Look at a tree, a flower, or a plant.
Let your awareness rest upon it.
How still they are,
how deeply rooted in Being.
Allow nature to teach you stillness.
Eckhart Tolle
Markets & Justice
Freely operating markets yield a just outcome?
White Australia Has A Black History
Showing posts with label Women. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Women. Show all posts
Monday, 9 November 2015
Friday, 9 October 2015
Mothers Union at Mooroolbark, Melbourne : MU wants violence against women and girls to end before it starts.
The Mothers Union in Australia has a magazine, Mia Mia, which is now available on-line.
To access Mia Mia on-line please go here.
And there is an audio edition available.
To download from this site, please click on the top bar above the title.
And there is an audio edition available.
To download from this site, please click on the top bar above the title.
Below is an important article on violence against women and girls
from between the covers of Mia Mia.
from between the covers of Mia Mia.
Monday, 28 September 2015
Dorothy and dealing with depression - #Ballarat
How brave are you/we with yourself/ourselves?
In the video above, my blogging colleague Dorothy Krajewski describes her life with depression. Dorothy is a smart, savvy, well-educated Ballarat woman. She is a mum who runs her own business. She rounds up the bloggers of Ballarat to do clever and wonderful things. And yet ... and yet ...
Dorothy left a destructive marriage and healed herself by blogging. And now? And now she is not merely writing about it, she is speaking about it. You can see her face and learn what a bad day means for Dorothy. You can learn from her how to keep going --- getting the kids off to school, doing what has to be done, earning a living. It is all there in her own words and on her face.
Find out more about Dorothy and what she does:
Dorothy K (her business blog)
and to meet some, but only a few of our #Ballarat bloggers
please go to Caz Filmer's blog, The Truth About Mummy
Saturday, 12 September 2015
The death rate of females due to domestic violence ratchets up - continuously
3 women & girls have died in Queensland in 4 days from #domesticviolence.
http://t.co/PO8Q6nP4ld #auspol pic.twitter.com/anA3PFMimr
— Sir U Bet I'm Gone❗️ (@johndory49) September 10, 2015
Wednesday, 19 August 2015
Spiritual Care and Family Violence Forum for Chaplains and Pastoral Carers
Cross-posted from Beside The Creek
Australian consciousness of family violence and violence against women and children is extending beyond the level where we have been for about forty years. A major contributor to making us more aware is Rosie Batty, 2015 Australian of the Year. Our nation is the middle of a rethink and an extension of our knowledge. Because of this, please consider this event.
Australian consciousness of family violence and violence against women and children is extending beyond the level where we have been for about forty years. A major contributor to making us more aware is Rosie Batty, 2015 Australian of the Year. Our nation is the middle of a rethink and an extension of our knowledge. Because of this, please consider this event.
The Brimbank and Maribyrnong Interfaith Network invites you to:
Spiritual Care and Family Violence Forum for Chaplains and Pastoral Carers
Date: Thursday 17 September 2015 Time: 9am - 3pm
Location:
Reception Room, Maribyrnong City Council,
Corner of Hyde and Napier Streets, Footscray
(5 minutes’ walk from Footscray station)
The forum will bring together Pastoral Care workers and Chaplains in the community sector to consider the impact of family violence, appropriate spiritual care and the potential for healing and growth as we work with affected individuals and families.
Speakers:
- Dr. Robyn Gregory, CEO Women’s Health West – setting the scene
- Monique Toohey, Managing Director Nasihah Consulting – culturally appropriate responses
- Jen Allen, Executive Director of Victorian Institute of Counselling and Coaching - keys to recovery
Includes group discussion and consideration of the implications for your practice.
Cost - $40, $30 for SCA members (includes morning tea and lunch)
To register please download and complete the form and submit by 10 September 2015.
More Information: Geoff Wraight, Baptcare Pastoral Care, Telephone: 0409 314 626 | Email:gwraight@baptcare.org.au OR Gareth Fuller, SASHS Chaplain, Telephone: 0487 921 641 | Email:gareth.fuller@aus.salvationarmy.org
Brought to you by: The Salvation Army, Brimbank and Maribyrnong Interfaith Network, Baptcare, Brimbank City Council, Maribyrnong City Council and Spiritual Care Australia.
Friday, 10 July 2015
Getting it right at Sydney's Wayside Chapel
From here
Dear Inner Circle,
Dear Inner Circle,
Dame
Marie Bashir was in our lift yesterday and I saw her put her arms
around an aboriginal woman. She said, “Every time I see an aboriginal
sister, I just want to say, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Dame
Marie was here for our celebrations to mark NAIDOC Week. There were few
happier places on earth than Wayside yesterday. We were able to peer
into a future Australia that will enter into it’s own maturity because
it knows that to love the land means to love the people of the land.
