'Dolly' and sex
I quote Kath Gelber quoting Dolly (GLW, May 10) which, apparently writing on what it calls "having sex", says: "Being ready or not is determined by such qualifications as a willingness on the part of both partners to discuss the use of condoms, contraceptives and HIV tests."
Dolly apparently knows only about "having sex" but has not heard of "making love"; the two are not the same. I'm surprised that Kath Gelber doesn't point out that another necessity for "being ready" is strong emotion — the feeling that the other person is the most exciting and thrilling creature in the universe, and is absolutely essential to one's life. (Of course, this feeling won't last for ever).
In Wuthering Heights, the heroine Cathy says of her lover Heathcliff, "He's more myself than I am." It's a frightening emotion, but without it, "making love" degenerates into "having sex", just a possibly interesting coupling of two complicated pieces of machinery.
Rosemary Evans
St Kilda Vic
Port Macquarie hospital
Mayne Nickless/HCOA has its well polished begging bowl waving expertly under the NSW taxpayers' noses yet again. It's no surprise to many of us that already they appear to be in financial distress, as HCOA has no experience whatsoever in the running of a community based hospital.
On 13/12/92 Mayne Nickless signed a series of contracts with the NSW state government. We were all led to believe by the pro-privatisation lobby that the amount of funding in these contracts would allow all the operating theatres and beds to be open from day one. There was never any mention of only operating parts of the hospital, or some of the theatres or beds.
We had Mr Hannaford and Mr Phillips both telling us how wonderful it would be when the contracts were signed. We would never have to stand in line for funding again as the contracts were our protection from waiting lists and funding shortages for the next twenty years. Some were gullible enough to believe this garbage.
Okay, now here they are begging. What's gone wrong? Has there been mismanagement perhaps? Or maybe unreal expectations by Mayne Nickless as to how a for profit company could ever hope to understand the ethic and commitment needed to run a hospital to deal with a whole community? Could there be a large element of greed, on the part of the company's executive, making it impossible for the money to stay in the hospital system? I don't know, and like all the residents who are forced to use this hospital because of lack of choice, I have no legal way of finding out. That's how it is when a company hides behind commercial sensitivity.
I implore Dr Refshauge and the NSW government not to give Mayne Nickless one cent extra until they have opened up their books to public scrutiny. As taxpayers we have a right to know if our hard earned money has been wasted before we even consider giving any more.
Therese Mackay
Port Macquarie NSW
[Edited for length]
Youth unemployment
Mr Simon Crean says in this year's budget that long term youth unemployment is down 44%.
Yet hundreds of thousands of young people are unemployed.
As a youth worker I see the human face of unemployment. Take the young woman with an honours degree who has been seeking employment for eight months. She has applied for numerous jobs, outside of her intended career. Countless rejection letters have led to extreme depression. Recently, she attempted suicide.
This is only one story. For those unemployed, self esteem plummets and dreams for the future seem shattered. How will this affect Australia's future?
Young people value the opportunity to contribute to society by means of employment. They want to have full time, meaningful jobs. The drop in the unemployment rate of young people is encouraging. What about those still out of a job?
Is work today only related to how much money you can earn? The Young Christian Workers (YCW) believe that a person should be able to use their creativity to transform the world and make a just society.
All persons are workers, be they looking for full time employment, working at home caring for children, organising a household or in paid employment.
Karen Reiter
Youth Worker for Melbourne YCW
Superannuation questions
Hereunder some concerns regarding the compulsory investing of monies into organisations people may ethically wish not to.
The first element is environmental or social practices of a company invested in by a super firm which are contrary to the belief of the person being "compelled". The second element is when a super firm may invest in a multi-national (e.g. Lion Nathan) who then buy out a company (e.g. Adelaide Breweries) and retrench the workers the super fund is supposedly looking after.
I would be personally horrified if my subscriptions were used to support, say, logging in native forests or uranium mining.
Indeed the whole system appears as a gift of some billions of dollars to super funds to invest as they (not I) see fit for, in my case, thirty years. That administration costs are then levied against my account further chuffs me as these would be better utilised servicing housing loans.
I have two suggestions. First, each company offering superannuation must provide the option of ethical investment for your account. The other option is for those people with religious or ethical conscientious objections to operating in the financial market to receive exemptions from the system.
David Cathie
Bonbeach Vic
East Timor
Well done to all those involved in organising the East Timor Day of Action on Saturday 13 May.
A couple of things have persuaded me that, as well as this sort of demonstration (for me inspiring) we need protests that are quieter and more accessible to the ordinary, rather unaware person in the street.
The first thing to persuade me in favour of a different kind of protest was the candlelight march to commemorate those who have died of AIDS on 14 May. The power and dignity of that event was moving for all of us. The people who have been killed in East Timor, with Australian government complicity, merit that kind of event.
Yesterday, I went to a public meeting with our federal MP and cabinet member, Peter Baldwin. I went to ask about East Timor. I expected to be the only person to do that, but about five other people did the same, including the mother of a close friend of Kamal Bamadhaj, killed in the '91 Dili massacre. In the audience were people also asking about Bougainville. There are many people who would probably never come to a day of action type of protest who are, nevertheless, willing to speak out on East Timor and Bougainville.
So we are holding monthly vigils in Sydney outside the Garuda office (appropriately enough, opposite the BHP head office; BHP are drilling in the Timor gap) on the last Thursday of every month, starting May 25, at 5pm. All are welcome. Bring your own candle.
Stephen Langford
Secretary AETA NSW
[Edited for length.]
McLibel
Can you believe it? McDonald's Mega Corporation, that 40 year old American champion of cultural diversity, our environment, workers' rights and animal protection, is in serious trouble! McColossus itself needs urgent protection — from 2 penniless Londoners. Talk about David and Goliath!
The longest libel case in UK history is still raging! Thank you, Dave Morris and Helen Steel. At great emotional cost to themselves, they took on the potentially brutal might of McOctopus. The pair, members of London Greenpeace, weren't going to be coerced into abandoning the information-packed leaflet, "What's Wrong With McDonald's?" Thus, the McLibel Case commenced in July 1994, with each side suing the other. I estimate that McDonald's is spending $US40 million protecting their reputation. Meanwhile, Dave and Helen can only rely on donations and occasional legal advice.
Success for the "McLibel 2" has come in many ways. For instance, reams of Top Secret information have been extracted by the duo. This is even accessible on the Internet. Not surprisingly, given such public revelations, McDonald's has recently changed their whole legal argument. Someone had obviously started to sense defeat.
With 18,000 stores on the planet, growing by 1500 per year, isn't it time each of us did something about this glorified McLand developer? As a worried Australian, I hope I can rely on others to help me spread information on McDonald's and other fast food corporations. If you can read this, then I know you can help. We need to publicise the case widely.
Please offer your help and ideas. Contact Paul Tobias at 107 Edgevale Road, Kew 3101.
Paul F Tobias