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kilkennyobserver.ie
The Kilkenny Observer Friday 07 January 2022
Opinion
What Ghislaine Maxwell’s conviction shows us AS I SEE IT MARIANNE HERON
THE conviction of socialite Ghislaine Maxwell in the dying days of last year suggests that the balance in the outcomes of sex crime trials has shifted in favour of abused women and girls. And so in one sense it has. Maxwell faces up to 65 years in jail for trafficking girls for abuse by the late Jeffrey Epstein, her former boyfriend. The usual defence ploy of discrediting the complainants so that the victims rather than the perpetrator are to blame didn’t work for the defence on this occasion. Perhaps it didn’t pay off due to altered attitudes thanks to the #metoo campaign which has called out sexual abuse by men. Blaming women is an approach that is as old as the hills when it comes to deciding who to believe, in rape and other sex crimes. The bias against women is spelt out in phrases like ‘she was asking for it’, ‘she is no better than she ought to be,’ ‘she is only in it for the money’. Destroying the alleged victim’s credibility has certainly worked in the past. Remember the infamous 2011 trial of
Dominique Strauss -Khan, at the time head of the International Monetary Fund who was accused of sexual assault and the attempted rape of maid Nafissutou Diallo in a New York hotel. Initially, Strauss Khan was indicted by a grand jury. Immediately a private detective, hot-shot lawyers and PR people were hired for the influential StrausKhan. The case was dismissed
barely a month later when the prosecution ‘reviewed’ their evidence due to ‘lack of credibility’ on the part of the 32-year-old migrant from Guinea. Put it another way, and the defence were ready to say that she couldn’t be believed. Wind back to another occasion, the so-called rugby rape in Belfast three years ago. Two members of the Irish rugby
team, Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding, were accused of raping a 19-year-old girl at Jackson’s home and two other players were accused of lesser offences. The trial last nine weeks, was sexually explicit with derogatory sexual messages by the players on social media made public, and the case divided Ireland into pro-victim and pro-player camps. In the end
the jury returned a unanimous not guilty verdict. No matter what any of us may think about the case and its outcome the experience of the alleged victim during the trial would make any woman rape victim think twice about seeking justice through the courts. The young woman involved was subjected to eight days of tough cross-examination by male barristers
and her underwear – a thong – was handed to the jury as evidence. To many it seemed the score was rugby players one, victim nil. Sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein hanged himself in jail in 2019, Maxwell stood alone to take the rap for the procurement that fed billionaire Epstein’s appetite, and that of some of his associates, for underage girls. Although Epstein’s sex trafficking was known about for years he had only served 13 months in a county jail for lesser offences up until 2018. Then a new investigation into his activities came about but only due to an investigative journalism series in the Miami Herald which revealed that the evidence of 50 of his victims had been set aside due to pressures from the influential Epstein’s legal team. He was arrested a year later and took his own life rather than face conviction. No other men, none among those high fliers who enjoyed not only hospitality but engaged in sex with underage girls on offer trafficked by the man who called his private plane the Lolita Express, have yet faced arrest. Investigation into those other abusers won’t happen. The balance may have shifted in favour of female victims but not so far yet that that the rich and influential will be prosecuted.
2022 What’s your focus? Avoiding the pain of painkillers CLAIR WHITTY
The end of the year can be a good time to reflect on the year gone by and think about any changes you would like to make for the year ahead. This could mean doing something new, or it could be something that you want to stop doing, something that you feel adds no value to your life at this point. It might be something simple like improving your diet so that you include healthier options on a more regular basis. Maybe you want to increase how
much exercise you do. It could be starting a new course that you have been thinking about, learning a new skill, playing the piano, learning a new language. It could be about modifying your behaviour and how you react to situations in your life. It’s a great time to think about your health. Maybe you’d like to improve your immune health, joint health, skin health, or perhaps you are thinking about how you could improve the overall health of your family. For me, it’s a time to think about what health issues are most important to focus on now that I am 57 and postmenopausal. Bone health and heart health are important
areas to look after at this stage. Plus, I noticed some hair loss this year which I am working on now. My cholesterol is high. It was a stressful year, that’s my excuse, plus lack of exercise, hormonal changes, stress, and maybe the odd chocolate bar, would have had an impact on the cholesterol numbers. The other area I want to improve on, is to walk more. I tell myself that being on my feet in the shop and going up the stairs is great exercise. It is helpful, but not the solution to exercise and getting out for a good fresh air walk. These are the areas that I will focus on for 2022. The common connection to achieving these goals are: a healthy diet, exercise, stress control, and quality sleep. I will also top up on nutrients to support the process. I will let you know how it all goes throughout the year. In the meantime, I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year, I hope that it’s a good one. Call in to see us at Market Cross Shopping Centre, we would love to chat and help you with your new regime. Natural Health Store Market Cross Shopping Centre Phone: 056 7764538 Email: info@ naturalhealthstore.ie Shop online www. naturalhealthstore.ie
ANDREW MCDONALD HYPNOTHERAPIST
SOMETIMES you hear people complaining about the “nanny state” when it comes to medication. Somebody can’t get a pill for this or that and instantly they put the blame on the medical profession and/or the government. There are occasions when there may even be a little substance to their protests. The truth is, compared to certain other parts of the globe, the prescription drug industry and the work of physicians are heavily regulated areas. The question is however, are we actually more rather than less lucky that we live with such a system? A docudrama recently featured on Disney+, having earlier been screened on Hulu in America, suggests the answer is a resounding yes for the former of these two options. Dopesick, which dramatised the opioid scandal in the United States, tells the story of what can happen when regulation is weak. Throw in a bit of corruption and the potential is there
for a desperate crisis. In the nineties, Purdue Pharma, a major American pharmaceutical company developed a drug, and drove a campaign of aggressive promotion, including intimidation of healthcare professionals, which was supposed to “end pain”. Through trickery, manipulation and corruption they painted their medication, OxyContin, as essentially non-addictive. This was lies. It was ferociously addicting. So much so that it became colloquially known by the derogatory term “hillbilly heroin” as one of the areas most targetted by Purdue were the mining communities of the Appalachian region. It literally turned people into desperate addicts simply by them following their doctors’ advice. In an overwhelming number of cases, they didn’t initially abuse it, it abused them. It was even being prescribed in huge amounts for minor issues like a sore back, dental pain or headaches. The Sackler family who owned Purdue Pharma wanted to sell their drug worldwide and made a concerted effort to get it approved in Germany. The idea was Germany, having famously tough pharma-
ceutical regulation, giving approval would make life easier to get the drug on the market elsewhere. The Germans steadfastly refused. There is no reason to doubt that similarly vigorous regulatory authorities in Ireland wouldn’t have met the Sacklers with the same response. Opioids are serious stuff. Used in the right way, they have an important role to play in medicine. A weak version, codeine, is available without prescription in Ireland. Even with this much less potent opioid, pharmacists are very careful to restrict who purchases it, in what amount and will demand good reasons to sell it over a safer, nonopium based painkiller. Even with codeine, people can become addicted very quickly. In Ireland, as elsewhere, pain medication addiction is a serious issue. All of which leads us to another question. Should we be so quick to reach for painkillers when we’re feeling sore? Certainly there are painful ailments which call for pills, whether prescribed or over-the-counter, but others we can remedy without needing to swallow a tablet. Next week, we’ll look at some of the alternatives.
