Showing posts with label Criquaer. Show all posts

Sunday, 31 December 2023

800,000 Views - WoW

Some time yesterday my blog breached 800,000 views! Thank you to all readers whether one-time or returning. I appreciate each & every one of you. Thanks so much.

https://crippledqueeranglo-europeanranter.blogspot.com/

Monday, 9 August 2021

“Missing” Published!

ME Action requested submissions from creatives with Severe ME or Very Severe ME to recognise, remember and support said folk on Severe ME Awareness Day (8th August each year).

I am thrilled that they accepted and published one of my poëms under my nom de plume, Criquaer! Follow this link.

To read the text of the poëm in full, please refer to my blog-post from January this year.

So chuffed!

Monday, 28 November 2016

The language used around disability is complex and can be nightmarish to traverse without causing someone offence. So stay chilled and just apologise if someone takes umbrage, without getting into justifications &/or arguments. That's my personal advice anyway.

I personally have no problem with calling myself crippled - by disease & by pain - or handicapped - in the context of "by society". I do not mind calling my impairments, disabilities. And when tweeting I often use - hear the overly-PC-brigade tusk - "disabled" rather than "disabled people" because I can use those six characters more usefully. I also regularly use the term disablies in an attempt to humanise us.

[Image description: the author in his wheelchair]

The name of my personal blog is Crippled, Queer, Anglo-European Ranter and hence my nom de plume, Criquaer.

The following article from The Guardian newspaper authored by professional comedienne Penny Pepper is well worth a reading.

We’ve had all the insults. Now we’re reclaiming the language of disability

Tuesday, 26 April 2016

Crippled, Queer, Anglo-European Ranter's Fourth Birthday

Last year I was too exhausted to celebrate my blog's third birthday. So I am writing this ahead of the date this year to ensure I remember to mark its fourth birthday!

[Image description: cakes! %P]

I can scarcely believe that there have been nearly 412,000 viewings. My greatest success numerically (with 145,468) by far is my blog-post from June 2012 Alan Turing: a Queer Hero, which I suspect was boosted by the release in 2015 of a biopic on the said computer scientist & mathematician.

The second most viewed item is the same as two years ago, from October 2013, Bloom Brasserie @ Bloom Live, which has reached nearly 83,084 hits. A shame that the venue closed some "two months later - hopefully not due to my review!"

And still in third place is my second report on my favourite male musician, from June 2013, Matt Alber in Birmingham (not Alabama!), which has been visited on some 74,708 occasions.

Whilst large numbers do not read all my postings, I am just as happy when handfuls of folk read my poems. Especially pleasurable is when some reader picks one from early on in the blog's history, as this says to me that the person has actually looked out the poem for some reason.

[Image description: map of top-ten countries; list of top-ten countries with number of page views.

The screen-shot was taken on 24th April, two days prior to the fourth anniversary]

Two years ago my blog was mainly visited by UK and US readers, then France, Germany and Sweden. At that time these five countries constituted two-thirds of my readership. Now the US represents more than half of all my viewings. Then the UK followed very closely by France. Germany is still in fourth position. But Russia has leapt up the chart to fifth position, with Sweden still making the top-ten at number nine.

The index of terms that appears at the bottom of every blog-page has increased to 189 words that appear four or more times.

The top-fifteen terms are listed in the chart above.

#1 disabled with 67 references

#2 review with 41

#3 disability with 35

#4 blog with 30

#5 Manchester & poetry each with 27

#7 wheelchair with 25

#8 DWP with 24

#9 WoWPetition with 23

#10 Facebook, service & Spain each with 22

#13 Benalmádena, queer & UK each with 20

The above chart lists the rest of the double-digit entries, a further twenty terms. There are now a total of thirty-five terms with ten or more references, as opposed to seventeen back in 2014. All the words listed in 2014 are still contained in the two charts above. Thus, my prediction back then, that the same issues would continue to be of interest to me, was pretty much spot-on.

Dozens of new terms have been added to the four-plus club. The most notable (with five or more) are listed in the above chart. The new entry with the highest references is Newcastle-upon-Tyne. I took a holiday there, so had lots to relate. Other than that the terms cover travel, health, food, politics and disability issues. I suppose that fairly sums up my life!

