Legless in perpetuum

Hey y’all,

There have been some massive upheavals and changes in my life recently, and I have simply not had the energy to blog for reasons too many to mention.  However, this does not mean I want to stop blogging. Hence I have decided it’s time for a new start so expect a new name and new image at this URL within the next week or so.

And to all my loyal readers who keep coming back to check, you guys fucking rock.

Dear all,

I don’t know where to start in apologising for not updating in so long, but suffice it to say I feel awful about it.  But here I am now trying to make amends and trying to get this blog here kickstarted again.  Basically, I had some complications in hospital and things got, well, pretty rough for a while.  I’m sure I don’t need to go into detail.  However, in good news I should be out within a month.  I can’t believe this time around it’s almost been one year on here but considering I’m so close to being discharged from this godforsaken place I’m not going to dwell.

The difficult thing about being stuck in hospital from so long is not having much to update you all on, so I will let you know what I’m planning for the New Year.  Due to all the changes at my university to the Arts faculty, and by changes I mean massive cuts, I have decided to transfer out of my degree into another graduate degree which will provide me with a specific vocation.  I’m still yet to have my application accepted yet so watch this space.  I should know by the end of February and Uni begins at the start of March and if I pull this off, well, I might just be something resembling proud of myself!

I did have some wonderful things planned that I wanted to achieve last year, alas they all fell by the wayside because of misdiagnosis after misdiagnosis.  Instead of giving up I am just refocusing and presently I still feel like I am coming out of a six-month haze of copious amounts of morphine and heavy-duty antibiotics, trust me, not the world’s best combination for someone who enjoys concentrating on interesting stuff.  I have something like 300 e-mails in my Yahoo account and have lost the password to my other e-mail address.  I just realised that I have started bitching when I didn’t want to, like I said, I am nearing the end of my stay and I must focus my energies forwards.  I can’t afford to look back over what I’ve been through last year, and the year before that as well I guess, and so on and so on because then that just wastes the time that I do have now, the time that waits before me that is.

I was planning on moving overseas this year but that doesn’t look like it’s going to be happening any more, well not for a little while anyway.  I’m still planning on establishing a fundraising organisation for people with spinal cord injuries in developing countries, something I plan to start putting together the moment I leave this place.  Again, watch this space.

I will most definitely be returning to my work at the Holocaust Museum, not just translating but also doing some further research projects and so on.  My colleagues at the Holocaust Museum have been absolutely amazing and a great support while I have been in here.  I think one of the worst things about being isolated in hospital for so long is not having the energy to maintain contact with the outside world.  I was reading an article about chronic illness the other day and one of the main characteristics of people who have been in hospital, or any other institution for that matter, for an excessive period of time develop problems communicating because they aren’t using their vocabulary to its full extent and do things like forgetting simple words.  I had to laugh at that because the other day I forgot the words for curtain and finger.  I seriously stared at my hand for about 10 minutes before it clicked and I went, “fi…fii…fin… fun… FINGER… that’s it, finger!”  That was a weird experience.

Anyhow, it is now late and I should be off but again I apologise for not having written for so long.  I don’t think I need to go into detail about just how bad the last six months have been, let’s just leave it at that and all start the legless party again.

I love you guys…

Always
Rachy xx

My voice recognition software is broken but should be up again within the week.

Stay lovely
xx Rach

You Are Very Happy Being Single

You’re not anti-relationship. You just don’t need one to be content. You find plenty of happiness from your life as it is. And if you find someone you love, then that’s just icing on an already decadent cake!

Are You Happy Being Single?

I had to read the following paragraph a few times to actually believe what I had just read

From: US Protests Germany’s Rejection of Survivors’ Pension Claims

Late last month, conference representatives met with German officials, including Heinrich Tiemann, state secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Security, and German Federal Minister of Justice Brigitte Zypries, and were told they were committed to finding a solution. “But what the final solution will be is hard to judge,” said Taylor. “It’s caused tremendous upset in the survivor community.”

Please, please, pleeeease tell me this is just a bad translation and Brigitte Zypries did not use the word Endlösung in her original statement in German. Come to think of it, please, please, please tell me she did not use the term final solution in English either.

I don’t care if people think I’m overly sensitive but I don’t think it’s appropriate for a member of the German Parliament, or anyone for that matter, to be using the words “final” and “solution” in the one sentence. I mentioned this to one of my friends earlier and they reckon I just need to move on and because “it’s just words” it can’t really be that bad since nothing sinister was meant by it.

It doesn’t matter if nothing sinister was meant by it for the simple fact that the word Endlösung, or its English equivalent Final Solution, is representative of one of the most horrific events ever to occur in the history of humanity and should therefore be eliminated from the German language, or any language for that matter.

