Category Archives: International

Good ol’ Brits

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BBC News – One in ten ‘cannot use London Tube or buses’.

The study claimed:

  • Only 10 of London’s 270 Tube stations are completely step-free all the way from street level to train.
  • Just one third of London’s 300 rail stations have step-free access from street to platform.
  • While all London’s buses now have ramps, only half of London’s 17,476 bus stops meet the criteria for full accessibility.

Despite this I still found it easier to use transport in London when I was there 7 years ago, then I did until very recently here. Why with all the claims to history and tradition in the UK was I able to use transport and buildings like I was supposed to be there?a train

Two London transport moments stick in my memory as defining life moments, catching my first cab right out of St Pancras station – with taxi driver almost traumatised — not because he had to pick me up; but rather because he (the very next cab that came along) had picked me up – I cried for joy for 10 pounds worth, and couldn’t tell him why or where I was going! The second moment was when I could even then catch a bus, any bus I wanted before I had caught one as easily in my homeland. I was floored that nobody looked askance.

I accept that the London tube was then and seems now to be all but useless to a be-wheeled being and am glad to see they are doing something about it as it would’ve useful then, but I get the sense they are working from a rights based mentality, not a “she’ll be right”s based one and that will make all the difference, then, now and in the future.

Why do I get a lovely buzz in my tummy (because it’s so rare) when, even now, here in Australia, the right bus is the first bus that comes along and it’s accessible? After a couple of weeks in London all those years ago, I simple assumed it would work and it did!

The other thing that occurs to me as positive is that the Pommes seem willing through their mainstream media to have the discussion about access based on a report, not based on the case of some poor brave headline making person with impairment. Based on a report on the topic, transport, not the minority, disability.

The Governments here in contrast would if I’m not wrong be claiming that 90% was good enough and such a report would never have elicited this response:

Val Shawcross AM, chairwoman of the transport committee, called the situation “simply unacceptable”.

It isn’t perfect but it’s a start. The right start.

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On a big date – September 11 from down here

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9 years ago I signed a mortgage for what was meant to be a family home. I was living in Perth at the time. We, XH and I had just seen the mortgage broker off after a marathon contract signing and finance explaining effort and we were exhausted. I turned on the television in the bedroom hoping for some mindless dribble and a distracting change of pace.

I think XH and I didn’t talk finances for a week after that.
I remember watching plumes of smoke coming out of a tower and journalists scrambling,  rushing to get their words out in case they too faded, as a second plane lit the second tower as it crumbled like melted wax. I believed it to be a movie. It couldn’t be real. I switched over needing something lighter. But it was everywhere.
I remember being scared, not in a child like way, but with an awareness that chilled me to the core that evil was around.

It was a big day.

I haven’t known what to say over the side of the world as American news media outlets and the bloggersphere has marked the 9 year anniversary. But I will say this; Those planes took lives, but in my view gave America its sense of community and put it on display for all of us to honor. Battles for justice and equity have raged since

On the same date some six years earlier a brave young(er) PB took on a mammoth task of justice and community on a somewhat more localised scale. To this date he fights on with courage and determination I can but aspire to.

I honour in a small way all to whom Sept 11 becomes an anniversary of fighting for the good.

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Are we at the starting blocks?

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Get ready its going to be a bumpy ride and a long run.

In the wake of what seemed a somewhat elongated UK election (who is David Cameron anyway?), I got to thinking about our own political landscape here in Australia. For those of us in New South Wales at least, we can look forward to two general, compulsory elections between say July this year and March next year. The state one next year is a fixed date election, so we can see it coming and boy can we see it coming.

Those with an eye for politics are expecting our PM to call the Federal election before the end of this year. Before Federal issues start getting (more) mixed with State ones. It can’t happen during September because of Fathers’ Day and all the football finals. I think the latest in the year I’ve voted at that level is November. October elections are more common. I’ve even voted on my birthday. Some of the folks in the know here are predicting either August or October.

You can tell things are gearing up. Tuesday night saw the delivering of the Federal budget, an amazingly low-key low spend budget for a Labor government in an election year. In order to bring the budget back into the black. My guess is (as Peter Hatcher has proposed) is that the intent was to take the “Labor are financially irresponsible” argument away from the Opposition, something that appears to have worked:

THE morning after and Canberra awoke with a post-budget headache only to have Tony Abbott add to the pain by saying the Rudd government started out as Paris Hilton and ended up Uncle Scrooge.

I don’t think that’s much of a sting to come back with. Circumstances change. The economy has changed. It might be quite confident to not feel one has to spend but still.

That was yesterday. Today of course, leadership speculation.

Tomorrow?

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values added

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Interesting take on “assisted suicide” as a care prevention option.

This couple were apparently in good health but precisely because they were in good health now was the time of their choosing;

“Mr and Mrs Milner’s daughter Chrissy said her parents had been in good health but did not want to get to a stage where they would be too ill to care for themselves. She said they felt they had to pre-empt any possible serious deterioration in their health.”

And this from the letter signed by both Mr and Mrs Milner;

“I have made many visits to friends and relatives in care homes. They cannot wash, dress, feed or toilet themselves. They cannot get out of the chair or walk. This can go on for a long time – years.

Long before we reach this stage of degeneration the quality of life for us would be unacceptable, cruel and inhumane.”