A
homeless woman rushed through our front door the other day to say that
someone had set fire to another homeless person’s mattress. There is a
mattress set up near the theatre right behind us. We were about to rush
to the fire and the lady said, “Don’t rush, I put the fire out.” She
went on to explain that she’d poured all of her wine over the fire. I’m
not sure if she was expecting we’d replace her supply of plonk or
perhaps nominate her for an Order of Australia.
A
man with quite a sad face approached me this morning. I don’t think
we’ve spoken before although I recognised him as someone who appears
here from time to time. “I miss Gary” he said. “Gosh, so do I” I
replied. It’s been over a year since Gary, one of our much-loved
visitors had a massive stroke on the footpath and died. He spoke for a
while about how Gary taught him what friendship was. When he was first
homeless and sleeping in a park, if Gary had a sandwich, he’d share half
with his mate. Gary would choose to sleep in the more exposed spot,
offering his mate some sense of protection from danger. He gave me half a
dozen examples of the wisdom of Gary. Many of you would have heard me
tell a story of a shabby bloke who confronted me one day when I was in a
hurry to leave. It was some months after my son had died and I was
coping even if I was flying on auto pilot. Gary blocked my way in the
front door and I couldn’t get past this shabby man with the goofy look
on his face. Eventually he put his arms around me and kissed my cheek
and whispered, “That was from your son”. That was Gary and we became
close friends and I miss him too.
Another
homeless fellow told me that he’d like to buy a farm and help people
get off drugs. “I’ve got a couple of million in the bank but it wouldn’t
be enough for a farm,” he said. My first reaction was to point out that
if he had a million dollars, he could probably afford some warm clothes
and a roof over his head. I was quickly reminded of a job I had in
ancient times in a boys reformatory. Every little kid had a story of
rich parents or a rich uncle whose wealth was beyond calculation. Every
little boy had a story about how their rich relative would appear one
day soon and all would be revealed. Likewise it’s not uncommon for
homeless people to tell me that they’ve got a winning lottery ticket or
that they are due to inherit riches. I suspect there is a longing in all
of us that intuits worth for which there is no evidence. I suspect it
is not an unhealthy response but rather a crude and clumsy attempt to
reach for the worth that is given by virtue of being alive and part of
society.
Dame
Marie said while we were lining up for food yesterday, “I reckon Jesus
must peer down from heaven, look at Wayside and say, ‘Thank goodness
someone is getting it right.’” It is any wonder that we love that woman
so much? Full honour to Monique, Will, Ma’Ata and Annelise in our Aboriginal Project, our volunteers and everyone else who made our NAIDOC Week such a fabulous success.
Thanks for being part of our inner circle,
Graham
Rev Graham Long AM
Pastor and CEO
The Wayside Chapel
Kings Cross
Wednesday, 15 April 2015
#BringBackOurGirls one year on. Please pray for their return.
At St Paul's, our Parish Priest - Father Constantine - is Nigerian.
At St Paul's we have had quiet vigils, lit many candles.
We long for all the girls to come home, to be restored to their families.
Pray with us.
At St Paul's we have had quiet vigils, lit many candles.
We long for all the girls to come home, to be restored to their families.
Pray with us.
The abduction that catapulted Boko Haram into the global limelight was just the tip of almost six years of carnage from a group seeking to impose a caliphate on Africa’s largest and religiously mixed nation. Countless other families have been left adrift in a limbo of uncertainty.
According to Amnesty International,
2,000 women and girls have been abducted since the start of 2014.
But as historic elections this month ushered in a new Nigerian government, many hope for a break from a past administration often shrouded in secrecy and public blunders in its dealings with the sect. A key challenge for the incoming government of Muhammadu Buhari, a former dictator who crushed a similar religious sect during the 1980s, will be how it handles Boko Haram.