I recently read a book by Fredrick Kempe, one-time editor of the Wall Street Journal, who was born in the States to German parents and who chronicled his personal search to discover the “new” Germany. It was not filled with the whole “woe is me my forefathers were Nazis” kind of self pitying drivel, but rather it was a journalistic style discourse examining the intricate nature of Germany’s post-World War II and post-reunification identity. I was initially slightly frustrated by the author not always providing answers to the complex questions he posed, but I ended up appreciating the way his approach actually encourages the reader to make up their own minds rather than having the authors beliefs imposed upon them.

Anyway, I’m not here to write a review on his book, I just wanted to mention how I found it especially thought-provoking when he described a visit to an everyday German classroom filled with young students working on various mathematical problems. He writes of both himself and the teacher cringing upon an innocent student declaring they had identified the Endlösung to a difficult algebra question. How do you explain to a young German student already aware of their nation’s history that using such a term is simply unacceptable?

That’s not a rhetorical question, by the way. How should we explain the use of such a term being unacceptable? And where do we draw the line? We cannot ban people from calling their children Adolf or Hermann or or Rudolf or Heinrich. It’s just that I’m stuck on how to get across exactly why in this case the final solution is not “just words”.

I have long subscribed to e-mail updates from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) but I’m not sure how much longer I will continue doing so after reading an article sometime during the week while researching for an article I am writing about the 2005 case of Iranian teenagers Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni who were executed amid widespread international condemnation

From: Washington Blade

“It was not a gay case,” said Paula Ettelbrick, Executive Director of who of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, taking issue with the Human Rights Campaign’s statement that was quick to condemn the execution as anti-gay […]

[…] Ettelbrick said she was also disturbed by the racially charged language used by some gay rights groups to condemn the execution, such as when Peter Tatchell of Outrage said in a statement, “This is just the latest barbarity by the Islamo-fascists in Iran.”

It has been alleged by various underground sources, as well as by prominent human rights lawyer and Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi, that the teenagers were executed for engaging in homosexual sex, but the Khatami administration insists the young men were convicted and in turn executed for raping a 13 year old boy at knifepoint. It would appear that Ms Ettelbrick has largely based her opinion that this was not a gay case on information gleaned from the Iranian government.

I do agree with Ettelbrick warning we should not have rushed to condemn the execution as a gay case in the initial stages, for rape is indeed a serious matter, but I do take issue with her maintaining her stance that it was not a gay case after myriad informal sources confirmed as such. According to the Sharia law practised by the Iranian government homosexuality is an abomination and in turn illegal, and after the 1979 revolution up until the mid to late 90s it was often publicly punishable by death. However, since the supposedly reform minded Mohammad Khatami was elected President in 1997 lipservice has been paid to the ideal of universal human rights and the Iranian government has been known to contrive false charges against not just homosexuals but also political dissidents as a means to avoid international pressure. Basically, Ms Ettelbrick, the Iranian government is, wait for it… full. of. shit.

I do not ascribe to the cheesy bullshit moral relativist line that Iran should be held in equal regard to the democratic nations of the world. Sure, democracy isn’t perfect but it is undoubtedly superior to the theocratic regime in Iran. I truly cannot understand people who try to argue otherwise. Apparently it is wrong to say that democracy is superior to other forms of governance but I am not going to apologise for an opinion that I have based upon years of observation and research.

In response to his belief that the executions of Asgari and Marhoni were due to their homosexuality and not because of the alleged rape, Peter Tatchell of queer activist group OutRage! said in a statement, “This is just the latest barbarity by the Islamo-fascists in Iran.” I could not have said it better myself, but according to Paula Ettelbrick of IGLHRC it is “racist” to label the Iranian government as Islamo-fascist. It often irritates me when people play semantics during a debate, so I’m not going to dedicate a great deal of time to the erroneous characterisation of Tatchell’s denunciation of the Iranian regime as Islamo-fascist as a racist statement. Last time I checked Islam is not a race, but rather a religion with a rather racially diverse bunch of adherents. Anyhow, Tatchell neither made any sort of a generalisation about the Iranian people as a whole, nor did he make an issue of the racial heritage of members of the Iranian Parliament, he merely stated his belief that the Iranian government is consistently barbaric in an Islamofascist manner.

While I believe it is fair to contest the accuracy of the Islamofascist neologism due to one’s personal definition of what constitutes fascism, I believe it was unfair and fallacious of Ettelbrick to attempt to delegitimise Tatchell’s argument by labelling his comment racist. The theocratic Iranian regime is barbaric. The theocratic Iranian regime is Islamic in nature. And the theocratic Iranian regime does display various fascist tendencies. In the end I do not believe Tatchell’s comments were racially charged and Ettelbrick is not doing neither the gay community nor other persecuted groups in Iran any favours by seemingly taking the Iranian government at its word and in turn stepping away from the issue for whatever politically correct reasons might be motivating her.

