News & Politics - Australian News # 2 - - Page 3

**sunnykerr** · 07-21-2011, 06:35 PM

Yeah, according to this site, it's to do with the climate, the fact that most Australians are fair-skinned and probably other factors as well.

But a Google search will reveal a lot of articles and organizations devoted to the topic. For instance, I've just learned that Queesland has the highest incidence of melanomas worldwide. According to something I clicked on, anyway.

Barstool Prophet · 07-21-2011, 11:27 PM

I went on and found stuff like that too. It was bugging me, i wanted more info.

**sunnykerr** · 07-23-2011, 09:15 PM

And? What do you think?

Barstool Prophet · 07-24-2011, 03:48 PM

Well I found some facts. Most Australian Aborigines have the blood type O. But the pop is mostly English/Scottish/Welsh. The fair haired thing plays into it because of the whole dominant/recessive gene thing.

**sunnykerr** · 07-24-2011, 06:41 PM

Well, alright then.

Barstool Prophet · 07-24-2011, 09:15 PM

That's all. Very sad, further research needed.

**sunnykerr** · 07-25-2011, 05:52 PM

Quote:

Australia's Roman Catholic Church apologises for forced adoptions

It is estimated that more than 150,000 young women across Australia had their children taken away at birth without their consent, often never to be seen again.

Women subjected to forced adoptions in Catholic-run hospitals have described being shackled and drugged during labour and prevented from seeing their children being born or holding them afterwards.

Many said their children had been earmarked for forced adoption well before birth and they were told they could not oppose the decision.

Following an investigation into the practise by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the Catholic Church issued a national apology, saying its history of forced adoptions was "deeply regrettable".

"We acknowledge the pain of separation and loss felt then and felt now by the mothers, fathers, children, families and others involved in the practices of the time," the apology said.

"For this pain we are genuinely sorry."

Women involved in the forced adoption process have given personal accounts of the horror of having their children ripped away after birth.

Juliette Clough was 16 when she gave birth to her son in a Catholic hospital in 1970.

"My ankles were strapped to the bed, they were in stirrups and I was gassed, I had plenty of gas and they just snatched away the baby," she told the ABC.

"You weren't allowed to see him or touch him, anything like that, or hold him and it was just like a piece of my soul had died and it's still dead."

Lily Arthur, from the forced adoption support group Origins NSW, was a 17-year-old ward of the state when she gave birth in 1967. She agreed to give up her child under threat of being imprisoned.

"When we were going to deliver the child we were put in a position where we couldn't see the delivery of the child," she said, describing how she was positioned on her side, with her face "pushed into the mattress".

"After my son was born I was nearly knocked unconscious and transported to a ward without my child."

Other women told of curtains being put up so they could not see their children and pillows held over their faces. Some lost more than one child to the program, their newborns being whisked away to live in families deemed more suitable by the Church. The women claim they were never told about their right to revoke consent for adoption, or the fact that they could claim single parent benefit.

A federal parliamentary inquiry is currently investigating the issue and has already received more than 300 submissions from across the country.

As well as issuing an apology, the Catholic Church has called on the government to establish "a fund for remedying established wrongs" and a national programme to help mothers and children who were harmed by the forced separations.

However, many of the women who were subjected to forced adoptions have called for further action.

"I don't think that anyone can accept an apology for something that's never been basically dealt with legally," Ms Arthur said.

Source

Now, I'm the first person to defend the priests and the nuns, because I do believe that the crimes of the institution are not necessarily the crimes of the individuals within it.

But this is truly appalling. It reminds me of the Children's Act they had in Ireland, till the 1950s, wherein single fathers could not have custody of their children unless their mother was alive and had given written consent (in other words, if your wife died, the state took your children away).

The part that really gets my goat, though, is how the Catholic Church is still passing the buck. The government should establish a fund indeed! The gall! I think the Catholic Church has enough wealth to be able to afford to pay for its crimes.

And I quite agree with Ms Arthur, the courts should have their say as well.

Barstool Prophet · 07-25-2011, 08:06 PM

What is up with the Catholic Church... They have done alot of hideous things to people. I think I saw a Canadian Hertage commerical about this. These Irish kids where forced to change their names.

**sunnykerr** · 07-26-2011, 05:42 PM

Okay, no offense. But I think you got that commercial wrong.

