New!! : McCain Action Man

A great change is facing the world. A rogue politician plans to upheave current systems and affect everything from climate change to civil rights to the economy to healthcare to international policy. Only one man can stop Barack Obama in his diabolical scheme. Only one man can keep everything exactly the same. He is the greatest war hero of them all. That’s right, it’s John McCain.

Yes, there is a new Action Man figure due to be released this November. The figure is slightly different to the vintage Action Man dolls – for instance it doesn’t have the same fuzzy hairstyle, going for the aerodynamic look, or the same posable arms – but toy manufacturers are assuring the American public that this new Action Man is THE greatest hero of them all.

He may not have the features we have all come to know and love in our favourite hero, but he has been around longer than Action Man himself, and has more combat experience.

This new McCain Action Man may look less agile than earlier models, but he does all his own stunts. Yes, a strategic genius, he is one soldier that knows exactly the right weapon to use when his enemy starts to look strong.

Barack Obama may think he and his team can outsmart our hero with their straight forward politics and commitment to their word, but nothing can stop our hero on his quest for the White House. After all, he is older than dirt with more scars than Frankenstein.* Real scars too – ones from torture, and losing to Bush and, torture, and being called a homosexual. To make it through such ordeals without changing your stance or your outlook on the world even one inch is the mark of a true American hero.

So this November, get yourself and the whole family down to Walmart to get your exclusive John McCain Action Man doll. You’ll find it in aisle five between the live ammunition and baby seal harpoons.

*It is assumed that McCain meant the monster of Frankenstein and not the scientiist himself who has no known of scars of note, at least not in Mary Shelley’s unabridged version of the book. Being an American hero though, i assume he has not had time to read this book and is thus forgiven.

How to Win Elections and Influence People

The time is fast approaching when Americans will have to go out and vote for either John McCain or Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States. The race has been under the microscope of the whole world for the last 2 years, give or take, and it’s nearly over. I’m not American and I can’t vote, but I, like the rest of the world, have an opinion and a preference. Some people I know don’t ‘get’ why you would become so immersed in an election in a country where you have no voice or say in the matter. I don’t understand this. People support and wear the jerseys of football teams in countries they’ve never been to as if their life’s blood depends on it. In less than 2 months, there will be an event that may result in an elderly man and the mom at the parent teacher night who wants to ban certain school books and teach kids that we were all made by God and global warming is just his way of giving us central heating and more running water, taking control of America. This to me is something worth keeping an eye on.

From early on in the election, I have supported the Democrats. Initially, I was a supporter of Hillary Clinton, and now I am a supporter of Barack Obama. I’ve been involved with so many discussions with people that seem utterly pointless to me, (the discussions, not the people..mostly) because they are essentially arguments about whether you should want a liberal government or you should want a conservative government. For many many people, politics and opinions are non-negotiable. Some people just won’t entertain supporting a man who thinks gay couples should have the same rights as straight couples and some people won’t hear of voting for someone who believes that life begins at conception. That’s politics, that’s life. I have learned to accept that. You won’t change people’s minds on these issues, and inevitably, you reach a deadlock and noobody gets anywhere.

It’s the in-betweeners that are the interesting ones. The swingers, the ones who could go either way. The last leg of the race is all about securing their votes and it is interesting to look at the tactics being used by both parties as the polls become close to neck and neck and the candidates scramble to make up the minds of the undecided. I have already expressed my distaste at the negative campaigning of the Republican Party. Up until recently, while I would not vote Republican, I was okay about the fact that some people did and just hopeful that more people would agree with me. If the outcome was the other way, I’d say ‘hey that’s democracy folks’ and deal with the fact that 4 more years of Republican government is what the people want. But it was around the time that John McCain stopped focusing on why Americans should vote for him and his party and started focusing on why they shouldn’t vote for Obama that I started to see more serious problems with the Republican campaign.

In the lead-up to both conventions, the candidates were busy selecting running-mates, rallying up support, and planning their approaches. Obama chose Joe Biden, Ted Kennedy, the Clintons, his family and change. McCain chose Sarah Palin, Rudi Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Joe Lieberman and er, change. Obama chose criticising the Republicans for being the same old party doing things the same old way. The Republicans criticised Obama’s lack of experience against the tried and tested McCain, and the elitism of the Democratic Party.

It had obviously become clear to McCain and his advisors that the experience platform was not getting him all that far, so it was decided that he should hi-jack the change platform to secure the all-important post-convention bounce. So John McCain picked a woman who has less than 2 years experience as governor of the 3rd least populated state in America to be his running mate. Here was his change. (the first woman on a presidential ticket) Here was his weapon against elitism. (She’s just a hockey mom like you) Here was his attempt at bringing the party into modern America. (She’s young too)

I could go all day criticising the politics of the Republicans and of Palin. I don’t agree with a lot of their positions on civil rights, abortion, gay rights, security, censorship and so on and so forth. But what’s more terrifying to me than your average Republican government is the prospect of someone who nobody knows, with negligible experience in governance and who potentially thinks that some children’s books should be banned and that dinosaurs roamed the earth 4,000 years ago getting into the White House. If McCain doesn’t make it through the first term, she will be president, and I think he has overlooked his principles, politics and vision in the interest of selling his campaign and sealing his position. In his efforts to thwart the ‘change’ juggernaut, he has brought in a woman with hardly any experience as his VP. This, in my eyes, is a serious error in judgement. He has put someone who he has only met twice prior to his announcement that she would be running with him and who nobody outside of Alaska has ever heard of in a position where she may be the President of America in less than 4 years. This for me is unforgivable. I can get over the fact that people don’t agree with me when it comes to politics and social issues (just about) but when those people forget their own principles and paths in the interest of winning, I think we are in serious trouble. There is nothing worse than giving power to people who don’t really believe in what they are fighting for but will fight to the death anyway to win. That’s what McCain is doing by choosing Sarah Palin, that’s why I don’t want him to win and that’s why I think it will be a travesty if he does win.

It is, as I said, all about getting those swing voters, and McCain is certainly trying to reel in as many of those as he can by putting Palin on the ticket. In the Democrat camp, Obama has been doing his best to swing those votes in his direction by plugging the holes in his campaign with Joe Biden – the experienced foreign policy expert. He has also been (rather shamelessly) using his family for the aw factor in his attempt to secure middle-American-mum votes that Clinton would have clinched. At no part of this did Obama cease to become a sensible politician. He did receive criticism for his choice of an old hand as his VP, but the method in the madness was clear. It made sense. Palin makes no sense to me. I think she is a seriously miscalculated attempt at securing the Clinton percentage, and makes a terrifying prospective president.

What scares me the most is that people might not actually see how bad a choice she is. McCain’s decision might just be taken for granted as being sound by his supporters and go under the radar of the swing voters. People may not notice that although Palin is a woman, she stands no more for feminism, anti-sexism and women’s rights than your average white-haired male Republican governor. McCain will be hoping that voters will swallow the pitch that Palin is a product of the good fight put up by women like Hillary Clinton, but as the dust settles on the ’strong woman getting on the ticket’ excitement, Palin’s views on reproductive rights and abortion rise to the surface and it all looks a bit familiar.

McCain will also be hoping that (in an odd attempt at combating sexism?) that Palin’s ‘hockey mom’ status will win the hearts of middle class Americans everywhere. Her views on censorship of school books, global warming and teaching Creationism in schools are all important indicators that not every middle class mom should be running the country.

I hope that people see that the fight for women’s rights was not about ‘getting a woman in the White House’ but about someone who is well equipped to lead and happens to be a woman having the same opportunities and getting the same treatment as any male candidate. Palin is not someone who broke through the ceiling that Hillary made millions of cracks in, she is a product and installation of the same old machine that has croaked and groaned for years. She just has nicer hair that Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani and less of a reputation, on account of her not being known. This isn’t a victory for feminism.

All of this is very well, but the reason the McCain-Palin ticket is so worrying is that people might actually buy that the addition of Sarah Palin actually does stand for change and a victory for the new right or for women. You have to wonder whether there is anyone who can reach out to voters and persuade them otherwise. Obama risks stepping too far into the territory of negative campaigning by labouring on the issue, especially seeing as he has come under fire following his ‘bulldog lipstick’ comment last week. When it comes to influencing people, the media really is the major source for getting your point home. In American culture it is celebrities and television personalities that really have a large pull.

In Team America, there is a running joke about actors who speak out on politics, and when it comes to the likes of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, I would tend to agree with the general opinion that celebrities and actors should tick to regurgitating what is on their scripts rather than in the news. But I came across a couple of fantastic clips today that made me rethink the value of the ‘celebrity pundit factor.’ First off was the Saturday Night Live sketch parodying Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton. (Tina Fey makes a frighteningly good Palin.) I then found a clip of Matt Damon talking about his worries over the prospect of Palin gaining control. He compares Palin’s path towards the White House as being like a really bad disney movie where the hockey mom ends up being president. Far from the hapless ‘Matt Damon’ puppet from team America, I actually found myself hoping people would watch the video and listen to his concerns about her opinions on Creationism, her lack of experience, and her plans to ban children’s books. If watching shows like the Daily Show and Saturday Night Live and making your mind up based on what Hollywood film stars think is what works with your average American, then so be it. If this reaches people, which Digg and CNN coverage would indicate it is, then it’s a force of good as far as I’m concerned. As campaigning gets dirtier and the delivery and party line gets more polished and rehearsed-sounding, then it may be down to the third party’s to air their views and influence the undecided.

It will be interesting to see if the consequences of adding Palin to the ticket will work in favour of the Republicans or not. I wonder if the combination of the liberal media, American comedians, satirists, public figures and outspoken celebrities will be enough to wipe the sheen off the McCain-Palin ticket and prevent the addition of the Alaska Governor from overshadowing the issues at the centre of the presidential race. Change is not just a word or a superficial shift in how things are done. Sarah Palin may not look like any Vice President or President in recent times, and she may be the least experienced candidate for either office in modern American history, but that does not make her any different when it comes to the issues. Soon we shall see whether the American people want real change in the form of Barack Obama or just the same old policies, doctrines, stances and plans as the Bush administration in the slightly different packaging of John McCain and Sarah Palin. I hope it’s the former, but judging by the surge in the polls on the Republican side since the addition of Palin to the ticket, I’m not so sure anymore. I don’t know what it’s going to take to win this election for either side, because it’s genuinely becoming impossible to know just what it is the American people want.

This Little Piggy

How annoying can the Republicans actually get?

Obama has criticised McCain’s lame attempt to clamber up on the ‘change platform’ by stating that his policies were essentially the same as those of Bush and ‘you can put lipstick on a pig but it’s still a pig.’

McCain, in a stunning display of doing exactly what he was being accused of in the first place, launched a new campaign ad calling Obama sexist and accusing him of targetting Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin rather than defending the ‘change’ stance he has so recently adapted against the criticism.

If one does want to make a (tenuous) link between Obama’s comments and Palin, you could look at the (hiiilarious) joke she told last week about the only difference between a pitbull and a hockey mom is lipstick.

You know, Obama also said ‘You can wrap up an old fish in a piece of paper and call it change. It’s still going to stink after eight years.’

Palin’s first born is called Track after a breed of fish that swim in the creek near the family home….

He’s clearly got it in for her and her whole family.

McCain has the right idea. Who needs a campaign when you have important bickering and point-missing to be doing?

Obamania hits Colorado

The Democrat Convention gets underway today, and Obama is all geared up to widen the gap between himself and an increasingly distant John McCain.

Obama is concentrating on making his status as a hard-working father and husband from a typical American famly work in his favour with voters by having his wife, half sister and brother in-law speak on the opening day of the Convention in Denver.

He will also be using this opportunity to appear before Democrats with his recently announced VP candidate, Joe Biden. Obama will surely use this opportunity to reinforce his own strengths as a man in touch with the people, as well as highlighting the strengths of Biden, particularly his experience in relation to foreign policy, an area in which McCain has been showing a lead in polls over Obama. Hopefully, the strengths of Biden will dispell any doubts about Obama’s judgement and lack of experience, and show that he has made a wise choice in picking someone with the experience he needs to truly have the whole package necessary for the Presidency, and the White House.

In the meantime, McCain and the Republicans have been busy with their negative campaigning against Obama. McCain is well-documented in his criticism of Obama’s lack of experience, as well as his attitude toward finances, education, Iraq and issues such as abortion. His latest attack on Obama has come in the form of advertisements, criticising the Senator for leaving Hilary Clinton off the ticket and choosing Joe Biden, and for being a celebrity candidate. McCain has however said though that Biden is a strong choice for VP. This hasn’t stopped the Republicans from using ads with old footage of Biden saying he didn’t think Obama was ready for the White House and that the White House is not the place for ‘on the job training.’ Well, I think Obama has proved himself, and continues to do so. And right now he is doing a much better job as a potential leader than the old man who won’t even use a computer and who got where he is by marrying into money. If McCain’s stronghold was the war veteran card he kept playing, then he could see that stonghold crumble under his grip with the addition of Joe Biden to the Democrat ticket.

Up next is the Republican Convention, so for his own sake I hope McCain has got some positive aspects of his campaign hiding up his sleeve, because if the Democrat Convention goes to plan in a swing state like Colarado, the Republicans will have to pull some serious punches to halt the Obama-Biden juggernaut.

I look forward to all they have to offer…Say, has anyone else noticed that Obama Biden is only a few letters off Osama Bi-nla-den? if you’re afraid of the unknown : Vote Republican!!

Let the bounce begin. GObama!!!!!

Only in China…

… would the organisers of the biggest sporting event in the world and high-up members of the Politburo come together before the opening ceremony to shatter the dreams of not one, not two, but three little girls.

It has emerged that the little girl who sang as the Chinese flag was brought in to the arena at the Olympic Opening Ceremony was miming. Not only was the cute 9 year old miming, but she was miming to the voice of another little girl. The other girl, aged 7, won a competition to sing at the event, but was considered to be not very easy on the eye by one of the officials form the Chinese Politburo and the creative director and his committee, and so was replaced by the prettier child.

The pretty girl who mimed at the ceremony, and the real singer, inset

The one who did mime has been giving interviews to all the major Chinese newspapers since she shot to stardom as the adorable (but quite obviously lip-syncing) star of the Opening Ceremony in Beijing last week. There were obviously questions about why she kept giving interviews, and as it turns out, the poor mite thought she was actually singing, they just turned her mike off.

It seems bad enough that they told one little girl she wasn’t pretty enough to be on the telly, and told another little girl that she couldn’t sing, but there was apparently a third 10 year old girl who was due to sing but although she had a nice voice and was pretty, it was decided that she was too old and not ‘cute’ enough.

It’s like playing Goldilocks and the three little girls. This one’s too ugly, this one’s too old, this one’s voice is too crap…mmm this hybrid is juuuust right.

I suppose it’s not really been a good day in the eyes of the Chinese government unless you’ve lied to the world and made a few children cry.

Obama : Intelligent, Inspiring, Dynamic and Really Not Funny

 As the US Presidential Race heats up, it’s difficult to read a publication on world politics or watch a global news programme without coming across a story relating to the 2008 elections. Amidst the serious articles, interviews, polls and analysis there is always a place for satire. Journalists and cartoonists all over the world had a field day with Hilary Clinton. She’s a woman, a former first lady and, well, a Clinton. On top of that she has a habit of making some very dodgy facial expressions in public and even crying at one point during her campaign, while addressing the press and public in New Hampshire in January. When she finally bowed out of the race for the Democratic nomination after year and half slog-out with Barack Obama, it was a race between Obama and the Republican candidate, John McCain. The focus of the comedy world shifted now to the young African-American nominee and the aging Vietnam Veteran. As with any Republican Senator in the US, there was no shortage of Left-Wing critics of McCain. Jon Stewart and the crew on The Daily Show in particular have a reputation for pulling no punches when it comes to satirising the politics and actions of the Republican Party.

When it comes to political satire, it seems that it is the Democrat nominee, Barack Obama, who is proving to be the bump in the comedy road. Whatever you say about the popular Democrat Senator, he is really hard to make fun of. He’s steering clear of controversy and has taken early criticisms of his inexperience and idealistic politics of ‘hope’ and ‘change’ in his stride. Now he has secured the nomination, he is the picture of the balanced, confident, popular politician. He is young, but not naive, hopeful, but not unrealistic, smart, but not uncool, and cool but not in an irresponsible threatening-to-middle-America sort of way. He is the wind of change that gently caresses the back of your neck and reminds you to take a sweater, as oppose to the hurricane that blows your umbrella inside out when you were expecting a light drizzle. People think he is wonderful, and it is easy to see why.

So when a Fox news reporter commented that his greeting with wife, Michelle, was a ‘terrorist fist-jab’ people were obviously shocked at the implication. Most people though it was ridiculous and the reporter soon took back the remarks and said they were meant as a joke. It was this incident that sparked the New Yorker to last week put a satirical cartoon of Barack and Michelle Obama on its cover. The cartoon depicts the couple bumping fists with Obama dressed  in Muslim robes and his wife in combat gear. There was a portrait of Osama Bin Laden on the wall of the Oval Office and an American Flag burning in the fireplace.

The response from both Democrat and Republican camps was to decry the cartoon as being offensive and out of line. The New Yorker, which has a history of such political sattire, defended the cartoon rightfully. The cartoon is not 1930s propaganda. It is not depicting the Obamas as terrorists. The idea of the cover was to take all the ridiculous things that had been uttered in relation to Obama, blow them up, and show how silly a picture they made. The theme of the cover was the Politics of Fear, and the point was to show all the ridiculous things (like a Christian Democrat Senator is an Islamic terrorist) people say in order to frighten people distort the democratic process in the United States. It has been this way for some time, and has heightened during the reign of the Bush Administration and come under particular scrutiny with political documentaries such as Farrenheit 9/11 and Bowling For Columbine, by Michael Moore.

Following the harsh criticisms of the New Yorker cover from the Obama camp, many late night comedians began to feel the sting of the lack of things to make fun of about Barack Obama. All the reasons he is wonderful make it difficult enough for your average left-wing satirist, but the reaction the New Yorker got for making fun of religious or racial criticisms of the politican really seemed to put the fears into political comedians in the States. With the researchers and audiences of late night comedy shows being predominantly white, they want to avoid backlash for sketches that may be deemed racist. Jon Stewart has said that finding jokes about the healthy, intelligent, gifted public speaker is not an easy task. “We’re carrion birds,” said Stewart, “We’re sitting up there saying ‘Does he seem weak? Is he dehydrated yet? Let’s attack.’ … So far, our take is that he’s positioning himself to be on a coin.”

Maybe there is nohing funny about Barack Obama. Maybe he is just one of those people that you like, but just can’t joke about. Maybe after 8 years of Bush, we need a straight laced, straight talking intelligent figurehead. But at the same time, I think he last thing the democrat nominee in this tight race needs to be doing is taking him too seriously when it comes to media sattire. Obama seems to have it all. I’d hate to see him taking himself too seriously as the perfect president become the one thing that the satirists can say about him without fear of reprecussions. Well, that and his big ears.

Petition to End Chinese Bear Farming

Now, normally I have a pretty hard and fast rule when it comes to causes and charities, and that is people over animals. It’s not that I don’t like animals, I really do. They’re great craic. But I just think a starving child of war is a more urgent cause than a sad homeless donkey. I’m old-fashioned like that.

So when it comes to animal testing in the name of science and medicine (e.g. the use of monkeys in the search for a cure for Parkinsons) I’m pretty happy to let the white coats do what they deem necessary. But, pointless cruelty to animals is obviously wrong, and it bothers me. What bothers me even more is cruelty to animals to achieve a very silly goal. And, if I can help stop that pointless/stupid cruelty without a human being suffering because of that effort then I’m all for campaigning to stop cruelty to animals. Supporting good causes is good, supporting them at the cost of better causes is not, I suppose.

So, when I saw this petition and discovered these bears were being farmed for their bile to be used in traditional Chinese medicine I just thought, hang on a second, traditional medicine? Are you for real? Why not just grind the bears up, call them fairy dust and sprinkle them on your sick? It would do as much good. If it was some miracle anti-biotic, then i mightn’t be so sure. But come on. this just seems pointlessly cruel. Or at least it has a very silly point. And signing a petition won’t kill you, or more importantly, a starving African baby. So why not take a minute and do it? It may never work, but neither does socialism and people still hammer away at that all the time. The world is full of fruitless endeavours. At least today, make yours a good one. You never know, this could be the one that sticks.

http://www.arazpa.org.au/China-Bear-Rescue/default.aspx

Global Violence Against Women: Where do we come in?

Trying to understand war when you live in a country like Ireland is not easy, it has to be said. There has been much discussion recently regarding Ireland’s traditional position as a neutral party in international conflict. Before the defeat of the Lisbon Treaty, many ‘No’ campaigners spoke of Ireland’s neutrality as something admirable and under threat if we were to say yes to the treaty. Personally, I don’t agree that Ireland is taking a moral stance in its status as a neutral country, and I don’t think it ever has. I think we think we are being moral and exemplary because we, understandably, have a slightly skewed view of what war and conflict is all about. In Ireland we believe that if countries are opposed and fighting in a war, then we are better than them by staying well away from it. We believe that soldiers fight other soldiers with guns, bombs and probably very little invested in the ’cause’ for which they are fighting. We see war as damaging, restricting, scary and violent. In a sense, we are lucky that our lack of experience of war means that we cannot relate to many of the realities of war. We don’t really go into much thought on the issue of why turning our back on conflict while opening up our airports to US planes does not make us the cut out of morality for the world. We don’t recognise that the changing nature of war means that many soldiers no longer go out and fight each other, but tactically target women and children in an effort to have a greater effect on their enemy. Our fear of what war is and what it looks like on the news and our concept of victims of war as something on an Amnesty International ad on telly or a cause we put old clothes in a yellow bag for means that we don’t always relate to what it actually means to be a victim of war whose humanity is taken from them in acts of violence and terror.

Some things that we in this society do relate to are the media, emotive appeals, celebrities and fashionable campaigns. This doesn’t make us horribly selfish, just honest citizens of this day, age and place. In the past two days, I have picked up and leafed through two popular fashion magazines, Glamour and Cosmopolitan, in an effort to train myself up to be a girl in time for the Cork leg of the Rose of Tralee this Thursday. I noticed that both of the magazines had a feature on domestic violence. One was a ‘true-life’ story and the other was a celebrity story by Jennifer Ellison, of Brookside fame. I have always thought that domestic violence was something that deserved attention and awareness and should never be acceptable. It is also not that surprising to find it in the pages of these magazines as it is a problem that largely affects women, with 220,000 estimated cases of domestic violence against women in Ireland last year compared with around 88,000 against men. It is the kind of thing that will sell magazines to neutral Irish women/hard-working British women/card carrying American women. It is something that affects women all over the world, and something about a uniting cause like that just seems to be fashionable. I’m not aiming to be cold here. If it works, then by all means market it. It’s why all major charities have PR people. To appeal to the human conscience you have to strike the right nerve, and that is not always an easy task.

As I leafed through Glamour I saw another feature promoting the Avon Female Empowerment bracelet as worn by Reese Witherspoon, the Avon ambassador. With all these big words, curiosity got the better of me and I went online to find out what it was all about. I also got my friend, who is an Avon distributor, to drop me over a catalogue. The bracelet is the first global charity item on sale from Avon. It is a bracelet that symbolises female empowerment, and is designed to create awareness of and bring an end to violece against women. It is being sold in association with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and Avon have impressively agreed to match the first $500,000 raised from sales of the bracelet and present UNIFEM with $1 million for the global development of women.

This leads me on to this issue of ‘global development of women.’ Our heartstrings are tugged every week by fashion/beauty/gossip/real life story magazines designed to make women empathise with other women who are victims of domestic violence and become drawn in by the stories of suffering and victimisation. As i said, if these magazines work as vehicles I am all for that. The reason it is important to create awareness is because not all of us (thankfully) will know the feeling of being a victim in our own homes and there is a gap to be bridged in order to understand an experience which we may never share with so many women around the world. The job of these features is to create a feeling of ‘we are all women, we are all one, we must all unite to stop other women being hurt.’ This is necessary to make women like myself, who live a comfortable life reading cosmo, get up off our collective arses and realise that women the world over are suffering. ‘Global development of women’ in the area of ‘global women’s issues’ becomes something which we are all responsible for and all affected by.

I mentioned earlier how, as Irish people, it is very difficult for us to understand what it is like to be at war. We are not victims of war, we are not on a ’side’, we have not lost our land and homes and families due to the devastation of war. When we think about ‘global women’s issues’ and have to somehow force ourselves to imagine what it is like to be a victim in our own home, we must not forget that the term global is essential here, and the atrocities committed against women on a daily basis spread far further than our understanding of violence against women. In reading a recent report by Amnesty Iinternational I was saddened (but not that shocked) to read that rape against women is a weapon that is being increasingly used in warfare. I don’t just mean people using a war torn village as their hunting ground to prey on the weak, I mean soldiers choosing, instead of face to face combat, bombing or guns, to take women and girls as young as 12 captive in designated areas and assault and rape them. They then send them back to their townspeople beaten and bruised. The reason this method of war is being used is that these raped battered women act as live messages to enemies: If you do not move off, this is what will happen. Preying on the weak and vulnerable has a proven effect on those occupying the territories you wish to take over. In West-Darfur, Sudan, these violent and inhumane acts against women are becoming out of control. An estimated 1.2 million refugees have been displaced as a result of these acts. According to Amnesty International, other acts which have been carried out specifically against women and girls included torture, sex slavery and abductions.