In my opinion, what is so wrong about calling a spade a spade? I don’t see how diplomacy is going to do anyone any favours in this case. Ultimately, it’s high time more people in positions of power and influence speak up about the devious and barbaric Iranian regime. If people don’t want to speak up for fear that Iran might bite back it a little bit too late for that considering widespread inaction has given Iran time to grow teeth, so to speak. Iran is a driving force behind both global and regional terror and the sooner this is properly addressed the safer the world will be for it.

Foster’s has NEVER been Australian for beer. And now the bastards have gone and proven it.

* Update *

Let’s all show some e-love to new commenter JahTeh from the blog CopperWitch. 

It has just been brought to my attention that someone on another blog that I frequent believes that my debating skills are so weak that I just packed up and ran away from a discussion we had been having about gay rights. You see, the problem is the debate descended into absolute absurdity and no matter how much I wanted to defend my own views, and to refute the irrational linking of homosexuality to Nazism and paedophilia, I was not going to waste my time going around in circles and arguing about something that neither of us were going to agree on.

The crux of the matter was that I do not believe there is anything inherently wrong with homosexuality but my rival believed otherwise. I do not see the point in wasting my energy on debating with a religious fanatic trying to disguise their beliefs under the cloak of reason. I am by no means attacking people who have faith, but if that faith precludes someone from being able to hold a reasonable debate without attacking their opponent I simply could not be bothered.

I really just don’t feel the need to justify my position on gay rights to someone who believes that there is a homosexual conspiracy to infiltrate society, who believes that homosexuality is no more than a sexual impulse akin to bestiality and who clearly implies that I possess illegitimate morals because I do not ground my moral base in religion, or specifically, in Christianity. Basically, I’m perfectly capable of defending myself, but I couldn’t be bothered wasting my time justifying myself to people with such extreme views when there are more important battles in the real world to fight, like getting Paris Hilton out of prison for example. At least she has Jesus in her heart.

It’s funny, some bloggers think it is imperative to go to extraordinary and lengths in defending their views to absolute strangers. Don’t get me wrong, I love discussion and debating and believe it should be encouraged, but I’m not going to tie my knickers in a knot over what someone in my computer thinks about me who obviously can’t stand my views, and whose views I cannot stand myself. I don’t think it’s a matter of weakness walking away from an argument that’s just going to go round in circles.

I started ignoring this person and haven’t heard from them since we locked horns over what I believed to be his hysterically disjointed reaction my believing that the idea of abortion makes me ill but that I’m still grudgingly pro-choice. I tried to engage with him about methods to reduce the amount of abortions but after he cracked the shits when I called him reactionary I decided the debate wasn’t going anywhere and just left it. I did find it amusing that he took offence to being me calling him a reactionary when the last time I checked reactionary meant,

reactionary

1.of, pertaining to, marked by, or favoring reaction, esp. extreme conservatism or rightism in politics; opposing political or social change.

I understand that the term is often bandied about by people who don’t understand what it means, but I don’t see the problem in calling a conservative, right-winger opposed to social change who favoured reaction rather than responding to my points a reactionary. I also find it amusing when people start playing semantics during a debate, I’ve always wondered if they had more important things to do like, you know, making a point. This guy getting upset at being called a reactionary would be like me getting upset at someone calling me handicapped. That’s handicapable, thank you very much.

Anyway, this all got me thinking about quite some time ago when I had a meanie ex-boyfriend who used to call me at all hours to say meanie-type things and send me e-mail after e-mail writing meanie-type stuff. After some time I realised the best way to react to him was not to engage with him, but rather to ignore his phone calls and just delete his e-mails without reading them. Why bother putting myself through the stress when he was no longer of any consequence to me? Magically enough after being ignored he eventually left me alone and from that moment on I decided to simply not engage with people of no consequence to me who make me angry or upset.

I’m not going to let someone in the real world upset me, so why would I let someone in my computer upset me? I don’t know about you but I think it takes a stronger person to walk away and no amount of trying to imply that my argument is weak and so on is going to provoke me into a reaction. Thank god this guy does not read my heathen site, otherwise this post would not exist. Don’t want to provoke the crazies, yanno.

Ultimately, I guess I’m saying I don’t understand why people allow themselves to get so wound up about arguments they have with others on the Internet, not even just people on the Internet, but anyone out there who isn’t actually of any consequence to someone’s life and well-being. It might be hard for this guy to realise (just like it was hard for Meanie McEx to realise) that I… just… don’t… care. I guess it’s kinda sad (while I will admit to his huffing and puffing making me chuckle at times) that he appears to believe my decision to ignore him means that he has somehow “won” the argument through superior debating skills and knowledge of the situation, when the truth of the matter is that I, uh, just don’t give a fuck.

So, I ask all of you, why do so many of us bother chasing things up that are of no consequence to us and unnecessarily either waste our precious energy or just upset us?

A big thing in the news in Melbourne at the moment is a recent shooting in which a woman who was being attacked ended up being shot by her attacker along with two strangers who came to her aid. The woman in question survived the shooting, as did one of the men who came to her aid but tragically the other gentlemen who came to her aid died of his injuries. So we have a maniac who seriously injured two people and killed one, but it is the lifestyle of one of the shooting victims that is being gone over with a fine tooth crime.

