[Image credit: The Age, "Charlotte Makes a Meal of Question Time"]
Cheers to the ACT parliament for becoming the first parliament in Australia to get Australian Breastfeeding Association accreditation as a breastfeeding-friendly workplace, as reported in IBN News.
The ABA accreditation standards can be found here. What this means is that now ACT parliamentary members and staff will have access to flexible breaks to breastfeed or express milk, clean and appropriate facilities to express and store milk, and information on these facilities provided to female employees. They may also have access to the “optional criteria” of flexi-time/job-sharing options, on-site childcare, parking for carers to bring children to the workplace, and further information and referrals.
I find it rather strange that the criteria don’t include processes to educate other employees about breastfeeding, and procedures to deal with those who create a hostile environment breastfeeding mothers, be the mothers employees or guests in the workplace. These issues are (somewhat inadequately) covered elsewhere, but I hoped that specific inclusion in a breastfeeding-friendly workplace standard might bring them to the fore.
Several parliaments, including the ACT Legislative Assembly, decided in 2003 to begin allowing breastfeeding in the Parliamentary chamber. This change occurred after the incident in which ALP MP Kirstie Marshall was ejected from the Victorian State parliament floor for breastfeeding her daughter. Twelve-day-old Charlotte was considered a “stranger in the house” under standing orders at the time. At the time, Liberal minister Amanda Vanstone had a dig at Marshall, saying that she pitied her baby for being fed in “a noisy and testosterone-filled televised parliamentary debate”. As always, women are expected to confine themselves, to avoid public life dominated by aggressive men, rather than men being expected to act like decent human beings – regardless of whether there is or isn’t an infant present!
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Filed under: Politics, breastfeeding, food/drink, reproductive freedoms
From Brazil. For low fat yoghurt. Iconic film images of Mena Suvari, Sharon Stone, Marilyn Monroe photomanipulated.
Tagline: Forget about it. Men’s preference will never change. Fit Light Yogurt.
Via Jess McCabe, at The F-Word blog.
Filed under: crass, fat-hating, food/drink
Let’s just remind ourselves of some recent history:
In 2001, Australia banned the importation of beef and beef products from Japan after a single confirmed case of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy). The USA and many other countries also banned beef imports from Japan.
In 2003, BSE cases caused Australia to ban importing beef from Canada, and then beef from the USA as well. Japan, which had been America’s biggest export beef market, also banned imports from the USA, along with a host of other countries.
In December 2005, after huge pressure from the US Dept of Agriculture, Japan lifted that ban on the importation of US beef. In January 2006, that ban was reimposed due to renewed saftey concerns about American meat processing. South Korea partially lifted their ban on US beef imports in early 2006, but an import violation last week has now thrown that market into doubt.
Despite BSE scares leading to a drop in beef consumption worldwide, the import bans on US beef have been good news for beef producers in Australia, New Zealand and Brazil especially who have stepped into the supply gap for beef imports worldwide, but obviously it has made life difficult for the American beef farmer.
So what is the USDA (Dept of Agriculture) doing to ensure the Confidence of American consumers in domestic beef rather than foreign beef? They’re taking all the basic precautions with SRMs (specified risk materials), certainly. But what happens when a small meatpacking company wants to certify its beef as having had a higher level of safety testing/inspections than those mandated by the USDA, in order to give its product an edge in a competitive market and give consumers more choice? Does the USDA encourage such innovation and customer service?
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Filed under: Politics, food/drink
This is the container of leftover sausages I put away in the frig last night.
This morning when I woke up and went to the frig for milk, not a single one of those sausages had been eaten.
What can have happened to the Phantom Sausage Snaffler?
Sydney, 25/5/2007
Police hold grave fears for the safety of the Phantom Sausage Eater after a plate of sausages remained intact overnight in the Sydney Suburb of Togsville. A source who claimed to be close to the Phantom told us that the Phantom may have been distracted by an especially satisfying evening meal and the unexpected appearance of raisin toast at breakfast. A Police spokesman revealed that the sausages are to be left unattended again tonight in the hope that the Phantom will strike again and allay public concern for his safety.
APP Reooters
The Phantom has been a friendly ectoplasmic cohabitant in the tigtog household since mr tog and I first met. I find his disapparation inexplicable and most alarming. And who else is going to eat all those sausages?
Filed under: food/drink, myth/legend
March 14, 2007 • 11:54 pm
Some of you already know that while I am a militant agnostic (I don’t know whether any god exists and neither does anybloodyone else) my beloved mr tog is a regular churchgoer. He wasn’t when we met, it crept up on him. As the Sydney Anglican diocese has not yet been entirely taken over by strictly doctrinaire Paulinists, and he enjoys the musical side of worship (he plays piano and organ) as much if not more than the theological, we manage to rub along fairly well. At the very least I guess the kids will make up their own mind, having both belief and unbelief models to follow.
Since the Anglican church does not expect congregants to observe Lent other than by attending services, and I couldn’t give a monkeys if it did, really, it may seem odd that we decided to follow the tradition of giving something up for the period of Lent this year. As an autodidact scholar of history, mythology and comparative theology, I’m well aware of the power of tying a course of action to an established ritual. The idea of “giving it up for Lent” has an emotional power accreted over centuries of tradition. The extra emotional weight could be a significant advantage in sticking to a plan.
We decided to give up alcohol.
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Filed under: food/drink, relationships, religion
February 15, 2007 • 3:21 pm
I just got a brand new Rancilio Silva espresso machine, and you (probably) don’t have one.
It is built like the proverbial brick shithouse. I need no longer dread any difficulties finding our cricket bat to combat an intruder: the coffee filter holder alone could easily fell an ox. Yes, I will be updating this post with pictures once I’ve picked the kids up from school.
Update 17 Feb: or I’ll get around to putting the picutre up on the weekend, actually.
originally uploaded by tigitogs. Note industrial-grade new coffee filter on right and old plasticky Saeco one on left for comparison.
We were meant to get it yesterday as our mutual V-day present, but it was a day late getting delivered.
You know what this means, don’t you my fellow coffee snobs? Yes, now I have to start roasting my own beans.
Addit: I’ve had the first cup of coffee, and now I know exactly how Harry felt a few years ago.
Filed under: consumerism, food/drink
