In this morning's The West Australian newspaper there is an article on a woman in Malaysia who has been sentenced to six strokes with a rattan cane by a sharia court for drinking alcohol which breaches sharia law. She will be the first woman to be caned in a Malaysian jail. Amnesty International has urged authorities to revoke the sentence and abolish the practice. The woman is described as a model and a mother of two and says she is prepared to accept the punishment. She will be caned in jail next week.

What disturbs me is that the Islamic authorities describe caning as education not punishment. I trained as a secondary school teacher in the days when the cane - a much thinner version than that used in Malaysian judicial punishment - was still used in schools. On one occasion I was working in the deputy principal's office when a boy was sent for punishment. I did not actually see the blows struck but I will never forget the sound of the cane and the boy's white face as he walked out past me. After that I never sent another child to the office.

In my experience with few exceptions the same group regularly caused trouble and there was little improvement in their behaviour whatever punishment was applied whether they were girls (who did not get caned) or boys (who did). In fact "getting the cuts" was often seen as a badge of honour among the boys. This group of young people had problems of many kinds that needed to be dealt with and for the most part were not, either by society or the school. Caning did not educate them because it did not deal with those problems. Indeed, I suspect, it may have increasingly brutalised them.

Caning does not educate people. It punishes them, and if that's why it is used at least be honest about it.

The Right to Choose.

I have been following the case of Christian Rossiter (an Australian man currently living in a Perth nursing home after an accident left him a quadriplegic and having to be fed through a tube into his stomach). He has been asking carers at the nursing home not to feed for months. He feels his life, with no prospect of improvement, is intolerable and wanted the right to have his request not to been tube fed respected. He is well aware of what that would mean. The nursing home has continued feeding him despite his having the right under the law to refuse medical treatment. Today the Western Australian Supreme Court granted him that right saying he was of sound mind and had the right to refuse nutrition and hydration.

This is such a sad case and I am glad Mr Rossiter can now make his own decisions about his medical treatment. Let us be clear about this. It is legal to refuse medical treatment. If I am of sound mind and refuse to take medication and further down the track I die as a consequence that is no-one's business but mine. It is not the business of a nursing home, a right to life group or anyone else.

I'm not at all sure how I would respond in a situation like this - who can without experiencing it - but if I did make that decision it would be considered and a deliberate choice and I would expect my wishes to be respected. After all I would not be asking for someone to give me a lethal injection, strangle me or cut my throat. I would, in fact be asking for nature to be left to take its course. If the only way I can take in food is by artificial means then I am interfering in the course of nature. I may well think that is desirable and want to hang on to my life and that is fine. I would be making a deliberate decision to avail myself of all the medical options. On the other hand I may think it was not desirable and, knowing the end result would be to die sooner, I may opt out of the treatment which is disrupting the natural course of things. If I made that choice and death was the result so be it. In medical matters just because we can do something doesn't mean it is desirable that we should and the patient's informed consent should be an absolute requirement to any treatment.

One of the things that has disturbed most about this situation is the number of people who see Mr Rossiter's rights as less important than their own beliefs. I'm not going to talk about this from either side of the religious debate. I don't care if you are a religious person or an atheist or anywhere in between. Right now I'm fairly unimpressed with them all. With due respect to all those who have sought to influence the outcome of this case however fervent your belief that you are right it is just that - your belief. I respect your right to hold a belief and to practise whatever faith that is but in return I expect you to permit others to hold whatever belief they have and live by its tenets as long as it doesn't harm others.

At least part of the problem with the issue is that the term of voluntary euthanasia implies giving someone the authority to kill another. We need another more appropriate and less emotive way to describe a situation like this. Mr Rossiter was seeking the right to die naturally. He did not ask someone to kill him. Any responsibility is his and no-one should have the right to deny him the choice.

Of "Tender Morsels".

This is not a real review, just a personal view of the book.

I read Margo Lanagan's novel Tender Morsels shortly after it first came out last year. I was simply blown away by it. It is going to be one of those powerful novels that I come back to over and over. The language is so exquisitely wrought, whether it is one of the horrific scenes (of which there are a number so be prepared but don't let them put you off. This is not gratuitous violence) or the sweet description of two unlikely lovers, that it coils inside you so you live the experiences with the characters. This can be confronting but Tender Morsels is in the tradition of stories like those collected by the Brothers Grimm before they were sanitised into froth and the darkness removed and so is often dark and challenging reading.