The apparent “party lifestyle” of shooting victim Kara Douglas has been picked apart by a media hungry for controversy, don’t worry about the veracity of the information, there’s a story at stake here people! So far she is a stripper, isn’t a stripper… is a model, isn’t a model… was dating the shooter, wasn’t dating the shooter… was being stalked by the shooter, wasn’t being stalked by the shooter. I’m sure you all get what I mean. My problem is not necessarily the media’s haphazard reporting as such, because at this early stage information is hard to come by, I’m more disturbed about the implication that she somehow brought it upon herself.

Recently, her father came out defending her by saying that she was not in fact a stripper and that she was being stalked by the shooter. His claims have been called into question not just by the media but by people I have come into contact with lately, and to be honest it really disturbs me. Why should the fact that she is or is not a stripper, or that she was or wasn’t this maniac’s girlfriend, bear any relevance? I can understand how the poor young girl wants the truth to be out there, but it disturbs me that people think that being a stripper or the girlfriend somehow provoked the situation. Anyone willing to shoot another human being as well as absolute strangers is… a… maniac. End of story.

What does it matter if she were a stripper? What does it matter if she were this guy’s girlfriend? I was casually chatting about this new story with someone the other day and could barely conceal my horror when they casually responded to my remark how horrible situation was for the girl with,

“Yeah, but she is a stripper”

I was incredulous and quickly replied with

“Yeah, and she is in ICU now minus a kidney”

I know it sounds like a cliche but strippers are human beings as well. We don’t know what motivations people have to pursue such a career. We don’t know what vulnerabilities these women have. It’s fair enough to disagree with such a lifestyle, but to use the fact that someone is a stripper as a mitigating factor in this circumstance is not a defence.

This shooting is not her fault, and anyone who believes otherwise needs to remember that there is someone out there who decided to respond to whatever the situation was by shooting Ms Douglas after attempting to beat her and that two innocent bystanders were shot as well, one in a critical condition and one dead. It appears that Ms Douglas was not a stripper who was dating the shooter, but would she have deserved it if she were? Absolutely not. She is the victim here, let’s not forget that.

* Oh, and forgive me for not posting in a while but I have a new wound and MRSA so I am going to be in hospital for a lot longer than first expected. Sucks to be me sometimes.

WARNING Biggest post ever to follow. Cup of coffee or wine recommended to accompany reading.

I will always say that if someone cannot afford health care it should be provided for by the government in some way. I do not want to live in a society that allows its poorer citizens to remain in ill health without proper treatment just because they cannot afford decent insurance. There are nevertheless problems inherent in the public health system which need addressing, something which I probably understand better than most considering I have spent more than two of the last three and a half as an inpatient in a public hospital, and the remainder of the time as dependent upon the government to provide various health services.

I’m not sure about the legality so I don’t really want to mention names, but I will say that I’m currently an inpatient of the Spinal Ward of the Austin Hospital, a part of the Victorian Spinal Cord Service, the only coordinated service for people with a spinal cord injury in Victoria, Tasmania and southern New South Wales. I’ve been a little wary about mentioning too much, but I figure as long as I tell the truth and don’t mention any names I should be okay.

Basically, the provision of care to people with a spinal cord injury is extremely substandard and I really can’t count the amount of times I have been humiliated, violated and nothing more than a number. I don’t care if people think I should not be complaining because the care that I receive is paid for by the government, or the taxpayer as it were, and that I should count myself lucky. My reasoning is that if people’s taxes are paying for me to get appropriate health services, then I should bloody well get appropriate health services and not subjected to degrading treatment endemic in the Victorian Spinal Cord Service. I’m not asking for goldplated, red carpet treatment. I’m just asking for a little bit of respect. I shouldn’t have to fight to get proper treatment when my energy sources are already almost depleted. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s not always awful, but the system most definitely needs a-changin’.

I got to thinking about this due to an incident that happened yesterday that made me feel as furious as I felt humiliated. I was in the middle of something with a nurse, and then another nurse came to help and told me that a friend of mine was at the door so I politely asked her to tell whoever it was that I would not be available for at least another hour, and that if they could not wait I would send them an e-mail as soon as possible so could she please make sure to get their name. The nurse returned after a few minutes and gave me the name of the friend and I made a mental note to message her as soon as possible. The nurse remained standing there with an expectant look on her face and I asked her what the problem was, and she told me my friend was still standing at the door. So I repeated clearly and precisely to let my friend know that I would not be available for at least an hour and that if she did not have the time to wait I would get back to her. The nurse then went and did so and upon returning informed me, “I told D******* that you couldn’t make it because we had to do X, Y and Z with you”.