When we buy a little blue bracelet from Avon, it is a good thing, and it is important that we are supporting the fight to end violence against women. But from my experience, about 10 % of supporting a cause is the personal step you take to make your own contribution. The other 90% is creating understanding, awareness and support in others around you. The campaign to create awareness of domestic violence has come a long way and continues to strengthen. Now we are in a time where new and dispicable acts of violence are being committed against women worldwide everyday. Whether it’s these acts of war against women or FGM in Sub-Saharan Africa or the global sex-trade, global women’s issues are just that. They are global problems that, although we may never personally experience them, if we believe the media, we have a responsibly as women to support the campaign to end such problems. I would encourage everyone to read up on these issues. If you read one thing today other than the headlines, read a report on the situation with rape as a weapon of war in Darfur. And if you are one of the many women who will purchase the female empowerment braclet, or if you are a reader of these magazines or even if you or a relative or friend works for one of these targeted publications, then use whatever voice or opportunity you have to create awareness of human rights violations against women and do your bit to end violence against women worldwide.

What the f**k is going on in central Europe?

[Clearly I am mourning the loss of Mongrel Magazine...]

One of the leading news stories today is of the bodies of three babies found in a freezer in Wenden, western Germany. Police have arrested the woman believed to be mother of the three. The cause of death has yet to be determined, although they are not believed to have been stillborn.

This shocking event has come to light just a week after the world was rocked by the shocking story the father in Austria, Josef Fritzl, who locked his daughter in a basement for 24 years as he sexually abused her and fathered seven children that he forced her to have. One of the children, a twin, died shortly after birth and Fritzl removed the body and burned it. As well as luring his daughter into the cellar of their home, drugging her, forging a note that said she was running away and keeping her captive for 24 years, Fritzl took three of the six living children and made out that they had been left on the doorstep of the family home by his estranged daughter. The family have since been reunited, and Fritzl arrested.

This new and disturbing story opened new wounds for many Austian people as they remembered the chilling events of 2006. Two years ago, another Austrian woman who had been held captive for 8 years was discovered. Natascha Kampusch was abducted and held in a windowless cellar until she finally escaped in 2006. Her kidnapper killed himself soon afterwards.

The recollection of such events at the time of such shock and horror does little to appease the national psyche. Following the discovery of the three babies, some unsettling events from recent history in Germany came to light once more. In the town of Bremen, in the north of Germany, the body of a toddler was dicovered in a fridge in the home of his drug addicted parents. In 2006 a 41 year old German woman was sentenced to 15 years in prison for killing 8 of her babies and burying them in flower pots and a fish tank in the garden of her parents’ home in a town near the German-Polish border.

These two recent events are both tragic and shocking in the very extreme sense. They are the kind of things one remembers for their ability to make you think about the horrors through which some people live and the mental state of some individuals involved in such circumstances. They force you to think about the world and the unique and terrifying nightmares some people face everyday. I know what has struck me is the fact that neither of these events seem to be one-offs in the recent history of their respective countries. It is very sad that when a piece of news emerges of this nature that a reporter would be able to drag up 2 or 3 known cases of something similar happening.

Whether it is true that Rosmerie Fritzl, the wife of Josef Fritzl and mother of Elisebeth Frtitzl was unaware that her daughter was a prisoner in their basement for 24 years or whether the sentence for the woman who killed 8 of her babies was reduced due to her mental state, there are certain things that should stand out as lessons from all of these tragedies. I’m not saying that everyone in Germany/Austria should look under their stairs each night or take care when weeding the garden, but I certainly think that the lessons of certain atrocities that that occur in a community should be recognised. At the same time, I don’t think the examples of America, being suspicious of every person of Middle-Eastern extraction you see or Britain, sweating everytime you see a backpack on the tube are to be followed either.

We should recognise the social problems that affect our society, whether it be mental illness, missing children, post-natal depression, or domestic abuse. The time has come for modern societies to recognise that these issues aren’t and shouldn’t be taboo anymore. They should be understood and discussed. People should learn to recognise the signs of people suffering and learn that it is ok to come forward to authorities if you have a concern for a loved one or a neighbour. People who are suffering should not be afraid of seeking help, whether it be from family member or a doctor or a counsellor. I don’t know what is failing in Austria/Germany. I don’t know whether it is the mental health services, the national health services, the police services, social workers or the legal system. All I know is that it is a shame and a fright to see such atrocities recurring in one nation in such a short period of time in this way.