Slack of me to leave my reader(s) in the lurch like this. After my operation the results about the tumours came back. I had two different types of cancer tumour, both Stage 2. One was a run-of-the-mill adeno-carcinoma, which is the kind that most people get. This was in my appendix which probably explained the mild pain I occasionally had in that region. The other one was actually adjacent to it but in my small intestine. This one is called a carcinoid and is a weird thing which is very slow growing and for which there is no cure if it gets to other parts of your body. Carcinoids are a type of neuroendocrine tumour which can produce serotonin which can cause symptoms such as flushing, diarrhoea and blood pressure drops. These things I had experienced previously.
The nasty things were out of my body and the next step was to make sure they had not spread to the rest of me. So I embarked on a 6-month course of chemotherapy, once a week. The four major side-effects of chemotherapy are nausea, diarrhoea, fatigue and hair loss. I was “lucky” to be hit badly with only two of them, diarrhoea and fatigue. But mostly fatigue. I kept all my hair, or as much hair as a post-50-year-old man should keep, and could eat pretty much everything. There was no dieting while on chemo as the doctor like people to keep their weight fairly stable if they can.
Fatigue was my constant companion and proved to be something that was hard to shake even some months after chemotherapy finished. Some days I just slept and slept. Some days, I felt fine. Some days I felt fine and tried to do too much and paid for it the next day.
I always tried to be the good patient, turning up on time and being cooperative, but a couple of times I just could not face having the damned IV stuck in my arm.
Half the trouble is that I have really bad veins. Really bad veins. Small. Narrow. Thin walled. I would make a very unsuccessful junkie. Getting blood tests is always a hassle. Pre-operation IV is a nightmare. The nurse took four attempts to get a vein for my surgery.
One solution the Oncology nurses suggested was a PIC line, a permanent line in my arm which would obviate the need for a needle every week. Even fitting it was a task. Using ultrasound, a tube was threaded along my left brachial vein to a position just above my heart. That was on a Wednesday. My chemo was always on a Friday so I used it then. Over the weekend my arm started to feel sore. By Monday night it was aching and I could not sleep. On Tuesday I went back to the clinic and was sent for another ultrasound. The news was not good. The entire vein had clotted around the line and it would need to be removed. Worse, to avoid the clot getting worse and to help it reabsorb into my body, I was put in a six month course of a blood thinner which had to be administered by injection. Twice a day. By me. Luckily they didn’t have to go into a vein but into a fatty part of my body, of which I have a wide selection. Actually it turned out to be pretty straightforward.
My last chemo session was on the day before Christmas 2010. The best present ever. In March 2011 I had another CT scan and some blood tests and was given the all clear by my oncologist. I was officially in remission. I have an appointment with my surgeon every six month and see my oncologist every 3 months. I am about due for another CT scan and currently feel fine. What more could you ask for.
24 February 2012
19 November 2010
Albert Park Candidates Forum
On Wednesday 10 November around 200 residents sat down at the St Kilda Town Hall for a Forum for Albert Park District Candidates in the forthcoming Victoria State election. Cohosted by Locals Into Victoria’s Environment (LIVE) and several other community groups, the format was one familiar to viewers of the ABCs Q&A,with Moderator Peter Norden and questions submitted via the LIVE web site as well as audience questions.
Four candidates attended, Martin Foley MP, the sitting member for Albert Park, Ann Birrell from the Greens political party, Mark Lopez for the Liberals and independent Serge Thomann.
While I profess to a bias, it is interesting to note that in a follow up blog on the LIVE web blog, Martin Foley was strongly supported for his performance both during his term and at the forum itself.
And from my seat in the audience, they were correct. Most questionable performance of the night must go to Mark Lopez, whose main tactic was to try to scare the bejesus out of the audience by implying that their homes where being robbed as he spoke and nowhere in Albert Park was safe to walk. And his patented “I am a tutor talking to a not-very-bright Grade 6 student” delivery was very unfortunate. The truth is that in the last year, crime has declined significantly in the City of Port Phillip. Specifically, crime against persons has decreased by 9.8% and burglaries from cars has decreased by 10.4%.
