HERS The Hunt | Schapelle Corby | Marilyn Monroe | 01/2012
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current affairs and lifestyle for the discerning woman
THE CHILD
HUNT
SCHAPELLE CORBY New evidence emerges
An NZ mum’s incredible worldwide search for her stolen children – an extract from the new book, THE HUNT
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JESUS: THE FLAWED CASE Bryan Bruce comes a cropper Flip over for details
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Contents Dec 11/Jan 12 | Issue 129 | www.investigatedaily.com
ON THE COVER 10 The Hunt
The New Zealand mother whose children were kidnapped in London 30 years ago has finally found them: an extract from IAN WISHART & GEORGE LONDON’S new book
18 Is Schapelle Expendable? New evidence emerges on the Schapelle Corby controversy
22 My Week With Marilyn
Michelle Williams talks about getting into Marilyn Monroe’s head
HIS Jesus: The Flawed Case He won an award for it, but ‘The Investigator’ Bryan Bruce got it wrong. See HIS
HIS Rena: Dodging A Bullet
It looked like it was going to be our Gulf of Mexico. But now the beaches are open. See HIS
INSIDE
06 A Strong Woman
Miranda Devine asks why women make the best whistleblowers
08 Political Correctness
Chloe Milne argues manners require it
44 They Call Me #$&*!
The country where you cannot name a woman
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HERS
Contents 08
44 40
46
30
FORMALITIES
DECOR & CUISINE
9 Subscriptions
36 Electro-smog in the bedroom? 38 Organics
VIEWPOINTS 06 Miranda Devine 08 Chloe Milne
BOUTIQUE
TRAVEL & LEISURE
40 Swim with sea lions 42 See it: The Descendants
28 Christmas treats
HEART & SOUL
BEAUTY & HEALTH
44 LIFE: Anonymous Women 46 FAMILY: Mother with monkeys
30 Hot weather beauty care 32 Aggression in kids 34 Myth-busting
roses in bloom
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HERSDEVINE
The urge to talk Miranda Devine
W
hat is it about women t hat makes them such prodigious whistleblowers? This month we saw Kathy Jackson, national secretary of the Health Services Union, refusing to back down to the jeering mob at the scandal-racked organisation’s annual conference. She is fighting to clean up the HSU, and no amount of name-calling, shovels at her front door, intimidation and votes of no confidence will stop her. “I’m going nowhere. They’re not used to people telling them they’re doing the wrong thing (and) they’re trying to shoot the messenger.” She is not afraid to take on the union movement’s entrenched male power elites – and the membership is quietly behind her. There’s a lot at stake, with the Gillard government’s oneseat majority in the balance as police investigate Jackson’s HSU predecessor, Dobell MP Craig Thomson, over misuse of union funds – allegations he denies. Jackson, 45, never saw herself as a feminist superhero, but her determination to stand up to the union is fast making her an inspiration to other women. So, too, is Gillian Sneddon, the former electorate officer of the jailed paedophile and former NSW Labor minister Milton Orkopoulos. Sneddon, 53, was the first to blow the whistle on the member for Swansea’s sordid activities. For her trouble she was sacked, locked out of her office and had her good name dragged through the mud. This month, she told the Whistleblowers Australia annual conference in Parramatta that people had been raising the alarm about Orkopoulos long before he entered parliament. Yet he went on to become Aboriginal Affairs minister, bringing him into contact with some
of the state’s most vulnerable children. “I thought that what I did in reporting allegations made to me first by one young man and then another that they had been sexually abused by my boss, Milton Orkopoulos, was the right, the legal and the responsible thing to do,” she told the conference. “I thought it was what everyone else in my position would have done. How wrong I was. I came to understand the forces of power which were mustered, by accident or design, to protect an accused paedophile and discredit his accuser.” She said Orkopoulos should have been stood aside while police investigated the allegations. “Instead he was left with all the resources of the electorate office with which to protect himself and cover up his crimes.”
It can’t be that women are more ethical than men. But do they possess a special intuition to detect wrongdoing before their male colleagues?
6 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Dec 2011/Jan 2012
Sneddon is calling on the NSW government to hold an inquiry into how Orkopoulos was protected for so long. She likens it to the inquiry announced just a few weeks ago by the West Australian government into how convicted paedophile Dennis McKenna was able to abuse dozens of children at a state-run hostel for years after complaints were made to police. She points out the irony of her own ill-treatment compared with the social justice principles of the party that she once supported. “I am sure you will be heartened to know that the Labor Party, which would not allow a single one of us to appear before their (2009
parliamentary inquiry into the treatment of whistleblowers) recently offered to pay for American whistleblower Erin Brockovich to come to Newcastle over the Orica (pollution) business,” she said. Like Brockovich, 51, the legal clerk who blew the whistle on the industrial contamination of drinking water in a Californian town, Sneddon and Jackson showed courage and integrity that was unique in their workplaces. For years, odious practices had occurred unchecked, but when the women cottoned on, instead of going with the flow like everyone else, they trusted their own judgment and called out the wrongdoers. Like Brockovich, both women were single mothers, and both have suffered greatly as a result of their “ethical resistance”. Jackson is still under attack and was hospitalised at one point after suffering a nervous breakdown. Sneddon lost her job and went through a period of depression. “The way I was treated (by those who) shunned and vilified me in public and in private has eaten away at my confidence, my self-belief, my health, my ability to eat, to sleep and to support myself and my family. “I ended up hospitalised for five weeks in a psychiatric facility, having lost the will to live.” The toll on these women is almost unendurable. Yet they do endure, and inspire other women to speak out against corruption and abuse of power. In the US, the role of women blowing the whistle on corporate misdeeds has been extraordinary – from Sherron Watkins at Enron to Genevievette Walker-Lightfoot in the Madoff fraud case to A.K. Barnett-Hart, the investment bank intern who first raised the alarm on the sub-prime mortgage crisis. So what is it about women that makes them willing to risk all to do the right thing? It can’t be that women are more ethical than men. But do they possess a special intuition to detect wrongdoing before their male colleagues? Or is it the fact that in male-dominated workplaces they are less likely to be “team players” because they are excluded from the mates’ network and thus are able to judge ethical breaches dispassionately? Are they less greedy for power and wealth, and therefore less afraid to rock the boat? Or are they more in touch with the real world because they are used to running households. Whatever the reason, the crucial role of whistleblower seems
Like Brockovich, 51, the legal clerk who blew the whistle on the industrial contamination of drinking water in a Californian town, Sneddon and Jackson showed courage and integrity that was unique in their workplaces to be a burden women have long shouldered, from the tragic prophetic heroine of Greek mythology, Cassandra, to the triumphant Brockovich. Long may they prosper. devinemiranda@hotmail.com
HERSMAGAZINE.TV Dec 2011/Jan 2012 7
HERSGEN-Y
The short end of political correctness Chloe Milne
T
here is a lot of talk that New Zealand is increasingly becoming too politically correct, “political correctness gone mad,” they say. However, I’m not too sure if I agree. It seems as though some people think they can still say whatever they like without consequence. The thing is sometimes political correctness is actually a good thing, except when it comes to midgets; they’re just a little bit funny. I’m all for freedom of speech and expression but there are some things that should never be said. During the World Cup, Pam Corkery claimed that Graham Henry looked as if “he had been taken from behind” or “someone had raped his mother”. This is a perfect example of something you shouldn’t say, or think to be honest. I’m not entirely sure what one would look like if they had been taken from behind but I don’t think Graham Henry’s furrowed brow is necessarily it. Now we all know Pam is a little outrageous, to say the least, but this was probably a little far for TVNZ’s Good Morning show. I just don’t know if the unemployed and elderly are ready for picturing Graham Henry in a precarious situation, nor his mother. You’d think people would have learnt after Paul Holmes’ “cheeky darkie” faux pas, and Paul Henry’s “is he really a New Zealander?” remark. However, now Steve Williams has dug himself into a hole (no pun intended). Seriously, when would calling someone a “black asshole” be a good idea? Now I think we can all agree that Tiger Woods screwed up in a big way and doesn’t deserve a lot of respect. However, I never realised the fact that he has dark skin should have anything to do with it. Why people ever decided to discriminate on the basis on UV absorption I will never know, but last time I checked there is no scientific evidence that high melanin levels relate to being an “a-hole”.
Seriously, it’s now 2011 and about time we moved on, surely having an African American as the most powerful man in the world is a pretty good incentive to do so. Woods claims that Williams is not a racist but clearly that is up for debate. The fact that Williams had to even mention his skin colour suggests he thought it was something he could use against him. It seems racism is not yet a thing of the past but the sooner it is the better. Racism is at the obvious end of the political correctness scale, but, just so you know, there are other things that you should just not say. Negative comments about women, homosexuals, albinos and midgets are generally no go areas, except when they’re really funny. People
I’m all for freedom of speech and expression but there are some things that should never be said
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can actually find these things offensive, just ask my friend Tiny, a little person, who was driving along one day when someone rearended him. (I meant crash) He hopped out of the car and said to the other driver “I’m not happy”, to which the driver replied “which one are you then?”
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HERSEXCLUSIVE
The
HUNT
An NZ mother’s 30yr worldwide search for her missing children On July 31st, 1981, two New Zealand children aged 4 and 2 were abducted from London and never seen again. Not till now, that is, after a 30 year hunt to locate them by the grieving mother and her husband. In this exclusive extract from their new book The Hunt, IAN WISHART & GEORGE LONDON detail events immediately leading up to the abduction
M
ax Moray had also visited the neighbours before Paulette Moray moved into a new street, and warned them that a dangerous woman was moving in next door and to keep an eye out on her. “Before I moved into 68 Otley Drive Max went to all the neighbours tell-
10 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Dec 2011/Jan 2012
ing them not to trust me and that I was evil and not to make friends with me. It was not until I had lived there for some months that I found out what he had was doing. He went to my next door neighbour Sue and Len and played the tapes he claimed to have secretly taped of me. “After I had moved into the house, and after a settling down period where I
HERSMAGAZINE.TV Dec 2011/Jan 2012 11
guess they were assessing me for themselves, they came to see me and told me everything Max had done. We became close friends.” There were others, too, who realised what the young solo mother was up against.
