THE parents of a Down syndrome girl have caused an outcry by subjecting their daughter to cosmetic surgery to improve her appearance.The girl had "radical and painful" cosmetic surgery three times by the time she was five so she could "fit in" with her peers, the Daily Mail newspaper in Britain reported yesterday. Parents of another girl told the paper that they were also considering altering her appearance in the future so she could be more "accepted". Critics in the UK criticised the parents, with some even saying the procedures were tantamount to child abuse. However the family hit back, saying that no one complained when "normal" children had their ears pinned back. "Why should it be any different for a Downs child?" asked Kim Bussey, the mother of Georgia. President of the Queensland Down Syndrome Association Sandra Mayberry said the topic was often raised in local circles but she was not aware of any Queensland children having such surgery. "We don't have a policy statement for this," she said. "If parents are going to do something like that it would be their own personal choice." Mrs Bussey said she and her husband David were motivated by love for their child and deliberated for a year before putting her through the ordeal. In the first procedure, Georgia's tongue was reduced to stop it protruding, according to the paper. Then folds of skin were removed from the inner corners of her eyes to take away the "slantiness characteristic" of Down syndrome. Finally she had surgery to stop her ears sticking out. Mrs Bussey said that society often judged people on the way they looked. "Society is not going to change overnight - so Georgia has to fit into society, rather than society fitting into the way she is," she said. Another couple, Laurence and Chelsea Kirwan, told the newspaper they were considering surgical procedures for their two-year-old Down syndrome daughter Ophelia. Dr Kirwan, a world-renowned plastic surgeon, said they would make that decision if Ophelia reached the age of 18 and was being unfairly judged on how she looked. Mrs Kirwan said: "It just isn't right that Ophelia and others like her should be judged on how they look – particularly if they are turned down for a good job that they could handle. It's a matter of self-esteem: if you're not happy with yourself then why shouldn't you fix something? All I want is for Ophelia to be happy." The UK Down's Syndrome Association refrained from criticising the families but said no one should have to have an operation to make them more visually acceptable to society.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Woman jailed after killing partner over Springsteen
A WOMAN has been jailed after she stabbed her de facto husband to death when he stopped her playing her favourite Bruce Springsteen album.Karen Lee Cooper told arresting police: "I couldn’t even play Bruce Springsteen on my stereo - can you believe that? Can you believe that?" She later again told police: "I mean, who doesn’t like Bruce Springsteen?" "I’m 49 years old and I want to play my own music."In the Supreme Court in Brisbane today, Cooper, 50, was jailed for eight years. She pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Kevin Lee Watson on July 8, 2006. She was originally charged with murder but the Crown accepted a manslaughter plea on the basis she had no intention to kill. The court heard Cooper stabbed Watson through the aorta after they had been drinking at their Cedar Grove home, south of Brisbane
Kids see mum raped on YouTube
FOOTAGE of a mother repeatedly raped in front of her screaming children posted on YouTube has sparked calls for the video sharing website to be moderated.
The 25-year-old woman, who said her glass of champagne was spiked by three teenage boys when they visited her London home in November, said the three-minute mobile phone footage of of her horrific ordeal was watched by 600 people. The woman said she was unable to move, but fully aware during the hours-long attack. "They just hurt me the whole way through. They had no respect," she told Sky News. "Afterwards one p****** on me, like I was nothing. "I felt dirtly, humiliated, ashamed. I did not want to tell anyone, did not want to do anything, I just wanted to forget."
The mother decided to report the gang-rape to the police after hearing rumours of the YouTube footage, which was taken off the site after a local reporter complained about its graphic nature. "Putting (the video) on the internet was an abomination," the mother said. "I was raped on film and you could hear my daughter and four-year-old son crying. I cannot understand how any website could show such a thing." A YouTube spokesman told The Times that the site's rules prohibited content such as pornography and gratuitous violence from being uploaded. If YouTube staff saw content they thought was inappropriate, they could raise their concerns and the content would be reviewed. "If the content breaks our terms then we remove it, and if a user repeatedly breaks the rules we disable their account," the spokesman said. A technology lawyer with UK firm Pinsent Masons told The Times it was "extremely difficult" for trained staff at YouTube to control videos showing graphic images, with 10 hours of content uploaded every minute. "In this instance - where you have a video that may depict a crime - there's no technical measure the site can apply that will prevent it being posted in the first place," Struan Robertson said. "The only option would be for them to review every video before it is posted and that is unrealistic. What sites like YouTube need is a good reporting mechanism which enables content to be flagged to the site once it has been posted, and YouTube operates well in this sense." Three teenagers - two aged 16 and one aged 14 - have been questioned by police over the attack.
The 25-year-old woman, who said her glass of champagne was spiked by three teenage boys when they visited her London home in November, said the three-minute mobile phone footage of of her horrific ordeal was watched by 600 people. The woman said she was unable to move, but fully aware during the hours-long attack. "They just hurt me the whole way through. They had no respect," she told Sky News. "Afterwards one p****** on me, like I was nothing. "I felt dirtly, humiliated, ashamed. I did not want to tell anyone, did not want to do anything, I just wanted to forget."
