Friday, October 11, 2013



Multiculturalism in British hospitals too



The Sudanese way

A teenage hairdresser was groped by an NHS doctor during an examination where he told her 'you’re very beautiful', a court heard today.  Dr Kamal Abusin, 54, is accused of treating the hairdresser as 'a model' rather than a vulnerable patient.

The 19-year-old woman went to A&E with stomach pains after having an operation.  A court heard Abusin told the teenager she was 'very beautiful' before stroking her breast and groping her during the stomach examination.

The court heard that after the 20-minute examination, she walked into the waiting room and burst into tears when her boyfriend asked her how it had gone.

Prosecutor Janet McDonald said Dr Abusin had abused his 'position of trust and authority' to sexually assault the young woman.

Miss McDonald said: 'This was not a nightclub where a drunken reveller might try it on and go too far with a pretty girl.  'This was a consultant room with a sober and senior consultant in attendance.

'The groping or touching are very serious to this young woman and for society.  'We put trust in the medical profession to deal with a patient appropriately. We don’t expect to be groped.'

Cardiff Crown Court heard the young woman, who cannot be named, had undergone keyhole surgery 'just below her belly button' six weeks earlier.

The jury heard Dr Abusin lifted her top to 'remove a hair' before groping her.

Miss McDonald said: 'She was called into the room by the doctor and he made comments about her appearance before telling her to lie on the examination table.  'He told her she was beautiful, had a well proportioned body, a good figure and asked her to take her hair down. 'She trusted him and did what he asked.

'Was he looking at her as a patient or more as one might admire the physique of a model?

'He didn’t ask her to assist and pushed her top up so he could see her tummy and this exposed one of her breasts in her bra.

'He went to remove a strand of hair that was on her right breast - and he took the opportunity to grope her breast.

'This was not the way he was supposed to examine her tummy.'

Miss McDonald said this made the young patient 'uncomfortable' - and she tried to get the doctor to concentrate on diagnosing the cause of her stomach pains.

But during the stomach examination with his hands he ran them up her thighs and touched her intimately - over the top of her leggings.

Miss McDonald told the court: 'There was absolutely no reason for him to do that.  'It was not a medical examination - it was the doctor sexually assaulting a vulnerable patient.

'He did examine her tummy but then put his hands down onto her pubic bone and left it there before a hand back on the inside of her thigh.

'She sat up thoroughly unnerved by the situation and asked him what she should do next about the pain she was suffering from.  'He gave her some advice about going back to the GP.

'As she walked left the room she walked straight out and burst into tears and told her boyfriend what had happened.'  The young woman immediately told her concerned boyfriend and asked the A&E receptionist how she could complain.

Dr Abusin, who is originally from Sudan but was doing shifts in hospitals around Britain, was arrested by police soon after the complaint.

The consultant surgeon 'vehemently denied' all accusations of sexual assault when questioned by police.

He said the examination as outlined by the young woman was not one that would be required from a medical point of view and was not what he had given her.

Dr Abusin, of Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, denies two charges of sex assault.

SOURCE






French journalist is prosecuted under 19th century press law for questioning Islam during a radio debate

A French journalist is facing a criminal trial under the country’s strict press laws for remarks made during a radio debate about the influence of Islam.

Ivan Rioufol, 61, believes the way he is being treated is an example of how writers are criminalised when the state is able to control the media.

He was summoned to court under strict press laws which date back to the 19th Century following a complaint from a pressure group called the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF).

‘In seeking to undermine liberty of expression, a sacred principle of our civilisation, the Collective against Islamophobia in France (CCIF) takes the risk of appearing like a menace to democracy,’ said Mr Rioufol.

‘This is essentially what I hope to be able to explain in court, because I will have to appear in a few months before the 17th Criminal Court in Paris.’

Mr Rioufol, who has written for Le Figaro newspaper for almost 28 years, made some allegedly defamatory remarks on November 15th 2012 during an RTL radio programme called ‘We Reshape the World.’

