I am trying out my hand at writing and inquired online re Clifton writers. The aim is to help improve your writing skills and here I am expecting to write hundreds and hundreds of words and what do I get? Write a story in 50 words. I am already past that by the time I get to here. What can I say in 50 words that will convey something of what I feel?
Here is what I came up with. The words in the title are not counted.
A Future Safe for Children
A child to raise, a job being done.
A childhood to repair and bringing no fun.
Christianity imposes its dogmatic binding of fellow minds.
Religiously polluted pox a beside religiously polluted pox b.
Our country the way it is run can never write a sane, rational and child safe history.
An as it goes blow by blow
Friday, October 8, 2010
Clergy abuse survivor at the age of 8
I was actually a victim earlier than age 8. Having your forehead used as something for a nun to dry hump again was the least of my worries before age 8. Being tied up and raped on one occasion is something that still haunts me - more so when that involved the nuns - sisters of st Joseph (Mary MacKillop's order) - being buried in the wood shed under a pile of wood and believing that they would leave you there if your spoke about having to masturbate a nun or other sexual stuff that they wanted performed was then ad still is terrifying in many ways.
Rubbing up to the Archdiocese of Sydney
Had an interesting experience recently. As you know I am a survivor of clergy sexual abuse at around 8 years of age. I keep up to date on this through friends and online reading, as well I am a bit of an activist (one of the names given to people like me). I had subscribed to the catholic church XT3 site as their SPIN spoke of communication etc and I had been attempting to obtain a conversation with some authoritative part of the church for some time. Their email had come in regularly and at one point I set them to delete on arrival. Moving folders around in my email one day appears to have killed the filter and they began to appear in my Inbox yet again.
I had just recently spent a few hours with different people in simply talking with them as a means of supporting them through the crap they were experiencing in their dealings with the catholic church. One of those people was Angie who was being ostracized by the Healesville Catholic community because of her outspokenness after her son was molested by their local catholic priest. What had become particularly evident again that day was the fact that those who spoke out publicly got no support and of course their claims were minimized and belittled which happens so often to people when they get to speak out about current events of abuse by the church and its systems. Perhaps I should add a note to the Clergy Abuse Survivors Handbook that the more outspoken you are in regards the sexual abuse issue in the church the more problems you have with Carelink and the so called Independent Commission and the Commissioner as it seems the best deals are still done quietly and they are still wrapped up tightly in 'commercial in-confidence' agreements with people still able to go through the entire process and come out believing they have no right to speak out. It takes them a while to realize they have been bought off and bought off very cheaply.
It seems the agreement they have made also excludes them from being of interest to policing in Victoria. This comes from attempts to obtain a description or a copy of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that exists between the Victorian police and the Catholic church. When Victoria Police were asked I was told that they would be most unlikely to provide a copy of the MoU. Survivors are aware that these MoU's exist right across the world, they appear to be agreements between policing and the church about how they each can and do conduct investigations of sexual abuse when it involves Catholic clergy. These MoU's are a proxy for the catholic church's Canon Laws and they appear to be the favored mechanism for the injection of or the intermingling of church and civil law. It seems to be quite offensive that survivors of sexual abuse by catholic clergy can be the subject of an effectively secret agreement between state policing and the church.
I had just recently spent a few hours with different people in simply talking with them as a means of supporting them through the crap they were experiencing in their dealings with the catholic church. One of those people was Angie who was being ostracized by the Healesville Catholic community because of her outspokenness after her son was molested by their local catholic priest. What had become particularly evident again that day was the fact that those who spoke out publicly got no support and of course their claims were minimized and belittled which happens so often to people when they get to speak out about current events of abuse by the church and its systems. Perhaps I should add a note to the Clergy Abuse Survivors Handbook that the more outspoken you are in regards the sexual abuse issue in the church the more problems you have with Carelink and the so called Independent Commission and the Commissioner as it seems the best deals are still done quietly and they are still wrapped up tightly in 'commercial in-confidence' agreements with people still able to go through the entire process and come out believing they have no right to speak out. It takes them a while to realize they have been bought off and bought off very cheaply.