M
ary and Sam Foreman, a wonderful Jewish couple who I loved dearly, lived next door. Mary treated me like her daughter, we saw each other every day. Max went to my best friends and told them bad things about me, but they were not fools. Mary told Max, ‘Get of my property. We are not interested in what you have to say. Go away and don’t ever come back here.’ “Mary and Sam loved Sasha and Naomi like their own. We all became very close. So when my children were kidnapped, Mary and Sam also suffered; they had become like grandparents to my children.” Max, of course, relied on his own network of very close friends to put the knife in and, when the time came, to commit perjury. “Glenda Farron, Pearl, Kalman Horvath and others all say I never got up in the mornings? Reality check: with a young baby, I was up pretty early in the morning. I had to be because I was breastfeeding a child, you’ve got to be up early. Max didn’t have the breasts, I did. His claims and those of his friends that I did nothing – he just paid or coaxed his mates to lie for him in court and present what he hoped would be a winning case against me through sheer weight of numbers.” “In the first hearing he brought in an entourage of people and a suitcase of stuff. They all lined up on one side facing me, and on my side there was just me. ‘How am I going to be able to keep myself together,’ I thought, ‘while they are all sitting there staring at me?’ “So I figured out I would start at one end and look each one in the eye, because I had nothing to hide, and each one dropped their eyes until I finally got to Max, and he’s never been able to look me in the eye. That’s how I got through it. “For each thing that came up, each allegation that you’ve read, I had to answer questions from the barristers. I
realised the lawyers were using emotive language and being provocative, trying to get me angry, so instead of looking at them when I answered I directed my answers to the judge. I also learned to take a breath and count to ten on my fingers under the witness stand. The gave me clarity and focus. And that’s how I got through.” Albert Einstein famously once faced a wall of opponents, who published a booklet entitled “One Hundred Scientists Against Einstein”. His response? “If I were wrong, one would have sufficed.” As it turned out, that’s how the judge saw it too. In March 1981 the judge called an end to the trial after eight days, saying
12 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Dec 2011/Jan 2012
it was “unprecedented” for a custody dispute between two people who were not even married to drag on so long. The court based its decision, after hearing the claims and cross-examination, on reports from independent experts from outside the family. Psychologists and the Welfare Officers had monitored the children in the care of Max, and in the care of Paulette. Psychologist Arnon Bentovim told the court that in his view the visits where the children were being left in the overnight care of their father were mentally harming the children.1 Is that because Max Moray was trying to brainwash the kids, even then, just as he appeared to be
TOP: Sasha with baby Naomi. RIGHT: Sasha’s fourth birthday – the last he would celebrate with his mother. OPPOSITE PAGE: Paulette with her first child, Sasha, at Hyde Park
doing on his own tape transcripts that he released. There was evidence too that Max Moray, quick to accuse his wife of every misdeed, had also bashed Sasha on the head at times. “On Friday 22 August (1980), Sasha returned with a nasty bump on his forehead. Mr Moray accused me of negligence saying this was already done on the
HERSMAGAZINE.TV Dec 2011/Jan 2012 13
Thursday. This was totally untrue as this could only have happened very recently due to the angry inflammation and swelling. Later that evening Sasha told me his father had hit him, and confirmed this in front of Mr Moray on the following Sunday, 24th, when Mr Moray arrived”.2 The Welfare Officer told the court that after viewing the abilities, practices and child interactions of both parents, Paulette was the better caregiver to the children. That was enough for the judge. “I award full care, control and custody of Sasha Saul Moray and Naomi Ruth Moray to the defendant, Ms Paulette Moray,” he intoned, delivering the verdict. “But you can’t!” screamed Max angrily. “I’ve spent 180,000 pounds on this case! Where is the justice?” It’s hard to see how Max could incur such incredible bills – enough to purchase 25 Porsche 911 cars – unless he’d been forking out large amounts behind the scenes to private investigators, or in bribes and other ‘off balance sheet’ activities. Paulette would soon discover just where some of that 180,000 had been spent.
O
n the way out of the court, as Paulette was crossing the road, Max caught up with her. “You may think you’ve won today,” he snarled. “But when I’m good and ready I’m going to snatch them anyway.” Paulette knew there was an order in place preventing the children from being removed from her care, custody and control. She also knew there was an order in place prohibiting the removal of the children from the United Kingdom, because Max himself had sought that order. But she also knew what her ex was capable of. “I had experienced snatching once already, so I knew his capacity to be able to do it, and regarding the money he had. He had a jewellery shop and was a wealthy man, and I didn’t have the wherewithal to fight him on that kind of level.” Despite the psychologist’s reservations, Paulette had continued to give Max overnight access even after he lost the custody battle because it just seemed like an easy way of avoiding further fights,
but by July the welfare officials were having serious concerns about the mental state of the children after they’d been with Max for any length of time. Paulette’s sister Dana’s wedding in mid July 1981 was to be the last family social function the children attended with their mother and their relatives. The morning of the wedding Court psychologist Arnon Bentovim summonsed Paulette and the children to an assessment meeting, and he disclosed that he was recommending to the court that Max’s overnight access visits be terminated. “It will take a few weeks to go through the system, but that’s the plan,” he told her. It was a double-edged sword for Paulette. On the one hand she welcomed the court getting pro-active, but on the other she knew it would make Max furious, with all the danger that entailed. On the early summer evening of Friday 31 July, 1981, just days after the royal wedding of Charles and Diana, Paulette Moray dressed Naomi and Sasha up in some little matching beige jackets with white fur-lined hoods that she’d picked up for Sasha’s birthday back in May. They looked gorgeous, she thought, licking her fingers to slick back a wisp of Sasha’s hair. The little faces peering up at her were so cute. She gave the pair a cuddle, and told them to be good for their father this weekend. As she waited, she couldn’t shake a feeling of foreboding that had been creeping up on her all week. She’d even rung the court appointed psychologist Dr Arnon Bentovim the previous day with her concerns. “Dr Bentovim, I’m convinced Max is going to do something stupid because of the access decision. I’m really worried about this weekend’s visit.” “Mrs Moray, the court is handling this with Mr Moray’s lawyers. It is routine. I can guarantee that you have nothing to worry about. Just relax. It will be fine.” Relax, thought Paulette as she watched Max from her window, leading the two children, hand in hand, down the road to Pearl Ross-dale’s house. Relax and Max – the words might rhyme but they didn’t go together, not by any stretch of the imagination. And she just couldn’t quell that foreboding, like a harbinger of
14 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Dec 2011/Jan 2012
TOP: Paulette and Sasha sit opposite Italian passport forger Pierre, while Max’s business partner Herbert Kay and his sons look on. RIGHT: Assorted pictures of Sasha and Naomi as they grew up
doom eating away at her. By 8pm she couldn’t stand it any longer. She wanted to hear Sasha’s voice, just to know he was OK, and maybe to hear Naomi’s two year old gurgles and giggles in the background. Then, maybe, she thought, she could ‘relax’ with a good cup of tea. She picked up the phone and dialled Max’s number. But instead of a ringtone, all she got was disconnection pips. The hackles at the back of her neck started to rise as she frantically dialled the number again. The rotary phone dial was frustrat-
HERSMAGAZINE.TV Dec 2011/Jan 2012 15
sure there’s nothing to worry about,” reassured the operator. “It’s probably just a BT [British Telecom] fault in the area. We’ll call you back as soon as the patrol report in.” Paulette was on her knees, waiting by the phone, praying, lurching between uncontrollable sobs and moments of hope when her optimism got the better of her fears. The harsh clatter of the bells as the phone rang beside her focused all those conflicting emotions into a laser point of gut-wrenching anticipation, as she snatched the receiver up. “I’m very sorry, Mrs Moray. The patrol has checked your husband’s address – he has moved out. There is no one there. You’d better come down to the station right away and give us a statement.” The crash of the phone receiver slamming onto the floor as Paulette collapsed was itself stark and harsh. Then came the keening of a grieving mother. Screams so loud the neighbours heard them, screams so agonising no caring human could miss the significance of what they meant. “Where are my babies, where are my babies,” she gasped, feeling the panic attack in her chest. Gone, as it turned out. Forever. THE HUNT, by Ian Wishart & George London, $39.99 at Whitcoulls, The Warehouse, PaperPlus, Take Note, Relay, Dymocks and all good bookstores. Released: November 28
ingly slow to return to position after each number. Still dead. Paulette was panicking now. It must just be a fault, she kept telling herself. I’ll try again. But she knew when she kept getting the disconnection tones that something was terribly, terribly wrong. The shiver that went up her spine made her physically jerk, and she felt like throwing up
– her stomach was clenching so much. Paulette was going into shock. “Please, Lord, please don’t let him take my children,” she prayed as she wept. Get it together, she chided herself. Got to stay strong for the kids, stay in control. Paulette found the number for the local police station and dialled it. “We’ll send a car around to your husband’s address and check it out. I’m
16 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Dec 2011/Jan 2012
References: 1.As he later remarked in a letter to the court after the kidnapping, “The two children were removed from the jurisdiction of the High Court Family Division, to whom they were wards, and have not been seen since that time for a period of 12 months now. This is an extremely deleterious matter to the children’s emotional well being as when seen a year ago there were already signs of emotional distress and difficulty over their relationship, so that to be separated from their mother is extremely worrying and distressing for the children in terms of their long term development and well being.” 2. Paulette Moray, briefing to her lawyers 10 October 1980
HERSMAGAZINE.TV Dec 2011/Jan 2012 17
DRUG MULE or FALL GIRL? Schapelle Corby’s 8th Christmas in Jail
As Schapelle Corby gears up to spend her eighth Christmas behind bars in a Bali jail, efforts are intensifying to gain her release. A research group calling itself The Expendable Project has released hundreds of pages of Australian government documents that strongly suggest Australian authorities hung Corby out to dry to cover up massive airport security breaches. This extract from EXPENDABLE.TV backgrounds their interest in the case
27
year old Australian woman, Schapelle Corby, was sentenced to 20 years in an Indonesian prison in May 2005, after 4.2 kg of marijuana had been found in her boogieboard bag on arrival in Bali. However, her fate had been determined not in Bali, but in Canberra. INTRODUCTION: A POLITICAL SACRIFICE The Schapelle Corby case appeared on the political horizon late in 2004. Even at this early stage answers were lacking to an increasing number of questions, questions which were becoming persistent and which were increasingly being put to Australian politicians. The case itself could hardly have been more contentious. The following extract from a 2009 research paper illustrates some of the reasons for this: “Weighed against these and other