I was concerned about the Liberal's tabloid-driven “tough on crime” policies, especially as they affect the mentally ill, a category already overrepresented in state prisons. I asked Mr Lopez whether the Liberal policies to restrict police discretion in arresting people and to abolish suspended sentences would mean that mentally ill Victorians were in greater danger of being imprisoned rather than receiving the support the actually needed. Mr Lopez chose not the answer the question directly but simply repeated his mantra about needing to feel safe. However, Peter Norden asked a follow up question which exposed the Liberal policy as inflexible and incapable of responding to the complex nature of the justice system in a modern society. And Mr Lopez had no answer.
As already mentioned, Martin Foley was articulate and across the detail of the questions asked. The Greens and Independent candidates were less so, which was surprising considering that they had ample opportunity to review the questions submitted via the LIVE web site. Serge Thomann constantly pointed to the pile of black-covered policy statements he had brought with him and said that the answers were in there. It's a pity he didn't bring enough for the whole audience, as 75% of us were still in the dark at the end of forum.
Ann Birrell was also somewhat hesitant and it was disturbing that she flubbed an opportunity to support the rights of women to choose and the Brumby Government's move to decriminalise abortion.
Meetings such as this forum are still a great way to meet the candidates, interrogate their policies and make sure you know who you are voting for come election time. It's a great way to weed out the charlatans and the self-promoters, as well as the genuinely committed, for, even in this era of political cynicism, there are people who are genuinely committed to ideas, policies and a vision for the community.
As a confirmed Labor person and party member, this forum was never going to change my vote, but it was an opportunity to see my candidate perform well and to witness his opposition be challenged on an level playing field. And it was somewhat satisfying to see that, not just in my eyes but in the opinion of several others, they were sadly lacking in both policy substance and presentation.
Four candidates attended, Martin Foley MP, the sitting member for Albert Park, Ann Birrell from the Greens political party, Mark Lopez for the Liberals and independent Serge Thomann.
While I profess to a bias, it is interesting to note that in a follow up blog on the LIVE web blog, Martin Foley was strongly supported for his performance both during his term and at the forum itself.
“After all was said and done, we think our sitting member Martin Foley (ALP) was the best performer. We like what Foley stands for and the way he expresses his values, even though these are not ideally translated in the political reality of his party. Having said this, it is important to note that we have witnessed Foley take a stand against Brumby on a number of important issues including:
- When the Brumby Government approved GM crops when there are clear long-term and wide-ranging risks involved with the technology and in the knowledge that no regulatory agency anywhere in the world is adequately addressing the human health and environmental impacts and no government has passed legislation which will effectively manage them.
- When the Brumby Government raised the possibility of exporting our highly greenhouse gas intensive brown coal”
And from my seat in the audience, they were correct. Most questionable performance of the night must go to Mark Lopez, whose main tactic was to try to scare the bejesus out of the audience by implying that their homes where being robbed as he spoke and nowhere in Albert Park was safe to walk. And his patented “I am a tutor talking to a not-very-bright Grade 6 student” delivery was very unfortunate. The truth is that in the last year, crime has declined significantly in the City of Port Phillip. Specifically, crime against persons has decreased by 9.8% and burglaries from cars has decreased by 10.4%.
I was concerned about the Liberal's tabloid-driven “tough on crime” policies, especially as they affect the mentally ill, a category already overrepresented in state prisons. I asked Mr Lopez whether the Liberal policies to restrict police discretion in arresting people and to abolish suspended sentences would mean that mentally ill Victorians were in greater danger of being imprisoned rather than receiving the support the actually needed. Mr Lopez chose not the answer the question directly but simply repeated his mantra about needing to feel safe. However, Peter Norden asked a follow up question which exposed the Liberal policy as inflexible and incapable of responding to the complex nature of the justice system in a modern society. And Mr Lopez had no answer.
As already mentioned, Martin Foley was articulate and across the detail of the questions asked. The Greens and Independent candidates were less so, which was surprising considering that they had ample opportunity to review the questions submitted via the LIVE web site. Serge Thomann constantly pointed to the pile of black-covered policy statements he had brought with him and said that the answers were in there. It's a pity he didn't bring enough for the whole audience, as 75% of us were still in the dark at the end of forum.
Ann Birrell was also somewhat hesitant and it was disturbing that she flubbed an opportunity to support the rights of women to choose and the Brumby Government's move to decriminalise abortion.
