Planet of the Blind

DRI Backs Duchess Of York In Exposing Abuses To Children In Turkish Institutions

DRI Backs Duchess Of York In Exposing Abuses To Children In Turkish Institutions
(Disability Rights International)
May 24, 2012

WASHINGTON, DC-- [Excerpt provided by Inclusion Daily Express] This morning, an Op-Ed by DRI President Laurie Ahern was published in the Washington Post. The Op-Ed defends the actions of the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, who is currently being prosecuted by the Turkish government for "acquiring footage and violating the privacy" of children in a Turkish state-run orphanage.

The ITV of London investigation was a follow-up to DRI's 2005 report, "Behind Closed Doors: Human Rights Abuses in Psychiatric Facilities, Orphanages and Rehabilitation Centers in Turkey," which documented the abusive treatment of children and adults locked away and forgotten in state facilities.

Toddlers in Turkey who scratched, hit and bit themselves -- a result of mind-numbing boredom and lack of stimulation -- had their hands "covered" by plastic liter bottles that had been cut in half and duct-taped around the children's wrists.

As the Op-Ed states, "The hypocrisy of the Turkish government in prosecuting the duchess, who courageously exposed torture and neglect of Turkish children, is appalling. Turkish officials seem concerned with the privacy of children, most of whom have intellectual and physical disabilities, even as they violate those children's most basic human rights . . . Children with disabilities hidden away in closed institutions have no voice, no choice and no control. They are the population most vulnerable to abuse at the hands of state actors."

Entire article:
Nations Must Protect Their Children, Not Their Reputation
http://www.disabilityrightsintl.org/2012/05/21/1097/
Related:
Nations must protect their children, not their reputations (Washington Post)
http://tinyurl.com/ide0524121b
Behind Closed Doors: Human Rights Abuses in Psychiatric Facilities, Orphanages and Rehabilitation Centers of Turkey (DRI)
http://tinyurl.com/ide0524121c

 

News From Florence

By Andrea Scarpino

This is the story my cousin Salvatore tells about how our meeting in Florence came to be. A year and a half ago, he was in his hometown of Crotone after living in Australia for five years. He was trying to teach his mother how to use the computer and internet, so he asked his mother for a name to search online. She said, "Andrea Scarpino."

"Who?" Salvatore asked. He had never heard of me before--as I had never heard of him. He entered my name into Google, chose "images," and immediately, his mother pointed to a photograph pulled from my website. "That's her," his mother said. Salvatore asked how she knew, and his mother replied, "Just look at her face. Of course that's her."

A year and a half later, Zac and I are sitting in Salvatore's apartment with his girlfriend Silvia waiting for him to return from work. Their apartment has tall, open windows, is full of light and plants and two fish: a bright blue fighting fish and a goldfish. We've already discovered that Silvia is from the same small Canadian town that our good friend Carol is from--it's a small world, as the saying goes. And then Salvatore comes home.

He has an Australian accent which I love, is a little bit shorter than me and very muscular, strong. His eyes remind me of my father's eyes, a lovely almond brown. Here in front of me, my second cousin on the Scarpino side of my family. A man I didn't know exists.

That night, he takes us on a tour of Florence--the Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio, Medici family buildings. We eat an amazing pasta with fresh sauce that Silvia makes from tomatoes on the vine, olive oil, and bright green basil. We eat the best olives I've ever eaten--salt cured, but plump and full, oily--totally unlike the dry salt-cured olives in the US. The next day, Silvia takes us on a walk up a hilly overlook showing all of Florence below us, and just as we reach a church on the top of the hill, a black Audi decorated with white lace pulls up. A wedding; the bride has arrived. We drink white wine on a terrace overlooking the city, orange-red tile roofs and lush green trees and the constant whiz of scooters and cars and people.

Florence is lovely in every way, and Zac and I are already scheming ways to return, to stay for an entire summer perhaps. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I feel relaxed, at ease, untroubled. We sleep until 11 in the morning. But the best thing is having found new family--Salvatore and Silvia argue over which of his sisters I look the most like. And in his Sal's eyes, I see my father.

Morning on the Island

Crazy red squirrels and wild turkeys and water still so cold you put your foot in and your whole leg turns blue!

Fighting to Live Mr. Ryan

ADAPT Activists Sentenced For Protesting Medicaid Cuts
(ADAPT)
May 23, 2012

WASHINGTON, DC-- [Excerpt] Fourteen of the 74 ADAPT activists arrested in April for protesting Chair of the House Budget Committee Representative Ryan's proposal to cut Medicaid funding by $800 billion were sentenced in Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

After demanding that all arrestees appear in court in person , the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia made a last minute reversal. Sixty were excused from appearing in person, however, the US Attorney's Office still required 14 of the protesters (from as far away as Kansas, Minnesota and Texas) to appear in court. The 14 pled guilty and were sentenced to a suspended 10 days in a DC jail, and put on six months probation. In addition the court required they pay $50 toward a crime victim's fund. During the six months, they can't be arrested and must stay off the Capitol grounds.