extremely plausible well supported propositions, the idea that Schapelle Corby: fSomehow f obtained 4.2kg of marijuana having worked so hard just to earn the money for the flight, with no criminal record and as a nondrug user fPlaced f it in her bag and then slashed the plastic bag open to release the smell fChose f to smuggle marijuana to a country where the drug is worth a tiny fraction of its Australian value fSomehow f transported, undetected, the pungent smelling bag through Brisbane Domestic airport, Sydney Domestic airport, and Sydney International airport, past check-in staff, sniffer dogs, x-ray machines, CCTV, police, customs and baggage handlers fPut f her full name and address on the board bag when she checked in fOpenly f proclaimed that she owned
18 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Dec 2011/Jan 2012
the bag when it was ‘selected’ by Indonesian customs fProtested f about police/customs handling and therefore contaminating the evidence, which would actually have helped convict her had she placed the drugs fFormally f requested that the marijuana be tested for country of origin, which would have added weight against her had it been from Australia fPleaded f for DNA and fingerprint tests which can only have harmed her had she placed them fRefused f to even contemplate a plea bargain despite sentencing advantages fBegged f for CCTV footage from Sydney and Brisbane airports when even a single frame of a pregnant board bag would have damned her fRequested f footage from Denpasar airport which would have validated
police claims had they been truthful fActed f out a script so wonderfully at the show trial that she would have swept the board at any Oscar ceremony “The idea is clearly absurd.” A just-published book claims Corby took the fall for her father – that he was the drug trafficker who had packed Schapelle’s bag with the marijuana. But that doesn’t explain how a bag containing 4kg of the world’s smelliest narcotic got through Australian airport checks, including x-rays on a flight route where it was policy for “100% of luggage” to be checked, nor does it make economic sense: When you consider that dope was selling for less than a dollar a gram in Bali at the time, and $31 a gram in Australia, according to United Nations narcotics figures, it doesn’t seem credible that anyone would be deliberately smuggling marijuana into Bali. It would be the drugs
HERSMAGAZINE.TV Dec 2011/Jan 2012 19
equivalent of exporting coals to Newcastle or shipments of ice to Eskimos. So where did the drugs come from? Two possibilities exist. One, that the marijuana was Balinese in origin and part of a scam/sting operation being run by corrupt Indonesian authorities. The second possibility is that the drugs were slipped into Corby’s bag airside in Australia by a corrupt baggage handler intending the package to go domestic, and not realising his marijuana stash was going in an overseas-bound bag. Numerous documents have now been released confirming major criminal activity by Australian airport staff. Corby’s bags went through the domestic airport transfers before finally ending up on the Bali international flight. Earlier this year, the New Zealand Herald reported a major new development backing up this scenario: “New evidence has reportedly emerged in the case of convicted Australian drug smuggler Schapelle Corby, with a claim
marijuana found in her luggage may have been planted by a rogue baggage handler. “Corby is serving 20 years at Indonesia’s Kerobokan jail after being caught with more than 4kg of the drug at Denpasar Airport on October 8, 2004. “Almost seven years after the conviction, a woman has come forward saying she believes Corby could have been set up. “The woman, who spoke under the condition of anonymity and used the alias “Sue”, claimed she dated a Brisbane Airport baggage handler for a short period who had a colleague who in October 2004 went to work with a large bag of marijuana. “ ‘When the supervisor was coming down the guy panicked,” Sue told the Nine Network on Thursday. “ ‘And the first thing he did was look for somewhere to hide it. And he grabbed one of the bags that was behind him and hid it there. “ ‘When he was talking about a big bag, he meant a big bag.’
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“It remains unclear if Indonesian or Australian authorities will pay any attention to the claim. “Sue said she had come forward now because of her conscience. “ ‘What if she is really innocent and she has to do 20 years? What if she doesn’t make the 20 years?’ she added. “Sue said she used to work as a clinical counsellor in north Queensland and signed a statutory declaration regarding her claims for the Nine Network. “She said she was happy to co-operate with police and could give them the name of one of the men allegedly involved.” Political commentary and involvement escalated as the case gradually unfolded, and the above perspective was compounded further by a number of the features of the Bali trial itself, which bore little resemblance to Western judicial standards. Given this, the unprecedented 20 year sentence, and the extensive media coverage, the reaction of the Australian public was perhaps predictable. However, even superficially, the position and response of the Australian government was increasingly curious and contradictory. What emerged, given even the most cursory of investigations, was disturbing in the extreme. THE POLITICS The political dimension was evident even prior to the wide scale involvement of the Australian media, whose reporting had an increasing influence on the case itself. The high profile reporting of such a tenuous drug case soon began to have an effect upon the already tense relationship between Australia and Indonesia. Indeed, this aspect was widely reported in the media at the time. Further, bearing in mind that Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country, and has the world’s largest population of Muslims, Australia’s geographic proximity made the relationship strategic to the west as a whole. This was exacerbated further by the potential threat to Australian investments within Indonesia, a market which was also viewed as strategic by the Australian establishment. Total Australian investment in Indonesia had reached
A$2.6 billion at end December 2005, with annual bilateral trade worth about A$10.4 billion. Thus, given the strategic importance of this relationship to Australia, and the political imperative of maintaining it, the pressure upon Australian politicians created by the case was intense. However, this was not the only political pressure in play. AIRPORT SECURITY In 2004, just three years post 9-11, airport security was a high profile matter, not only with the domestic public, but internationally. Australia’s airport security was woefully lacking. This was evident not only through whistleblowers, who were generally marginalized, but through a number of official reports and documents (see The Library on the Expendable website). The Australian government had failed to act on these, or at the very least, had failed to act sufficiently. In 2004 it is absolutely clear that the security at Sydney and other Australian airports remained severely and dangerously compromised. For the Australian government the Schapelle Corby case raised the prospect that this situation may be reported across the world. The threat that other nations may realize the risks posed to their own security via these exposures was stark and real. Without question, the consequences of this would have been damaging to Australia, and of course, politically damaging to the government itself. The Australian government would have been well aware of this. They would have been well aware that had Schapelle Corby returned to Australia as an innocent woman, or perceived to be innocent, focus would, inevitably, have turned towards the airports. From the Australian government’s perspective, this scenario had to be avoided if possible. AFP CORRUPTION The potential for international and domestic political damage caused by focus upon the lack of security at Australia’s airports was not the only political risk to emerge. The role and status of the Australian Federal Police was equally problematic.
Over a number of years many reports had documented systemic corruption within Australian polices agencies, particularly in Sydney. As shown in the Expendable film, whistleblower after whistleblower had spoken out, only to be ignored or worse. As with airport insecurity, nothing of substance had been done to address this. It had, in effect, been brushed under the carpet. The political situation with respect to Schapelle Corby was exacerbated by the demonstrable fact that AFP corruption actually extended to drug syndication, and worse still, drug syndication through both Sydney airports. So, not only were the airports wholly lacking from a security perspective, but police officers, including senior officers, were involved in the smuggling of drugs through them. It has emerged through now-released government documents that records for Schapelle Corby’s boogie board bag – the one found with the drugs in it at Bali – have disappeared from the Australian airports and customs computers. Her other three bags are all still in the system, but not that bag, even though it was checked in and sat with a checked-in baggage tag on the exhibits bench at the Bali trial. Of all the bags whose records in Australia should disappear, why that one? A recently released document from the Australian Federal Police reveals concern if the public were to become aware that a large bag had gone through Australia’s supposedly tough, post-9-11 airport security, undetected. It could have contained plastic explosives. The political implications of this were substantial, and had it been linked to the Schapelle Corby case, a domestic political crisis could easily have ensued. Public confidence in the police could have collapsed, and the reputation of the Australian government, both at home and abroad, may well have been seriously damaged in the short and medium terms. POLITICAL PRESSURE Thus, the pressure on Australian politicians posed by the Schapelle Corby case was intense. At risk was not only a vital and strategic international relationship, but exposure of chronic airport insecurity and systemic police corruption.
Accordingly, two broad axes of interest emerged within Australia’s Howard administration: the Howard/Downer interest, and the Ellison/Keelty interest. The former’s prime concern related to the stability of the relationship with Indonesia, whilst the latter’s main concern related to the impact of domestic institutional corruption Weighed against this, was the welfare of a single citizen. From an exclusively political viewpoint the balance of interests driving decision making could hardly have been more one sided. The cold reality, as demonstrated by The Expendable Project, is that from the moment that this complex political equation became apparent, a political imperative drove the actions of the government and subsequently its organs of state. The Australian government, directly, and through its departments and agencies, acted against Schapelle Corby’s interests with increasing vigour. The degree of orchestration of government departments was unprecedented. THE EXPENDABLE PROJECT The Expendable Project presents the complex political background to the Schapelle Corby case, and documents how the Australian government deployed its departments and agencies against her. It examines the central role of the AFP from an operational perspective, the use of the ABC to manage public opinion, and the actions of a number of other government departments in directly and deliberately undermining Schapelle Corby’s position and that of her family. It identifies a multitude of corrupt acts, including the wilful withholding of vital evidence from the Bali court, and a premeditated web of lies presented to the Australian Parliament and media. It exposes a government sacrificing the life and human rights of an innocent citizen, for political expediency and self interest. With Corby now reportedly mentally ill, and only eight years into a 20 year sentence, there’s no sign of this story going away anytime soon. For details of the Expendable Project, including videos and new document releases, visit the www.expendable.tv.