Meetings such as this forum are still a great way to meet the candidates, interrogate their policies and make sure you know who you are voting for come election time. It's a great way to weed out the charlatans and the self-promoters, as well as the genuinely committed, for, even in this era of political cynicism, there are people who are genuinely committed to ideas, policies and a vision for the community.
As a confirmed Labor person and party member, this forum was never going to change my vote, but it was an opportunity to see my candidate perform well and to witness his opposition be challenged on an level playing field. And it was somewhat satisfying to see that, not just in my eyes but in the opinion of several others, they were sadly lacking in both policy substance and presentation.
09 June 2010
C (part 2)
Woke up on Saturday morning feeling a little sore. Wow, that sounds like the first line of a bad country and western song. It is not uncommon for surgery patients to feel really good the day after an operation and then have a flat time the next day. Of course, having bowel surgery interrupted and traumatised some pretty basic bodily functions and the registrar did say that it may take a few days for things to get “moving” again. Meanwhile, I was starting to feel like Mr Creosote (look him up, young people) and most of my pain was from rolling stomach cramps as my system tried to kick start itself.
I mentioned this to one of the nurses, and she decided that it was time to get things going—two days after my operation—and so she “prescribed” me a “mild” laxative. A couple of hours later, and things did in fact, start to move… but not on a good way.
You haven’t felt so let down by your own body as when you go to the toilet, do the business, then look down and see a bowl full of blood. (OK guys, I concede, when you can’t get it up counts as the worst) I started to panic, so the doctors ordered another blood test on top of the one I had every morning and I had some extra monitoring until things settled down. Unfortunately, things did not settle down until Sunday morning, by which time I was feeling more panicky, weak and very feeble. And even more tired.
Luckily no damage was done, although I learnt later that my blood tests did cause some concern among the medical staff.
The next three days pretty much consisted of obs, reading and eating and the occasional “turn” around the ward corridors, much like Miss Bennet and Miss Bingley in Pride and Prejudice. By Monday, I was able to go downstairs, grab a coffee at the cafe and sit in the sunshine. I have to say that The Alfred Hospital food was really delicious. I think the secret is not to go for the meat and three veg options which invariably get overcooked, and go for things like moussaka, lasagna, frittata and the like. That you get a choice of meals is an added bonus.
The nursing and support staff at The Alfred were generally wonderful. Their job is a thankless one and they have to do things as part of their jobs which are truly beyond the call of duty. Similar the surgical team was great, telling my clear what had happened and listening and answering my questions in terms even I could understand.
I was released on Tuesday and my best friend, Ailsa came to bring me home. She is great and does and says everything a best friend should do. We collected my cat, Marge, from her holiday at the local cattery and I was relieved to hear that she was very well behaved and they loved having her. She was less happy to see me and I knew the next few days at home would be, how we say… challenging.
At this point, my instructions were to stay home, rest, don’t life anything too heavy, and basically let my body recover from what, they keep reminding me, and I keep forgetting, was major surgery. I was relatively pain free and was advised that I should continue with, you guessed it, paracetemol to deal with postoperative pain.
In the greater scheme of things, it was kind of fortunate that I did not currently have a job as I would have felt it necessary to go back to work probably too soon. Of course, I still did not know just what that mysterious mass was. The histopathology would take up tot two week and I was booked in to see the surgeon then. So commenced the waiting.
To be continued.
07 June 2010
C (part 1)
I have been meaning to write about my encounter with cancer for a while but it all seemed a bit… current. After recent scan at the hospital, I am gradually getting a sense of perspective on the past few weeks.
This all started late in 2009 when I was telling my doctor about my constant bouts of diarrhea and abdominal pain. We monitored things for a little while and early in 2010 he had me do a Fecal Occult Blood Test, which for the lay person means, “Is there any unseen blood in your poo?”
The test returned a positive result so the next step was to book in for a colonoscopy. I had this on 16 March 2010, incidentally a week after I was retrenched from my job. The colonoscopy found a mass in my colon which the doctors could not identify so I was booked in for a CT Scan that Friday. Both these tests require you to be empty inside, so with a combination of fasting and vile medications, I had only four full meals between Monday and Friday lunchtime.
Two weeks later I was at The Alfred Hospital talking to a colorectal surgeon who said that I had a large “mass” located in or near my appendix which required an operation called a right hemicolectomy, which means they remove the right ‘ascending” part of my colon and then join my small intestine and colon back together. Simple really, like plumbing… or leatherwork.
