http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/jacqueline-pascarl/ Jacqueline has been a writer and social activist since the age of 8 - penning her first protest note regarding anti-abortion posters affixed to the door of the local church. Upon receiving the strap from her school principal, Sr Philomena, Jacqueline noted with satisfaction the nun’s comments on her unique writing style and use of grammar and punctuation. A genuine fallen princess of the royal variety and sometime subject of media interest, she has been deployed as an humanitarian aid worker & Special Ambassador everywhere from war zones in The Balkans and East Timor, to Maasai villages in Kenya, and on Nelson Mandela’s child literacy projects in South Africa. She has lectured at the European Union and the US State Department on human rights issues and given speeches at the United Nations, but she considers her scariest time of gainful employment to be her stint with Australia’s television networks where she worked as an investigative reporter, journalist, producer, documentary film maker and presenter. With three bestselling books published in thirty languages – most of which she cannot understand – (although she does speak eight tongues badly), Jacqueline has been a correspondent for BBC Radio and contributed to magazines whilst managing to breed in all her reproductive decades, popping out four children now aged 6 to 26. She can drive a truck and has commanded a platoon of military types whilst under fire. (The bullet missed.) Jacqueline has received several awards including a UN Commendation. During the Victorian Bushfire Emergency, Jacqueline organised massive relief efforts in convoys of vehicles and distributed aid across the state – a portion of her daily journals were reproduced in Black Saturday – Stories of Love, Loss & Courage from the Victorian Bushfires, published by HarperCollins/News Ltd. A self-appointed arbiter of good taste and modern etiquette, Jacqueline is currently working on three new books due to a love of multi-tasking, and blogs regularly at jacquelinepascarl.blogspot.com. She admits to being a hopeless chocoholic and having an abysmal attitude to sports. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hell-has-been-franchised-and-its-hiding-in-the-suburbs/ Ikea dearest, I remember the excitement as your latest tome plopped into my letterbox with the all the promise of how shiny, organised and streamlined my life would be if I married my dollars to your flat-pack. I enter your hallowed halls with expectations and delight, with wonderment in your innovations and pleasure in your primary colours. Seven hours later, I emerged with the truth from the ‘Seventh Circle of Hell’ you call a store, the veil of infatuation torn from my eyes; having been funneled like a drugged lemming through your maze-like halls amidst aisles of numbered items and towers of indecipherably coded boxes. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Jacqueline Pascarl) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hell-has-been-franchised-and-its-hiding-in-the-suburbs/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hell-has-been-franchised-and-its-hiding-in-the-suburbs/#item4236 Wed, 13 Oct 2010 19:50:19 +0000 Jacqueline Pascarl | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-plot-is-lost-ive-happily-gone-mad-in-suburbia/ The camel is broken, I’ve lost the plot and, quite frankly, it’s been absolutely liberating.  Queue sharp intake of breath…. I went to my children’s school this morning clad only in my purple dressing gown, accessorised with sunglasses, polka dot gumboots, and carrying my undergarments in my pocket.  Granted, I didn’t alight from the car, so for all those peering through the windows of my highly utilitarian people mover, I could have been wearing a very fluffy hoody, but it was the stand I was taking for all us working, stay at home, full time carers, students, mothers, nurses of elderly parents and juggling women that mattered most to me.  I “took one” for my diverse sisterhood, and it’s the best thing I’ve done for myself for quite a while.  feedback@thepunch.com.au (Jacqueline Pascarl) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-plot-is-lost-ive-happily-gone-mad-in-suburbia/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-plot-is-lost-ive-happily-gone-mad-in-suburbia/#item4074 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 19:45:02 +0000 Jacqueline Pascarl | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Food-allergy-fascists-make-peanuts-of-us-all/ Be afraid, be very afraid. The food Nazis are on the hunt through suburban school lunch boxes. Food is no longer a private matter in our educational institutions; parents are quaking in their shoes, terrified that they will be judged on the efficacy of their social responsibility and parenting skills by the contents of the humble pail.  The fallout of which means becoming social pariahs based on white bread, or the inclusion of a Tim Tam. Teachers peer beneath the lids of the not so humble receptacles (very seldom now a simple plastic box – they’re now themed, decorated, iced, chilled, heated, layered, compartmentalised and sheathed) and “tut tut”, or shake their heads at a child’s humble peanut butter sandwich or limp carrot. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Jacqueline Pascarl) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Food-allergy-fascists-make-peanuts-of-us-all/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Food-allergy-fascists-make-peanuts-of-us-all/#item2554 Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:00:17 +0000 Jacqueline Pascarl | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/when-your-body-is-trying-to-tell-you-something-listen/ The liberation that several near death experiences in quick succession gives you is, well, liberating. And on that note fellas, just how are your testicles today? I ask this because I am quite convinced that few people realise that the ‘boys’ begin their existence as ovaries (a foetus starts out with ovaries, which early in the pregnancy descend to the groin to emerge as gonads, producing a male child, or stay in their originating location and produce a female baby) – yup – those mysterious, and little discussed bits within women that dictate an enormous amount of the female physiology, health and reproductive capabilities are just as necessary to a woman, as testes are to a man. Ovaries are a woman’s battery packs.  