HERSMAGAZINE.TV Dec 2011/Jan 2012 21
The Summer of Ms Monroe MICHELLE WILLIAMS ON HER ROLE AS MARILYN WORDS BY AMY KAUFMAN
H
er eyes were searching the grounds of the Beverly Hills Hotel, peeking over the bougainvillea at a row of terra cotta-roofed buildings. “I always wonder which bungalow was hers,” said Michelle Williams, staring into the distance at a lodging that could have been home to Marilyn Monroe. The icon, whom Williams plays in the film My Week With Marilyn, lived at the hotel in the late 1950s while in production on the movie Let’s Make Love. “Is it too pretentious to say I feel I have a relationship with her?” the actress said suddenly, as if she could feel the blonde’s spirit. “The more time I spend with her, the closer I feel to her.” On the surface, Williams, 31, doesn’t seem to share much in common with the tragic star. Monroe was all curves and soft flesh; Williams is pixie-like – on a recent fall night, she was covered up in black slacks and a sweater with a Peter Pan collar. Monroe affected a ditsy persona that many critics abhorred, and she was never nominated for an Academy Award; Williams, a two-time Oscar nominee, quotes the likes of Gustave Flaubert and Walt Whitman. The late actress was beholden to the studio system; Williams often opts for noncommercial, independent films such as the minimal Meek’s Cutoff or the emotionally raw Blue Valentine. Still, on the set of My Week With Marilyn, Williams felt an inexplicable connection to Monroe. During the shoot, she found meaning in seemingly ridiculous things – like an article in the National Enquirer. “There was a story about a psychic who had come into contact with Marilyn, and she said Marilyn approved of what I was doing. That took on a lot of meaning for me,” she admitted. “Maybe it was Marilyn, but I felt more fragile than I usually do on this movie. I felt more dependent on other people’s kindnesses. I would live off a compliment that the cameraman gave me for two weeks. It would feed me. It would get me out of bed.”
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My Week With Marilyn is drawn from two memoirs by Colin Clark, an on-set “gofer” during the 1956 production of The Prince and the Showgirl. Berated by her co-star and director Sir Laurence Olivier and facing the dissolution of her marriage with Arthur Miller, Monroe reportedly sought refuge in a quasi-romantic relationship with Clark, nearly a decade her junior. While Monroe wore her vulnerability openly, Williams has long appeared outwardly resilient, even as she has faced difficulties as challenging as those Monroe experienced. At 15, the Montana native struck out on her own, legally emancipating herself from her parents and moving to Los Angeles to pursue acting. At 25, she and her Brokeback Mountain co-star Heath Ledger became parents to a daughter. Ledger died of an accidental drug overdose three years later, and Williams has raised their child, Matilda, as a single mother.
A
fter his death, Williams struggled to find her footing in Hollywood. She took a year off, she said, “unsure of how I would go back, or if I wanted to go back” to acting. After she began to emerge from the fog of grief, she recommitted herself to the craft and decided to take a more gut-driven approach to her career. “I read this Flaubert quote once that I really love: ‘I want to live the quiet life of the bourgeois so that I can be violent and unrestrained in my work,’” she said, reciting the words from memory. “And I like that. Live the simple life and save all your extra forces for your work.” When she read the script for My Week With Marilyn, adapted for the screen by Adrian Hodges, Williams instantly felt compelled to do the movie. Growing up, her room had been filled with images of Monroe: a cardboard cutout and a poster of her running through a field, arms outstretched, joyous. “I remember thinking that if even a woman that beautiful clearly has trouble and is damaged and has insecurities, then we’re all entitled,” said Williams, who was born 18 years after Monroe died. When director Simon Curtis visited her in upstate New York two years ago to talk about the role before she’d officially
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The biggest discovery I made was that Marilyn Monroe was a character she played. So I lived with her, and I never stopped trying to find more information. Even on set, on the 10-minute breaks, I would be back poring through photos or with my earphones in watching a movie
signed on, he left a picture of Monroe in Williams’ home – a small photo beneath a telephone. “I kept staring at her face every day in my kitchen thinking, ‘Can I really?’” the actress said. “With any sort of part that I take, there’s a hint of an idea of how I’m gonna do it. I don’t really know the full scope of it, but there’s something inside of me gravitating towards it.” To figure out who Monroe – “this stranger” – was in the months leading to filming, Williams spent hours practicing Monroe’s vocal cadences in her house while Matilda was at school. She’d teeter around in high heels, tying a belt around her knees to experiment with how to achieve Monroe’s famous wiggle. “The biggest discovery I made was that Marilyn Monroe was a character she played,” said Williams, explaining she reached that conclusion through reading Monroe’s own writing as well as accounts by photographer Eve Arnold. “So I lived with her, and I never stopped
HERSMAGAZINE.TV Dec 2011/Jan 2012 25
trying to find more information. Even on set, on the 10-minute breaks, I would be back poring through photos or with my earphones in watching a movie. I was obsessed. I was on the trail of something. There were clues, and I had to solve a mystery.” Harvey Weinstein, whose company is releasing the film, said he was impressed at Williams’ preparation, how she could quote passages from Maurice Zolotow’s biography on Monroe. “Michelle researches a role like no one I’ve ever encountered,” Weinstein said in an email. “She watched and studied the movies and photos; she read every book.... She could describe how Marilyn wiggled and winked while quoting some of her best lines, (like) when she teased that she was nude by saying, ‘I have nothing on but the radio.’”
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irector Curtis decided to shoot My Week With Marilyn at Pinewood Studios, where The Prince and the Showgirl was filmed more than 50 years ago. Both actresses were 30 when they were on the film stage just outside London. During filming, Curtis said, he noticed Williams’ delicateness, so he tried to give her additional time and space for her process. “I wanted to give her as many takes as I could, because there’s something about creating this performance – you never quite knew when Marilyn would pop,” said the filmmaker, who would sometimes do 12 takes of a scene with the actress. “I just felt she needed and deserved tremendous support, and I hope – unlike Marilyn – she got it.” Williams’ performance has already generated lead-actress buzz for the Academy Awards. (Her previous nominations came for her supporting turn in 2005’s Brokeback Mountain and her leading role in last year’s Blue Valentine.) Don Murray, who co-starred with Monroe in Bus Stop – which she shot immediately before “The Prince and the Showgirl” – said he didn’t find one false note in Williams’ interpretation of the legendary actress. “Those who have worked with Marilyn say Bus Stop was her best-behaved film, but she was still two or three hours late
and also had trouble remembering her lines. The littlest thing would disturb her and send her concentration flying,” recounted Murray, 82. “I was astonished at how Michelle captured that. She got that total confusion – almost falling apart emotionally. Marilyn suffered every little thing.” Williams – in production on Sam Raimi’s Wizard of Oz prequel – said My Week With Marilyn helped her to finally grow up. It was both the biggest challenge she’s ever taken on and the most fulfill-
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ing, she added, because it helped her to accept herself. “I think I became an adult making this movie. I’ve always been scared of myself somehow. Or apologetic or something,” she said quietly. “I just felt for a long time that I was grappling with something I couldn’t quite master or understand. But I’ve been a parent for six years now. I have an amazing daughter, and at some point in the last year, it dawned on me that that has to have something to do with me. And I need to give myself a break.”
HERSMAGAZINE.TV Dec 2011/Jan 2012 27
H BO ERS UT IQ UE
Christmas
Treat yourself this
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BELOW: PANDORA’s universe of hand-finished jewellery, precious metals and genuine gemstones has expanded this season to include stunning new design-your-own necklace concepts, hand woven 70’s inspired macramé bracelets, two brand new bracelets that you can style with your own selection of fixed charms and oodles more stunning stackable rings in 14 carat gold, sterling silver and oxidized silver. Their new Spring/Summer 2011 ‘Romantic Rock’ collection presents feminine and romantic pieces with an edge. Go online to view the complete collection www.pandora.net or visit your local PANDORA stockist.