I blinked confusedly and asked her “you told her what?”. She proudly replied “I gave your friend an explanation of what we still had to do so she understood why it would take so long until you were available” before nodding at the other nurse as though commending her own to her own geniusity. The other nurse gasped while I irately repeated “you… told… her… WHAT?” All I got in response to that was a patronising smile, a pat on the shoulder and her telling me “it’s okay dear, all I did was tell her what we were doing so she knew what was taking so long”.

Hint: I’m not a dog, so don’t fucking pat me.

I then took a deep breath and let her have it, but neither did I swear nor resort to personal insults. I didn’t even raise my voice, sometimes monotone is much more scary. I informed her that she had absolutely no right whatsoever to tell anyone about the nature of the personal assistance that I received, or the nature of my medical issues. She quickly interjected with “but it was your friend”. I then took on a much firmer tone and reiterated that she she didn’t actually know if that person was my friend or not, and that she had absolutely no right what…so…ev…er to divulge any information about me without my consent to a third-party. I also pointed out that it was a major breach of confidentiality that is apparently promised to me as a patient of this hospital. While the person was actually a good friend, the nurse did not know that when divulging the amount of information that she did, she just assumed. I’m in a very vulnerable position at the moment and my confidence levels aren’t particularly high, so while it’s hard enough to deal with knowing that all my personal information is carelessly thrown about the ward system like I’m a number, it made me feel particularly humiliated to know that at that particular moment in time someone out there, no matter how much I love the person, is further aware of just how physically vulnerable and dependent I am. The nurse in question ended up apologising, but I fear more to placate me than out of any sort of belief that divulging personal information about a patient to a stranger is wrong.

The problem is I have no one to complain to, and it’s just going to happen over and over again. The nursing unit manager doesn’t bother herself with silly things like what happens on the ground or how patients feeeeel, and the last time I tried to talk with her about a serious issue she shifted the blame and then snapped and told me to put it in writing, obviously knowing how exhausting that can be for most people which then ultimately leads most people to just drop the issue.

If I use the hospital complaints system two things could happen; I will be regarded as a complainer by the nurses in turn resulting in being avoided or treated with contempt, or the patient advocate will have a great big talkfest and somehow it will end up being my fault, and that it would be best for everyone to just move on because mistakes happen and the nurse thought she was doing the right thing even though it is a serious breach to divulge personal information about a patient without their consent. No admission, no validation, no apology and most certainly no accountability. In the private health system complaints are taken seriously because if a hospital gets a reputation as having loose lipped, nasty or incompetent nurses and big bad meanie doctors the patients will take their business elsewhere, and justifiably so, whereas in the public system complaints just get lost because accountability is to the funding provider rather than the service recipient, and trust me, there is a MASSIVE gap between the two.

Many more examples of a ranting nature follow the jump…

(more…)

I can’t believe I just referenced the Teletubbies in a 5,000 word Honours level Political Science paper.

Poland has been singled out by the European Parliament for condemnation due to a notable rise in homophobia within government ranks, including significant figures such as President Lech Kaczyński, staunch supporter of a bill proposed in March to outlaw “the promotion of homosexuality in schools”, who also banned Gay pride marches in Warsaw two years running during his tenure as Mayor of the city.

More recently, the Ombudsman for Children’s Rights, Ms Ewa Sowinska, commissioned a group of sexologists and psychiatrists to investigate whether Tinky Winky, a fluffy purple character of indeterminate sex from children’s television show ‘The Teletubbies’, who carries a pink handbag, threatens the nation’s children by promoting a homosexual lifestyle.

Critics allege Tinky Winky’s larger stature betrays his masculine sex and that his purple coat, a symbol of post-Stonewall pride, his pink handbag, a deliberately effeminate accessory, and the ostensibly innocuous triangle atop his head, representing the so-called Gaydar, a purported nonvocal ability of the LGBT community to detect each other, all point to a subliminal attempt to normalise “abnormal and perverted” homosexual behavioral patterns.

I could barely get the last two paragraphs out. It would be rather funny if it were not so tragic. I’m thinking of elaborating on it and trying to get it published somewhere, any ideas people?

But it’s not Tinky Winky who is the problem anyway, don’t forget that Winnie the Pooh only had male friends.

Like, eh-oh.

* UPDATE *

Dear concerned citizens,

I am pleased to inform you there is no need for concern. Let me repeat, NO NEED for concern. All your invective and baseball bats can go back in the closet. Any further probing of Tinky Winky has been called off due to the report of a leading sexologist indicating that the purple Teletubby is not, in fact, a pillow muncher.

Yours truly,
Ministry of Antisexualism

Cross-posted at: It’s a Matter of Opinion

I am SHOCKED and HORRIFIED.

(more…)

Hey everyone!