Blogging Against Disablism Day 2016 (#BADD2016) is on 1st May. I am hoping to host a gallery of artworks that may speak to folk with disabilities as well as a blog-post on "Art for All". Additionally May is International M.E. Awareness month, so I am hoping I shall be well enough to add something to that. Additionally, I have my fingers crossed that I can write up about more of the things I did on my recent trip to Berlin, supported and cared for by two wonderful assistants (thank you both). Perhaps the reader might be enticed to return for one of more of these.

As ever: many thanks to my seven stalwart followers (feel free to join them if you care to do so) and of course the many, many readers across the globe (except Antarctica - still!). xxx

Saturday, 5 March 2016

Towards a Theory of Art

“What is Art?”

The question has and will continue to vex as long as individuals ask it. So, I am not about to offer the ultimate answer. Rather, I intend to put across my suggestions and perhaps a framework in which to ponder the matter.

Firstly, how does one access Art? I suggest there are three ways: using our senses; thinking; and, responding to or with emotion.

[Image description: screen-shot of my tumblr blog, "criquaer: uncensored"]

Senses:

I am reaching nearly twenty-five thousand posts on my tumblr blog. This prompted me to look at the various items I have posted to my scrapbook of images. Straightaway this led me to consider the senses. I almost exclusively post imagery (sight); but many bloggers also post items containing sound (hearing). However, I suggest that other senses can also be involved in or activated by Art (such as taste and touch). This naturally may even involve some synæsthesia whereby Art incites or tricks other senses to become engaged. It is important that all senses are an option for Art, as only then can it be accessed by all, including those of us with any sensory impairment.

Thinking:

Art will most likely make one think: perhaps changing one’s perceptions or opinions; alternatively maybe re-enforcing them. Thinking may not always occur at the time Art is encountered. Art may seep into one’s conscious or unconscious and stir waking thoughts, daydreaming or dreaming whilst asleep. At other times Art may be quite in-one’s-face and agitate for some quick-thinking reaction.

Propaganda is included on my list (below) of potential art-forms as it, like advertising or rhetoric, has the ability to manipulate our thinking as well as our emotions.

Emotions:

Quite naturally, as it is our nature to be emotional, our emotions will be touched by Art. Political Art might stir up feelings of anger and a desire for justice. Erotica can stir sexual impulses. Some artworks create a sense of tranquility and help calm the viewer or listener or toucher.

Comedy, to my mind at least, is a clear example of an art-form that elicits emotional responses, although it often stirs thought also.

The Purpose of Art:

The next issue is to explore what Art is for. I suggest that for Art to be considered such, it ought to contain two or more of the following elements:

* challenge &/or reflect preconceptions of culture & the Zeitgeist;

* æsthetically please &/or prompt an æsthetic response;

* stimulate one or more of the senses;

* aid expression of thought &/or emotion;

* highlight &/or improve our environment.

I posit that Art is effectively a record - either for posterity or ephemerally - of a thought, an emotion or a sense.

Artist v. Art-Work:

Whilst Art may reflect the artist’s intentions, it is the interaction of the individual to the specific piece that is paramount. The art piece is like a child, once raised it has to be let go to make its own way in the world; whilst the hand of the parent will always be upon the individual, for good or ill, it is the child we encounter. It may be interesting to know about the artist and his or her or their intentions, however it is the meeting with the artwork itself that is of primary importance. Of course, I am not denigrating artists; but they are not gods to be worshipped. Most artists consider that it is the Work, their Art, Art that comes first.

As interacters with Art we are living, constantly changing, often contrary beings. However solid we perceive ourselves, we none of us know how we might act until our metal is tested. We never fully know ourselves. When a new employee joins the team, each of the pre-existing members sees different things about the newbie, based on their own judgment, emotions, experience, exigency… In quintessence Art, like the artists who create it, is ever-changing, multi-faceted and impossible to pin down. So what exactly is Art? One cannot exactly say.

An Alphabet of Art-Forms:

I have provided a list of potentially what can be or might be considered art-forms. It is not exhaustive. Inclusion on the list implies no moral judgement whether for good or ill.

Either work through the list or pick a letter at random and ponder whether, within the parameters I have set out, such can be considered in some way a form of Art.

acting

Saturday, 24 October 2015

A Disillusioned Activist: Falling Down the Rabbit-Hole

Anxiety

Since the increase in anti-disabled polemic in the UK, some five years or so ago, I have had to go back on to anti-anxiety medication.

