We’re gonna need a bigger boat…

I went into town today. We popped into the library to meet up with a friend and bumped into someone I’ve not seen in over a year.

That aside, I overheard something that first made me smile and then set me thinking.

"Oh look. MEN.  Does that mean you can buy one in there then? What sizes do you think they come in?"

Much giggling from the 2 women.  We were walking past the Anne Summers shop. A couple of doors down they are setting up a River Island. The shop is essentially empty but most of the fittings are in place, including a large neon sign "MEN" towards the back. They were laughing at the idea of men for sale. But aren’t women for sale every day? And set aside, discarded when they are no longer young enough, pretty enough etc? Yet the idea of men for sale is funny?

I laughed with them. Then the irony of the juxtaposition of the shops and the comment wandered in.  The funny side sort of evaporated at that point.

It took 4 days for this teenager to been seen by a psychiatrist.

Lauren Martin was admitted to the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald last Thursday and weighs just four stone.

I’m not going to go into the patriarchal contribution to anorexia. "The cause of anorexia nervosa is unknown." yeah right. Nothing to do with skinny models, Lads mags or the media then….

But that is another rant. This one is about delays in treatment, or incorrect treatment. Lauren Martin was admitted on a Friday, weighing just 4 stone and in need of asessment and treatment. Her family were asured someone would see her on Saturday morning. They didn’t. Then they were told the psychiatric team don’t work on weekends.

Huh? DON’T WORK ON WEEKENDS?  Well, why the hell not? People don’t get sick on weekends? People don’t have psychotic episodes on weekends? Don’t get depressed on weekends?

Anyway, it took until Tuesday for her to be seen. Then because she is classed as an adult at 17 the doctors won’t intervene to make her eat or tube feed her.

Iris Robinson, the family’s MP said:

"Unfortunately Lauren is only one of many such young people," she said.

"One Friday three weeks ago I had three different families coming in with children who were presenting with anorexia - one young girl of 15 who had attempted suicide five times - suicide notes everything - really to try to take her life.

I know people locally here who have had problems accessing mental health services.  It sucks. Mental illness is just that, an illness. With Anorexia, as with other eating disorders, the link here says quite clearly:

Anorexia nervosa is a potentially life-threatening illness, and should be treated as soon as possible. Sufferers should seek help, or be encouraged to do so.

Lauren and her family sought that help, they actively sought medical treatment. They were failed by the hospital.

I wish Lauren all the best and hope that she makes a full recovery. I’ll be looking out for news if it’s reported.  

Paul McCartney accused of violent abuse.

Sir Paul McCartney has said he will "vigorously" contest allegations that he violently abused Heather Mills during their four-year marriage.

 Heather Mills-McCartney alleges:

that the former Beatle subjected his wife to violent attacks, including one incident in which her arm was cut with a broken wine glass.

He has accused her of theft, of 3 bottles of cleaning products from one of his homes. Divorce is often messy and this one is getting nasty. It seems to have started with a simple parting of the ways. In May they said:

Announcing their separation in May, the couple said they had "found it increasingly difficult to maintain a normal relationship with constant intrusion into our private lives".

Now there are allegations of abuse being flung. Is it true? Only the McCartneys know. I find it hard to believe she would accuse him of abuse if nothing happened.  

I’m serious. I saw this on Newsround and then picked it up again at Bootiful Me. So I had a look on the BBC News site to see what I could find.

 They (cows) are the UK’s biggest single source of methane - a gas 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide when it comes to global warming.

This seemed daft to me until I read further.

"Cows don’t ruminate anymore," concludes Professor David Beever, an expert on nutrition with feed producer Richard Keenan and Co.

He believes that their food is not chewy enough, so they do not break it down in their mouths before it gets to their rumen. It is inefficient and produces more methane.

OK. So this is another case of feeding our food producing animals (meat or dairy) the wrong food. We feed herbivores on the ground up remains of their own kind. We fill them full of hormones and unnecessary antibiotics, then we wonder why things go wrong? 

Elsewhere in labs and farm yards scientists are trying out inoculations, microbes or even extracts of garlic.