I know some of you have been really worried about my absence and for that I apologise but I just have not had the energy to post anything, predominantly because of the heavy-duty antibiotics I’ve been on. In good news the antibiotics have ceased and I am just starting to feel normal again, although it is pretty damned annoying being confined to a hospital bed. However, I have never been one to feel sorry for myself so don’t worry, I haven’t changed or anything, I’ve just been feeling a little bit physically wiped outand now I’m back on track. I’m in the middle of writing one post about why I don’t regard myself as Catholic anymore although I was raised as such, but I think I would much prefer to write about something which has been eating away at me for a couple of days.

Something lately has been creeping me the f*ck out about the latest cause célèbre, the disappearance of the adorable little English toddler Madeleine McCann. No one has really stopped to question why the parents left two-year-old twins as well as a little girl almost four alone in an unlocked apartment in a foreign city. I wonder if they would receive more criticism if they were working-class bogans, and little Madeleine was not as cute as she is. The parents have claimed they were right near the apartment they were renting, but as you can see from the thumbnail image on the left they weren’t exactly just right out the front. No matter how well-behaved children were I would think to myself what if they got scared and went out trying to find Mummy or Daddy and got hit by a car, let alone fell into the hefty sized swimming pool, or what if they thought it would be interesting to put that pretty, shining fork into that funny looking socket.

The parents claimed they did not leave their children with anyone from the babysitting service the holiday resort offered because they didn’t like the idea of leaving their children with strangers, but pretty much every mother I have spoken to about this has said they would much prefer to leave their child with a stranger with a police check rather than leaving them alone in an unlocked apartment. I repeat, unlocked.

Don’t get me wrong, this is an absolute tragedy and my heart breaks for Madeleine’s parents. I don’t particularly like judging people in circumstances like this but it’s fair to say that they cocked up pretty bad and are paying for it like no parent should have to. My point is that the British media have long been vultures who thrive on controversy, and I just wonder that if Madeleine’s parents were council workers and not Doctors would the media still be as sympathetic as they are, and would the police be after them for child abuse? No matter how awful the parents must feel, for this is most parent’s worst nightmare, it is fair to say that leaving two-year-old twins and a three-year old alone in an unlocked apartment in a foreign country constitutes negligence. Tough, but true. If you don’t trust babysitters then don’t go on holiday, or have your bottle of wine on the balcony at or the lounge room of the holiday accommodation. One has to make sacrifices when one raises children, that’s just the way it is.

I also wonder if all the celebrities who have pledged tens of thousands of pounds towards a reward for information on Madeleine’s disappearance would have done so if Madeleine were not adorable, and if, like I said, her parents were “mere” council workers? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be doing everything to try and find the young girl, but why does it have to take the disappearance of a photogenic little toddler born of upper middle-class parents for the world to stand up and pay attention to the issue of child abduction? Thousands of children go missing and are trafficked every year and are forgotten, it is difficult to relativise the horrors of abduction, but why is so little heard about your more average looking 13-year-old Eastern European teenager who has been sold into sexual slavery? These are not rhetorical questions, I’m interested in all your opinions.

Lastly, the Australian media’s latest cause célèbre also brings up interesting questions…

Abandoned newborn baby recovering in hospital

A NEWBORN baby found abandoned in bitter cold outside Melbourne’s Dandenong Hospital at the weekend is recovering.

Victoria Police spokeswoman Alison Noonan today said the infant, named Catherine by Dandenong Hospital staff, had been transferred to Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital.

The baby was found wrapped in towels in a cardboard box outside the hospital around 6am (AEST) yesterday. Staff had heardher crying.

With temperatures dipping to eight degrees celsius, hospital staff said that when admitted to a special care nursery “she was blue and cold” and suffering hypothermia.

Despite public appeals, there’s been no word on the infant’s mother.

“The baby’s been moved from Dandenong Hospital to the Royal Children’s Hospital for medical reasons,” Ms Noonan said today.

“I think that was just to give her better care at the Royal Children’s, but she’s been checked and her medicals showed up fine, so she’s looking quite healthy at the moment.”

Police today renewed appeals for witnesses or anyone with information regarding the baby’s identity.

They say they have not considered pressing charges against the mother - their main concern is for her physical and emotional state.

Various people have asked themselves “how could she?” when referring to the mother. This is a natural question but one must be willing to listen to the response. The woman was most likely terrified and left the baby in the safest place she thought possible, it is not like she gave birth to the child and bashed it to death like what happened in Bendigo a couple of years ago. It would be negligent for the woman to raise the child in substandard conditions, it is not negligent to leave a child at a hospital in absolute desperation. The woman, or possibly even young girl herself, who left baby Catherine at the hospital made a wise decision, knowing that in the society we live in her child would be looked after.

Back to the cause célèbre aspect of this…

Hundreds, possibly even thousands, of children are “abandoned” all over Australia every day, whether they be the children of drug addicts who have been taken away, or whether they be the child of someone who chooses to give their child up for adoption because they do not believe they have what it takes to raise them. The hospital currently looking after Catherine has had myriad offers to adopt her, and I asked myself why do people want to adopt a child who has been splashed all over the pages of a newspaper rather than the thousands of children without parents languishing in children’s homes and being shunted around from one of the family to another. It is wonderful that our society is showing such massive amounts of concern for baby Catherine, but rather than just hitting a nerve once off it would be great to see some of this concern channelled into helping provide for other abandoned children, not just in Australia but all over the world.