This past week I sold my mobility-scooter, as for the past few years I have been unwilling to use it. This was due to ongoing verbal abuse every time I have used it on my own since the ConDem co-alition came to power. Obviously such attacks shake one's confidence and adversely affect one's independence. The official statistics suggest that there has not actually been an increase in disability discrimination year on year since 2010 - although very slowly the number of crimes reported to the police services has been increasing. So it must just be me & my friends who are experiencing the increase!

On top of these personal and main-stream media (MSM) attacks, my anxiety has been exacerbated by the topsy-turvy nature of politics both here in the UK, in Europe, in the USA, and in Oceania. Logic, rationality, reasonableness, evidence and proof have all been thrown out, to be replaced by extremist ideologies, dogma, propaganda, spin, outright lies and MSM manipulation (including by the once fairly unbiased BBC - see my blog-posts January 2013, February 2013, August 2013, October 2013, June 2014, August 2015), let alone the usual political rhetoric and polemic. How can one respect authority, when the powers-that-be cannot respect the electorate: one simply cannot.

Activism

For the past few years I have turned to activism - attending my first ever political demo only a few years ago. Since then, whilst I have attended a handful of protests or demonstrations, due to my chronic ill-health and ongoing disabilities I have mainly acted in the rôle of bedtivist (I am bed-bound for the majority of the year).

I have learned to use my blog, twitter, G+ and of course facebook, and latterly linkedIn, to attempt to apprise, share and promulgate alternative perspectives, evidence, reports and harrowing tales of discrimination and in some cases death at the hands of the state apparatus, mostly via the dreaded and notorious Department for Work & Pensions (or DWP).

In some senses, I am one of the fortunate disabled in the UK: I can afford to engage legal assistance. Most folk who need such, no longer have access to Legal Aid to claim what is rightly theirs. I know myself that I was too ill to pursue appeals with the DWP, so had to let benefits to which I was entitled go by the by in the 1990s. Even now though, I live in dread, as most other chronically sick &/or disabled folk, of the brown envelopes from the DWP or even worse the white ones from ATOS/CAPITA/MAXIMUS - the private companies paid to assess one's fitness-to-work.

Illness & Disability

I have a neurological illness (categorised by W.H.O. at ICD-10 G93.3).

I have a nervous system illness (categorised by W.H.O. at ICD-10 G72.3).

I have musculoskeletal illnesses (categorised by W.H.O. at ICD-10 M15, M16, M17, M18 & M19).

I have a connective tissue illness (categorised by W.H.O. at ICD-10 M79.7).

I have a circulatory system illness (categorised by W.H.O. at ICD-10 I73.0).

I have a digestive system illness (categorised by W.H.O. at ICD-10 K58).

I have a respiratory symptom illness (categorised by W.H.O. at ICD-10 R07.1).

I have a mental disorder illness (categorised by W.H.O. at ICD-10 F06.7).

I have mental & behavioural disorder illnesses (categorised by W.H.O. at ICD-10 F40, F41 & F42).

The chances of me ameliorating permanently are slight at this juncture - obviously precluding any medical advances or divine intervention. My health is so complex and its management so complicated, I have two lead heath-care professionals (HCPs) rather than the usual one. I keep a spreadsheet of all the illnesses, major symptoms and co-morbidities totalling eighty-five in all. The document includes: supporting evidence; frequency; treatment (if any); and, notes. It is thus, no doubt, quite clear the reason for keeping a record for ease of reference.

State Harassment & Warning from History

Despite all this, and the fact I am unlikely to ever be able to hold down a job ever again, the DWP still believes that I need to be constantly re-assessed. Each time this costs the UK tax-payer (I am one myself) hundreds of pounds, even though the outcome is known - not fit to work. This of course is financial madness, as well as being medical lunacy. But the extremist politicos continue their harangue against we spongers and idlers (recalling the NAZI polemic against Germany's disabled in the run-up to WWII).

Some four years ago I posted the following on my facebook page:

[Image description: barbed wire graphic; the text reads -

First they came for the disabled,

and I didn’t speak out -

because I wasn’t disabled.

Then they made millions unemployed,

and I didn’t speak out -

because I had a job.

Then they came for the NHS,

and I didn’t speak out -

because I wasn’t ill.

Then they came for me

And there was no one left

to speak out for me.