Mr Rioufol particularly objected to a CCIF poster campaign which showed pictures of predominantly bearded and veiled Muslims under the slogan ‘We are the Nation’.

The journalist said that this was against the spirit of France’s inclusive, secular republic – something which CCIF objected to.

Mr Rioufol said that France’s 1881 Press Law was being used to ‘penalise criticism, intimidate journalists, censor the media’ and even ‘to reintroduce the offence of blasphemy’.

The 1881 law was nominally meant to guarantee the ‘freedom of the press’ but in fact criminalised a range of journalistic behaviour.   So called ‘press offenses’ ranged from insulting the President of France, to defaming private citizens through comment.

Mr Rioufol said about the case’s first hearing: ‘The judge reminded me that he himself had no opportunity to verify the existence of the alleged offense, the procedure - Press Law 1881 -  leading automatically to court, where the case will be considered on its merits.’

Mr Rioufol said the law was ‘easily manipulated’ by those who wanted to persecute journalists.

A spokesman for CCIF said it had a duty to challenge ‘Islamophobia’ and the press laws were a logical way of challenging journalism it objected to.

'Mr Rioufol will in court seek to prove that his words were true – one of the defences against defamation.'

SOURCE





'The under-25s in Britain should NOT get the dole'

Under-25s should be banned from claiming the dole, David Cameron warned today as he signalled a fresh Tory crackdown on welfare.

The Prime Minister used his speech to the Tory party conference to set out his vision of Britain as a 'land of opportunity' where everyone has the chance to get a decent job, buy a home or start a business.

But he revealed the next Conservative manifesto is likely to promise to withdraw benefits for school leavers so that they can no longer 'opt for a life on benefits'.

It is estimated that more than 1million people could be affected, including more than 360,000 aged 18-25 claiming Jobseeker's Allowance last month.

Removing housing benefit from under-25s is estimated to save the Treasury £2billion.

Mr Cameron said young people should be given a clear choice between going to school or college, doing an apprenticeship or getting a job.

Speaking in Manchester he said: 'Today it is still possible to leave school, sign on, find a flat, start claiming housing benefit and opt for a life on benefits.  It’s time for bold action here.

'We should ask, as we write our next manifesto, if that option should really exist at all. 'Just choose the dole? We’ve got to offer them something better than that.'

He conceded that the controversial idea of limiting housing benefit and jobseekers allowance to the over-25s will be seized on by opponents as 'callous'.

But he said: 'Think about it: with your children, would you dream of just leaving them to their own devices, not getting a job, not training, nothing?

'No - you’d nag and push and guide and do anything to get them on their way… and so must we.

'So this is what we want to see: everyone under 25 - earning or learning.

'And you know – on this, as on everything else, Labour will fight us but remember: we are giving people real opportunities.'

The idea of limiting benefits to the over-25s is likely to feature in the next Tory manifesto, but government sources suggested they will try to persuade the Lib Dems to introduce it sooner.

Mr Cameron added: 'We don’t patronise people, put a benefit cheque in their hand and pat them on the head.

'We look people in the eye as equals and say: yes, you’ve been down – but you’re not out, you can do it, you have it in you, we will give you that chance.'

A government review by Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood is already examining training and education offered to under-25s.

It will now be expanded to look at which benefits are available to school leavers.

Officials said that under existing rules, young jobless people lose their benefits if they train for more than 16 hours a week.

But this means that the system pays them if they are not in training - but stops supporting them when they do.

The Heywood review is looking at ways to support young people once they start training programmes.

However, those who refuse to take part in the scheme risk having their benefits cut including job seekers' allowance and housing benefit.

He also praised Education Secretary Michael Gove for the energy he had brought to his job of creating a string of free schools, describing him as a cross between 'Mr Chips and the Duracell Bunny'.

The Prime Minister said key to his vision of a 'land of opportunity' required a tougher education system to prepare youngsters for the future.