I was designated a Level 1 patient which means that I should have my operation within a month. I ended up going into hospital on 22 April 2010.
The day of the operation I got to the hospital in good time, did all the required bureaucratic things and was wheeled into pre-op. After a little while looking at the ceiling and trying to remember if this is what being in the hospital nursery was like when I was born, at 2.00 p.m. I was wheeled into the operating theatre. This is where the fun started. I am “blessed” with weak veins. Trying to find a viable vein for a needle to enter and do its work is a struggle. They tried four times on two arms for my CT scan and it took three goes to get a line in so that I could get anaesthetic for my operation. The next few hours were a blur, thankfully.
I woke at a little before 8.00 p.m. The surgical registrar has a very brief chat and told me that what was supposed to be a two-hour operation ended up being a little short of six as the mass was quite large and had perforated the wall of my small and large bowels which made things a little more complicated. The result though, was that the operation was successful and I went to the ward for recovery.
Take it from me, people, hospital is not a place to go to have a rest. This is why they want you home as soon as possible. The first night was a blur of morphine, hourly “obs” (when they come and take your blood pressure, and other signs of life) and a cute nurse I would have flirted with if I hadn’t been catheterised (ask your mother). Surprisingly, post-operative pain was fairly subdued, and I didn’t use the morphine (I had a little button I could press for a bump) nearly as much as the nurses though I should. The tactic is the get ahead of the pain, instead of treating it as it appears, so I was on regular pain medication. Surprisingly, the favourite pain medication is paracetemol, morning, noon and night, with something else to provide a little kick.
Even after a night of little sleep, Friday was quite active. I actually had something to eat for breakfast. At my pre-operation consultation, I was put on a protocol which involved giving surgical patients additional high-carbohydrate energy drinks to see if they assisted in post-operative recovery. This continued after my operation and I had a choice of rather artificial-tasting drinks which I was supposed to drink twice a day with my meals.
Hospitals are also concerned that patients don’t contract pneumonia and deep vein thrombosis. I had to do regular deep breathing and coughing to clear my lungs and every patient gets to wear special compression stockings to help prevent DVT. They also said that I had to get out of bed so my circulation did not get sluggish in areas where it shouldn’t. So on Friday, I was temporarily unhooked from the various drips and lines and catheters, stood up and took a few steps. I then quickly lay down again.
Other than eating and having your blood pressure and temperature taken, there was not a lot more to do while in hospital. I had brought some books to while away the 5 or so days I would be in hospital. I had considered some of the more literary books that I had bough and had not yet read, like The Lovely Bones and The Corrections but I decided that my brain would probably not be up for metaphors of death and the complications of a dysfunctional family. So I brought along some Patricia Cornwell Kay Scarpetta crime thrillers. These are the books I read during my stay:
At the first autopsy scene I realised that these may not be the most appropriate books for a recovery from surgery, but it was them or 1998 editions of New Idea so I persevered.
Friday afternoon and I was sitting up in a chair reading. My morphine was taken away (sniff!) and I was put on oxycontin. The afternoon dose was fine, but the night dose cause me all sorts of problems. Every time I closed my eyes I started hallucinating. I would see things crawling out of the ceiling, strange monsters at the margins of a jungle, all the usual—or unusual—terrors. So I lay there, terribly tired from no sleep the previous night, but terrified to close my eyes. I should have called the nurse but as usual, I did not want to be a bother. Luckily, eventually sheer exhaustion took hold so when I closed my eyes, I went straight to sleep.
To be continued…
This all started late in 2009 when I was telling my doctor about my constant bouts of diarrhea and abdominal pain. We monitored things for a little while and early in 2010 he had me do a Fecal Occult Blood Test, which for the lay person means, “Is there any unseen blood in your poo?”
The test returned a positive result so the next step was to book in for a colonoscopy. I had this on 16 March 2010, incidentally a week after I was retrenched from my job. The colonoscopy found a mass in my colon which the doctors could not identify so I was booked in for a CT Scan that Friday. Both these tests require you to be empty inside, so with a combination of fasting and vile medications, I had only four full meals between Monday and Friday lunchtime.
