Riina & Dan

Amnesty Internation defended itself against from the Vatican recently.

“No more financing of Amnesty International after the organisation’s pro-abortion about-turn,” said a statement from the Roman Catholic Church’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.*   

What has AI done to deserve the wrath of the Catholic Church? They have a policy of supporting women who choose abortion, when their lives are in danger and in the case of rape and incest.

“Amnesty International stands alongside the victims and survivors of human rights violations. Our policy reflects our obligation of solidarity as a human rights movement with, for example, the rape survivor in Darfur who, because she is left pregnant as a result of the enemy, is further ostracised by her community,” said Kate Gilmore.**   

The Catholic Church reminds us why we love this progressive, broad minded, rational institution. If you’ve ever considered joining Amnesty, now would be a good time.  

* From the BBC 

** From Amnesty

So anyone who’s looked at my list of recently read books will see that I’m currently enamored of quirky Economics books. I was reading a review of “More Sex Is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics” and thought I’d like to buy it. So where should an Australian buy this book? At your local bookstore surely? No postage from there – should be cheaper than buying it from the Internet right? Right? The book is hardcover and will be released on the 18th of June.

• Collins has it for $45.00, with deliver of $6.95 for a total of $51.95
• Dymocks is also $45 with delivery of $7.95 to Melbourne for a total of $52.95
• Angus & Robertson has it at $45 with shipping price of $6.50 for a total of$51.50
• FishPond.com.au Has it for $59.99 ( pre-order version ) with free shipping (orders over $50)
• Booktopia sell it for $35.96 with postage of $6.50. for a total of $42.46
• Amazon US is stocking it for $AUD 20.55 plus $AUD 14.351 for shipping for a total of $AUD 34.901
• Amazon UK £6.52 ( $AUD 15.377 ), £7.98 delivery ( $AUD 18.82 ) for a total of $34.19.

Aside from Booktopia, the lack of competition between local book stores stands out. What also stands out is that it’s cheaper to buy the book from the UK or the US and have it shipped here. Even with $18.82 shipping costs from the UK – it’s still cheaper to buy it there! What gives?

Last night we celebrated Cass & Andy’s wedding. It went off like a frog in a sock. Cass looked beautiful, Andy looked dashing and they were both suitably nervous. We’ve uploaded our photos here.

We finally managed to get around to booking our Honeymoon the other day. After faffing about, we booked through Expedia‘s Australian site. Quite a handy site – it was easy to add an extra stop over ( Rome ), so we’ll be flying Melbourne -> HK -> London -> Helsinki -> Rome -> HK -> Melbourne. Expedia: Recommended.

So, 21 days of holidays coming up. We’ll spend 8 days in Finland and the rest in Italy somewhere. Somewhere around here will do nicely. That photo of Manarola is mine BTW, last time I went there.