Posts by Hilary Stace
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Yes it appears that the virus has been around for a few years in several countries. It has just another thing for women to deal with. Maybe some community immunity kept it under control. But something seems to have happened recently to bring it to the attention and fear of the 'developed' world.
Maybe it is the reverse of epidemics such as measles that came from Europe and devastated indigenous populations which had no natural immunity.
Polio is another disease that had been around for centuries before suddenly becoming epidemic internationally in 1916 (a 100 years ago). Why, is still being debated.
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Early days but things seem to be happening quickly and hard to know how it will pan out. On the news tonight a potential vaccine could be ready for testing 'in a year'.
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The announcement of an important reference group to review the 2001 NZ Disability Strategy.
http://www.odi.govt.nz/nzds/2016-revision/reference-group/index.html
Will be interesting to see what happens as a result.
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Access: Defective, deficient, deviant…, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Thanks Joe - finalising this project will be significant for a lot of people
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to Lilith __,
Informed consent and other ethical principles could easily be taught (modelled might be a harder ask). Would help with healthy and respectful relationships generally.
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Rob's account of the life and death of his daughter Sophie is some of the most gripping and absorbing writing I've read - these things do happen and families have to deal with them. (I've shared it a lot.)
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to Russell Brown,
No. Very easy but ill-informed to make assumptions about how rosy things were in the past. But think of the state of the laws and public discourse at the time (1970s)and sexual violence was barely acknowledged as an issue. Why did women academics fight so hard to establish Women's Studies? Why were those Women's Conventions so popular?
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What surprised me after watching Kim Vinnell's interview with the entitled and sexist young men last night, was Duncan Garner's disbelief about this type of behaviour. Is it just invisible to a lot of other men? Sexism, ageism (and of course racism and ableism- which is not specifically mentioned here) is so common and rampant out there in NZ, especially when mixed with alcohol.
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Another part of this policy will have to be addressing the governance changes that the National Government has made to tertiary institutions. Councils have been shrunk, student and staff representation dropped and government appointed (eg conservative white men) members increased. As well, there are the barriers to study for older people (eg loans no longer available for those over 55) and those doing longer courses None of these changes have been brought in under the assumption that education is a public good and part of a healthy democracy. So significant structural and attitudinal changes will need to be made to implement this policy.
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Some disabled young people are ORS funded and stay at school until they are 21. Then there is often – nothing. Sometimes there might be a day programme of variable quality staffed by unqualified although hopefully well meaning and enthusiastic people. The disabled person still pays for this through a funding package. There is an urgent need for this group to have access to something in the vocational training, NZQA space. Just wondering if this has been factored into this policy?