During the court proceedings, Mike Oxford, an ADAPT organizer from Kansas, made a statement on behalf of the group. "People felt they had no option but to protest because the proposed Medicaid cuts are so extreme, he said. "If enacted, these cuts will leave people with disabilities without services that help them with the most basic aspects of living: getting out of bed, getting dressed, eating and going to the bathroom. For some with significant health problems, it will mean no health care. These cuts threaten our very lives."

Commenting on her sentence, Jennifer McPhail, an ADAPT organizer from Texas, said, "No one is paying attention to the damage these Medicaid cuts will do to our lives and our nation's safety net. ADAPT and others in the disability rights community have repeatedly offered cost saving proposals that would save tax dollars while improving the system, but our suggestions have, for the most part, been ignored. Instead, they just decide to arbitrarily slash Medicaid. We can't just sit quietly when our own government is painting targets on us."

Entire press release:
ADAPT Activists Sentenced for Protesting Medicaid Cuts in the Ryan Budget
http://www.dimenet.com/hotnews/archive.php?mode=A&id=7514;&sort=D

Why It's Raining in My Heart

I am a middle aged man who has a disability. As I write I am watching the cash fed politicians of our age working to eliminate social services for people with disabilities and the poor. There is no debate about what I have just written. The Ryan Plan is heartless, gutless, and vicious. Meanwhile democratic insiders suggest that the Obama administration may be willing to give some "entitlements" away after the November election. It's raining in my heart. We haven't explored cutting the bloated war machine; haven't adjusted our tax system to assure that the wealthiest in this nation pay their fair share. We are going after the weakest segments of our population without regard for better alternatives. It's raining inside where the meanings are.

Enough. Enough. My nation is a ghost, walking in rain. At least I know why I'm sad. I don't need politicians' help to experience authentic tears.

The Beheading of Ronald McDonald

From YLE, Helsinki:

 

"Last year Jani Leinonen kidnapped a plastic Ronald McDonald statue from the chain's Ruoholahti restaurant in Helsinki. A group of food activists later posted a video of the mascot’s guillotine-style decapitation by masked handlers. The YouTube clip, entitled the“Execution of Ronald McDonald,” quickly went viral and became an online sensation.

Organisers said they wanted to draw attention to  problems surrounding the production of cheap food. Police arrested Leinonen soon after the stunt, which incorporated terrorist elements.

Leinonen denies any wrongdoing and says the performance was an act of civil disobedience. The case is set to come before the Helsinki District Court on June 4."

 

Thinking of Bertrand Russell, Early Morning, Still in My Bathrobe

Atta boy, Bertie!

"Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate."

Go man, Go!

"Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths."

Disability Rights Advocates’ Lawsuit on Behalf of Students with Disabilities in California Public Colleges

From http://ucpgg.org/:

Disability Rights Advocates’ Lawsuit on Behalf of Students with Disabilities in California Public Colleges

May 21st, 2012
by Lateef McLeod

Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) is a nonprofit legal center dedicated to securing the civil rights of people with disabilities. Last year, this group began conducting an investigation of colleges and universities in the California Community College, state university, and University of California systems to validate the complaints of students with disabilities regarding not receiving adequate accommodations due to school budget cuts.

Because of these budget cuts, services offered by schools’ Disability Students Programs (DSPs) are not adequately implemented. The DRA received a range of complaints from students like not being able arrange an appointment with a DSP before the start of a semester so that they could arrange accommodations for classes. A blind student and a student with dyslexia were told they could not have readers due to budgetary constraints and another was unable to watch the lectures of his class online and take notes because the transcripts were not available. In other cases, students did not receive their textbooks in alternative accessible formats until up to six weeks into the semester.

In light of the rich history of California public colleges and universities providing full inclusion of people with disabilities, this comes as a huge blow.

Further investigation by the DRA uncovered some issues caused primarily by budget cuts and related to systemic problems that span the CSU, community college, and UC systems. The prohibition of the DSPs to provide for their students because of budget constraints will be devastating for students with disabilities who are attempting to acquire a good education. These hardships will surely alter the DSPs relationship with its students.

This DRA investigation implies that some students with disabilities in the California public college system are losing faith that the DSPs can and will successfully accommodate their academic accessibility needs, which in itself is a tragic occurrence.

The DRA has interviewed a few students about this case so far, but is still looking for more testimonials. If you are a student with a disability and attending a California public college or university, you can participate in the investigation by going to the DRA website or contacting Kara Janssen at: (510) 665-8644, ext. 138.

You can also support this important cause by opposing budget cuts to the California college system and supporting the full funding of DSP programs as vital tools to assist students with disabilities to access higher education.

American Dream Has Gone to Finland

"America may once have been the Land of Opportunity, but thanks to its rising levels of inequality – not to mention the nightmarish visa restrictions – our political class now has another destination in mind. "If you want the American Dream," Ed Miliband says, "go to Finland." This week, the Labour leader told a conference on social mobility that "if you are born poor in a more equal society like Finland, Norway or Denmark, then you have a better chance of moving into a good job than if you are born poor in the United States"."

 

See full article: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/society-the-only-way-is-finland-7778796.html

Dogs Explained

Still we persist together. Man and dog. We walk in the cobwebs of rain. We tip our imaginary hats.

We know our couplets by heart. 

The loneliness the day brings in will have to find someone else. 

That is the power of dogs.