Two weeks later I was at The Alfred Hospital talking to a colorectal surgeon who said that I had a large “mass” located in or near my appendix which required an operation called a right hemicolectomy, which means they remove the right ‘ascending” part of my colon and then join my small intestine and colon back together. Simple really, like plumbing… or leatherwork.
I was designated a Level 1 patient which means that I should have my operation within a month. I ended up going into hospital on 22 April 2010.
The day of the operation I got to the hospital in good time, did all the required bureaucratic things and was wheeled into pre-op. After a little while looking at the ceiling and trying to remember if this is what being in the hospital nursery was like when I was born, at 2.00 p.m. I was wheeled into the operating theatre. This is where the fun started. I am “blessed” with weak veins. Trying to find a viable vein for a needle to enter and do its work is a struggle. They tried four times on two arms for my CT scan and it took three goes to get a line in so that I could get anaesthetic for my operation. The next few hours were a blur, thankfully.
I woke at a little before 8.00 p.m. The surgical registrar has a very brief chat and told me that what was supposed to be a two-hour operation ended up being a little short of six as the mass was quite large and had perforated the wall of my small and large bowels which made things a little more complicated. The result though, was that the operation was successful and I went to the ward for recovery.
Take it from me, people, hospital is not a place to go to have a rest. This is why they want you home as soon as possible. The first night was a blur of morphine, hourly “obs” (when they come and take your blood pressure, and other signs of life) and a cute nurse I would have flirted with if I hadn’t been catheterised (ask your mother). Surprisingly, post-operative pain was fairly subdued, and I didn’t use the morphine (I had a little button I could press for a bump) nearly as much as the nurses though I should. The tactic is the get ahead of the pain, instead of treating it as it appears, so I was on regular pain medication. Surprisingly, the favourite pain medication is paracetemol, morning, noon and night, with something else to provide a little kick.
Even after a night of little sleep, Friday was quite active. I actually had something to eat for breakfast. At my pre-operation consultation, I was put on a protocol which involved giving surgical patients additional high-carbohydrate energy drinks to see if they assisted in post-operative recovery. This continued after my operation and I had a choice of rather artificial-tasting drinks which I was supposed to drink twice a day with my meals.
Hospitals are also concerned that patients don’t contract pneumonia and deep vein thrombosis. I had to do regular deep breathing and coughing to clear my lungs and every patient gets to wear special compression stockings to help prevent DVT. They also said that I had to get out of bed so my circulation did not get sluggish in areas where it shouldn’t. So on Friday, I was temporarily unhooked from the various drips and lines and catheters, stood up and took a few steps. I then quickly lay down again.
Other than eating and having your blood pressure and temperature taken, there was not a lot more to do while in hospital. I had brought some books to while away the 5 or so days I would be in hospital. I had considered some of the more literary books that I had bough and had not yet read, like The Lovely Bones and The Corrections but I decided that my brain would probably not be up for metaphors of death and the complications of a dysfunctional family. So I brought along some Patricia Cornwell Kay Scarpetta crime thrillers. These are the books I read during my stay:
- Cause of Death
- Unnatural Exposure
- Black Notice
- The Last Precinct
- Blow Fly
- Predator
At the first autopsy scene I realised that these may not be the most appropriate books for a recovery from surgery, but it was them or 1998 editions of New Idea so I persevered.
Friday afternoon and I was sitting up in a chair reading. My morphine was taken away (sniff!) and I was put on oxycontin. The afternoon dose was fine, but the night dose cause me all sorts of problems. Every time I closed my eyes I started hallucinating. I would see things crawling out of the ceiling, strange monsters at the margins of a jungle, all the usual—or unusual—terrors. So I lay there, terribly tired from no sleep the previous night, but terrified to close my eyes. I should have called the nurse but as usual, I did not want to be a bother. Luckily, eventually sheer exhaustion took hold so when I closed my eyes, I went straight to sleep.
To be continued…
06 April 2010
BOINC
Now that I have your attention. Many people want to know how to make a contribution to the climate change problem. I am no different and try to do the right things. All my light globes are low-watt compact fluorescent and I use public transport (easy when you don't have a car).
But I do something else that is really cool. I run climate modelling software on my laptop which helps scientists around the world create better predictions about our climate and the impacts of CO2. What is great is that I don't need to know anything about climate modelling or the science. I participate in what is known as distributed computing, whereby many home and work Macs and PCs perform part of a much bigger project, thus contributing computer power which ordinarily would be unavailable.