BELOW: Immerse yourself in a metropolitan jungle with Maybelline New York Colorama Urban Wild, a fresh, bright kaleidoscope of new colours added to the Colorama family. Let loose and experience a unique adventure with every daring shade you wear. The confident, energetic moods of the city are captured in the four striking new shades in the Colorama Urban Wild range. Urban Coral, Urban Turquoise, Urban Lemon and Urban Orange - stylish, daring hues that scream confidence and downtown chic. Maybelline New York Colorama Urban Wild’s high gloss formula delivers endless shine, for wondrous and wild nails that won’t break the bank.Celebrate a kaleidoscope of exotic shades as energetic and exciting as the sights and sounds of New York City with the Maybelline New York Colorama Urban Wild collection. RRP$8.49 each
LEFT: Farmers lingerie brand Acapella presents the new Extreme Push-Up Bra which boosts breasts up to two cup sizes. It’s the ultimate way to boost your confidence. Lingerie merchandise controller Eula Wood says Farmers is reviving what has been a popular overseas trend among Kiwi women - cleavage enhancement. “The push-up bra was a sensation in the 90s and since then the style has been re-invented to be bigger and better than ever!” she says. Eula says the bra can be worn to gain attention or as an extra ‘pick-me-up’ for those who need a boost in the size department. “You can choose a style to enhance your cup size and get the wow factor, or simply wear it under your regular clothes to give a fuller look,” she says. There are three styles including a strapless bra in the Acapella range available in all Farmers stores. RRP $39.99-$49.99 LEFT: We all want to enjoy the beach with a perfect tan – and we’re all looking for a way to do so safely. Show off your gorgeous glow in the shade this summer with the new Garnier Ambre Solaire Velvet-Touch Natural Bronzer Gel This innovative addition to the Garnier Ambre Solaire range provides a beautifully subtle, natural-looking tan, while perfectly hydrating the skin to leave it feeling soft and silky. The formula contains a naturally-derived self-tanning agent sourced from vegetable oils that works to optimise the natural effect on the skin and provide the most natural result yet. Apricot extract leaves the skin feeling beautifully moisturised with a subtle, apricot fragrance. The transparent gel formulation is ultra-hydrating, non-greasy and gives skin a perfectly streak-free tan every time. RRP$20.49
LEFT: Clash colour this season with bright block stripes from Farmers spring/summer collection. Chic and subtle yet loud in so many ways, block stripes go hand in hand with everything colourful these warmer months. Pair bold stripes with colour block separates and make a saturated sartorial statement or mix in neutral tones for a more conservative take on the trend. Boston & Bailey Wide Turn Down Brim Hat $39.99 Ciara Stripe Bag $59.99 Colour Block Tunic $49.99 Colour Stripe Singlet $19.99 Stripey Skirt $39.99
HERSMAGAZINE.TV Dec 2011/Jan 2012 29
HERSBEAUTY
Summer breeze
Ain’t so fine on your hair… WORDS BY LEA SIBBEL
T
he purpose of a vacation is to relax, but for skin and hair, a trip to the beach often means the exact opposite. Sun, sea and chlorinated swimming pool water often put a strain on both skin and hair, but the right care can help beautyconscious sun-worshippers maintain healthy skin and hair. Sunlight and salt water, which can damage the hair, are everpresent on beach vacations and the worst thing is the combination of the two, says haircare expert Markus Hermann. He advises holidaymakers to take ample care of their hair. People who neglect this advice must accept that their hair will lose colour, shine and volume. “There are products for the hair that offer UV protection, similar to those designed for the skin,” says Hermann. “They deliver moisture and are to a certain extent waterproof. Those who don’t want to bother with them, however, can use a sun hat or bathing cap.
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“These are the most effective ways to protect the hair,” says Franz-Josef Kueveler, art director of the central association of German hairdressers. But because bathing caps seldom add style to beach attire, hardly anyone uses them. Therefore, vacationers should pamper their hair after spending just one day on the beach. “It’s also sensible to have the ends trimmed before the trip. That’s where the damage to hair begins,” says Kueveler. Trimming them makes the ends more resistant to damage and more stable. Salt is especially bad for the hair. Swimming in the sea or surfing leaves the hair with tiny salt crystals dried into it. “It’s like a branding iron has been used on the hair,” he says. “Therefore the saltwater must be thoroughly rinsed out of the hair at the end of the day.” After that the hair should be thoroughly washed and given a conditioning treatment that’s left on the hair for several minutes. Such products contain a protein that is good for the hair. There are products especially for sun-damaged hair and they replenish substances that sunlight damages, says Hermann. Hair that has been dyed needs extra care. Dark colours bleach out in the sun. During vacation, a shampoo for dyed hair can be a quick solution. After a beach vacation, Kueveler recommends reapplying the colour. People who dye their hair blond should also be aware that their hair can take on a green tint from chlorine. Kueveler says an easy way to solve that problem is to dissolve an aspirin in water and pour it over the hair and rinse thoroughly. There are other household products that can bring back shine. “When the hair has become dull and unruly from exposure to sun, saltwater and chlorine, sour products such as vinegar and lemon juice diluted in water and poured over the hair can help shine return and make the hair easier to comb,” Kueveler says. People tend to quickly recognize when
Sour products such as vinegar and lemon juice diluted in water and poured over the hair can help shine return and make the hair easier to comb their skin dries out, but it’s a different matter with the skin. A general rule of thumb in the summer is that when the skin feels tight, the hair also needs some attention. “Many people think about the cancer risk when exposing their skin to sunlight, but they don’t think about how tanning also ages the skin,” says Joachim Christ, a dermatologist in Germany. The skin constantly needs sufficient moisture. “An appropriate level of moisture can, for example, be achieved through milk
products. And specialized moisturizing creams contain urea that penetrates the skin well,” says Christ. He also advises people whose skin is dry in some places, but oily in others, to be cautious. They might think they are doing something beneficial for their skin, but in fact impurities are left behind. This also is true of sunblock products that are effective due to the fats they contain. Christ says if such products cause problems for people with oily skin, it’s better to use a water-based sunblock gel.
HERSMAGAZINE.TV Dec 2011/Jan 2012 31
HERSHEALTH
Aggressive as children – in poor health as adults?
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WORDS BY JEANNINE STEIN PHOTOGRAPHY BY MILENA BONIEK
ifestyle choices – what you eat, how much you exercise – may not be the only forecaster of health later in life. A study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal finds that behavior in childhood, such as aggression and social withdrawal, could predict more sickness in adulthood. The study, released Monday, followed 3,913 children from 1976 to 1978 when they were in grades one, four and seven, through 1992 to 2006. Researchers discovered that displaying aggression in childhood was linked with an 8.1 percent increase in medical visits, a 44.2 percent rise in lifestyle-related illnesses and conditions such as obesity, alcohol dependence and Type 2 diabetes, and a 10.7 percent increase in injuries. That behavior was also associated with 12.4 percent more emergency room visits and a 6.2 percent boost in trips to see specialists. For girls, childhood aggression was linked with more gynecological visits from ages 18 to 23, although that association wasn’t seen when the women were age 29 to 34. Other types of behavior in youth had an impact on health
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in adulthood. Being socially withdrawn was linked with an increased number of dental visits later in life; researchers think this could be due to lower socioeconomic status or shyness, which could lead to being hesitant about seeing a dentist, ultimately requiring more emergency visits. With popularity, however, came some benefits: being more likable in school was associated with less use of health services later on, suggesting that these people had less risky behavior and more peer support that could relieve stress. Education also had an effect on health. Those with lower levels of education were more likely overall as adults to use more medical services, including trips to the emergency room, visits to the dentist, hospital admissions and doctor visits due to injuries. “Our results,” the authors wrote, “suggest that childhood aggression has lasting effects on physical health and can have an impact on the level of use of medical services over many years.” They added that targeting this group of kids and offering better health education could pay off down the road.
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HERSALTHEALTH THIS IS WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR Even one friend can make a difference in protecting you against loneliness and depression, says University of Maine research. This is true of children, too – just one loving grandparent can be a critical buffer against loneliness and depression for a child struggling to gain acceptance from his or her peers. In fact, other studies have found that a grandparent’s involvement in children’s lives also reduces the chances that they will smoke, drink, or commit criminal acts. BLAME STRESS, NOT MUM, FOR YOUR SHAPE If you have an apple-shaped body, with fat stored around your mid-section, the problem may be stress, not your genes. Yale researchers have found that cortisol, which is released in response to stress, promotes fat storage, and fat accumulation around the abdomen has been associated with an increased risk of health problems such as heart disease and diabetes. In fact, scientists found that women with fat stored at the abdomen felt more threatened by stress than women with fat stored around the hips. So exercise, relax and get more sleep to reduce your cortisol levels. You may find you reduce your stress and your waistline as well.
Med news you can really use WORDS BY DR. GEORGIA WITKIN/MCT
S
cience is proving that some old adages you may have doubted are actually true, and that some common activities you never imagined could harm you can actually be dangerous. LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE Cardiologists at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore studied 300 people, half who had heart disease and half who did not, and found that those with heart disease were 40 percent less likely to laugh in a variety of situations. They were also less likely to recognize humour or to use it to get out of uncomfortable spots. The researchers are not yet sure how laughter may help the heart, but it certainly seems true when it comes to the heart, laughter is good medicine. So call in the grandkids and have some fun!
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VENUS CALLING MARS! COME IN, MARS! You always knew it: A study presented at a meeting of the Radiological Society of North America found that men listen with one side of their brains but females use both sides to process language – the practical side and the emotional side. Is that why men tend to tell women how to fix their problems while women offer empathy as well as advice? DON’T DRINK AND TAKE PARACETAMOL When you drink, alcohol is broken down into harmless components by your liver. However, warns recent University of Southern California research, while the liver is engaged in this activity it is vulnerable to serious, even fatal damage by acetaminophen. People who drink heavily – “heavily” being three mixed drinks, a six-pack of beer or a litre of wine on a neardaily basis – should never take more than two regular-strength paracetamol tablets within two to three hours of their last alcoholic drink. Scientists continue to study why the combination is so dangerous. THINK WELL AND YOU’LL BE WELL A University of California at San Francisco study finds that people who think of themselves as successful and powerful are more likely to be healthy – even if they were not particularly “successful,” based on usual income, professional or educational standards. The study, published in the journal Health Psychology, also reported that women who thought of themselves as higher on the social ladder fell asleep easier at night, had lower resting heart rates, and less abdominal fat. It seems that all those good thoughts mean less pessimism, frustration and stress. So choose friends who admire you and don’t get down on yourself, and you’ll be more likely to live long and prosper.
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RRP from $5.90. Available from selected Pharmacies/gift stores nationwide and Smith & Caughey, Queen Street. Selected range available in selected Farmers stores nationwide. Proudly distributed by Pharmabroker Sales Ltd. FREE PHONE 0508 66 44 55.