Huh? There’s a problem becuse we don’t have the sense to allow these animals to feed as they are meant to and we want to fix it by interfereing even more? I don’t get it. Let them graze, let them eat grass as they should, let then stand in the fields chewing the cud, let them ruminate properly. Let them be cows. Maybe, just maybe, the milk and beef might taste a bit better too? 

Watch The Meatrix.  Then go and find a local farmer or butcher and ask how their meat is farmed, how their dairy cattle are kept. Buy grass fed, organic, free range, RSPCA certified. Draw a line in the dirt and stand by it.

I sent this to Witchy Woo. Witchy, as usual, made a lot of sense with it and set me thinking.

OK, so the pharmacist was:

acting within his rights under an industry code of ethics.

Now on the one hand there is the anger and outrage at the denial to a woman of control of her body. The family doctor had advised the woman in the article to go to the chemist and pick up an over the counter morning after pill.  The pharmacist refused…

because it was against his religious beliefs.

He happens to be Muslim. I don’t think that has any relevance here to be honest. A pro life Christian could easily say the same thing. To my mind a pharmacist has a duty of care, just as a doctor or nurse has. They are part of the medical profession.  The morning after pill is a medicine they provide, like paracetamol. Not that I am equating the MAP with taking a paracetamol for a headache - just that they are both products available from a chemist.

Then I got to pondering my own working experiences. I used to work in a record shop. A Virgin Megastore. I found having to serve customers with adult videos and dvd’s uncomfortable. Note - I wasn’t aware enough or angry enough to challenge it then, but I was still unconmfortable and hated it. Anyway, it was part of the job and had to be done. As was taking abuse from customers when things went wrong. As was wearing the uniform. It was part of the job. I also worked for WHSmith where the uniform was a short sleeved blouse and a knee length skirt. I hated wearing skirts but it was part of the job. In both we had to wear name badges. I hate name badges. But it is PART OF THE BLOODY JOB.

So, how can anyone be allowed to refuse to do their job? Now wearing a skirt or name badge is a trivial thing. But this man is allowed to refuse to do part of his job, a vital part of his job. A part of his job that has had a huge impact on Jo-Ann Thomas. What if she’d gone away and not had the courage to complain? What if she’d been a young teenage girl?  What if his refusal had left her so disheartened she’d not continued to try to get the pill she needed? What if the next step for her had been an abortion? Is that better? His refusal could have had a far worse result.

So, what’s next. Go and get the morning after pill but only from this chemist on that day because otherwise you’ll get refused? I know people are entitled to their opinions and beliefs. I know there are people who are pro life rather than pro choice. But in the end women have a right to this service from their chemists. It’s part of what chemists do. If you don’t like it, then maybe pharmacy isn’t the right job for you?

Ok, so it’s not serious. But it made me smile in a kind of "that’s too close to the truth for comfort" sort of way.

Gov Logo. 

Following on from my last post and Witchy Woo’s last weeks Wednesday Wow - I’ve been wandering through the BBC news site for today.

This is just one day and just one news site.

A two-year-old girl was raped in her County Antrim home last week

Surrender plea to serial rapist

Pensioner suffered violent death

Inquest on hanged mother and sons

Man charged with bogus taxi rape

Man hunted after indecent assault

I just wanted to highlight it a bit more.

End violence against women

It’s an Oxfam Unwrapped gift and costs a mere £20.

Changing attitudes is the first vital step in ending violence against women. Our ‘change makers’ are working hard to influence groups, communities, and societies all over the world. Kit out 10 change makers with training and promotional materials to help them stop the violence.

It’s on my Christmas list and I have it in mind for a friend or two as well. 

I found this here. It’s a Yuku board and you may need an account to view it. It came from The Emancipation of Mystical Thoughts blog, written by Mystique. 

Rantings of an Arabian Woman…

I am born
A man chooses my name

I am taught

To appreciate

That he did not bury me alive

I learn
What he wants me to know

I live
What he wants me to live

I marry
Who he wants me to marry

I eat
What he wants me to eat

If he dies
Another man controls my life

A Father
A Brother
A Husband

A Son
A Man

Then
Then
They tell me when I die
I am going to be judged on my man-made life.

I can’t be judged
I’ll never be judged…

It is just another rant
buried in the Kingdom of Sand