It seems the agreement they have made also excludes them from being of interest to policing in Victoria. This comes from attempts to obtain a description or a copy of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that exists between the Victorian police and the Catholic church. When Victoria Police were asked I was told that they would be most unlikely to provide a copy of the MoU. Survivors are aware that these MoU's exist right across the world, they appear to be agreements between policing and the church about how they each can and do conduct investigations of sexual abuse when it involves Catholic clergy. These MoU's are a proxy for the catholic church's Canon Laws and they appear to be the favored mechanism for the injection of or the intermingling of church and civil law. It seems to be quite offensive that survivors of sexual abuse by catholic clergy can be the subject of an effectively secret agreement between state policing and the church.
From XT3 to Melbourne and a pox family
I have to learn how to embed images here as I recently reworked a newsletter I received from XT3 - the Catholic church's social media they are using to attract young online users to their religion. I had been a member since the pope's visit as it came on in that time as an open avenue for conversation - I quickly found that so long as the conversation went where they wanted and not where I wanted then we could have a conversation - all to religious for me and reminded me of my ex in-laws where these sexual abusers were only able to talk rationally about the weather or football as that was the only safe topic you could have a conversation on. My conversations with my ex-wife were fast moving in the same direction at one point, however the weather as a conversation item is a bit restricting when there was so much other stuff happening that needed conversation.
We were living at 12 Carlton street. I am not sure of the year we moved in there, not long after we were married.
The reminders are of learning that I was somehow connected with the bishop of Toowoomba through relations on Alice's side - there were many things that came together and connected later when I re-looked at this in regards our breakup and the bizarre happenings that came with them. I was often reminded of the first time meeting Alice's father. I was driving a 230E compact mercedes - 25 years old, it came out of a garage where it had lain for 10 or so years. Too many miles on the clock but was a great armchair ride which had a lot of safety features which I found appealing. On my first trip to Brisbane where I met Alice's father who was a self employed graphic artist. From day one he tried to get me involved in his business by me lending him $50,000. He was married to an Indian lady who took offense at my position of not believing in gods or religion, she found it offensive that I should hold a different view - that seemed to cause a great deal of outrage which I found both musing and amazing since her father was a seriously into alcohol and morosity.
The fact that I did not believe in religion and in fact I openly spoke against much of it due to the hypocrisy I had experienced and saw. I had moved up from Melbourne bringing a truck load of furniture up to a little house out on the Darling Downs. Alice was working at a school in Warwick and then Allora. We appeared to do well together although there was often tension when her mother arrived with her boyfriend Kel. These people were serious drinkers. The were ugly drunks and in some bizarre ways they touted themselves as good Christians. I was receiving a disability payment due to the slow healing of torn ligaments in my shoulder - this quickly gave the insurance company an opportunity to discontinue support. One telephone conversation with them went along the lines of me sitting on a Queensland beach using their money while living the life of Riley, although that sod would not put it in writing when I asked him to. They finished up not accepting their form being filled out by a Queensland doctor - he had to fill out a blue form for them but they only issued green forms to interstate doctors - what pox they were.
We were living at 12 Carlton street. I am not sure of the year we moved in there, not long after we were married.
The reminders are of learning that I was somehow connected with the bishop of Toowoomba through relations on Alice's side - there were many things that came together and connected later when I re-looked at this in regards our breakup and the bizarre happenings that came with them. I was often reminded of the first time meeting Alice's father. I was driving a 230E compact mercedes - 25 years old, it came out of a garage where it had lain for 10 or so years. Too many miles on the clock but was a great armchair ride which had a lot of safety features which I found appealing. On my first trip to Brisbane where I met Alice's father who was a self employed graphic artist. From day one he tried to get me involved in his business by me lending him $50,000. He was married to an Indian lady who took offense at my position of not believing in gods or religion, she found it offensive that I should hold a different view - that seemed to cause a great deal of outrage which I found both musing and amazing since her father was a seriously into alcohol and morosity.
