Sunday, June 15, 2014

Your Working People/ A House in the Sky



May 29 Your Working People: I was going through my bookmarks and I found this Alberta website.  It’s about news and here’s a good article “No Coffee for the Disabled”:

The Alberta government is preparing to make some disastrous cuts to the disabilities sector, to the tune of $42 million. Considering the wages in the field, and the funding most folks receive, it’s a fortune. Many will be left without supports. Depending on parent or guardian involvement, many will either languish at home or end up spending most of their time on the streets.

(Minister Frank Oberle’s) crass comments made in the media could only come from someone who hasn’t worked a single day with the people whom he feels qualified enough to pass judgment on. The Calgary Herald quoted Oberle saying: “Loading people on the bus and taking them to Tim Hortons at 2 p.m. in the afternoon is not community inclusion.” That’s an insulting, reductionist description of what I do for a living. It’s also prejudiced. Apparently it’s okay to go out for a cup of coffee with a friend, as long as you’re not disabled.

What Oberle fails to realize is that for many developmentally disabled people, something as simple as a trip to a coffee shop with a friend takes a lot of planning and energy. His comments further fuel the prejudice many have towards both disabled people and the individuals, like myself, who support them. It’s shameful.

Jun. 1 My opinion: By reading the above article, it does make me appreciate that I can move easily around town.

A House in the Sky: I cut out this book review “A tale of torture, transformation” by Catherine Ford on Sept. 20, 2013.  She reviews the book A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett.  Here are some excerpts:

Buy and devour this book for an unflinching look at the transformation of a young girl into a determined woman; from cocktail waitress to the driving force behind a non-profit foundation.

This first-person retelling of Amanda Lindhout's kidnapping (with her ex-boyfriend) in Somalia is a harrowing account of how a young and idealistic woman from a hardscrabble life in Red Deer and Sylvan Lake finds herself redemption and forgiveness. She was, over the course of 460 days, turned into a different person.

The first question is why on earth anyone would choose to go to Somalia in the middle of a war. She writes: "I'd like to say that I hesitated before heading into Somalia, but I didn't. If anything, my experiences had taught me that while terror and strife hogged the international headlines, there was always - really, truly always - something more hopeful and humane running alongside it."

She was proved wrong, but it's doubtful she would look at it in that fashion today. Indeed, she was raped repeatedly, beaten, chained and tortured. She was treated as an object to be used and discarded, kept in an airless, windowless room, even as the man who was kidnapped with her was treated far more humanely for the simple reason he was male.

She not only survives, but becomes stronger.

Rather than giving up, she visits her "house in the sky ... inside the shelter of my mind." She imagines life after, makes herself promises that eventually she would "do something that mattered."

And she does - establishing the Global Enrichment Foundation supporting development, aid and education initiatives in Somalia and Kenya.


My opinion: It sounds likes a good book and all, it was on the Best seller’s list for a long time.  I won’t be reading it, because it seems really hard to read.  I can read about her in the newspaper, but I would be too depressed by reading the book.
Kermit Gosnell: I cut out this National Post article called “Standard practice was…to slay babies” by Maryclaire Dale on Mar. 18, 2013.  Here are some excerpts:

Gosnell, 72, is accused of running a rogue clinic that ignored the state ban on third-term abortions and 24-hour waiting periods. Prosecutors say he also maimed desperate, often poor women and teens by letting his untrained staff perform abortions and give anesthesia. And they say he got rich doing it, by performing a high volume of substandard abortions.

Police found $250,000 in cash during a 2010 search of his home, Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore said. Gosnell used outmoded drugs and unorthodox methods, forcing women to endure labor and then deliver live babies that were then killed by staff with scissors, she said. Normally, the fetus is killed in utero.

Staff went along with the routine because they were nearly as desperate as the patients, she said. The two other “doctors” on staff were allegedly medical school doctors without licenses. The employee giving anesthesia was a sixth-grade dropout, while a 15-year-old high school student helped in the surgical and recovery rooms, she said.

 
I looked him up now, and he’s in prison for life.


Jun. 10 Pamela Anderson: I read about how she suffered sexual abuse.  She was molested by her female babysitter, raped by her friend’s older brother when she was 12, and gang-raped when she was 14.  Her love of animals helped her.

“My affinity with animals saved me, they came to me naturally. The trees spoke to me, I wasn’t sure why I was alive, a burning question, a quest. My loyalty remains with the animal kingdom. I vowed to protect them and only them,” she said. “I prayed to whales with my feet in the ocean, my only real friends until I had children. Then I realized humanity was suffering and our children were born perfect.”

The Pamela Anderson Foundation’s mission is to provide funding for groups and individuals “on the front lines of human rights, animal rights and environmental protection,” according to its mission statement.


I was reading in Metro on May 23, 2014 that “Cpl. Darren Lagen told Metro that an investigator with Ladysmith RCMP will be ‘reaching out’ to Anderson.”

Offensive shirt: I found this on Yahoo news on Jun. 4.  “A Pea in a Pod pulls Wake Me Up When I’m Skinny maternity shirt.”  There are lots of comments:

Person: It is too bad the world has lost its sense of humour . A friend used to (20 years ago) have a t-shirt that read, "Join the Military. See The World, Meet Interesting People And Kill Them." It was a funny parody of a commercial for recruitment at the time. Of course, you could not wear a shirt like that today without offending someone. In the seventies, another friend had a shirt that read, "Reality is an escape for those that cannot handle drugs." And yet another friend had a shirt that read, "I do not have drinking problem. I drink, I pass out, no problem." Are such phrases immature? Yes. Did they make people smile? You be the judge of that.

Person 2: I have an obese friend who has a shirt that says "I Beat Anorexia". Should we slam the store that sold him that shirt too? This world is just so full of crybabies it's going to be a friggen wonder if the adults today can survive into their old age without going insane.

Person 3: Seriously, people take things to heart way too much.
As a pregnant person, this is hilarious. Really, it doesn't bother me. Would I buy it? No. So if you don't like it, don't buy it. Everyone has a different view on their own pregnancy, so why complain? Just pass it by and move on!

Person 4: Won´t be long and one will not be able to get out of bed in the morning without consulting the politicaly correct dictionary in order not to be sued, or chastised or criminally charged or boycotted for something that this so inperfect society deems wrong! the bored and rich are now the gods is that it?

My opinion: I didn’t like the shirt slogan, but that’s my opinion.  I’m sure there are people out there who like it.  I’m a little offended by "Join the Military. See The World, Meet Interesting People And Kill Them."  However, I’m not going to tell someone who’s wearing that and say “I find that offensive.”  If it’s a school dress code, then you have to tell that person not to wear it.

No comments: