International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2013 (REVISED)

This is a revised version of the blog I published a week too early due to my dyscognition!

Today is International Day of Persons with Disabilities, 3 December 2013. The theme for this year is “Break Barriers, Open Doors: for an inclusive society and development for all”

This is what the United Nations Enable site has to say:

"It’s time to effectively implement the Outcome Document of the High Level Meeting and to break barriers and open doors: to realize an inclusive society and development for all!

 The commemoration of this year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities provides an opportunity to further raise awareness of disability and accessibility as a cross cutting development issue and further the global efforts to promote accessibility, remove all types of barriers, and to realize the full and equal participation of persons with disabilities in society and shape the future of development for all!"

One might have thought that this would be an important and newsworthy event. Well if Google is anything to go by, it looks as if there has not been a single UK main-stream media news story about it in the last twenty-four hours. Though stories have appeared in inter alia Kuwait, Oman, India and New Zealand.

I have also ploughed through my feedly newsfeed for the past twenty-four hours. Not a hoot from the BBC nor ITN.

So maybe one might expect the UK Government's department, the Office for Disability Issues (ODI) [which incidently is run within the notorious DWP] specifically set up to look out for disabled people's interests to cover the day, even if it does not wish to celebrate disabled folk. Well, I first of all checked out their news page - [as at 10.42] it has not been updated since July 2013 - see the screen-shot below.

However, to give the ODI their due, I did find a link on their home-page. It reads:

21st International Day of Disabled People – 3 December 2013Every year the International Day of Disabled People is used to promote an understanding of disabled people and encourage support for their dignity, rights and well-being.The United Nations chooses a different theme for the Day and in 2013 it’s going to be: ‘Break barriers and open doors: to realise an inclusive society for all”.We know that the barriers that disabled people face can take a variety of forms. They might relate to the physical environment or to information and communications technology (ICT) which are not accessible. They could result from legislation or policy. Or they might be the result of attitudes in society, or discrimination.The International Day is a great opportunity to celebrate the achievements of disabled people and their contribution to society. This year’s theme offers the opportunity to highlight barriers, and how they have been successfully challenged and overcome. This year on 3 December, ODI will be publishing the second edition of Aspire 2, the online magazine which aims to inspire young disabled people to get involved with disability issues. The magazine’s theme will be Attitudes and it will include articles by the Minister of State for Disabled People, Mike Penning;  Channel 4 presenter Alex Brooker; and Paralympian Louise Hunt.Find more information about the International Day including how the United Nations encourages it to be commemorated, and the themes adopted in previous years.We are encouraging disabled people and their organisations to celebrate the Day. We want to help share information about what is going on, and think how we can collectively make an even bigger splash next year.So if you are planning an event, you can let us know by emailing ODI at:fulfilling.potential@dwp.gsi.gov.ukPlease head your email: International Day of Disabled People.

Interestingly, despite the glib spin, the ODI does not acknowledge its part nor it's parent department's huge influence in actually creating barriers to independent living. Nor do they confess to starving the disabled of funds to pay for the essentials of quotidian life: vital food, heating, medications, transport, education and jobs, due to the incompetence, negligence and in some cases deliberate actions inspired by their harmful ideological policies.

In the UK two hashtags are being used on Twitter. As far as I can tell the main ones are #IDPD and #IDPwD, but some are using #IDPD2013. The latter has a more international flavour.

I have been connected with the WoW Campaign for more than a year now. We are fighting for rights and in many cases the right to live. The WoWpetition has just nine days before it expires. It has already garned the 100,000 signatures needed to ensure the petition is considered for debate in the House of Commons (the elected part of the UK Parliament).

If you are a UK citizen resident at home or abroad, you are entitled to add your electronic monicker here:

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/43154

Signing the petition might lead to governmental barriers to independent living being removed. Thanks. %)

International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2013

Edited at 14.00: Note I suffer from dyscognition and memory problems; I am a week ahead of myself; no wonder there's no news!!!!

Today is International Day of Persons with Disabilities, 3 December 2013. The theme for this year is “Break Barriers, Open Doors: for an inclusive society and development for all”

This is what the United Nations Enable site has to say:

"It’s time to effectively implement the Outcome Document of the High Level Meeting and to break barriers and open doors: to realize an inclusive society and development for all!

 The commemoration of this year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities provides an opportunity to further raise awareness of disability and accessibility as a cross cutting development issue and further the global efforts to promote accessibility, remove all types of barriers, and to realize the full and equal participation of persons with disabilities in society and shape the future of development for all!"

One might have thought that this would be an important and newsworthy event. Well if Google is anything to go by, it looks as if there has not been a single UK news story about it in the last twenty-four hours (see the screen-shot below for confirmation).

So maybe one might expect the UK Government's department, the Office for Disability Issues (ODI) [which incidently is run within the notorious DWP] specifically set up to look out for disabled people's interests to cover the day, even if it does not wish to celebrate disabled folk. Well, I first of all checked out their news page - it has not been updated since July 2013 - see the screen-shot below.

However, to give the ODI their due, I did find a link on their home-page. It reads:

21st International Day of Disabled People – 3 December 2013Every year the International Day of Disabled People is used to promote an understanding of disabled people and encourage support for their dignity, rights and well-being.The United Nations chooses a different theme for the Day and in 2013 it’s going to be: ‘Break barriers and open doors: to realise an inclusive society for all”.We know that the barriers that disabled people face can take a variety of forms. They might relate to the physical environment or to information and communications technology (ICT) which are not accessible. They could result from legislation or policy. Or they might be the result of attitudes in society, or discrimination.The International Day is a great opportunity to celebrate the achievements of disabled people and their contribution to society. This year’s theme offers the opportunity to highlight barriers, and how they have been successfully challenged and overcome. This year on 3 December, ODI will be publishing the second edition of Aspire 2, the online magazine which aims to inspire young disabled people to get involved with disability issues. The magazine’s theme will be Attitudes and it will include articles by the Minister of State for Disabled People, Mike Penning;  Channel 4 presenter Alex Brooker; and Paralympian Louise Hunt.Find more information about the International Day including how the United Nations encourages it to be commemorated, and the themes adopted in previous years.We are encouraging disabled people and their organisations to celebrate the Day. We want to help share information about what is going on, and think how we can collectively make an even bigger splash next year.So if you are planning an event, you can let us know by emailing ODI at:fulfilling.potential@dwp.gsi.gov.ukPlease head your email: International Day of Disabled People.

Interestingly, despite the glib spin, the ODI does not acknowledge its part nor it's parent department's huge influence in actually creating barriers to independent living. Nor do they confess to starving the disabled of funds to pay for the essentials of quotidian life: vital food, heating, medications, transport, education and jobs, due to the incompetence, negligence and in some cases deliberate actions inspired by their harmful ideological policies.

I have been connected with the WoW Campaign for more than a year now. The WoWpetition has just nine days left to garner the remaining 6,000 or so signatures needed to attain the 100K that will ensure the petition is considered for debate in the House of Commons (the elected part of the UK Parliament).

If you are a UK citizen resident at home or abroad, you are entitled to add your electronic monicker here:

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/43154

Signing the petition might lead to governmental barriers to independent living being removed. Thanks. %)

WoWPetition Plea

For good or ill, I have just posted the following letter on my facebook status. Some 35% of my facebook friends have confirmed they have signed the petition; but I really don't think that is good enough - do you? Maybe you might be willing to write something similar yourselves. We have to do something to increase the signature count. That means ALL of us. Please take action!

[Image description: the writer in wheelchair signing a huge card

to celebrate the 65th birthday of the NHS]

Dear friends & followers,



I am severely disabled under NICE criteria and more often than not sick; house-bound the majority of the time; bed-ridden some two-thirds of the time.

I am doing something to fight for Our NHS so it does not become fragmented and expensive and unaffordable to the majority as in the USA, including the middle-class.

I am doing something to help ensure social security protections, the national insurance scheme that nearly all have paid into or contributed to in other ways (e.g. by caring for others, saving the State a fortune), is not downgraded to a USA welfare system that does not even protect children.

