Posts by Hilary Stace
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It would be interesting to find out how much government money goes to 'faith-based', particularly fundamentalist Christian groups (as opposed to some milder ones such as Presbyterian support services, where being an active Christian isn't a job requirement). Many big Ministry of Health disability services contracts, and MSD contracts such as for parent education, and youth support already go to some major players (eg Open Home, Parents Inc).
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Just came across this story about a new Christchurch recreation centre, named after a well-known disabled person who died a few years ago, which is not wheelchair accessible. But instead of apologising to them, the disabled critics are criticised.
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It's raining in Wellington today. My son (who does not really do reflection) commented, 'That's good, it's raining for Christchurch.'
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For a bit more context, John Allen is also Chair of the Employers' Disability Network - a group of business people promoting the employment of disabled people. Never met him, but I've heard he does good work with EDN. He was appointed by the currrent government to head MFAT (previously at NZ Post), rather than someone who had come up through the diplomatic ranks.
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I would think there are some serious questions for the Member of Parliament for the Wairarapa (John Hayes) to answer. If you have never heard of him, you might remember him as the candidate in the 2008 campaign who, in his SUV, almost ran down a young protester.
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In case we hadn't noticed the earthquakes are all about the PM, but don't affect him as badly as Pike River does.
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Hard News: This Is Not A Complicated Issue, in reply to Biobbs,
Thanks for the correction - I'm sure the Swedes wouldn't like to be confused for the occupied Norwegians.
@chris waugh - Holmes was involved with Paralympics as a patron or somesuch for a while. Hence he understands a bit about the social model of disability. But then he also has two part Maori children so why was his last column so racist? -
The IDCCR Act of about 2003 specifically for people with intellectual impairment who offend was supposed to deal with this sort of situation. Seems not to be happening. Sad about that Richmond Fellowship place too.
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Hard News: This Is Not A Complicated Issue, in reply to Joe Wylie,
I fear that is not an unusual story. Especially once estranged from family. No proper assessment either. Sad.
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Hard News: This Is Not A Complicated Issue, in reply to Biobbs,
Sweden has a pretty terrible history of eugenics. It was not really talked about until the 1990s when they had to confront it for a variety of reasons including the discovery of collections of body parts taken for eugenic resaons. The dark-haired singer in Abba was a product of a eugenic policy experiment to breed Swedish mothers with German 'Aryan' men, which was quite a shock for her to find out.
Most western countries have eugenic policies in their past, and the institutionalisation of disabled people and the sterilisation of disabled women still happen in many countries. Many of those Nazi doctors continued to believe they were doing cutting edge science and went on to have research careers for many decades - one proudly used his collection of brains of disabled children until the 1990s.