Posts by Hilary Stace
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OK, I take back every negative thing I have said about Attitude after this morning's half hour documentary of the lives of a 19 year old autistic man in Christchurch, and his families and friend. He also happens to be blind and a bit of musical savant, but that's no big deal. No editorialising narrative, just the words of those involved, mostly from the subject himself, but including brotherly sibling wisdom. No hero/tragedy subtheme or triumphal progress towards 'normality'. And also subtly promoting tolerance towards Mormon missionaries.
I do hope it will be repeated, as it is an example of superb documentary.
Sacha: Yes I hope they will be online. Martin Sullivan's keynote on the Treaty of Waitangi as model for disability partnership was great but challenged some (I'll ask if I can put in on humans). Lorna part of lively final session with Fiona Kumari Campbell.
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Lots of plane spotters like that view too.
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Sacha: I have just been to an extremely interesting disability research conference in Sydney that had attendees from all over the Asia Pacific. Only 4 of us from NZ and only one from non-academia and that was a very nice man from Stats NZ who had come specifically to learn more about the place of stats in disability research, and what was needed and would be useful (specifically as a result of the NZDS Objective 10).
Attending was also one retired Australian stats man who had contributed regional data to the WHO's ICF (International Classification of Functioning or whatever) which is being used more and more by Education and Health, and seems to be much more social model based than previous measures which focussed on broken body parts.
So things are slowly improving and its due to activism such as yours.
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It's not a real plane - it's an ad. A huge opaque plastic ad for Jetstar covering for the very large window that looks out on the tarmac.
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At Wgtn airport this week I noticed that Jetstar have made a poor PR decision. A huge Jetstar plane is stuck to and obscures much of the window that looks out from the food court onto the tarmac an across to the sea (like those ads plastered on the windows of buses, only huge). It would infuriate anyone who would prefer to look at the view while sipping their latte, and encourage even more negative thoughts towards the airline..
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Sorry, I didn't mean that anyone on that Media7 programme was being derogatory about PC stuff, but that in general it is easy to find yourself apologising for standing up for rights etc when this might be unpopular or not mainstream. So people should never apologise when being accused of being PC (I see it as Politically Challenging). Be proud to be PC!
Re the Disability Strategy, government departments have to report against it and its principles every year. You can find some fascinating details about what govt departments have been doing on the Office for Disability Issues website www.odi.govt.nz. If TVNZ was still a govt department they would have to too, and it would be more than one light ent weekly programme way out of primetime (and some tragedy/hero objectifying pieces scattered here and there as 'current affairs').
For example, Stats NZ is thinking seriously about how they could collect useful data about disability in NZ as per Objective 10 of the NZDS.
Yet who, outside the sector, a few people from govt agencies, and some politicians, know anything about the NZDS, let alone the UN convention? There is systemic failure somewhere.
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Sacha - it was only a brief insight into the disability world and I thought everything you said was very sensible (because I know we agree on on a lot of this stuff anyway). I would like to see more philosophical discussions about these things in the MSM (or even on Attitude)
But I hate that term PC. Those who use it in an accusatory way are signally that they are too intellectually lazy or arrogant to think about the political and personal power of words or concepts, and are are being very defensive about their right to retain power over others.
So, Sacha, please stay proud to be PC re disability.
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Great to have that section with Philip Patston on Media 7 last night. He's one of the most charismatic and astute thinkers in NZ disability. But hard to have a proper discussion on media and something as diverse as disability which affects 1 in 5 of the population, in 15 minutes. The panellists weren't even speaking the same language as each other. (Great to see Sacha though.)
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Can I threadjack to advertise another media event? - a short but fascinating social history documentary about how urban design affects community.
Marie Russell's short documentary "A place to stay" about Salisbury Garden Court, in Wadestown, Wellington, has its premier tomorrow, Saturday, 11 July, 11.30 am at the Paramount Theatre, Courtenay Place, gold coin entry. -
Carig: That is unfair. Chris Finlayson is generally liked around Wellington and I hear he has been sensitive in his arts and culture portfolio after following such a high profile previous minister. But he has got himself into some trouble around Wellington by trying to please competing interests re the memorial park, which shows he still has a bit to learn re politics.
And I did think his chapter in the Bolger Years was an unfair assessment of the settlement process. But that said, there was a bit of rewriting history in that book.
But politicians are politicians. They are balancing a lot of competing allegiances, so expecting one person to sort out something extremely complex might be setting yourself up for disappointment. That's what I was saying.