Violence at sibling’s hand
The Victorian government campaign “Respect women for our children’s future: There’s nothing good about dads who abuse women” is in full swing in the media and I commend the government for this initiative.
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I believe that the campaign focus should be broadened to include not just adult males in a relationship, but all males, regardless of age – the younger the better.
Male children do not necessarily follow the example of their fathers/grandfathers/uncles. In some young males, the abusive traits develop for seemingly no reason.
I was reared in a family where my parents were in a stable, loving relationship. I never heard my father so much as raise his voice to my mother. It was a strong Christian marriage. However, within that family, I suffered bullying, physical and verbal abuse from a male sibling, five years my junior.
I am speaking of a normal child, reared in a nurturing family with no disadvantages, never exposed to abuse in any form and given the same advantages as other siblings.
Once he was taller and stronger than I, the abuse started. I was kicked, punched, scratched, verbally abused and bullied until the day he left the family home to be married.
He even controlled the family television viewing. On entering the room, he switched the TV to suit his taste with no regard for other family members already viewing a programme.
My parents were powerless to control his actions (quite frankly, I think that they were frightened of him) and the behaviour was tolerated, rather than inflame the situation.
A male develops a greater, stronger, physical mass than a woman and therein lays the advantage. Physical superiority is no excuse for cowardly behaviour perpetrated against women, not only in my case, but women of all walks of life.
Family violence involving siblings is never mentioned in the media and it is an issue that should be raised. Parents should be particularly aware and eliminate bad behaviour perpetrated by male children on siblings in the family home.
Parents need to target their male children at a very early age, have strict guidelines concerning their attitude and behaviour towards females as early as possible in life if this abhorrent behaviour is to be stamped out.
Name and address withheld by request
NBN service complete farce
I read in last Saturday's Bendigo Advertiser all of the complaints from Bendigo people who were not happy with their NBN service.
Well, I am another one and no doubt there are thousands of others.
From our first appointment with the technician, our ADSL service was cut off and we had no internet for a whole month.
Getting it installed was a running comedy of errors.
Now it's finally on the "famed" and "fabulous" NBN, but the NBN is nothing but a joke.
It is way slower than our ADSL ever was. In fact, when I typed a complaint to Telstra via their website, it took so long for it to send, that it timed out and the whole email was lost. What a waste of time!
The NBN is a waste of the consumers’ time and effort.
Telstra and the government, who said it was going to be amazing and super fast, are nothing but liars.
Sue Foggitt, Huntly
More pokies not wanted
I wouldn't want the Bendigo Stadium to get the wrong impression from Ian Braybrook's letter about pokies in Castlemaine (“Bring pokies down south”, Bendigo Advertiser, June 21).
The last time plans for more pokies were introduced in Castlemaine, residents organised a strong protest and won a VCAT decision against any such plans.
Castlemaine has enough pokies and we're prepared to fight to keep it that way.