]

WoWPetition

Many of my chums eventually signed the WoWPetition, which called for Parliament to debate the war on welfare (previously named social security and paid for via a specific tax called National Insurance contributions or NIC) and specifically calling for a cumulative impact assessment (cia) of all the government's changes and cuts to recipients. The petition gained way more than the necessary 100,000 confirmed signatures. The debate happened in February 2014. The ConDem government refused however to carry out the cia despite the debate having been won. Now under a Tory (Conservative) government WoWCampaign have started another petition to get the cia debated in this new session.

Political Disengagement

Poll after poll of the public finds majorities against the vast majority of cuts being implemented by the politicians. Up to and including the 2010 elections I had always read the parties manifestos prior to voting to ensure I was aware of their policies and aspirations. The ConDem government blithely ignored their 2010 documents and forged ahead with a co-alition document, which itself was never fulfilled. Prior to the election this year, the Tories promised this and that and already, after a mere six months, they have breached at least twenty of those promises. This makes the political manifesto moot and not worth the paper it is printed upon. If the political parties cannot be trusted to do what they say they will do, then how is the electorate supposed to decide for whom to vote?

Week in, week out, at Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs), in debates and in committees, we see politicians lying unashamedly in Parliament. They also lie to the MSM, some ministers of government even stoop so low as to feed mistruths and spun statistics to media outlets that will blindly regurgitate them. And there is no redress. There is absolutely nothing the voters can do about it. Parliament either cannot or refuses to hold the miscreants to account.

Now we have the Prime Minister threatening to shut down the second chamber if they do not do what he wants. The result would be no secondary oversight of potential legislation.

The Home Secretary, responsible for internal security, has now defined extremism so broadly that anyone who speaks out against the government, or even a department, can be labelled as an extremist, watched by the security services and subject to detention without trial.

The latest ministerial code advises ministers of the government that they may ignore issues of justice and international law - quite probably illegal, but the UK courts appear to be impotent.

This is NOT democracy: at best it is an oligarchy; at worst, we now have a totalitarian state.

Apathy

A couple of weeks ago, the Conservative Party conference was held in Manchester - a city in which they have not a single MP nor a single local councillor. A huge demonstration was organised with between 60,000 and 85,000 folk in attendance (depending whose estimate one accepts) in the city centre. This was the largest ever demonstration here. I invited 120 facebook friends, most of whom have complained of some aspect of the austerity agenda or other government polices. Only three attended.

This week the Chinese Premier visited Manchester with the UK's Prime Minister. I was too ill to personally attend the organised demo, so I offered to tweet (@criquaer) in support. Over two hours I typed one key at a time, 123 messages. I managed ten retweets (RTs). This really was not worth the exhaustion and pain that it entailed.

The Mercury is Dropping

The image above has been updated, as more and more of the UK population is effected by the austerity dogma:

[Image description: text as follows -

I NEVER SPOKE UP

First they came for the disabled & sick

and I didn’t speak out - because I was neither.

Then they cut legal aid and I didn’t speak out because

I don’t need any legal advice.

Then they came for the NHS and I didn’t speak out -

because I wasn’t sick

Then they came for the jobless [with sanctions, etc]

And I didn’t speak out because I had a job.

Then they came for the renters [with benefit caps &

bedroom tax] And I didn’t speak out because I don’t

rent a home.

They cut the Independent Living Fund and I didn’t

speak out because I’m not disabled

Then they took child benefit & tax credits

And I didn’t speak out because I have no children.

Then they came for the trade unions [ to stop strikes]

And I didn’t speak out because I’m not in a union.

Now they’ve come for me -

And tehre’s no one left to speak to me

{all sic}]

What Future?

My only slight hope for the UK is that Jeremy Corbyn, the new leader of the Labour Party, espouses policies that the vast majority of Brits also back - the electorate is to the left of all the neo-liberal parties. He is backed by the party's electorate but not by the party's parliamentarians. After May's local elections, we may be in a better position to feel more hopeful or equally despondent. However, I thoroughly expect him to be assassinated - I am turning into a cynic!

It looks as if my move to Scotland will remain on the cards, although a tad delayed. Although, that should not be taken to imply that I fully support all that the SNP are doing; they do at least actually still believe in and are attempting to support social justice.

Time to Say Farewell…

In the meantime, I do not feel or believe I can waste any of my very limited time & energy on activism, or at least not in its current form. Unless, I can be convinced otherwise, I shall shortly disassociate myself from all political &/or campaigning groups and turn off the notifications of activist chums, as well as refusing to read anything else on politics. There just seems no real point in continuing to hit one's head against the proverbial brick-wall...

[Image description: a red brick-wall]