Posts by Hilary Stace
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Hard News: The cane and the strap, in reply to Keith Smith,
Not quite sure why this thread has suddenly sparked into life after 6 years but two comments:
-Very pleased that a child with Down Syndrome was actually at a state school in 1961 and not in an institution or excluded from education
-Wouldn't a punishment that helped you see the humanity of your fellow student have been more effective than infliction of physical pain and a violent demonstration of the power adults have over children in their care? For example you could have been assigned to be his buddy, or something else that might have facilitated friendship rather than fear. -
Hard News: How a thing happens, in reply to izogi,
Thank you so much for the link to Rodney's Aviation Ramblings. A certain person here has become an instant follower.
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Nice to hear that there are other people out there who relate to lying awake at 3 am worrying about not getting enough sleep to cope the next day.
I haven't slept more than a couple of hours at a time since having little children. Never relearnt the art. What helps me is putting pure lavender oil on my wrists last thing and sometimes having the radio on very very quietly - enough to stop the active brain. A friend says BBC is good. I have also been taking daily the new miracle vitamin - good old D - which seems to help with a lot of the aging stuff. I also like really listening to the quiet.
Family and friends swear by little naps in the afternoon, even a little lie down under the desk if you can do it unobtrusively.
Some people get up and write about their wakefulness on Facebook. We could probably solve the problems of the world if we harnessed the wisdom of collective wakefulness - so long as we didn't expect any productivity the next day.
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Giovanni's piece for Overland http://overland.org.au/2013/11/this-is-what-rape-culture-looks-like/. It was also good to hear him on Checkpoint and see and hear him on TV3 news today. Another good example of blogger activism.
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Hard News: Moving right along?, in reply to Lilith __,
And conversely, people considered to have a low IQ can be very wise. Just look at the great achievements of the disabled people's organisation, People First.
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Hard News: Everybody's Machiavelli, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
The mayor of Wanganui in the 1920s and poet D'Arcy Cresswell had a bit of scandal and blackmail going on.
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At that same time in the world of feminist struggle there were huge meetings going on in support of NZ signing up to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. The new Labour government set up the Ministry of Women's Affairs and promised to sign CEDAW, and unbelievably there was huge opposition to both, resulting in large angry meetings all over NZ. Minister Anne Hercus was physically attacked at one point, which had the effect of making Lange come out in support of both CEDAW and MoWA, both of which he had been previously luke warm about.
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Good advice: do not give advice. You can, however, say, 'You are the expert on your own life and know what is best for you. How can I support you?'
But if you really want to give an alternative view you could say
'I don't have any personal experience of your situation, but if I was I would imagine that I would do/feel/think ...'
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Hard News: Sick with Anger, in reply to Sacha,
Sacha, I dislike the term 'special needs' too, but it is useful shorthand sometimes as people generally know what you mean. I don't know what specific impairment the girl in the story has, and all disbility terms are loaded eg 'learning disabilities' implies intellectual impairment and that might not be accurate either. 'Vulnerable' has negative implications, 'difficulty in processing information quickly' sounds patronising.
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This story from the editor of the Northern Advocate last week about the bullying of his daughter with special needs has stayed with me. Interestingly, a good cop came to the rescue.
Re cops, the criminal justice system and autism, Dennis Debbaudt from the US came to the Autism NZ conference last year and shared many of the resources he has developed. Had some horrifying tapes of interviews with young autistic people as criminal justice victims whereby they were manipulated by the interviewer and denied justice by the system.
There are a few experts in this field of people with autism as victims or (often) unwitting perpetrators of crimes in NZ but no guarantee that people will get such resources when they need them.