From The Guardian - please read more here
#BringBackOurGirls for the sake of all girls, everywhere
Bring Back Our Girls on Facebook
#BringBackOurGirls for the sake of all girls, everywhere
Bring Back Our Girls on Facebook
- See more at:
http://www.unicef.org.au/Discover/unicef-australia-blog/May-2014/BringBackOurGirls.aspx?gclid=CjwKEAjw9bKpBRD-geiF8OHz4EcSJACO4O7TiH4h2uW3d2Gs1GKoqhpogeqw_LOc7CPB9uEcXxHMpRoCYZ_w_wcB#sthash.qry0nbFw.dpuf
- See more at:
http://www.unicef.org.au/Discover/unicef-australia-blog/May-2014/BringBackOurGirls.aspx?gclid=CjwKEAjw9bKpBRD-geiF8OHz4EcSJACO4O7TiH4h2uW3d2Gs1GKoqhpogeqw_LOc7CPB9uEcXxHMpRoCYZ_w_wcB#sthash.qry0nbFw.dpuf
Monday, 30 March 2015
Women's Refuges have been threatened during the last term of the NSW LibNat Govt - now...?
Call For Inquiry Into Women's Refuge Changes
Posted by Australian Social Justice Advocacy on Sunday, 29 March 2015
Please take time to read the details.
They are horrific.
Women have been disempowered by this policy change.
Men and faith-based organisations have been given power
over women fleeing violence and abuse -
sometimes fleeing, with their children, for their lives.
Wednesday, 25 February 2015
FIRST WORLD WAR WOMEN U3A course starting Wednesday, 4th March 2015
FIRST WORLD WAR WOMEN U3A course starting Wednesday, 4th March 2015
Starting on Wednesday, the 4th March, 1-3.30, I am facilitating 4 weekly sessions at Yarra University of the Third Age – U3A – at the Fitzroy Library.
The website for Yarra U3A is http://www.yarracityu3a.org.au/
Experience an utterly different First World War and ANZAC Day. Come to each meeting with an idea of a quote or two from these stories that you would like to address, whether to remember a largely forgotten past or to look at qualities we want to carry on to the future. To view the “First World War Women Working for Peace in Melbourne 1914 – 1919” stories online click on the 1914 – 1919 link at www.womensweb.com.au Session 1 covers pages 1-12 from the website link; session 2 pages 13-24; session 3 pages 25-39; and session 4 pages 40-50. Also see the FIRST WORLD WAR WOMEN travelling exhibition in City of Yarra throughout March 2015. For further information check www.womensweb.com.au or contact Geraldine on 9486 1808. Class held in Meeting Room 2 on 4, 11, 18 and 25 March. Class limit 10
Otherwise I hope to see you 3.30 to 6pm on International Women’s Day, see womensweb.com.au
Let us celebrate! In the gloom of current affairs, it will revitalise us, I think. Geraldine
“Is there a lack of younger people fired with the desire to build a really new world, to become real crusaders to establish a genuine Co-operative Movement which makes service and not profit the foundation motive?" Vida Goldstein, January 1945 when she was 76
Geraldine Robertson
Tel: 03 9486 1808 Mobile: 0412 8653 10
wmnsweb@iprimus.com.au
Women's Web - Women's Stories, Women's Actions
www.womensweb.com.au
Women Working Together suffrage and onwards
www.womenworkingtogether.com.au
Prejudice and Reason
www.prejudiceandreason.com.au
Tuesday, 24 February 2015
Release of the Report and Recommendations: ASEAN and the Prevention of Violence Against Women
Picture below is from this site
In time for The Responsibility to Protect at 10: Progress, Challenges and Opportunities in the Asia Pacific Conference (26-27 February, Phnom Penh, Cambodia), the Report and Recommendations of the workshop on ASEAN and the Prevention of Violence Against Women in Conflict and Humanitarian Situations has been released. Hosted by Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect with the support of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, on 20 August 2014 in Jakarta, Indonesia, the event was attended by 48 leaders from the government sector, nongovernment organizations and international organizations from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Brunei, Thailand, Singapore and Viet Nam.
Acting British Ambassador to Indonesia, ASEAN and Timor Leste, Rebecca Razavi, delivered the keynote address on the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative. This report highlights the key themes discussed at the workshop and recommendations put forward by participants to augment regional efforts to prevent violence against women in conflict and humanitarian situations.
Key recommendations:
1. Strengthen the case for engagement with UN Security Council 1325 (2000) Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda in the ASEAN Political Security Community.
a. In particular, promote WPS engagement within two ASEAN institutions strongly associated with the Political Security Community – the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) and ASEAN
Institute of Peace and Reconciliation (AIPR).
b. Continue to promote the complementarity of the WPS agenda in meeting the prevention of violence against women agenda in the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting for Women (AMMW) and the ASEAN Commission for Women and Children (ACWC).
Institute of Peace and Reconciliation (AIPR).
b. Continue to promote the complementarity of the WPS agenda in meeting the prevention of violence against women agenda in the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting for Women (AMMW) and the ASEAN Commission for Women and Children (ACWC).
