Posts by Hilary Stace
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No, Damian, I want to know how people who might identify with those slurred against by such terms in the past actually feel about such use now. I don't find it flippant or offensive personally because it is not about me or my family history. Those who identify with this ethnic group may have a different opinion. I'm interested in the social construction of it all.
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DeepRed - Forbes-Coates 2.0, very clever . Unfortunately, they had a few years of power before Savage, Fraser et al swept in to save NZ. Not before there were some big bloody unemployment riots, though.
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Damian -. I just wanted to make the comparison with disability. If your headline had been something like 'Happy little spastic,Mongol retard' there would probably have been a reaction from people who prefer that such language is not used, even to prove a point. That's why I would like to know how Chinese New Zealanders feel about words like 'chow' being used this way.
(But that is probably just me. I don't find blonde, Irish or sexist jokes funny either.)
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Tom - those benefit changes are horrific, snuck in like that. Where are all the jobs for the single mothers of six year olds, and the sickness beneficiaries? What about those people who have several casual part time jobs, or seasonal work, or school support staff who don't have work for the whole year? They will be constantly reapplying for the benefit. And the logistics or annual reapplication will create so much more work for an already stretched Work and Income.
Meanwhile the assistance to retrain and upskill using the TIA and open entry to tertiary has all gone. Just cruel.
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I hear that in Australia the mining companies are not too concerned about preserving Aboriginal sites which are blocking their way to the minerals. Although the way that two storey high wahi tapu site in the King Country was blasted for a private hydroelectric project recently, maybe signals the way of the future here too.
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The Chinese have always had a bad time in NZ - the 19th century immigration acts were aimed at keeping disabled people and Chinese out of NZ. Eugenic public policy in the early 20th century similarly targetted these two groups. Remember Helen Clark's apology to the Chinese not so many years ago? (Although there hasn't been an official apology for institutionalisation of disabled people yet).
I would be interested in hearing what people who identify as Chinese think about this post, particularly the title. Might be flippant to us but it could still hurt.
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Sacha - I'm sure you are right about disability being a barrier to internet use. I only know two people who do not have a computer at all by choice, but I know several disabled people who would love a home computer, and lots of single mothers of disabled children who would love to have broadband but just cannot afford it on a benefit. Even if they have managed to get a second hand computer the minimum cost for broadband is about $40 a month or $10 a week, on top of a phone line. That's a lot for people trying to get by on very little. Has implications for those developing disability resources not to make them too big for those people who have dial up.
Stephen - great technology but I think that for paralysed people to use it would have to be fitted before muscles and bones got too wasted from lack of use (one of the best shots in Avatar was the close up of that main character's shrivelled legs). Can't quite see ACC funding it.
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And Temple is happy with it, which is most important.
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Nice to hear sometime PAS poster Mark Cubey filling in for a sick Kim Hill this morning. He's usually her producer. Shows you really need the back room to support the front line.
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We pulled one out of the lucky bag; our small is currently present, participating and ORRS funded. I could write a book about how that came to pass.
Congratulations. Perhaps you might like to write a post for humans sometime about that (but send it to Russell directly, not through the humans website as some have got lost that way).
Re the DSM V, it has been significant that the Aspie community has been involved in the revision. When the last edition came out in 1994, Asperger's work had only recently been discovered by the English speaking world and there was a lot of myth and confusion (eg Bettelheim's cruel 'refrigerator mother' blaming) around autism generally. Now it's a common diagnosis - even a cultural identity for many - and the world is much more relaxed.