I am doing something to raise awareness of inequalities, unfairness, discrimination, bureaucratic bullying & intransigence; and thus standing up (metaphorically - obviously!!!) for traditional British values.

I am grateful for those of you who have already signed the WoWPetition; but many of you still have not done so (unless you're hiding your light under a bushel!). I spend much of my limited awake time and expend much of my very limited energy fighting. I have caused myself increased pain and made myself ill by attending demonstrations. Surely you can spare a couple of minutes to sign a petition, verify the email and share the petition with your followers. I am willing to listen to justifiable excuses for not doing so; but I do expect you folks to rouse yourselves and take action with me.

If you cannot even sign a petition to protect your way of life, your health, your social protections and those of your kith & kin, what does that say about you?

If it really is too much to ask, please defriend me now...

Many thanks once again to those of you who have already signed and shared WoWPetition. Together we are stronger, united, one community. My gratitude. %D

Here's the link folks:

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/43154

I hope you'll sign. Please.

[Image description: the writer in wheelchair (itself adorned in WoWPetition paraphenalia) wearing a wowpetition.com T-shirt, holding WoWPetition flyers

Gay Marriage

I have just found that the famous (and lovely by the by) author, Armistead Maupin (Armistead Maupin on facebook), has posted a link to an advertisement for marriage equality for gays & lesbians. It speaks for itself, so here it is: "beautiful-british-gay-marriage-commercial" .

Some folk believe that the Bible interdicts homosexuality. Well, as the word was only created at the end of the C19th (1897 to be precise) that would seem a tad rich. There are only four (yes four) passages that are supposedly anti-homosexual and Jesus himself never even mentioned the topic. That's right, Jesus the Christ, the basis of Christianity, did not have a single word to say on the matter. However, selective fundamentalists pick and choose which bits of the Bible they are going to follow.

If one reads Deuteronomy chapter 22 verses 13 to 21, one discovers that under the old covenant a marriage was only to be considered valid if the wife (note not the husband!) was a virgin. If it transpired she was not a virgin, the marriage was invalid and the wife was supposed to be executed. Well apart from the sexism and hypocrisy involved, that would make a hell of a lot of marriages invalid and we should have to kill a heck of a lot of womenfolk!

Well, even if we ignore what the Bible might or might not say on the subject, there is the thorny issue of Church tradition. We are told by Roman Catholics and Anglicans (Episcopalians) that traditionally the Church is anti-homosexuality and that marriage is just for one man and one woman. Ahem, actually that is not quite true. There is quite some evidence to demonstrate that the Church from at least the C6th to C18th was blessing same-sex unions (mainly male, but there are some female rites).

For Church precedence see inter alia:

Kontakion to Saints Serge & Bacchus, C6th, Greek
Office of Same-Sex Union, C10th, Greek
Office of Same-Sex Union, C11th, Greek
Prayer for Same-Sex Union, C11th, Greek
The Order for Uniting Two Men, C11-12th, Slavonic
Office of Same-Gender Union, C12th, Italo-Greek
Order for Solemnization of Same-Sex Union, C13th, Greek
Office of Same Sex (sic) Union, C14th, Serbian Slavonic
Agreement of "Brotherhood", C15th, Latin
Office for Same-Gender Union, C16th?, Greek
Office of Same-sex (sic) Union, C16th, Greek
The Order of Celebrating the Union of Two Men, <C18th, Serbian Slavonic

The Vatican purged its library of Latin texts, but omitted to destroy documents in other languages: hence the apparent lack of Latin evidence. Yes, it's probably now dawning upon one that there has been a mass cover-up. It's political of course. The Church in times of trouble has often needed a scapegoat: witches, Jews, homosexuals, etc. Now what is the major issue at the moment - pædophile priests. So the Church needs to go on the attack to deflect attention. It has acted thus for centuries.

I happen to be a pantheist and a Quaker. Quakers would actually like to marry same-sex couples in their places of worship, as would other smaller Christian denominations along with some Jewish groups.

If you would like to support equal marriage, then please sign AVAAZ's petition (Support gay marriage in the UK)

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