2. Further consideration of how to engage the security sector in the prevention of sexual violence in conflict and humanitarian situations.
3. Facilitate peer-to-peer knowledge exchange on the value of WPS National Action Plans (NAPs) in building capacity to prevent violence against women and empowering women in peace and security institutions, particularly gender inclusion and mainstreaming in the judicial and security sectors.
4. Facilitate WPS awareness raising, advocacy and networking as part of R2P exchange in the region.
5. Conduct research, particularly monitoring and evaluation of national level performance, to help inform policy interventions aimed at implementing WPS at national and regional level.
Great stuff! Wage equality gets top billing at the #Oscars
Can prominent Australian women please do this at our major events?!
Monday, 23 February 2015
A vigil for victims of violence for International Women's Day. #MakeItHappen
8 March is International Women's Day.
This year's theme is #MakeItHappen.
St Paul's is marking the event -
we want to make things happen for women
in Australia and across the world
who are victims of violence.
Check out the map below displaying the security of women
around the globe
We want things to change so women, and their families,
can live in peace.
Please help us to make the vigil a success by taking
the graphic below and using it for posters
and for emailing your friends.
Kiss Goodbye 2 Apathy - a Fb page from Ree Boddee. Resources for dealing with family violence - and particularly for Anglican parishes
Many Australians are sick and tired of apathy towards or disinterest in so many of the social problems besetting modern Australia. Facebook is a great outlet. We form relationships, build conversations and communication networks, share ideas, initiate campaigns. A new site worth joining/friending is Kiss Goodbye 2 Apathy set up by Dr Ree Bodde.
Ree is the spouse of Hugh Kempster of St Peter's Eastern Hill. She is prominent in Anglican circles in regard to family violence.
Violence is learned. It can be unlearned
Taking the lid off a violent can of worms
Nudging Anglican parishes to prevent violence against women
Parishes urged to welcome men as anti-violence advocates
Preventing violence against women: what works and what doesn't in Anglican communities (this document is published below - it can be read on the post by scrolling down or by clicking the print symbol, it can be printed out)
'Sexist' competition draws Anglican ire
On Google+
On Twitter
On Facebook
On Facebook - Anglicans helping to prevent violence against women
Thursday, 19 February 2015
Friday, 9 January 2015
Wednesday, 24 December 2014
Monday, 10 November 2014
Monday, 3 November 2014
Thursday, 30 October 2014
United Nations : women, peace and security.
In a unanimously adopted Presidential Statement this morning ahead of a day-long debate on “women, peace and security,” the Security Council reaffirmed the need to dismantle the “persistent barriers” facing gender equality, calling on Member States to embrace a “dedicated commitment to women's empowerment, participation, and human rights” and ensure their full and equal participation in peace and security issues.
Held annually, the Council's open debate provides an opportunity for the wider UN membership to reflect on the progress made, and accelerate action on implementation of the Security Council resolution 1325, adopted in 2000, which requires parties in a conflict to respect women's rights and support their participation in peace negotiations and in post-conflict reconstruction.
In a message to the 15-member body delivered by Executive Director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon thanked the Council for its “consistent focus” on women and peace and security issues, noting that such debate has enabled the international community “to move beyond viewing women as only victims of conflict to seeing them as agents of peace and progress.”
However, he expressed concern that “unprecedented levels of displacement” and the “immense human and financial cost of conflict” is testing global commitments to addressing the needs of women and girls around the world while also hindering their participation in conflict prevention, resolution and peacebuilding initiatives.
The World Economic Forum - Global Gender Gap Report 2014
AUSTRALIA RANKS 24TH
AND TAKE A LOOK AT WHO COMES AHEAD OF US!
Heading the list are the Scandinavian countries!
What a surprise (not)!
How some of us long to be like them in all sorts of social policy areas!
But - shame Australia shame -
those ahead of us include
Nicaragua - Rwanda - Burundi - Ecuador - Bulgaria
If I had my way,
I'd scrap the Sex Discrimination Act 1984.
I'd abolish or radically reform the
Some women have benefitted over the past three decades.
Predominantly, these have been university educated and/or
middle-class women who have worked in the public sector.
Working class women working on the factory floor or in the unskilled and semi-skilled areas of the service economy have not made great advances. The old "industrial relations club" had a handle on the tradeable goods sector - but had/have nary a clue about the service industries where women and young people are employed.
Discrimination is difficult to prove. Penalties are of the feather duster variety. The act has been around for thirty years and yet there are employers who act as though they have never heard of it. A jail sentence or three could sort that out very quickly!
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