He said: 'It’s OK for the children who have parents reading them stories every night – and that’s great but what about the ones at the back of the class, in the chaotic home, in the home of the drug addict or alcoholic? 'We need these children – and frankly they need us.'

He said Mr Gove's reforms were already achieving results with more students studying proper science and more children learning a foreign language.

He went on: We’ve ended the dumbing down in exams. For the first time – children in our schools will learn the new language of computer coding.

'And we’re sending a clear message to children: if you fail English and maths GCSE, you’re going to have to take and re-take them again until you pass.

'Because as I tell my own children – there’s not a job in the world where you don’t need to spell and add up properly.'

SOURCE





Australia: No more dole, Prime Minister warns the under-30s

TONY Abbott has proposed banning the dole for people under 30 in a bid to entice the unemployed to head west and fill massive skill shortages in the booming resources sector.

The Opposition Leader made the controversial remarks during a two-hour meeting with about 15 senior resources industry leaders in Perth on Monday night.

Mr Abbott told the roundtable briefing he believed stopping dole payments to able-bodied young people would take pressure off the welfare system and reduce the need to bring in large numbers of skilled migrants to staff mining projects.

His comments were attacked last night by Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Howes, who described them as "Hansonesque".

"If he genuinely thinks you are going to solve an economically crippling skills shortage by taking punitive measures against welfare recipients, he has clearly never lived in the real world," Mr Howes said.

"You can't just get any old Joe off the street and plonk them into a mine, and think that's going to mean they can work."

Six of the attendees confirmed yesterday that Mr Abbott had raised the idea of banning welfare payments for young people to encourage them to fill the thousands of jobs emerging in states such as Western Australia and Queensland.

"He said he was thinking more and more about it, with a view to formulating something on it," said one of the participants, who asked not to be named.

Another recalled: "He definitely said it was something he was considering as a policy."

A third executive said: "It certainly wasn't a throwaway line. He brought up the issue twice during the meeting."

Mr Abbott also told the business leaders that safety mechanisms would be needed under such a scheme to protect disabled people or those with mental health problems. And he raised the possibility that employers would need to be given funding to train the unemployed, according to those present.

Some of the business leaders were surprised by the remarks, while others were impressed Mr Abbott was considering new measures to address the labour shortages in Western Australia that threaten to crimp the next resources boom.

"I thought to myself: here is a guy who thinks outside the square," said one participant.

The Minerals Council of Australia said the number of workers in the resources sector would need to grow by about 86,000 in the next decade to maintain Australia's share of global minerals markets.  It said 31,000 of those workers would need to be skilled tradespeople.

The demand for labour is expected to be most severe in Western Australia, which has about $200 billion in resources projects either under way or in the pipeline.

This is led by the $43bn Gorgon liquefied natural gas project on Barrow Island and the planned expansion of Woodside Petroleum's Pluto gas plant near Karratha.

Among the attendees at Mr Abbott's roundtable were BHP Billiton iron ore chief executive Ian Ashby, Rio Tinto's Pilbara managing director Greg Lilleyman, Woodside general counsel Rob Cole, Fortescue Metals Group director Graeme Rowley, Gindalbie Metals chief executive Garret Dixon and Inpex's Australian head, Seiya Ito.

Mr Abbott's views echo comments he made as employment services minister in 2000 when he announced that people on the dole in South Australia's Riverland would be required to seek fruit harvest work before receiving benefits.

Last night a spokeswoman for Mr Abbott confirmed he had made the remarks about the dole to the mining leaders.

The spokeswoman said Mr Abbott had posed a question about the dole for the benefit of the argument and the debate at the meeting.  But, she said, Mr Abbott's comments did not mean the approach was Coalition policy.

SOURCE

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the  incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of  other countries.  The only real difference, however, is how much power they have.  In America, their power is limited by democracy.  To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already  very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges.  They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did:  None.  So look to the colleges to see  what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way.  It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH,   EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICSDISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL.   My Home Pages are here or   here or   here.  Email me (John Ray) here

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