There may be several systems available but I use a program called BOINC, which, besides climate change modelling, has several other projects attached to it. So you can choose and participate in whatever holds your interest. The great thing about the program is that is runs quietly in the background, using the capacity of your computer which you are not. You have some control about how the program runs and can limit the amount of computer capacity it uses. There is even a nifty screensaver which show the program running with graphics.
The program downloads small packets of data from the website and then uploads them automatically when the module is complete. Climate Prediction is run by Oxford University so is a reputable project (shut up Andrew Bolt!) Visit the website for more information. As a fun side project, I also run SETI@home (setiathome.berkeley.edu/index.php), which is a project looking for signals from space that may be from intelligent life; that way I can pretend I am Jodie Foster in Contact and get to snog Matthew McConaughy.
02 April 2010
Gender
Last night I attended a recording of the ABCs The Book Show at The Wheeler Centre and hosted by Ramona Koval. The Book Show has a monthly series there called Reading on Vocation and the guests were Tim Ferguson, Des Bishop and Justin Hamilton, who were to talk about comedy. Notice something missing? Yep, I did too. Luckily there was a question time at the end of what was a generally informative and amusing hour, although the producers could have chosen comedians who actually had read a book by their comedic heroes, as it seemed to be the theme of the show.
I stood up and straight out asked Ramona Koval and her producers; could they not find one funny woman to participate in the show, especially in the middle of the Melbourne Comedy Festival? Ramona replied that they did ask female comedians to appear but they were all doing their shows—at 6.00 pm at night. Obviously women comedians have to do their shows early so they can get home in time to cook dinner.
The other question I asked was whether there were any women comedians the panelists admired, emulated or enjoyed, as the only reference to female comedians was a passing comment about I Love Lucy without even mentioning Lucille Ball.
To his credit, Justin Hamilton spoke very eloquently about Judith Lucy, whom he regards at the finest stand up comedian currently in Australia (no disagreement here), mentioning her book and that of Denise Scott, another doyen of the comedy scene.
This not an isolated case of gender imbalance in the public sphere and I will stay with comedy to illustrate my point. Television comedy is a particularly fertile (or testosterone-poisoned?) field to harvest. Show after show, from Good News Week to Spicks and Specks display a gender imbalance in favour of men that should be embarrassing. At least the two shows mentioned have male and female team captains and I have to say that Good News Week has picked up its game considerably this year compared to last year, where team captain Clare Hooper was the only woman swimming in a sea of testosterone and gay jokes, but the fact remains that in television comedy and in most multi-presenter shows, women are still a minority.
Probably the most egregious example is a show from Britain, QI, currently screening on the ABC. Hosted by the wonderful Stephen Fry (he is my secret husband and I call him snuggle-bunny), QI is the latest incarnation of the radio and television shows that the the British do so well, where interesting and witty people gather together in a format designed to show just how witty and interesting they are. QIs usual format has a host and four panel members. With Fry as host and Alan Davies as permanent panel member, already the odds are skewed in men's favour. The show has been going since 2005 and has had 8 series. Analysing the guest panellists on the series (thanks, Wikipedia!) I have arrived at the appalling statistic that of the 267 guests on all eight series, not even 20% have been women (16.85%, in fact). If this is bad, then taking into account the two spots already mentioned, the ratio of men to women actually on screen is even worse!
I am not saying that any of these shows are awful. In fact, I find all of them entertaining and sometimes howlingly funny. However, the entertainment factor is dimmed somewhat when I see that over 50% of the population doesn't have an equal seat at the hosting desk, panel or table. I cannot imagine what it feels like for women who watch these shows, but surely they must feel diminished ever so slightly.
I stood up and straight out asked Ramona Koval and her producers; could they not find one funny woman to participate in the show, especially in the middle of the Melbourne Comedy Festival? Ramona replied that they did ask female comedians to appear but they were all doing their shows—at 6.00 pm at night. Obviously women comedians have to do their shows early so they can get home in time to cook dinner.
The other question I asked was whether there were any women comedians the panelists admired, emulated or enjoyed, as the only reference to female comedians was a passing comment about I Love Lucy without even mentioning Lucille Ball.