The point of that Heritage commercial is that, after the Famine in Ireland decimated that population, a lot of orphaned kids wound up on our shores and the Catholic church found them homes with French Canadian families (also Catholic) who didn't mind AT ALL that the kids kept their Irish names. So you have Patrick O'Neil and Molly Ryan, and I forget the name of the older girl in the commercial... being adopted and keeping their Irish names.

And that explains why you have a bunch of Francophones in Quebec today who have no English skills whatsoever but who have unmistakeably English last names, like O'Neil and Ryan.

Not that the Catholic Church didn't do its share of damage, but that's an instance where that's not the case.

Barstool Prophet · 07-26-2011, 07:18 PM

No the Catholic church was changing names and the french families decided that wasn't good and the church allowed it. But the original directive came from the church I think.

If anyone wants to see the video it's here

‪A Part of Our Heritage - Orphans (Irish Names)‬&rlm; - YouTube

**sunnykerr** · 07-27-2011, 06:11 PM

What I see is an adoption where, like most adoptions, the assumption is that the kids will take on their adopted family's name (I mean, when my cousin adopted his daughter, she didn't keep her Chinese birth name... I don't think that makes him or his wife evil) and then, as soon as anyone says anything about it, the Church yields.

Had the Church insisted or even looked like it disapproved... then, yeah, then I'd get it.

But there's not even a moment of hesitation on anyone's part there.

Barstool Prophet · 07-27-2011, 09:15 PM

HMMM... Okay.

Air Canada flight safely returns to Australia after smoke detected - The Globe and Mail

Quote:

An Air Canada flight returned to Sydney Thursday shortly after take-off when an oven started emitting smoke.
The Vancouver and Toronto-bound flight left Sydney Airport on time, at 10:30 a.m. local time. As it flew over the Pacific Ocean, a crew member noticed the smoke coming from the rear galley oven, said Jeannie Foster, the company’s general manager for Australia and New Zealand.
As a precautionary measure, the pilot decided to turn the plane around and head back. The plane had to dump some fuel, as it could not land with a full load.
It made a regular landing. Firefighters checked the plane out and removed the problematic oven.
By early afternoon, the plane was waiting for the final go-ahead from engineers to resume the flight.
There were no injuries.

Glad no one was hurt.

**sunnykerr** · 07-28-2011, 06:40 PM

I'm surprised you're taking the dumping of fuel so well, to be honest.

Barstool Prophet · 07-28-2011, 09:47 PM

LINK

Quote:

Australia probes Philippine organ allegations

Quote:

(AFP) – 4 hours ago
SYDNEY — Australian police said Thursday they had launched their first organ trafficking investigation after an elderly kidney patient reportedly brought a Filipina to Sydney for harvesting purposes.
Police said a house had been raided in March in relation to "suspected organ trafficking" and a probe was under way.
"This is the first organ trafficking case investigated by the Australian Federal Police," a spokeswoman told AFP.
Officers usually tasked with people trafficking and sex slavery crimes were examining the case, she added, declining to detail the specific allegations.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald the case relates to an elderly woman with a kidney condition who brought a younger woman from the Philippines with the intent to harvest an organ.
The deal was reportedly made without the Filipina's full consent and uncovered during pre-surgical screening interviews at a Sydney hospital.
Transplant Australia said there were 1,951 people on the national organ waiting list and strict donation procedures meant an illegal transplant involving a trafficked organ would be almost impossible to carry out.
"If someone walks in and says, 'Hey, this is my friend from the Philippines,' it would immediately raise suspicions," said Kidney Health Australia director Tim Matthew.
"No one in the medical system is going to risk doing that."

This is such a scary issue. The people whose organs are being sold are who knows where and in an unknown condition. I would hope hospitals wouldn’t ever go for things like this but money does make the world go round.. Thoughts?

**sunnykerr** · 07-29-2011, 04:41 PM

Well, the Chinese have been trafficking organs off the prisoners they kill for years now. I guess it was only a matter of time before someone tried to use organs from a living person.

The really disturbing thing for me is the implication for the value of life. How people were able to go from "stealing kidneys from a corpse" to "why wait till they're dead?" It's like the vulnerable aren't people anymore, just an assembly of parts.


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