The mother decided to report the gang-rape to the police after hearing rumours of the YouTube footage, which was taken off the site after a local reporter complained about its graphic nature. "Putting (the video) on the internet was an abomination," the mother said. "I was raped on film and you could hear my daughter and four-year-old son crying. I cannot understand how any website could show such a thing." A YouTube spokesman told The Times that the site's rules prohibited content such as pornography and gratuitous violence from being uploaded. If YouTube staff saw content they thought was inappropriate, they could raise their concerns and the content would be reviewed. "If the content breaks our terms then we remove it, and if a user repeatedly breaks the rules we disable their account," the spokesman said. A technology lawyer with UK firm Pinsent Masons told The Times it was "extremely difficult" for trained staff at YouTube to control videos showing graphic images, with 10 hours of content uploaded every minute. "In this instance - where you have a video that may depict a crime - there's no technical measure the site can apply that will prevent it being posted in the first place," Struan Robertson said. "The only option would be for them to review every video before it is posted and that is unrealistic. What sites like YouTube need is a good reporting mechanism which enables content to be flagged to the site once it has been posted, and YouTube operates well in this sense." Three teenagers - two aged 16 and one aged 14 - have been questioned by police over the attack.
Wake-up call for Thai society
There's a lot to be worried about - quality of education, drug abuse, nicotine and alcohol addiction, and pollution are all getting worse
Published on March 11, 2008
Thai society is creaking with health, environmental, crime and drug-addiction problems, while its education system is still inferior to that of neighbouring countries.
Ampon Kittiampon, permanent secretary of the National Economic and Social Development Board, yesterday made public the worrying report on the state of Thai society during the fourth quarter of 2007 (October to December).
The positives were just a few. The employment situation was healthier with an average of 36.25 million working people - 1.6 per cent up from the same period the previous year, he said.
Educational opportunities also increased at all levels. However, the quality of education continued to fall in the key areas of reading, mathematics and science.
Crisis in education
The results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), slumped to below average, while other Asian countries obtained higher scores, Ampon said.
Thai education institutes still lack quality personnel as can be seen from the fact that 30,000 teachers do not teach the subjects they graduated in and teachers give less importance to normal classes as compared to tutoring classes.
Health situation
With regards to health, there was a 9.6-per-cent increase in people put on watch for 11 harmful diseases.
At top of the list was hand, foot and mouth disease - with 8,381 patients on watch, compared to 1,368 people in the same period the previous year.
This was followed by dengue fever and cholera.
Thais had less access to social security, or public safety or protection for their property.
Drug abuse was on the rise, especially among children and youths. The number of drug-related cases jumped sharply from 26,790 last year to 39,106, a 46-per-cent increase
Crime saw a 10.6-per-cent increase.
Addictions also witnessed increased spending with 2.9 per cent more Thais spending on cigarettes.
About Bt44 billion were spent on alcohol, a 4.1-per-cent increase.
Those aged 15 to 24 drank alcohol more frequently, especially university students, with 21.1 per cent saying they had increased their alcohol consumption.
The environmental scene also saw a decline with Bangkok and other cities suffering more from noise, garbage and water pollution.
Daily Xpress
Published on March 11, 2008
Thai society is creaking with health, environmental, crime and drug-addiction problems, while its education system is still inferior to that of neighbouring countries.
Ampon Kittiampon, permanent secretary of the National Economic and Social Development Board, yesterday made public the worrying report on the state of Thai society during the fourth quarter of 2007 (October to December).
The positives were just a few. The employment situation was healthier with an average of 36.25 million working people - 1.6 per cent up from the same period the previous year, he said.
Educational opportunities also increased at all levels. However, the quality of education continued to fall in the key areas of reading, mathematics and science.
Crisis in education
The results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), slumped to below average, while other Asian countries obtained higher scores, Ampon said.
Thai education institutes still lack quality personnel as can be seen from the fact that 30,000 teachers do not teach the subjects they graduated in and teachers give less importance to normal classes as compared to tutoring classes.
Health situation
With regards to health, there was a 9.6-per-cent increase in people put on watch for 11 harmful diseases.
At top of the list was hand, foot and mouth disease - with 8,381 patients on watch, compared to 1,368 people in the same period the previous year.
This was followed by dengue fever and cholera.
Thais had less access to social security, or public safety or protection for their property.
Drug abuse was on the rise, especially among children and youths. The number of drug-related cases jumped sharply from 26,790 last year to 39,106, a 46-per-cent increase
Crime saw a 10.6-per-cent increase.
Addictions also witnessed increased spending with 2.9 per cent more Thais spending on cigarettes.
About Bt44 billion were spent on alcohol, a 4.1-per-cent increase.
Those aged 15 to 24 drank alcohol more frequently, especially university students, with 21.1 per cent saying they had increased their alcohol consumption.
The environmental scene also saw a decline with Bangkok and other cities suffering more from noise, garbage and water pollution.
Daily Xpress
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