rantz: May 2005

More on that Singh woman: "Of sins and needles". If you can't access that article you can read it here in a PDF.

"

Welcome to my odd, little world of paper toys, holiday cards, valentines, sun boxes, baskets and bags, origami and ephemera... all for you to make. It is my wish to amuse and delight. Enjoy, Marilyn

": The Toymaker

¶ 12:05 0 Comments

Calling a spade a bloody shovel

Heroin killer given job handing out needles
The Weekend Australian, page 5, 28-29 May 2005
by Jennifer Sexton

She claimed depression, mental illness and drug abuse as mitigating circumstances for using a needle to kill her boyfriend with a lethal dose of heroin.
Now Anu Singh - eight years after injecting Joe Cinque and later becoming the subject of a big-selling book by Helen Garner - is running a program for drug-addicted youths that involves her handing out needles.
Ms Singh, 33, served four years jail for the 1997 manslaughter and was briefly returned to prison last year for using drugs - a breach of her parole conditions.
Just months after her release last August, the Cabramatta Community Centre in southwest Sydney selected her to research the needs of drug-addicted young people in the area.
"Though I'm aware of the controversial nature of my research project and the community's attitude towards injecting drug--users, I'm thrilled at the opportunity I've been given to potentially affect these young people's lives in a positive way," Ms Singh said in an email this week.
She had agreed to by interviewed by _The Weekend Australian_ to explain the purposes of her project and show why she should be trusted with drug users and drug paraphernalia, but pulled out on the advice of her lawyer.
For Cinque's mother, Maria, the grief is still raw.
When told of the research project, she said, "Oh, Jesus Christ"
"It is wrong - not her. She kills my son with heroin and now she is supplying other people with things to use drugs. What is she talking about - does she want other people to do the same? I am shocked they let her do this. because of what she has done with it.
"I understand that if you use drugs it is better to use clean needles - but not her. People do a lot of terrible things when they are ond rugs."
The centre's executive officer, Jan Collie, refused to say whether she was aware of Ms Singh's crime. "She was the best applicant. She met all the criteria - essential and desirable."
Ms Singh is to appear next month before the parole board, which will consider whether her drug use was sufficient reason to return her to jail.
Ms Singh's father, Paddy, lashed out at _The Weekend Australian_ yesterday. "Her life has to go on. You have to help people. She is helping society to go ahead. I know you have never helped anyone," Mr Singh said at his home in inner-west Strathfield.
Pat Daley, former deputy chief of the NSW police crime prevention section and now media director for the Salvation Army, said Ms Singh's position "highlights our concerns about needle distribution centres and their operations."
"They aren't accountable enough, and this case highlights its."

What I don't understand:

How Anu got the gall to apply for the job;
Why the Cabramatta Community Centre employed her - they'd have to do a background check, yes?; and
Why bureaucrats fund organisations like the Cabramatta Community Centre to hire people like Anu.

Is Anu so fucked in the head that she cares less about the importance of blood-borne virus prevention than she does about her fuckin' career? That's a rhetorical question, by the way.

¶ 21:42 3 Comments

Location: The Tropics

Aaaah....

'Twas so cold this morning I had to turn off the ceiling fans and pull the sheet up.

Must have been down to the high teens (Celsius, of course).

¶ 11:14 0 Comments

Personality: Blogged2Death

Althought the Empty News didn't rate their story on Australia's Biggest Morning Tea to be of significance to put it on their website, I just couldn't pass this up:

"Cancer takes people's lives every day," she said, "It's well worth supporting."

I'll leave it to my discerning readers to decide what she is talking about supporting.

¶ 09:11 0 Comments

Personality: Blogged2Death

Having listened to the founders of Butterflies & Wheels on Late Night Live, I thought perhaps now would be a good time to blog it: keep fighting fashionable nonsense, Ophelia and Jeremy.

¶ 18:46 3 Comments

Location: The Tropics

Aaaaah...

Ceiling fans (yet again): whilst the house in Sydney had ceiling fans they were of less joy in Sydney as their gentle sound was overaken by the NOISE that is Sydney.

Aaaaah... - the tropics....

¶ 16:49 0 Comments

Personality: Faerie Goddess Father

Said the older faerie goddess son, "You're not very smart if you have hair on your bottom."

One ponders the meaning of this for a while and then asks, "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, you've got hair on your top (points to my head) and hair on your bottom (points to my chin) and you're sweating here (points to my forehead) and I've only got hair on my top and I'm not sweaty here (points to his forehead)."

Beard now gone, much to the consternation of the dame dowager duchess who said, "So you'll take the advice of a 4 and half year old but ignore you're auntie?" shortly before clipping the nine months of facial hair off my bottom.

¶ 15:23 5 Comments

Location: The Tropics

Aaaaah...

Life's hard when one's breaks from working involves the tedious process of climbing down the stairs and jumping into the spa for five minutes and then climbing same stairs to continue working.

Don't want it any other way, thanks.

¶ 12:51 0 Comments

Personality: Instruct

Given that I whinged about Australian Air Express and their abysmal service delivery (or lack thereof) here, here and here, I thought it an opportune time to give a bouquet of roses to Air Road Direct for their prompt - and intact - delivery of my computer and its bits and pieces for my most recent journey to the tropics.

So - have a bouqe, Air Road Direct and thanks for the deliveries.

First time visitors - or more recent converts - to these rantz may be wondering, "WTF is he on about" with Australian Air Express? Well, this is what I'm on about:

How did they do this?

Sickening, innit?

¶ 16:21 1 Comments

Location: The Tropics

Aaaah.... warmth. 'Tis but a lovely thing.

Gardening has started - yet again - with the priming of compost bin and removal of gazillions of dead palm fronds from all about the place.

Now when my shit arrives I'll be able to get the seedlings going again - first off the rank - Sweet Bite tomatoes. Delivery of said shit should have been Monday past but shit still not even in town as yet. Hmmmm.... Yet another letter to write to seek compensation for breaking of contract?

¶ 13:32 1 Comments

Personality: Blogged2Death

Friends,

An evil man named John Bolton is about to be approved as UN Ambassador. Larry Flynt has the goods on him, but the Media will not cover it. But YOU have the power to prevent this travesty by forwarding this note to ALL of your email contacts and asking them to do the same. If you do this, by tomorrow afternoon, Bolton will have to withdraw his name.

Here is Larry Flynt's Press Release.

¶ 15:12 0 Comments

Location: The Tropics

In house, connected, ready to play again soon.

¶ 16:48 2 Comments

Location: The Tropics

'Ts heya. It has arrived. 'Ts heya. The Satsuma has arrived. 'Tsa heya

Ts heya. It has arrived. 'Ts heya. The Satsuma has arrived. 'Tsa heya

¶ 21:59 5 Comments

Location: The Tropics

Aahhh....

The Tropics. What a place to be.

Absolutely.

¶ 21:57 0 Comments

Location: The Tropics

Aahhh....

The Tropics. What a place to be.

Bicyclying is certainly wiser in the morning and afternoons than at noon.

¶ 09:19 0 Comments

Personality: Blogged2Death

All I can say is read my comment.

¶ 13:32 0 Comments

Location: The Tropics

Aahhh....

The Tropics. What a place to be.

The sound of ceiling fans never ceases to amaze, indulge and comfort.

¶ 14:00 0 Comments