Are you getting my drift here? Let me have another sip from my glass of neat Vodka – slice of lemon and a chunk of ice (I will no longer pretend to drink champagne as I detest the stuff and find it such a clichéd, girly drink – there’s that liberation again) as I paint a picture for you. I have just survived a number of pulmonary embolisms – blood clots to my lungs, a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in my pelvis, five ovarian tumours, life threatening surgery, oh, and the summer school holidays and a home renovation. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Jacqueline Pascarl) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/when-your-body-is-trying-to-tell-you-something-listen/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/when-your-body-is-trying-to-tell-you-something-listen/#item2471 Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:00:56 +0000 Jacqueline Pascarl | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/cakes-are-the-least-of-poor-bindis-worries/ Cake schmake. Just shut up and pass the eggs! Dave Penberthy’s musings about Rosemary Stanton’s rant on the evil of packet cake mixture being pushed by Bindi Irwin and her family on televisions across Australia is off the mark. The point that worries me doesn’t involve cakes, but Bindi’s “childhood”. Bindi Irwin and her brother spend much of their lives being home schooled, they mix and play with the children of employees of Australia Zoo, not children of diverse backgrounds through exposure to the usual forms of community education and socialisation.  feedback@thepunch.com.au (Jacqueline Pascarl) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/cakes-are-the-least-of-poor-bindis-worries/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/cakes-are-the-least-of-poor-bindis-worries/#item611 Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:06:09 +0000 Jacqueline Pascarl | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/an-open-letter-to-middle-aged-men-with-fast-cars/ Nothing screams erectile dysfunction as loudly as a diamond encrusted Rolex. In my vast experience of travelling the globe, participating in royal activities, grand soirees, and through my exposure to the well heeled, I have come to the conclusion that it takes a certain type of man to sport a watch the value of which would feed several villages in the Sudan for years. As well, one would perhaps think that in light of the Global Financial Cock-up, those with fat wallets pillaged from haemorrhaging shareholders would catch on that discretion is the better part of valour – or at least, prudent during our Bernie Madoff days. But these men are of a sad, and certain age, needy of ego and (I suspect) with erections propped up by Viagra and carbon based stones. Some have emerged from communist China with newly found capitalist bank accounts and they want everyone to know it. Occasionally, they are Hip Hop gangsta rappers who believe that extra bling will function as a light source if ever marooned in the wilderness. Certain Queensland property developers have also been known to sport the links of time & tack, co-coordinating their ensembles with white shoes. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Jacqueline Pascarl) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/an-open-letter-to-middle-aged-men-with-fast-cars/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/an-open-letter-to-middle-aged-men-with-fast-cars/#item504 Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:35:44 +0000 Jacqueline Pascarl | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-truth-behind-the-burqa/ Before this commentary gets underway, I feel that it is necessary to close the gate before the horse bolts. So first up, let me say that I am not anti-Islamic, I have lived as a Muslim woman from the age of seventeen until I was twenty two (and admittedly, found it not to my liking for a number of reasons). Much of my professional life has been spent working with, and for Muslim people in the war zones of Bosnia Herzogovina, Kosovo and Albania as an humanitarian relief worker, and I have traveled and worked extensively in the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Asia - so I have seen quite a bit of the world and can compare how varying societies adapt the Islamic religion to the cultural morays and sensitivities of their regions. Tory Maguire’s piece yesterday and the reader’s comments that followed had much to say on the reasons often cited by western media and society about what is believed to be the motivation for Muslim women to don the burqa and headscarves.  The common, misinformed perception is that Muslim women mostly wear the burqa to express their religious devotion.  feedback@thepunch.com.au (Jacqueline Pascarl) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-truth-behind-the-burqa/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-truth-behind-the-burqa/#item448 Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:52:59 +0000 Jacqueline Pascarl | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/plastic-surgery-confuses-orgasm-with-asking-for-salt/ If one’s face can’t register an orgasm, is the climax still as good? Startling as it may seem, I feel liberated by the decay of beauty.  It’s a bold statement, but in this era, when the glorification of all that is youthful is paramount, I hope that I look like the mother of my eldest daughter, (who for the record is almost 24,) and not at all like her sister. I don’t want to be in competition with her, or my younger girl, who is only eight. I want them to take up the mantle of their own prime years and have me cheering them on from the proper place - as the more senior female of the clan. Our society so abhors the discussion of ageing and death, that we have embraced a whole new industry of psychological touchstones involving chemicals and knives and a race to look 10 years younger in 10 days. I don’t castigate or object to anyone making personal choices regarding cosmetic procedures, nor do I rule them out for myself if I feel I want them. But I am concerned that so many of my friends, acquaintances and even other people in the media are beginning to relinquish their unique expressions of emotion and life experience at the point of a needle. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Jacqueline Pascarl) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/plastic-surgery-confuses-orgasm-with-asking-for-salt/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/plastic-surgery-confuses-orgasm-with-asking-for-salt/#item373 Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:52:06 +0000 Jacqueline Pascarl | Author bios | The Punch