There’s my rant, I hope it made a semblance of sense.

Someone going by the name of Paul recently started commenting on my blog and not only have I returned the favour by commenting occasionally on his blog, but I actually enjoy the experience!

So everyone go and show Paul from Shadow of Diogenes some e-love!

* To all of my regular readers I’m sorry I haven’t commented on your blogs lately, but I have barely been able to post on my own blog let alone read that of others. Now that my health is semi back on track and I’m not spiking temperatures every day and losing more than a litre of blood and whatnot expect this to change starting, well, as soon as I finish this post.

Ha!

Haaaahaaahaaahahahaahaha…

*takes a deep breath*

Hahahaahaahaaahahaaahahahaahahahahaahahaahaaahahaaahahahaa hahahahaahaahaaahahahaaahahahaahahahahaahaahaaahahaaahaahahaa
hahahahaahaahaaahahaaahahahaahaaahahahaahaahaaahahaaahahah aahahahahaahahaaaaaaaahaaahahaaahahahaahahahahaahaahaaahaaaha
haaahahahaahahahahaahaahaaahahaaahahaahaahahahahaahaahaaah ahaaahahahaahahahahaahaahaaahahaaahahahaahahahahaahaahaahaaaa
hahahaaahahahaahahahahaahaahaaahaahaaahahahaahahahahaahaa haaahahaaahahaahaaaaaaaahaahahahahaahaahaaahahaaahahahaahahaha
haahaahaaahahaaahahahaahahahahaahaahaaahahaaahahahaahahah ahaahaahaahahahaaahahahaahahahahaahaahaaahahaaaahahahaahahahaa
haahaahaaahahaaahahahaahahahahaahaahaaahahaaahahahaahahaha haahaahaaahahaaahahahaahahahahaahaahaaahahaaahahahaahahahahaa
haahaaahahaaahahahaahahahahaahaahaaahahaaahahahaahaha!!!!!

It was research guv, I swears it woz. Brings new meaning to being a member of parliament, no? Heh.

I hate Mondays and diets and as one of my friends pointed out to me in an e-mail a couple of days ago I really do have nine lives. I will start with apologising for not posting for a couple of weeks but I just could not muster the strength after a little incident after surgery. My wound was surgically debrided just under two weeks ago and a VAC (Vacuum Assisted Closure) dressing was attached before awoke from the general anaesthetic.

To cut a long story short a blood vessel must have been nicked during the surgery. No one’s real fault, these things can happen and it was a risk associated with necessary surgery. Anyhow, after the surgery when I returned to the ward the nurse attending to me failed to look at my wound and see how it was going. I said that it was hurting (I have some sensation) but she did not even look and did not get anyone else to look so I called out to another nurse who was coming past and she checked and then, well, the manure hit the air-conditioner!

The nurse I had called out to discovered that the VAC dressing put on my wound just after the surgery was basically just sucking out blood, and that the bottom sheet was absolutely drenched in blood. That nurse called the nurse in charge who in turn called a doctor, they then took out the wound VAC and blood started gushing out. I said that I had mentioned to the other nurse that I had been feeling dizzy earlier, and totally calm I informed them that I felt a little dizzy again. They did my blood pressure only to discover that it was 45/0. So then the intern doctor called a bunch of specialists and it took about 30 minutes to stem the haemorrhaging, give me a couple of emergency blood transfusions and bring my blood pressure back up. I could not understand why I was so calm the whole way throughout. I feel sorry for my poor mother and sister who were booted out of my room to make way for the medical team working on me, and of course for my father who came rushing in from home to the hospital. I couldn’t understand why everyone seems so worried because, well, I was so damned relaxed and calm.

Anyway, only yesterday I was talking to a girlfriend of mine who is also a nurse and she told me that the heart loses its ability to fill with blood when the systolic BP hits the 40 mark, and that the reason I was so calm was that I would have been in shock. So basically I lost nearly 1,5 litres of blood at the same time my heart was struggling to fill with blood. I therefore once again came within an inch of the unthinkable. It still weirds me out because I did not feel stressed throughout the whole ordeal, and trying to comprehend that I came thisclose just feels forced. Ultimately, from a distance I feel ecstatic and pretty damned good about myself that I managed to beat the other side yet again, but the whole experience left me absolutely exhausted so that’s why I haven’t been able to blog in the last couple of weeks. Now what’s your excuse motherfucker?!!1!!!

Enough about my crazy surgery story, anyone else got one? It would be interesting to see how different countries, and even different cities and states within Australia, deal with a medical crisis like a haemorrhage. So please feel free to tell me any crazy story that either you or a loved one or friend have experienced because there is no way I am alone in this.