What confuses me is the outcry from some sources about the gritty reality of the writing. I've read reviews where it's described in ways that would make you think it is a blow by blow description of the terrible events that befall some of the characters. Where this comes from I do not understand. This is not a book with explicit descriptions of rape, incest or other sexual activity. We are left in no doubt as to what has happened but we do not actually have the mechanics given. The language used is so rich and skilfully worked that the reader is drawn into the experience and our imagination fills in the details. So effective is this that there were times when I had to stop reading for a while because it was too much to bear (no pun intended).

Much of the controversy has been because it is marketed as YA. Do I think this is a book for pre-teens? No. It deals with issues that most would not be able to identify with or understand. On the other hand, teens of both sexes have to learn about a world that is often not safe and where violence of all kinds does happen. More to the point they know it. Unless they are completely insulated from society - no news broadcasts, no television, no peers to talk to, no contact outside their own home - they know these things happen. We may prefer to think they don't and want to protect them but the real world is not a fluffy fairy tale and Tender Morsels involves the good and the bad that happens in the real world.

There is no happily ever after romantic ending in Tender Morsels and it is not a comfortable read but it is an eminently satisfying one. I recommend this novel highly. I am not surprised it received a Prinz Honor Award this year.

Love is...

a cat not normally a lap cat who comes and climbs on your lap, reaches up and gives you a kitten kiss and then climbs up to rest on your shoulder the way he used to when he was a tiny kitten, purring all the time as he reaches over periodically to give you another kiss on the cheek. Not all that comfortable for either of us but sweet.

More Clarion South Goodies

Sadly they're not mine.

First Christopher Green's story A Hundreth Name is up at Abyss & Apex. Why don't you drop over there and try it for yourself. As with anything Chris writes it is worth reading.

Then there's Laura E. Goodin, who, creative person that she is, between writing plays, stories and much else, has set up Outlandish Voices, podcasts showcasing writers from the Wollongong area. The first three stories are by Richard Harland, Robert Hood and Cat Sparks and you'll find them here.

It's been a pretty messy year for me and mine so far and as a result I think I might have missed mentioning that Peter M. Ball's novella Horn published by Twelfth Planet Press is also out in the wide world.

I do try to keep up with all my Clarion South mates but I have a horrible feeling that sometimes I miss one. If I have missed you it wasn't intentional so let me know if you had something published and I'll add you to the ever growing honour roll.

The Football...

has just finished and the Eagles showed they can still play football. That was a exciting match and the win was well deserved.

What do we really see?

If you watch a cat or dog (or any other creature for that matter) you can't help noticing how aware they are of where they are and what's happening around them. Even pampered, indoor pets respond to sounds, sights and smells. They may not do anything about it but ears prick, noses twitch and they focus on whatever disturbed them until they are told or work out that no danger threatens.

So what has happened to those instincts in humans. Granted we live in cities for the most part where there is little unfamiliar. We tend to follow the same routes and routines to the point that most of us have at some time found ourselves where we were going without any real memory of how we got there.

It seems to me that we are either losing these basic instincts or cutting ourselves off from the world in which we live. I'm not suggesting we should all go out hunting game to revive our awareness or live in a hut in the bush. Nor should we become hyper sensitive to the point that we are afraid to go anywhere or do anything. What I do think is that we should try to experience the world in which we live to the fullest extent we can. It's a pretty amazing place and along the way we might actually, by learning from what is happening around us, make ourselves safer.

What started this train of thought was something quite unimportant. Last Thursday Virgo and her partner headed off on their travels beginning in South America. Pisces and I were standing in the airport terminal waiting for them to check in. Before I go any further I should tell you that we are both passionate AFL - Australian Rules football - supporters. There are two teams in Western Australia - the Eagles and the Dockers - and the Dockers have a uniform which is largely a very rich, deep - and one would think unmissable - purple.

So we're standing chatting, watching Virgo progress along the check in line, when two young purple clad Dockers players come out of the check in and walk past us. After this a camera crew from a local television channel sets up about four metres away from us and are joined by a newspaper photographer. Two minutes later three Dockers go by, then two more, and another five, then the coach. Then a second camera crew arrives.

At this point I ask, "Where are the Dockers playing this weekend?"

Pisces asks, "Why?"

I say, "Because they are here. Didn't you notice them?"

Pisces does a double take and realises for the first time that we are pretty much surrounded by players, support staff and cameras.

By the way the Dockers match is on television at this minute and they look as though they're in for another drubbing. Not that I can crow. I'll be surprised if the Eagles do any better tomorrow - but I can still hope in spite of everything, can't I.