Many thanks to Kiwi in Oz for the transcript. The NZ TV Documentary was shown on New Zealand Television.
'Love Hurts'.
Lucy's NZ TV Documentary.
NZ Documentary ('Love Hurts') on child abuse. It went to air on NZ TV3 (same channel that shows XWP) last Tuesday (1st Sept), and Lucy Lawless was the presenter. I think this means she did all the narration, but I'm not totally sure. She appeared on-camera at the beginning in her green cardy (cardigan) - same one she's wearing in the pic with the article in NZ Herald Aug 29-30. Anyway she doesn't look much like a warrior princess, but stunning nevertheless. Doesn't sound like an American warrior princess either. The following is what she said while on-camera to introduce the prog. in a pretty formal manner:
"As Xena Warrior Princess I have dedicated my life to helping people free themselves from tyranny & injustice. And now in the real world I'm taking a stand against one of the most horrible crimes; child abuse. In New Zealand more than 10,000 of our children are seriously abused each year. (Cut to figures on screen as Lucy says what's on screen) That's over 20 children a day and that's only the reported cases. 80% of children are abused by a parent or someone they know. 70% of prison inmates are abused as children. 1% of child abuse cases end in death." (Lucy quite emotive/strong emphasis on 'death').
(Back to Lucy on screen in her cardy with hair coming forward over one shoulder) "Around 20% of our 900,000 children are at risk of abuse each year. Yet these are conservative figures & regarded as only the tip of the iceberg. There are many children who suffer in silence, whose plights never come to the attention of those who could help. If we all had super-powers it would be easy to overcome the problems of child abuse. Unfortunately the solution is complex, as we discover what makes parents abuse their children." (cut to fairground roller-coaster while Lucy says "What sent them over the edge ?")
I know there has been some debate about whether or not some violence (or maybe abuse) in XWP is presenting a bad role model that children might copy. The main argument of 'Love Hurts' is that abuse of children by parents is done by parents who have learnt poor parenting patterns as children. The prog. focuses on about 4/5 parents who have abused their children, either with physical violence, or non-violent neglect or emotional abuse. There is a stress on how the parents were themselves abused as children, and on the intervention programs that they are participating in to break the cycle of abuse.
There is a guy who seems to be some kind of expert/worker in this field, who made the 2 following points:
1) The biggest effect on children is not from the amount of physical violence children suffer but from the emotional climate they experience. An emotional climate of fear & mistrust will have the biggest negative affect on the way they behave as an adult and in adult relationships.
2) The children who are likely to be affected most by violence, are children who see violence between their parents & are also themselves on the receiving end of violence.