HERSMAGAZINE.TV Dec 2011/Jan 2012 35
HERSDECOR
Electrosmog affecting your sleep? WORDS BY STEPHANIE HOENIG
A
good bed alone isn’t enough to assure restful sleep, experts say. The bedroom’s decor is also important. Discreet, warm colours help create a calm atmosphere, while pictures hung on the walls should be favourites – taken on a holiday, for example. These are things that help create the right atmosphere for sleep, says professor Juergen Zulley, a sleep researcher at the university hospital in Regensburg. “The bedroom is often used to store every possible household object, such as ironing boards and laundry waiting to be ironed,” points out Ursula Geismann, a furniture design industry spokeswoman in Germany. It’s difficult to wind down and fall into a restful sleep when the bedroom is used as a junk room. The room shouldn’t be crowded with a strange array of objects. Geismann believes that when creating the decor of a bedroom, concentrating on the essentials is sufficient; plain,
linear furnishings work best. But it’s not always so easy to achieve the desired effect. Switching to small wardrobes often doesn’t necessarily solve the problem. They have to serve for storing all kinds of things in addition to clothes, shoes and bags, thus they tend to be large. But they can be moved to another room, Zulley says. Geismann recommends creating a dressing room or walk-in closet out of a small room, if possible. The focal point of the bedroom is, of course, the bed. Good sleep depends not only on a comfortable bed, but also one that is big enough, argues Geismann. People who are taller than 1.85 metres (6 feet) don’t have enough room to stretch out in a standard bed. They are better served by a bed that is at least 220 centimetres long. The bed itself also must be well made. The base usually is made of supporting springs or slats. The mattress and the springs or slats should be compatible.
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Another recommendation for promoting sleep covers new technology. Cellphones, for example, don’t belong in the bedroom, the experts say, despite what all of us instinctively do. Apart from the occasional phone that explodes in the middle of the night while charging, there are other hazards. “There should be nothing in the bedroom that is a reminder of work,” notes Zulley. Computers, laptops and cellphones are taboo. Televisions also should not be placed in the bedroom, even if it is a hard decision not to have one there. This is because the presence of television makes it difficult to wind down and it is not considered optimal to fall asleep while watching TV. There’s also the issue of electro-smog, says Hans Ulrich-Raithel of the environmental institute in Munich. Televisions and other electrical appliances thus should be banned from the bedroom. Even electric alarm clocks are not ideal for sleep. Battery-operated clocks are what sleep experts recommend. Radio waves are also emitted from the base stations of many cordless telephones. Therefore, Ulrich-Raithel advises against having that type of phone in the bedroom. Even though having a phone in the bedroom is a security matter for many people, he says it should stay out of the bedroom. The same is true of the cellphone. “When it isn’t possible to avoid having electric appliances in the bedroom, it is best to unplug them overnight,” says Ulrich-Raithel. When there are a lot of appliances that should be turned off, he recommends using an extension cord with many plugs and a switch so they can all be turned off at once. There are other types of switches that can be integrated into a home’s electrical circuitry to serve the same purpose. Another reason for poor sleep is often noticed by the person who can’t sleep: the temperature of the room is either too high or too low. “For most people an ambient temperature of 18 degrees is optimal,” says Zulley. Before going to bed, opening the window to allow fresh air in is a good idea. Also, the room’s humidity level should be 50 per cent.
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www.danskemobler.co.nz HERSMAGAZINE.TV Dec 2011/Jan 2012 37
HERSCUISINE
The organic panic A new study gives James Morrow cause to revisit the natural foods debate
O
n the subject of children – particularly those other than my own – I have always been something of a cynic, subscribing to the wisdom of such wits as W. C. Fields (who claimed to like his “parboiled”) and Robert Benchley (“Travelling with children corresponds roughly to travelling third class through Bulgaria”). The last few weeks have given me no reason to doubt the wisdom of this approach. While my own offspring are, as always, perfect angels, the behaviour of their contemporaries often leaves something to be desired. Exhibit A: the little girl who announced in our local park on a recent Sunday, with all that top decibel faux-sophistication six-year-old girls are so eerily able to muster, “Dad, like no offence, but this park is lame”. Exhibit B: the tow-headed delight at my son’s kindy who nonchalantly walked up to me one morning when I was doing the school run, placed his two index fingers in the appropriate spot in his mouth, and announced to me, “Hey! You have rabbit teeth!” Exhibit C: the eight-year-old girl whom I overheard the other morning on the street rhapsodising about how superior her lunch was because “it’s all organic”, and how her would-be mate’s lunch indicated negligent parenting of the sort demanding an inquiry by the authorities because the enclosed sandwich was made on – shock, horror – white bread. Well, to the first one I say, the park may be lame, but no one’s making you come back. Or stay, for that matter. To the second, it’s not polite to point, and anyway I have a fear of dentists. And to the third, well, I hope your reading skills are above grade level, because you’ve got some reading to do. Specifically, the recent feature in the Australian science magazine Cosmos, which debunks many of the claims of the US$40 billion – and growing – organic food industry. “A comprehensive review of some 400 scientific papers on the health impacts of organic foods, published by Faidon Magkos and colleagues in 2006 in the journal Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, concluded there was no evidence that eating organic food was healthier”, reports the article. Surely that can’t be right? Organic food must be healthier – after all, it’s all natural, right? Not so fast: “Regardless of how it is grown, the nutritional content of fruit
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and vegetables is more likely to be affected by freshness or varietal differences. One study reported by Magkos tried to narrow things down by growing the same variety of plums in adjacent fields, with one using organic and the other conventional methods: the conventionally grown plums contained 38 per cent more of the potentially beneficial polyphenol compounds than the organically grown ones did.” OK, but even if it’s not better for people, it must be better for the Earth. Here again, the evidence doesn’t stack up. If anything, artificial farming methods, especially no-till techniques advanced in often inhospitable farmlands of Australia, are ultimately environmentally more sustainable:
“Many agricultural scientists estimate that if the world were to go completely organic, not only would the remaining forests have to be cleared to provide the organic manure needed for farming, the world’s current population would likely starve … the poor yield of organic farming means that food production would be a major problem. In Australia, for instance, organic farming yields 50 per cent or less per square kilometre because of pest problems and phosphate-depleted soils.” Yeah, but aren’t all those synthetic chemicals, like, bad for you? Again, the study’s authors have news: “If chemical pesticides are hazardous to health, then farm workers should be most affected. The results of a 13-year study of nearly 90,000 farmers and their families in Iowa and North Carolina – the Agricultural Health Study – suggests we really don’t have much to worry about. These people were exposed to higher doses of agricultural chemicals because of their proximity to spraying, and 65 per cent of them had personally spent more than 10 years applying pesticides. If any group of people were going to show a link between pesticide use and cancer, it would be them. They didn’t.” I am told that in way out in rural New South Wales, there are sheep farmers who are rough as guts and slightly to the right of even your esteemed columnist who are making vast profits on the organic racket, simply because they’ve been too cheap to improve their land for so many years and now their ancient mutton has green cachet. Look, there are plenty of reasons to like organic food. In my experience, organic can but does not always mean quality. Nature is pretty damned dangerous, if human experience and history is any guide, and the genius of our present condition is that we are able to retreat to the redoubts of civilisation. Personally I prefer to look for more meaningful indicators of food that has been raised to meet my taste and ethical standards: Thus I will always pay a premium for free range eggs or pork, because to my palate the end results are demonstrably better. And while chickens, to my way of thinking, are just feathery balls of squawks and salmonella, some-
how pigs to me seem to deserve better than the factory farm. Perhaps it was too much E. B. White or George Orwell as a child. But as I have noted on this page before, while much of the thinking behind biodynamic farming is a lot of New Age hoo-hah straight out of Rudolf Steiner’s brilliant but slightly daffy mind, the technique produces great results in terms of produce. Though here I suspect it is a case of the intimate involvement of the farmer with his land encouraged in a side-long manner by such methods that is doing the trick, not the burying of a ram’s horn stuffed with manure at midnight during a full moon. While typing this I have had a highly unscientific experiment quite literally on the boil. Having picked up a packet of “organic” mince from the local supermarket, and a few tins of organic tomatoes from Italy from the local health food palace, I whipped up a bolognaise sauce to see if there was a demonstrable difference. While the meat does have more flavour than the usual stuff, it seems inferior to a line of “Angus certified” beef my supermarket sells, when I tried some the other week.
Somehow it seems wrong to raise an animal for food and then turn it into something as tasteless as the plastic it is ultimately packed in. The tomatoes? Perfectly fine, and packed in a sugo that was more tomato than water, a nice change from many labels. Taste-wise, almost no difference. The beef, however, was another story. After years of foolishly buying sealed plastic trays of insipid mince, this was a revelation: it actually tasted like meat. It was almost lamb-like in its richness. The proof was in the pudding, or the eventual lack thereof. Like elderly golfers who boast their score matches their age, the oldest boys with great chronological assurance went for five and nearly three helpings each. It was, in the words of one, “the best pasta ever”. I’m no scientist, but I know results when I see them. When it comes to taste, fresh and free range are your indicators of quality. Organic on the other hand strikes me as something that is all too often a middle class indulgence – of the sort that medieval Catholics once bought to absolve their sins – which I can do without.
