Posts by Hilary Stace
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Up Front: Reviewing the Election, in reply to Heather Gaye,
It would be worth lowering the voting age to 12. After all our 12 year olds have access to all the knowledge and wisdom of the world at their fingertips, and most schools have some election focus at general election time. School students are also accustomed to the concept of voting - such as for reality TV and class representatives. I think a greatly lowered voting age would make political system voting a much more entrenched part of our culture.
After all it wasn't so long ago that women, various indigenous groups and others did not have the franchise on the same false premise that we now put on under 18 year olds - that they didn't have the maturity. And suffrage used to be at 25 in some countries. So from 18 to 12 is only 6 years and nothing really considering it is the 21st century and voting needs all the encouragement it can get.
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Access: Some aspects of New Zealand’s…, in reply to Ezekiel Robson,
Of course NZ law isn't compliant with the CRPD. There are aspects of immigration and adoption law for starters which contradict the principles of the CRPD. And of now the NZ Public Health and Disability Act Amendment Act.
But there were some politicians who did try to improve the laws before the Disability Act was passed in 2008.
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Interesting public lecture tomorrow Thursday at Massey Wellington campus for anyone in Wellington
Seminar
School of Social Work and School of Public HealthProf Rosemarie Garland-Thomson
Professor of English & Critical Disability Studies
Emory University, Atlanta, GA. USA“Disability Bioethics: The Case for Human Biodiversity Conversation”
A crucial challenge for critical disability studies is developing an argument for why disabled people should be in the world, should inhabit our democratic, shared public sphere. What I call eugenic world building strives to eliminate disability and, along with it, people with disabilities from human communities through scientific and medical technologies, such as genetic manipulation, selective abortion, medical normalization, and even euthanasia. In opposition, I offer a counter-eugenic argument that variant forms and functions we count as disabilities and abilities do not predict or determine in any meaningful way quality of life, human value, happiness, merit, achievement, virtue, contribution, or potential. I explain my position as a disability bioethicist and demonstrate that it is essential to conserve human biodiversity in our shared world building projects.
Date: Thursday 16 April, 2015, 5.30pm
Venue: Massey University, Wellington Campus, Block 5 Level 3, Rm 18
http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/fms/campuses/Wellington/Documents/167184%20Wellington%20Campus%20Map%202015%20v4[2].pdf?39DE6FE8C866D893DD069DCA2320FA22
NZSL Interpreters will be present
All Welcome!
Contact m.j.sullivan@massey.ac.nz for further details
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Access: Some aspects of New Zealand’s…, in reply to Sacha,
That was the plan. Of course the ideal didn't last long.
Thanks Kay. That is really interesting history.
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Hard News: About Campbell Live, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
It's about role models. Also about your group. I think it is hard for those of us who are not Black Americans to appreciate what Obama has represented. Even if you do not like her or her politics, Hillary Clinton is claiming a space that women have previously been denied. That message is very important. It is also why she is facing such sexist attacks.
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Hard News: About Campbell Live, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
If the little people are women, they might. There are significant gender issues this election as it's the first time a woman has stood for president. That's actually quite a big deal.
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Hard News: About Campbell Live, in reply to Sacha,
Although there seem to be good grounds for challenging the way they measure and evaluate ratings. Particularly that they discount the large proportion of the population over 55. Median age of NZers is about 38 and they only seem interested in appealing to a small age range either side.
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Access: Here's to them, in reply to Sacha,
People First NZ members run a great workshop critiquing the word 'special' , as well as several other words and phrases that other people have used to define them.
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Captioning of Campbell Live would make it accessible to a lot more people. Seven Sharp is captioned so is the default watching for many deaf or hearing impaired people.
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One effect of this is the shutting out of older viewers, who are of little interest to advertisers. They were the people most disenfranchised when TVNZ 7 closed down.
Ironically, this is the group with time to watch and often money to spend.