The fact that I did not believe in religion and in fact I openly spoke against much of it due to the hypocrisy I had experienced and saw. I had moved up from Melbourne bringing a truck load of furniture up to a little house out on the Darling Downs. Alice was working at a school in Warwick and then Allora. We appeared to do well together although there was often tension when her mother arrived with her boyfriend Kel. These people were serious drinkers. The were ugly drunks and in some bizarre ways they touted themselves as good Christians. I was receiving a disability payment due to the slow healing of torn ligaments in my shoulder - this quickly gave the insurance company an opportunity to discontinue support. One telephone conversation with them went along the lines of me sitting on a Queensland beach using their money while living the life of Riley, although that sod would not put it in writing when I asked him to. They finished up not accepting their form being filled out by a Queensland doctor - he had to fill out a blue form for them but they only issued green forms to interstate doctors - what pox they were.
getting started on blogging
Recent meetup with Toowoomba writers group. Went along for a look see as I wanted to learn more on writing. An interesting group of people who have an interest in writing. Most in my own age bracket. People got to read some of their writings, I found it interesting to listen to the different styles of writers. First off was an intriguing puzzle piece on an ancient alchemist and how he was attempting to deceive a buyer into purchasing his lead to gold furnace - reminded me of the deceptions of the kings and religion and how smoke and mirrors have played such a part in our history. There was a blow by blow of a back yard cricket match which brought back many memories for the listeners.
A description of the experience of a 9 year old during the last days of the war was interesting to listen to as that was about the period prior to my birth and would have been a major part in my parents and older siblings lives. I recalled that some of the things mentioned were still to be found in the shed at the back of our house as kids.
There was a breakneck reading from a book a lady had self published - it was her second book and appeared to be very polished. The writing style was reminiscent to that of those early Western books (Zane Grey I think). The theme was in regards Arabian horses and was written for the younger girl bracket. The writer is also a breeder of Arabian horses and freely admits to being one of those 'horsey' people. Many reminders of times going to shows and polocrosse with the Tull family. George Tull was a great substitute father in many ways for me. It was of interest to listen to how she went about publishing using an eprint service which was working well for her.
As usual there was the religious aspect in there as well - came about as part of a discussion in regards an upcoming Writers get together. I missed the first part on this and only picked up on it when the conversation went to the fact that people should choose carefully the piece they read and to not use too many sear words. One fellow asked about the suitability of some of his pieces and said he felt a bit restricted. We were told the reason for this limitation was because the readings were to be in the St Lukes church hall and that parishioners had been invited. The hall came at no cost due to connections of one of the writers. Well that certainly left me out from participating in that, firstly from the perspective of censorship which meant to me that all the readers had to attempt to guess as to what censorship would be needed to be in place. I wondered if a measured piece on the sexual abuse of children by clergy and the failures that brings to society would be an acceptable piece to read, perhaps it would be - certainly should be. I wondered how I would be received if I went along whilst wearing my t-shirt.
A description of the experience of a 9 year old during the last days of the war was interesting to listen to as that was about the period prior to my birth and would have been a major part in my parents and older siblings lives. I recalled that some of the things mentioned were still to be found in the shed at the back of our house as kids.
There was a breakneck reading from a book a lady had self published - it was her second book and appeared to be very polished. The writing style was reminiscent to that of those early Western books (Zane Grey I think). The theme was in regards Arabian horses and was written for the younger girl bracket. The writer is also a breeder of Arabian horses and freely admits to being one of those 'horsey' people. Many reminders of times going to shows and polocrosse with the Tull family. George Tull was a great substitute father in many ways for me. It was of interest to listen to how she went about publishing using an eprint service which was working well for her.
As usual there was the religious aspect in there as well - came about as part of a discussion in regards an upcoming Writers get together. I missed the first part on this and only picked up on it when the conversation went to the fact that people should choose carefully the piece they read and to not use too many sear words. One fellow asked about the suitability of some of his pieces and said he felt a bit restricted. We were told the reason for this limitation was because the readings were to be in the St Lukes church hall and that parishioners had been invited. The hall came at no cost due to connections of one of the writers. Well that certainly left me out from participating in that, firstly from the perspective of censorship which meant to me that all the readers had to attempt to guess as to what censorship would be needed to be in place. I wondered if a measured piece on the sexual abuse of children by clergy and the failures that brings to society would be an acceptable piece to read, perhaps it would be - certainly should be. I wondered how I would be received if I went along whilst wearing my t-shirt.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)