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HERSTRAVEL
Swim with sea lions in the
Sea of Cortez
WORDS BY BRIAN J. CANTWELL
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n the turquoise water of Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, the sleek and tawny sea lion zoomed past us as if he were a Jacques Cousteau diver clinging to one of those handheld aqua scooters. When he saw our group of snorkelers he stopped like he’d broadsided a blue whale. “Oh – you aren’t sea lions, are you?” he seemed to be thinking, as he flipped and floated upside down just inches away, curiously studying us with soulful, basset-hound eyes. We could see every twitch of his whiskers. In wetsuits and snorkel masks, we were surrounded by juvenile California sea lions, about a year old. Juvenile in age and behavior – zipping up, down and around us, and at times hanging on our dive boat’s mooring line. These guys just wanted to play. “They’re cute, in a disconcerting way!” a fellow snorkeler exclaimed as we clambered back aboard the boat. We were moored at Los Islotes, a group
of rocky islets about a 75-minute boat ride from La Paz, the capital of southern Baja California. Weirdly sculpted by wind and tide, with whorls of rock and minaretlike spires, these are sea stacks like Antonio Gaudi might design. A snow-white coating of yeasty guano is evidence that frigate birds, boobies and other winged wonders take refuge here along with a colony of up to 400 sea lions – whose barking, incidentally, sounds a lot like basset hounds. It’s a popular day-trip tourist outing to “swim with the sea lions.” Once our masks dipped beneath the surface, we saw why fish-eaters like this place. We were in the middle of thousands of shimmering, light-blue anchovies, fish 3 to 4 inches long, schooling in water-ballet unison. For safety, we were told to stay well off the rocks and let the young sea lions come to us, keeping our distance from the big bulls jealously guarding their harems on shore. When one of the adult,
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800-pound females swam by 15 feet from me underwater, barreling like a dark torpedo, it was, yes, disconcerting – without so much cuteness. However, only the youngsters seemed interested in us. “They may come at you, they may even try to hug you, but they’re just playing,” said our dive guide. “They might even try to nibble – don’t pull your hand away, their teeth are sharp.” In other words, swimming with sea lions is safe – until it’s not. So, caveat emptor. (How do you say, “Let the swimmer beware”?) But thousands have done it with nothing to remember but grins. Getting slimed by a dolphin was the day’s other hazard. But for that you get an unbridled show like you’ll never see at SeaWorld. On the way to Los Islotes, our boat circled out beyond Isla Espiritu Santo (it means “Island of the Holy Spirit”), a sprawling, uninhabited outpost of striated pink and ocher promontories that in
2008 was named a marine national park. It’s also part of a UNESCO biosphere reserve and World Heritage Site, in part because it and another nearby reserve harbor 38 unique plant and animal species – desert hares, ring-tailed cats, snakes and the like. Its pocket bays of warm water and caramel-colored sand make it a fabled kayaking and sailing destination. Along the way, our boatload of nine American and Mexican vacationers thrilled to the sight of flying mobulas, a type of ray that breaches out of the water like a placekicked football. “Researchers say it’s males trying to impress females,” said our guide, Chabelo Castillo. “It’s always about sex!” quipped passenger Lauren Seto, from San Francisco. If we were lucky this day, Castillo said, we would see rays, dolphins, sea lions and maybe even whales. A third of the world’s cetacean species hang out here. Dolphins showed up, as if on cue, beyond Espiritu Santo. “Get your cameras!” shouted Castillo. We spent the next half-hour circling in the sea as bottlenose dolphins leapt the wake of our powerboat, flying as high as Flipper ever did to jump through a flaming hoop. “I have seen dolphins thousands of times, but every time I see one leaping, it’s ‘woo-hoo’!” exulted Castillo. The younger crowd delighted in lying on their bellies and peering down from the boat’s bow to see dolphins riding the bow wave, close enough to touch. Thrilling, yes, but remember that dolphins breathe through that blowhole right there. It’s a lot like, well, your own nose. One young woman discovered that with some alarm. “I looked down and saw that my finger was covered with goo, and I realized it was dolphin snot!” said Raluca Ioanid, another visitor from San Francisco. Rounding out the day was an idyllic two-hour lunch break – after a good hand-washing – and kayaking at pretty Ensenada Grande beach, on Isla Partida, connected by a narrow isthmus to Espiritu Santo. At 3 p.m. our boat headed back to its base at CostaBaja marina. We’d seen all on our wish list but whales, I noted to
We spent the next half-hour circling in the sea as bottlenose dolphins leapt the wake of our powerboat, flying as high as Flipper ever did to jump through a flaming hoop Castillo, who shrugged and smiled. Oops, spoke too soon. “Whale!” the cry went up. Every head turned. Ahead, a fluked tail not a whole lot smaller than our 25-foot boat flipped up, then plopped back underwater with a splash of creamy foam. We sped toward it, then slowed, circling.
“Whisssh!” A spout – then another tail flip. “It’s two humpbacks!” Ioanid cried. Our boat zigzagged for 10 minutes as we watched, hushed, waiting for more. Finally, another tail flip, barely 100 feet away. “Yes!” everyone cheered. And, finally, the boat turned for home.
IF YOU GO
FINDING A GUIDE: From La Paz, a number of operators offer boat trips to swim with sea lions at Los Islotes and visit Espiritu Santo or Isla Partida. We went with a well-equipped outfitter called Fun Baja (www.funbaja.com). Costs were (in U.S. dollars) $105 for the daylong tour; $10 for wetsuit rental; $25 for kayak rental, plus 11 percent tax. Lunch provided. Espiritu & Baja Tours offers trips for $75 U.S.; Espiritubaja.com. El Tocolote Beach Club charges about $70 U.S.; www.clubdeplayaeltecolote.com. PROTECTING THE RESOURCE: While battles over development continue, Mexico has made some strides in protecting natural areas in the Sea of Cortez, in part with the help of the U.S.-based Nature Conservancy. After Mexico protected Isla Espiritu Santo as a national park, the Nature Conservancy financed conservation activities such as patrolling, tourism management and environmental education, working in cooperation with local groups. Permits are now required for camping on Espiritu Santo, fees are collected to help support conservation efforts, and personal watercraft are prohibited in sensitive areas. At Los Islotes, permanent mooring buoys reduce underwater anchoring damage and rules prohibit going ashore. Learn more at www.parksinperil.org/wherewework/mexico/protectedarea/ loreto.html.
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HERSSEEIT
At the flicks WORDS BY CARY DARLING & SHEA CONNER
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he Academy Award season is upon us, and it’s time for those films that seem to be beg for Oscar attention. You know the ones where an actor either plays a historical figure, gains or loses a lot of weight, or has lots of opportunities to chew the scenery like a Texas steak. J. Edgar, we’re lookin’ at you. But then there are other types of films where it’s less about the grand gesture and the big moments than the intimate details and the subtle performances. Such is the case with The Descendants, a comedic family drama where nothing brutally explosive happens but is quietly powerful nonetheless. George Clooney is Matt King, a Honolulu lawyer whose wife is in a coma after a boating accident. He has two rebellious daughters – teen-age Alexandra (Shailene Woodley, The Secret Life of an American Teenager) and 10-year-old Scottie (newcomer Amara Miller) – that he doesn’t know how to raise. He also has a busload of cousins on his back because he’s the trustee over valuable real estate that the family owns and most of the cousins want to sell. The Descendants, then, is a story of a man in the midst of crisis: a guy
becoming untethered from the world – marriage, family, the land – that he had long known. Based on a novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings and directed/ co-written by Alexander Payne (Sideways), The Descendants possesses a light touch that’s disarming. The cinematography from Phedon Papamichael (The Ides of March) is postcard-pretty – though you get glimpses of an urban Hawaii not necessarily seen in a lot of movies. And, as in Sideways, there are plenty of humorous moments, many of them involving Alexandra’s clueless boyfriend, Sid (Nick Krause). Yet underneath the smooth surface roils an emotional ocean. Before the accident, Matt had promised himself that he was going to try and repair his collapsing marriage. And Alexandra, in the throes of acting out in the early part of the film, had had a big fight with her mother. If Mom doesn’t wake up, both of them may end up hounded the rest of their lives by regret. While the (largely unknown) ensemble is excellent, it’s Clooney who really stands out. Avoiding many of the tics and mannerisms that have become his trademark,
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he plays a man who suddenly finds himself helpless in the face of what life has tossed at him. It’s not a flashy, showy performance, merely one that is instantly recognizable as honest. Also intriguing is the setting, the Hawaii of contemporary reality as opposed to tourist cliches. Many of the peripheral and secondary characters appear to be of Polynesian/ Hawaiian descent and these aren’t faces usually seen in major Hollywood dramas. The Descendants isn’t the loudest film of the season but it doesn’t need to be. This is a case where speaking softly reveals hard truths.
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f you prefer hearsay over history and acting over accuracy, J. Edgar is the biopic for you! This brooding drama examines the public and private life of an odd, tortured man who worked tirelessly – and manipulated others – to become the first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He served eight presidents over the course of 48 years, but as this film attempts to point out, J. Edgar Hoover really only served himself. The film begins wonderfully with the 1919 Palmer raids against pro-communism anarchists and other supposed radicals. Here’s a history lesson you don’t hear about too much. In response to several of these anarchist bombings, U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer took the law into his own hands – working closely with the 24-year-old Hoover (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and the FBI to attack people for their ideas without evidence of crimes. It’s the first of the film’s many examples of what can happen when sweeping power falls into the hands of a self-righteous man hiding behind the veil of patriotism. As Hoover himself says in the picture, “sometimes you need to bend the rules a little to keep our country safe.” This point is driven home when Hoover questionably uses wiretapping to blackmail other political officials and uses mere speculation to attempt to defame Martin Luther King Jr., a swelling civil rights leader whom he viewed as a revolutionary threat. But the film also touches on some of Hoover’s greatest accomplishments. He encouraged the use of criminal science, in particular, fingerprint identification. In the ‘30s, Hoover gathered the largest collection of fingerprints to date, expanded the FBI’s recruitment and created the FBI laboratory – a division established to examine evidence found by the FBI. The film shows how criminal science played a big part in the arrests of John Dillinger and other bank robbers as well as the controversial case of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping (yet another event in which Hoover played on America’s fears to increase his power). However, large chunks of Hoover’s long career have been left out of the script. From his early refutal of organized crime
and his public battle with T.R.M. Howard, to his work with the controversial COINTELPRO program and just about any interaction he had with President Truman, there’s a lot not that’s never mentioned in J. Edgar. In fact, the ‘40s and ‘50s are largely passed over. Instead, we’re given significantly longer looks into Hoover’s secretive personal life. According to this biopic, Hoover was influenced as much by his hunger for power as he was by Annie Hoover (Judi Dench), his stiff, smothering mother. It’s interesting watching DiCaprio coil in fear of his character’s mother – those scenes bring flashbacks of Norman Bates in Psycho to mind. In a stroke of homophobia, Mrs. Hoover tells her son that she’d rather “have a dead son than a daffodil.” Those words seem to have a huge effect on the sexually confused Hoover’s relationship with handsome, fashionable FBI underling Clyde Tolson (played by Armie Hammer). The exact nature of this relationship, as well as Hoover’s sexuality, have been
the source of widespread speculation for decades. No living person knows the truth. Yet the script of Dustin Lance Black (who deservedly won an Academy Award for writing Milk) insists the men definitely had strong feelings for each other. However, Hoover could barely bring himself to acknowledge their love because of his upbringing. The historical/political drama takes a backseat to forbidden romance down the stretch and J. Edgar becomes more Brokeback Mountain than biopic. After starting as an insightful look at Hoover’s career, you wonder why Black and director Clint Eastwood play up this particular Hoover controversy while so many of his other controversies are merely brushed over. Truly, J. Edgar will be remembered as one of Eastwood’s most unfocused and uneven films, but he also should be praised for bringing out some remarkable performances. DiCaprio will undoubtedly earn an Oscar nomination for his take on the jowly, mixed-up Hoover, who ranged from macho, ruthless and adventurous to conniving, senile and even fragile. Largely, this somber film is too nice to a political figure who was anything but. J. Edgar Hoover was one of the most reviled men in America at one point, so you’d expect this film to follow in the footsteps of Frost/Nixon. Nope. This one’s more Romeo & Juliet.
