Women’s Health Information

By 2010 analysts predict that women will control 50% of private wealth in the United States. Already women control around $7 trillion in consumer and business spending and women-controlled businesses employ more people in the United States than all the Fortune 500 companies combined.

Women are now the majority users of the Internet and have passed men as the primary consumers of computers, cameras and PDAs.

So why are we still facing discrimination, physical abuse and salesmen who can’t cope with the idea that we may have more of a clue than they do?

We take electricity for granted. We flick a switch and the light comes on, we press a button and the dishwasher begins its wash cycle. We drop bread into the toaster and it begins to prepare our breakfast. We do it every day and we never stop to think where the electricity that powers those lights and appliances comes from.

Electricity is part of our daily life that we take for granted. But it doesn’t come out of thin air – electricity is the produced by power stations that can employ any one of a number of different methods.

Here in Australia much of our power comes from the burning of coal and the same is true in other countries too. Oil can also be used to produce electricity as can water, the sun and the wind. Unfortunately most countries depend on coal and oil and as those resources become more finite and more expensive we begin to look for alternatives.

Not every country has access to sufficient levels of sunlight to make solar energy a reasonable alternative and besides, generating the amounts of electricity that the western world needs to survive requires more generating power than the current level of solar technology can provide.

And it’s the same with wind generated electricity. Wind farms are beginning to appear but they are a long way for reaching the generating level that we need.

So it should come as no surprise that more and more countries are looking to nuclear power to supply the electricity that we need every day. But is that a wise alternative?

There are many who say that it is a wise alternative and that it is perfectly safe but to those people I say just four words – Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.

If you don’t think that a major accident could happen at one of the West’s nuclear power plants then remember Three Mile Island that happened in 1979 and seven years later Chernobyl spewed its deadly radiation cloud into the atmosphere.

Both were accidents caused by people who were either poorly trained or desperately trying to cut corners to save costs. The legacy of those accidents will haunt us for many years to come and the reminder of Chernobyl – a site still not stabilized 20 years after the event – will stay with the world forever.

If you think nuclear energy is safe to use then visit the site Chernobyl Revisitedand take some time to read the text and look at the photos taken during a journey through the dead zone.

Who wants to live in a world where there are dead zones?

And if Chernobyl Revisited is too graphic for you then visit Chernobyl: Ghost of the Soviet Union – it’s not quite so stark and threatening.

And once you have seen what simple accidents could do – accidents that came through cost cutting and poorly trained staff – you decide whether you want public companies (those very companies who cut costs to save money and improve their bottom line) to be allowed to build a nuclear reactor in your country.

Many families suffer considerably when their child or children leave home. The empty nest syndrome is something that is very real. I will endeavour to follow this story up with some information on the empty nest syndrome…

I’ll also try and find information on support facilities to help you through the tough times when you find that the house is empty and all your children or your child has left home…

Toni

Coping with a child leaving home.

On my daughter’s eighteenth birthday, she announced that she would be moving out after Christmas. This was a big shock, since she had just recently started a new job, that wasn’t even quite up to minimum wage. I wondered how she thought she was going to handle all her expenses.

I tried to get her to wait and save up some money to cover all of her expenses, but she was stubborn and thought she could do just fine with her part-time job. I knew she had to find out the hard way and already I had begun to worry about my daughter, feeling that empty feeling of my only child being out on her own.

On December the thirtieth she moved out. The feeling I had was one of loneliness, dread and worry. I constantly worried whether she was eating right, if she was safe, was she at home at a decent hour and how her job was holding out.

I wanted to rush to her house and order her back home, but knew that she was now an adult on her own. So I decided to be patient and not let her see me worry about her. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do, but knew in my heart, that just watching over her was all I could do.

I really shouldn’t have worried so much, since she began to drop by the house every so often, until it became an every day thing. She would come eat dinner, do laundry or borrow money; aggravating as that was since she had asserted her independence, I grabbed hold of every bit of time that I could spend with her.

I wanted so badly to tell her to return home and save up some money, but I’m just as stubborn as her and couldn’t bring myself to utter the words.

It wasn’t long before she lost her job and couldn’t pay her bills. She soon found out that she was pregnant and didn’t know what to do about the situation. She wanted the baby, but didn’t know if she was going to be able to take care of it financially on her own.

Watching her worry about her financial situation and her baby ate at my heart. She didn’t want help from her dad and I, so we just had to sit back and watch her struggle. It was heartbreaking and I didn’t know how to cope with my little girl becoming depressed.

During this time, her home was broken into several times and she was afraid to stay at home by herself. We invited her to spend the nights at our home on the couch and she willingly took us up on the offer. Although we wanted her home permanently, we knew that asking was only going to make her more stubborn to remain out on her own. It had to be her choice.

Finally I decided it was time for mom to step in and do something about her situation. I contacted her and sat her down for a long talk. I asked her to come home until she could get on her feet and the baby was born. No rules, other than common courtesy of a phone call if she was going to be out late, keep her room clean and have respect for her parents. I knew that she would need help with her pregnancy and I could help her get the help she needed. I wanted her home safe and I was willing to do anything to make her come home.

I think she finally understood that not only was I her mom, but her friend. I needed her, just as much as she needed me and the support I could give her to get through her first round of entering into the adult world. She asked for help in moving, learning how to deal with finances and finally admitting to us, that she was not ready for the world outside of her safe haven she called home.

I finally realized that the next time she moves out on her own, I will have to let her spread her wings and fly, in order for her to learn life’s lessons and become the competent adult I know that she will be.

Now she has been home for the past seven months, expecting her first baby and growing up a bit more before heading out into the adult world.

It will be hard to let her and the grandbaby go when the time comes, but I know that in order for her to be able to learn how to stand on her own two feet, I’m going to have to learn to loosen the apron strings a bit. I know in my heart, that if she needs me at any time, she knows that mom will be there.

Brenda