Inter-country Adoption

I agree with Dianne Dempsey that inter-country adoption is a commoditisation of children.

Those who disagree, should ask themselves why they are not willing to give the money they would spend on that child to the community the child comes from. The impact on that child and many others in their community would be far greater than removing them from their community and adopting the child.

There is no doubt that this is about the needs of the adopting parents, not the child, or the community they are coming from.

in reference to: Pity third world orphans, but they're not a commodity (view on Google Sidewiki)

My experience with the Virgin Blunder

I saw the offer of the Gold membership and it was immediately obvious that it was an error. I was happy about the error and it didn't occur to me to contact them to let them know about it. When the reversal came through, I certainly wasn't surprised, but was a little disappointed. I am amazed at the indignation of some commenters. It is not as if they suffered a loss as a result of the error.

in reference to: Virgin Blue's Velocity Gold Status email mistake (view on Google Sidewiki)

Opposing Violence against women

I agree with many of the sentiments in the article, but already you are seeing in the comments that it is not just moslem men who have a problem with violence against women.

We should reject violence against all people and should not be afraid to confront it whether it comes from moslems or any other part of society. It is certainly a lie to suggest that it is simply a clash of civilisations. Statistically, there would be many men who practice violence against women amongst the police and armed forces personnel wearing the white ribbon on Wednesday.

While it is a nice gesture, we need to consistently reject violence in all its forms.

in reference to: Paul Sheehan (view on Google Sidewiki)