Year of the Family
It is ironic that in 2004, the 10th anniversary of the United Nations International Year of the Family, the institution of marriage on which family life is based is being contorted by homosexual lobbyists and judicial activists to a point at which the institution itself becomes meaningless.
Educational Hurdles for Boys
Boys under-performance in education is a worldwide concern. Women have overtaken men at every level of education in developed countries around the world, and girls are now more confident of getting better-paid, professional jobs than their flagging male counterparts. International education figures, published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, show a consistent picture, across cultures and continents, of women achieving better results than men. The OECD survey is a detailed comparison of education achievement and spending in 43 developed countries.
Doctors Insurance and Unnecessary Operations
The concerns of doctors, especially obstetricians, about the rising costs of medical indemnity insurance are frequently in the news at the moment. While one has sympathy for an obstetrician who is sued when a baby is unexpectedly disabled, there is another area of this specialty which deserves no sympathy: the abortion industry. The medical profession and particularly the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) is culpable for not policing this red light district of medicine.
Strengthening the Legal Framework of Marriage as the Union Between a Man and a Woman
The fundamental definition in Australian law of marriage as “the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life” is under attack from a number of directions.
Transexuals in the USA
In a case in some ways similar to the Kevin and Jennifer case in Australia, in the Pinellas, Florida, County Court, Judge Gerard O'Brien rejected the plea of Linda Kantaras that because the man she married, Michael Kantaras, was actually born a woman (formerly "Margo"), the marriage was null and void. In a decision (February 2003) that will likely set precedent in legal issues regarding transsexuals, Judge Gerard O'Brien ruled that though born a woman, Michael Kantaras is legally a male, and therefore his marriage to ex-wife Linda was legally valid. The judge granted a divorce and gave transsexual Michael Kantaras custody of Linda's two children which he had adopted soon after they were born. (The children were conceived using donated sperm from Michael's brother).
National and Overseas News
Gender Reassignment?
To obtain “Letters of Accreditation” so that Endeavour Forum representatives could attend the 48th session of the UN's Commission on the Status of Women meeting in New York in March this year, I had to fax to the UN my list of representatives. The Letters of Accreditation were duly faxed back, but all the males were listed as "Ms", even though I had carefully typed their correct titles -- myself as "Mrs" and the men as "Mr". or "Dr". Thus on the UN Letters of Accreditation, Charles has become "Ms Charles Francis", Dr. Joel Brind is "Ms Joel Brind" and John Barich is "Ms John Barich". I know that some names can be used for either sex (Hillary comes to mind immediately) but who ever heard of a woman named "Charles" or "John"? Perhaps the UN is impatient with the slow pace of the development of a UN-ISEX society, and has decided to do a bit of gender reassignment itself.
Men Without Jobs in Australia
The changing face of the job market is creating a group of men in our community who are in danger of becoming a separate underclass, living on the edges of society. An expert on labour issues believes the death of the manufacturing sector, the dramatic drop in full-time work and a lack of post high school education is forcing at least one in five men aged between 25 and 45 to opt out of the workforce, forever.
News Release: Abstinence Education
Leslee Unruh, President and Founder of the Abstinence Clearinghouse, in a news release Janury 28, 2004, welcomed results from the Zogby Poll that parents overwhelmingly support abstinence education. "The abstinence until marriage community has always supported parents as the primary sex educators of their children. Parents want to be involved in the most sensitive subjects of their children's lives."
The Truth about AIDS
SARAH Henderson's faltering faith (Herald Sun, Wednesday) distorts Catholicism, but her belief "condoms fight HIV'' is also bad science.
And why does Sarah indulge in ageism -- aren't the opinions of an 83-year-old pope who fought Nazism and played a major role in the defeat of the Soviet Union worth as much as those of a commentating company director?
Abortion-Breast Cancer
The curious case of Frank O’Leary and the Medical Practitioners Board
In November 2000, one of our readers, Mr. Frank O'Leary of Mildura, sent Dr. "X" who practises in a Melbourne suburban Community Health Centre (for legal reasons we are not publishing his name) a copy of our paper "What Every Woman in the World Should Know" on the Abortion-Breast Cancer link. Frank had previously sent copies of this paper to many doctors but the response from Dr. X was quite extraordinary - obviously Frank struck a raw nerve.
BOOKSHELF
“Twilight of the Elites”
In his valuable book "The Twilight of the Elites”, Professor of Law, David Flint, Chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Authority, has had the temerity to challenge most of the sacred cows of our politically correct elites. The process will no doubt ensure that he is excluded (or continues to be excluded) from most academic circles. . He may also be denigrated by the liberal left for whom political correctness is a substitute for intelligent analytical thinking.
IMPORTANT COMING EVENTS
2004 CONFERENCE OF THE FAMILY COUNCIL OF VICTORIA
In Association with the World Congress of Families& The Intercultural Dialogue in Celebration of the 2004 International Year of the Family
Theme: The Natural Family in the 21st Century: Challenge of the Next Decade |
