutions to restore order. She discovered that the USA is a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Parental Child Abduction. This is a multilateral treaty developed by the Hague Conference on Private International Law that provides an expeditious method to return a child internationally abducted by a parent from one member country to another. Pamela naively believed that with the USA being a first world country and part of the Hague Convention this should have been straightforward once she established the facts and got local advice.

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Children in Crisis

With special guest:

• Dr David Curl

Our distinguished guest in today’s program is very familiar with threatened species in the animal kingdom, having worked with luminaries such as the late Gerald Durrell OBE and Sir David Attenborough. He is now directing his considerable energy and ability to helping our own species in a crisis that is of our own making.

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WhiteRibbon.org

With special guest:

• Erin Pizzey

There is a constant barrage at this time of year in the press and on TV denouncing domestic violence against women. While this is in itself a worthy cause the zealots can not only overlook the information available but also lose track of the objective.

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Walk Across Borders

With special guest:

• Steven Monk-Dalton

Our guest today Steven Monk-Dalton has not seen his daughter for five years despite making every effort through the legal system to be reunited. Steven is a victim of International Parental Child Abduction with the relevant countries on this occasion being Spain and England. The frustration after being let down many times got Steven thinking about other options because as he tells us he will never give up trying to see his daughter .

Steven always said that he would walk through any borders if it meant seeing his daughter again so the idea formed of walking from Orihuela Court in Spain to the Royal Court of Justice in London England. This involves walking across France in a 44 day journey doing on average 42 kilometres a day which is the Olympic marathon distance.

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Torn

With special guest:

• Simon Williams

Simon Williams is a big strong Queenslander. We find him living in Florida USA, a long way from home with a heartbreaking story to tell.

Simon left Queensland for the USA with his qualifications as a Physiotherapist in his back pocket. After landing a job in Florida he joined the local rugby team where he was instantly identified by his accent as being from a strong rugby nation. While not reaching the heights of Wallaby selection Simon was selected for the Florida state rugby team and went on tour to Uruguay. This is one of the many adventures described by Simon in his new book Torn: The Story of an Undeserving Wallaby Drowning in a Septic Tank. This book is earthy, funny and provides a fresh look at our friends on the other side of the Pacific but there is an undercurrent throughout the book which is what we pick up on in the interview.

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Still a Pygmy

With special guest:

• Isaac Bacirongo

When you are born and raised in Australia you know little about life as a refugee despite it being a frequent topic for conversation and opinion. Most of us have never spoken to a refugee.

Our guest today is Isaac Bacirongo who arrived in Sydney in 2003 with his wife and ten children as refugees after surviving the effects of Rwanda’s civil war in his own country, Congo.

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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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Australia's First Peoples

With special guest:

• Jeff McMullen

For National Close the Gap Day we speak to Jeff McMullen.

Jeff McMullen is a household name in Australia with a major presence as a recognised international current affairs journalist. Throughout his distinguished 50 year career our guest today has written filmed and campaigned around the world to improve the health, education and human rights of Indigenous people.

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Parental Alienation Action

 With special guests:

• Jill Egizii
• Karen Lebow

In the USA just as in Australia there are many judges, lawyers, psychiatrists and psychologists who have no idea of the damage done by parental alienation. Many in the general public do not even know there is a name for what they see happening to friends, workmates and even themselves.

For this reason it is vital that we improve the awareness and education relating to parental alienation. With that awareness of the damage done to children and parents will come social change.

Today we cross to the USA to talk to two highly motivated women who have their own personal stories to tell. They tell us how they used their own experience as a springboard to develop networks and action plans for dealing with this form of child abuse.

If you are not sure about what can be done to respond to this blight on our parenting practices listen in to hear what our guests are doing in such a big way.
 

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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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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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