Posts by Bart Janssen
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Cracker: Lundy and Me., in reply to Damian Christie,
People were able to watch the evidence unfold night after night, back and forth
I was always worried about the process that selects which bits got into the 2 minute nightly news item. I realise a lot of what goes on is slow and can be summarised fairly quickly, but I have a nagging suspicion that prosecution evidence tends to be more mundane and boring and hence less newsworthy.
Even the newspapers which had more space seemed to focus on the "exciting" evidence and not necessarily on all the evidence.
The problem for me with all those trials is that the tea table discussions often came to the opposite conclusion to that of the jury which suggests the jury saw (important) evidence we did not.
That has left me very reluctant to pass judgement myself on these cases ... because I don't have enough knowledge to make a judgement.
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successfully hanging a door
Doors are HARD.
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Hard News: Rape and unreason, in reply to Kyle Matthews,
Or how to make it better?
This thread is part of making it better. Yes depressing as all hell. But really read some of the stuff here and most folks want something better for the next generation, we don't know how to get there but we want it ... that's a start.
And as Craig noted some of this next generation gets this shit.
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Hard News: Rape and unreason, in reply to Sarah,
The law is clear and does not need changing.
I think some of the responses here strongly indicate the law does need changing. If anyone in this society feels the cost of bringing a criminal to justice to too great personally to bother with then the law has failed in it's purpose.
It might be possible to change things without changing the law by changing proceedures in court but given the attitude of lawyers I doubt it. It seems clear, to me at least, that changing the law is now required to achieve the goal of protecting society and particularly rape victims. Because frankly the way some lawyers have used the law to protect rapists and abuse rape victims is dispicable.
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Hard News: Rape and unreason, in reply to Lilith __,
build a future in which nobody rapes anybody
I had this fascitious "if we build it, they will come moment. Which I supressed because it's too serious a subject for trivial jokes. And then I had a thought, what if New Zealand could become 100% rape-free?
Do you think we could attract tourists simply on the basis that we don't do that in NZ?
I know it's fantasyland stuff, but we can dream big can't we?
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Hard News: Rape and unreason, in reply to Russell Brown,
it’s easy to get it wrong in them
I speak from experience. I'm often wrong, I just never admit it ... oh wait.
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Hard News: Rape and unreason, in reply to Nat D,
That’s a cop-out.
You misunderstand. I can and will have these conversations. Willingly.
But the general public really doesn't want to have hard conversations very often at all. Even ones that don't have the emotional charge that this conversation has. I love to talk about my science, really really really love it, but much to my sadness most folks just can't be bothered having a conversation about something they have to think quite hard about. Stepping that up to a conversation that is both complex and an emotional minefield ... nobody should be surprised that the jargon and language around this subject is simply unknown.
And as for "rape" being jargon, well, I think it is. Look back through the many threads we have here on the subject and it becomes clear that what most folks think of when you say rape is really not the most common form of sexual violence towards women (or men). When the folks who know best talk about rape here they inevitably have to remind someone that rape is about what happens in the home, it about clear unequivical consent each and every time and that simply is not what most folks think of when you say rape.
And I really don't want to get into a semantic argument. But I do think that, from my experience, most people do not have the nuanced complete understanding of the "simple" word rape. Let alone an understanding of "rape culture".
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Hard News: Rape and unreason, in reply to Nat D,
many people don’t regularly have those conversations
Ya think? They aren't easy conversations to have. And you will make mistakes while having them the first time (or even the 20th).
It's why I'm not a fan of the jargon around the issue. You spend so much time 'splaining the jargon that the point is missed. I do get why the jargon exists, just that it sometimes slows the discussion.
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Hard News: Rape and unreason, in reply to Megan Wegan,
women view you as a danger
I'm 1.88 m tall and 95 kg. My CAT views me as a danger, I may not like it but it is realistic from her perspective. It's my job to make her feel comfortable not her job.
Same applies to women, whether I like it or not there are occassions where I make a woman uncomfortable and at that moment I have a responsibility to a) be aware of that and b) try and minimise that.
I may not like it but that is the cost of living in a society where enough men think violence towards women is OK to make many women risk averse.
As far as I can tell the ONLY viable solution is to change society. For me anyway, that is what ending rape culture is about. Oh and stopping women (and men) being raped.
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Hard News: Thursday Music: Doing the Business, in reply to Danielle,
There shall be no dissing of ABBA on my watch, young man. I am quite stern on this issue.
God how we (my cohort) all hated them when they came out. I even taped over and ABBA CD with some "real" music in order to terrify my friends when it was my turn to choose the cassette on the road trip.
Then came Muriel's Wedding. It's kind of wierd that one movie can change all the connections for that music. It's still cheesy, but now it's cheesy in a lovable way.