To his credit, Justin Hamilton spoke very eloquently about Judith Lucy, whom he regards at the finest stand up comedian currently in Australia (no disagreement here), mentioning her book and that of Denise Scott, another doyen of the comedy scene.
This not an isolated case of gender imbalance in the public sphere and I will stay with comedy to illustrate my point. Television comedy is a particularly fertile (or testosterone-poisoned?) field to harvest. Show after show, from Good News Week to Spicks and Specks display a gender imbalance in favour of men that should be embarrassing. At least the two shows mentioned have male and female team captains and I have to say that Good News Week has picked up its game considerably this year compared to last year, where team captain Clare Hooper was the only woman swimming in a sea of testosterone and gay jokes, but the fact remains that in television comedy and in most multi-presenter shows, women are still a minority.
Probably the most egregious example is a show from Britain, QI, currently screening on the ABC. Hosted by the wonderful Stephen Fry (he is my secret husband and I call him snuggle-bunny), QI is the latest incarnation of the radio and television shows that the the British do so well, where interesting and witty people gather together in a format designed to show just how witty and interesting they are. QIs usual format has a host and four panel members. With Fry as host and Alan Davies as permanent panel member, already the odds are skewed in men's favour. The show has been going since 2005 and has had 8 series. Analysing the guest panellists on the series (thanks, Wikipedia!) I have arrived at the appalling statistic that of the 267 guests on all eight series, not even 20% have been women (16.85%, in fact). If this is bad, then taking into account the two spots already mentioned, the ratio of men to women actually on screen is even worse!
I am not saying that any of these shows are awful. In fact, I find all of them entertaining and sometimes howlingly funny. However, the entertainment factor is dimmed somewhat when I see that over 50% of the population doesn't have an equal seat at the hosting desk, panel or table. I cannot imagine what it feels like for women who watch these shows, but surely they must feel diminished ever so slightly.
29 March 2010
The Assault on Reason
Published in 2007, Al Gore's book is a passionate indictment of the Bush-Cheney administration and its subversion of the Unites States Constitution. While the issues raised by these actions are of their time and have their repercussions even today, the other main thread of the book is the perilous disconnect experienced by the American people from the political process and the information they need to make a reasoned and considered contribution to the national debate.
Gore identifies the major culprit as the rise of television which subsumed the public space previously occupied by the press. He claims that what was previously a conversation, or at least a debate, has turned into a lecture, where people passively consume editorial, confected news and 30-second political ads and have no avenue to question or interrogate what they see.
This is an issue which resonates today, especially in the wake of the election of President Obama and the recent battle to pass the health care legislation in the US. The fury with which opponents of Barack Obama greeted his election and inauguration has not abated and the outright falsehoods about him propagated by the Republican Party and fermented in right-wing crucibles such as Fox News and conservative radio have now taken on the status of received truth by some sectors of American society.
A frightening number of American people believe that Barack Obama a) is a Muslim, b) was not born in the USA and therefore not eligible to be President, c) a socialist or d) all of the above. None of these things are true yet they continue to have currency among sectors of the community. Similarly with the debate on health care. Sarah Palin and others invented the scurrilous charge that the legislation contained a provision for “death panels” who would judge whether someone got life saving health care. Never mind that currently commercial operations, i.e. insurance companies and HMOs, act in just that fashion when doling out health care to those people relying on health insurance. Death panels were a lie, but a lie which was taken and spread by the same conservative media outlets mentioned earlier until it had currency in the political debate.
With the passage of the bill, the situation has only deteriorated, with Legislators having their offices attacked and dire warnings of retribution, either electorally or by some darker means, popping up all over.
The irony is that the legislation passed by the Congress is very similar in effect to Republican legislation passed in Massachusetts several years ago, and compared with other health care systems in OECD countries it has barely the right to be called universal health care. I don't regard Australia as a bastion of socialism, yet something like our Medicare system could never be introduced in the USA as it would be too “socialist”.
That the public debate in the USA has become so degraded is a warning to us in Australia. There are major differences in our political systems, and we have a strong public broadcaster, but the right-wing shock jocks are here, the concentration on media is probably worse than in the USA and the blatant falsehoods which get into the media by climate change deniers such as The Australian and the unholy trinity of Andrew Bolt, Piers Ackermann and Miranda Devine show you just how it can all work.
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