I don’t really know how else to explain what’s been going on because hospital is a pretty boring place. I haven’t really been myself for the last couple of weeks because the blood loss was so severe and I ended up having four transfusions in the end so I’ve just been distant and exhausted. I think I’ve already mentioned that I’m doing one subject by correspondence for Uni and still doing some important projects for both of my jobs. Now that I’m not so tired and feeling a little more settled I will really be able to sink my teeth into some work which is great. Please don’t feel sorry or worried or anything like that, just raise a toast to the indestructible Rach-meister!

Just so we don’t focus on my little medical hissy-fit, I thought I would chuck in a strange story and another one as food for thought.

Man needed surgery after sex with hedgehog

A Serbian man needed emergency surgery after he had sex with a hedgehog on a witchdoctor’s advice.

Zoran Nikolovic, 35, from Belgrade, says the witchdoctor told him it would cure his premature ejaculation.

But he ended up in an operating theatre after the hedgehog’s needles left his penis severely lacerated.

A hospital spokesman said: “The animal was apparently unhurt and the patient came off much worse from the encounter. We have managed to repair the damage to his penis.”

Really, who would fall for advice like that? Do you reckon he’s a pervert or just a beer short of a slab? I’m leaning towards the latter, but I still think someone willing to do that could be dangerous.

Lastly, should Imus have been sacked?

Someone from Austin Health has been sniffing around this blog for a few days now after googling my name, and I very much doubt that they will show their face but I just thought I would let whoever it is know that I am aware how often you visit this site and for how long you stay. Crikey, I even have your IP address. Anyway, you must have been riveted tonight because you appear to have stayed for nearly 2 hours and only signed off around 12:30 AM. Wow, I didn’t know I was that interesting.

Now I wonder who would be using an Austin Health computer tonight at this time to delve into my cyber-existence?! The mind boggles. No really, it does. And the world is flat.

Anyway, why can’t you just write the URL of my site down? That would probably be brighter and much, much easier than googling my name every time you want to look at this site. Unless, of course, more than one person from Austin Health is getting their kicks from my blog.

Unless…

I could possibly offend other people in wheelchairs who might happen upon this site via google with the intense amount of laughter that I experienced after finding the following site, but I haven’t exactly had a good week so I don’t care if anyone gets upset at something which made me laugh when I needed it most.

Anyway, I will provide more details about my week in a post either later tonight or tomorrow. I only just got the Internet back on where I am now a couple of hours ago and am still poring over hundreds of e-mails and want to sort them out first. So, um, yeah. I’m back in hospital. Yep. No joke. This time around should not be as long as last time, but I’m not going to be in for a couple of weeks, it’s going to be a hefty stay. But please don’t feel sorry for me because I certainly don’t. I can’t afford to feel sorry for myself when I am demanding the amount of focus from myself that I am. I’m still going to do one of my Honours subjects by correspondence and will most likely still finish my Honours degree in my hoped-for timeframe, as well as still doing some fairly important bits and pieces of work for my jobs at both the Holocaust Centre and the theatre company.

It’s not my illness which bothers me most at the moment, it’s the fact that one of my best friends has just been diagnosed with a pretty damned serious illness as well as a family friend from my hometown and I haven’t been able to get through to them because I don’t have a phone and I didn’t have Internet access until late this afternoon, so I want to contact them before writing a massive update on my current hospital stay and other events. Those bits of news certainly shocked the living daylights out of me and put my life into perspective. It’s not so bad being in hospital in the end, it sucks naturally but I need to stay strong from the start and focused on my goals because I want to hit the ground running (heh!) when I leave hospital after this stay. I can’t afford to break down, I just can’t.

Anyway, humour is the best medicine and here are the details of the site which had me laughing raucously the moment I saw it.

Chairspotting

“Wheelchair” is a funny word. Wheelchairs are funny things. People in wheelchairs often look funny. Those are three good reasons why everybody should indulge in Britain’s new favourite pastime: “chairspotting”. You can chairspot passively by returning to this page once in a while. But, as with all hobbies, you’ll enjoy the experience much more if you get out there and find your own cripple-chariots.

I sent them the following image of myself as captioned by me. I hope it makes the site.

(more…)

What’s this?

click on following link to find out

(more…)

I have to say that I pretty much love all of my readers so I would quickly like to mention that I don’t care how much dissent there is on my site, that’s what blogs are for, but please can we refrain from hardcore name-calling. I want everyone to feel comfortable expressing their opinion here, no matter how outrageous it might seem. But please, no name-calling, well things like fool or even idiot might be all right in the correct context, but I’m talking heavy duty name-calling.

I just want this to be a blog where people feel comfortable expressing different opinions no matter how crazy they might seem. Not just in the virtual world but in reality as well it is best to fight back with logic or explaining how something affects one personally to make the other person understand, so please follow this advice rather than resorting to slanging matches.

Xox
Rachy