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HERSLIFE
The girls with no names WORDS BY NASIMA HAMDARD PHOTOGRAPHY BY SHAYNE KAVANAGH/INVESTIGATE
I
n Afghanistan, even a woman’s name is not her own. Khaleda Mohammadi, a 23-year-old university student in Herat, was beaten by her husband and prevented from leaving her home for three weeks. Her offence? Having one of her male classmates utter her name in public. As she tells her story, the young woman, who has been married for two years, was coming out of class one day when a classmate approached her and said, “Khaleda, we don’t have a test tomorrow. It’s been postponed until next week.” Her husband was waiting by the front gate to take her home. When he heard his wife’s name being called out, he grabbed her classmate and asked, “Why do you call out my wife’s name in front of everyone? Isn’t it enough that you know her name?” Khaleda said that when they got home, her husband beat her severely, demanding to know why she allowed the boy to use her first name. “My husband told me I couldn’t go to university any more, and in fact I wasn’t allowed out of the house at all,” she said. He only relented after her father intervened. “My husband allows me to go to university – but with the
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proviso that that he will divorce me if someone says my name again,” she added. Khaleda’s husband, Feraidun, insists he had done nothing wrong. “Out of pride, I can’t stand it when someone calls out my wife’s name,” he said. “I can’t look away and ignore it. She represents my honour. Every man who values his dignity must act like this; otherwise he has no pride.” Khaleda’s story illustrates an enduring Afghan tradition that women’s names must not be spoken by men outside the family. Men who take their wives or daughters to the doctor will often will not tell medical staff the woman’s name, even when medical staff need to write it on a prescription. Even within the family, husbands frequently avoid using their wives’ given names, instead addressing them as the mother of one of their children. Nur Khan Nekzad, spokesman for police headquarters in Herat, said officers had arrested eight men in the past six months for using violence after others had used their wives’ names. It’s a story all too familiar to another Afghan woman named Nasrin.
“Two months ago, my husband went to buy groceries in the market. He saw a friend on the way, who asked him, in front of other men, ‘How is Nasrin?’ My husband had a fight with his friend and injured him with a knife.” She said her husband beat her badly when he got home, demanding to know how his friend knew her name. “So, now he’s in prison, and I face an uncertain future,” Nasrin said. Rahima Yusufi, a lawyer with the local government department for women’s affairs, said her office had 10 cases of this kind in the last six months. “In order to educate men and address the problem, the gender section of the women’s affairs department has organized three or four seminars for mullahs and imams, whose views enjoy great respect, because they can inform people about behavior that
Out of pride, I can’t stand it when someone calls out my wife’s name. I can’t look away and ignore it. She represents my honour goes against religious principles.” Experts on Islam like Khalilollah Ahadi, a lecturer in sharia law at Herat University, say the name taboo has nothing to do with Islam. “Religious scholars have a duty to do some serious work to tackle such problems,” Ahadi said. Sayed Khalil Moayed, a psychiatrist in Herat, said the name issue relates to how women are viewed in Afghan society. “In Herat society, when the name of someone’s wife is used, it is seen as a violation of the man’s privacy and dignity,” he said. “People feel such shame of their
wives’ names that they aren’t even prepared to use them themselves. Men will say ‘my children’s mother’ or ‘my family member.’” Changing that is going to take time, and many men retain powerful prejudices. Herat resident Wahidollah said Afghan men were sensitive about three things – disrespect shown to their country, their faith and their women. As for those who were insufficiently zealous in upholding their honour on these three matters, he said, “killing such individuals is permissible.”
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HERSFAMILY
Mother with monkeys Balancing extreme careers and home life WORDS BY CINDY KRISCHER GOODMAN
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Mireya Mayor with her book, Pink Boots & A Machete/NEWSCOM
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arely recovering from giving birth to twin girls, explorer Mireya Mayor already is planning her next adventure into the jungle. She may go to Africa to observe wild chimpanzees or to Madagascar to try to discover a new species of lemur. Clearly, studying animals on the verge of extinction as a National Geographic explorer has become more challenging since becoming a mother. With four girls under the age of six, Mayor feels a bit differently about making expeditions for two or three months in remote habitats – with little or no communications ability. But she has no plans to give it up. “When I had children, I thought I had to make a decision to stay home or be an explorer,” Mayor said. “I realized that being an explorer is not what I do; it’s who I am.” Ever wonder what’s on the other side of the cubicle? While many of us toil away at our computers, some workers have jobs that involve travel, adventure and even danger. These jobs, intoxicating for the people who hold them, are becoming more prevalent with globalization and preservation. Yet, even the hardiest of adventurers find it challenging to balance their professions and home lives. Sylvia Ann Hewlett, president of the Centre for Work-Life Policy, has studied extreme jobs – those that require people to work 70-hour weeks and those that require long periods of travel. “These extreme jobs are tougher on women because they are less likely to have a stay-at-home spouse,” Hewlett said. “Men tend to have more of a support system at home.” When she’s home, Mayor films wildlife specials at local studios or writes articles for National Geographic Kids. She combines that with brushing her toddler’s hair into ponytails or changing the babies’ nappies at 3 a.m. When she’s in the jungle, it’s all about work. “I’ve been charged by gorillas, touched poisonous snakes, slept across from lions,” she says. After her first two daughters were born, Mayor was invited by TV producer Mark Burnett (Survivor, Celebrity Apprentice and The Voice) to join his TV cast for “Expedition Africa.” She went. While Mayor is away, her husband, Roland Wolff, and her mother pitch in with child care. “My family finds a way to make it work,” she says. Wolff takes over packing lunches and shuttling kids to school, while working full time from home for Leica, a German camera company. “He does travel with his job, too, but we try to make it that one of us is home with the kids,” Mayor says. The daughter of a conservative Cuban mother, Mayor real-
ized in college she wasn’t going the safe route. As a University of Miami student, she cheered professionally for the Miami Dolphins. But upon graduating, her interest was in anthropology and science. She has documented her career highlights and efforts at balance in her new book, Pink Boots and a Machete: My Journey from NFL Cheerleader to National Geographic Explorer. She writes this about her explorations, which have included crashing on a flight to the Congo: “The toughest part isn’t the mosquitoes or snakes or living in wet clothes or even the starving. The toughest part is being away from my family, and not knowing if I will ever see them again.” Like Mayor, Peter Godwin travels to remote and often dangerous areas of the world for his job. Each time, he goes through a major mental shift as he transitions from foreign war correspondent to family man and back. His work takes him on long trips to Africa and Eastern Europe, where he reports for The Sunday Times of London and contributes regularly to National Geographic, New York Times magazine and BBC Radio. He too has a new book, called “The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe.” The book details Godwin’s experiences returning to his native Zimbabwe and Mugabe’s brutal campaign of violence to crush his political opponents and suppress dissent. Back home in Manhattan, Godwin is the father of two boys, ages 10 and 12, and is a hands-on parent. He writes: “I feel that the gap between my new life in New York and the situation at home in Africa is stretching into a gulf, as Zimbabwe spirals downwards into a violent dictatorship. My head bulges with the effort to contain both worlds.” While Godwin travels, his wife, Joanna Coles, a magazine editor, oversees the logistics of child care. When he returns, Godwin works from home, overseeing most of the daily household responsibilities, including the recent handling of a phone call from a son trying to “cut out of choir practice.” “When I’m home, I’m hands-on and present. I try to compensate for when I am gone,” he says. The couple coordinates their schedules, to ensure neither travel for long periods of time while the other is away.
The toughest part isn’t the mosquitoes or snakes or living in wet clothes or even the starving. The toughest part is being away from my family, and not knowing if I will ever see them again “I actually feel less efficient, maybe even more careless, when we’re both home,” Godwin says. “When you’re the only one, the buck stops with you.” Godwin says there have been many aspects of his “extreme job” that require balance, including how much to talk about his work at home: “You don’t want to tell them war stories and have them start worrying about you.” But he does try to convey to his sons his passion for his work. In her research, Hewlett has found that workers with extreme jobs – whether they put in gruelling hours or travel for months – love what they do. In her studies, these workers cite the thrill of the challenge and achieving something big. Extreme jobs fuel workers’ adrenaline highs and beef up the entire nation’s competitive prowess, Hewlett found. Of course, the downside is the affect on home life.
Ellen Prager, a deep sea explorer and marine scientist, says she loves her job, but it has required sacrifice. Prager, author of Sex, Drugs, and Sea Slime: The Oceans’ Oddest Creatures and Why They Matter, can’t imagine herself in a traditional desk job. She has worked as chief scientist at an underwater research lab, which sits underneath 20 metres of water, allowing scientists to spend hours under water studying the ocean without worrying about decompression. But she hasn’t been able to pull off the balance between work and family life. Wanderlust has been an obstacle in personal relationships. “When I am home too long, I get an antsy feeling. I need to have another adventure.” She explained, “It’s hard to develop normal relationships.” But like the others, “I wake up filled with passion and excitement because I love what I do.”
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