This is probably the main area of public commentary and thought where I come over as, dare I suggest, my most conservative. My biggest issue is the Milners objection to living a less than perfect life.The danger seems to be in leaving people with the impression that unless everything is just the way it always was, or the way you want it  life is “not good enough” to live. That may or may not be appropriate for the Milners’ or the late Christopher Reeves who made similar comments following his injury. But as  someone who occasionally needs help with all the things that letter listed, I’d like to think I contribute and have added value even at those times my health was at a low point and I needed to adapt.

Advocates of this position have told me that it isn’t personal: that they make no judgement about those of us who choose to live and hopefully contribute in spite of our challenges. They often heroise us; collectively for living.

If I had a dollar for every time someone told me they couldn’t live with my disability…. And there have been times when I thought they were right.

Each person will make their own decisions about end of life. I have no issue with the decision they have taken. I take issue with the publicity they sought by seeking to have the letter published.

He said his first letter was published 60 years ago and asked that this, his last letter, would also be published.

My quams are about the social responsibility of turning your choice into a headline and the impact that has on the rest of us

At the point that you write to the newspaper, or post to a blog claiming that you want to get out while you’re ahead  you add to the debate and the value of choice that you advocate is compromised. You are in a position to place value and the associated judgment on all life, not just your own. On the recent paraplegic who is trying to piece it together on his way to physiotherapy; on the teenager whose parents have just divorced for whom just the way it was seems a long way away. Either of these folks could be flicking through the paper and read your assertions about maintaining control and “the good life”

Inclusion of the rest of us who just get on with it also gets much harder. The fact is none of us know what we will be capable of till we are there. To publisize a decision like this either way makes it harder for the rest of us to make our own choices.

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true confessions

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Ok. Are you ready? At the risk of making a fool of myself ….. I am hooked on The Biggest Loser. I know what those of you that have known me in real life will think. I am after all the girl that didn’t own a television for 5 years. I used to gloat about it too.

What’s worse is I can’t really even say that I actually *get* that much out of it. Many times more frustration than enjoyment even.

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Bali bombers gone.

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After 6 years the three master minds of the bombings that killed 88 Australians have now been executed by firing squad.

I lived in WA at the time and many of the killed and injured were from the West. I remember clearly the shock waves in Perth as many of our own who were holiday-makers who had earned a week or three in the sun were stolen. It was in some ways Australia’s 9/11, although we lost folk in that terrorist attack too.

But I can’t help wondering what we have achieved.  The lack of remorse on the faces of Iman, and the brothers, Amrozi and Mukhlas was disgusting. Ultimately it can’t bring the dead back nor restore the injured as has been pointed out. They see themselves as martyrs and were eagerly anticipated their deaths. Such as this; 

A source at the prison said the condemned men had shouted “Allahu Akbar”, or God is greater, as they were escorted from their isolation cells shortly before the executions.

via the SMH. Then there was this from the same piece, honour from the families;

He (the brother of amrozi) sent a text message to relatives in Arabic saying “they are with the Almighty”.

In a statement on behalf of the family of Mukhlas and Amrozi, elder brother Chozin said: “We hope the spirit of my brothers Amrozi and Ali Ghufron (Mukhlas) will be takn by green birds to paradise.”

There are fears of reprizals though  like this one well put;

Former Adelaide magistrate Brian Deegan, who lost his son Josh in the Bali bombings, says he’s full of trepidation about reprisals after the executions of three bombers.

Mr Deegan, who staunchly opposes capital punishment, said he was worried about what would happen next. “I have (a sense of) trepidation as to what might happen as a result of this,” he said.

and it seems with good cause.

Right up until their final days, the killers showed no remorse and used the media to claim to be warriors of Islam and predict a wave of attacks against Westerners following their deaths.

And the net benefit?? Who know?

 

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Pressure princess

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According to this;
the younger daughter-in-law of the Japanese dynasty is expecting. This
could be historically very very telling. The 39 year old Princess Kiko
is expecting her third child. Assuming this is then her last, if this
is not a boy the law would have to be have to be changed to
accomodate a woman’s succession to the throne.

Continue reading →

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Cork Notes — backdated

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Well I’m sitting here in Cork airport that is – in my ways reminiscent of T3 at Heathrow. Noisy, loud crowded, and understaffed by staff; who, with the exception of the guy who spotted my usual “carry coffee” dilemma and carried it; look as if the would rather be at a funeral than here.

Cork itself is certainly not my favourite place, although I will say that the people are practically friendly – despite their expressions collectively not enforcing this. However when I have come to one of the many corners with no kerb ramp (or a poor excuse for one); if I made an attempt to get up/down invariably a gruff very aged man with food stains on his shirt– who looks too weak or derelict to lift anything, will skilfully pull/push me accordingly, all the while muttering something in Gaelic. Then with a rough but kindly meant pat on the shoulder and an “Aye Sir, Good luck to ya” they once again meld into the colourless stonework.

Yes I did say sir. Thanks to my number 2 haircut I seem to be getting called Sir at least in old Ireland. People have mistaken me for a male – despite a pink shirt and earrings ?. However to “the continent’s” credit – as a rule – once they work out my gender out – I am generally Ma’am. That’s a bit ironic given the extent to which I had stealed myself in anticapationn of the inslaught of “Lovey” et al. Oh well no complaints!

I met a bloke on Washington Street Cork after a particularly trying series of non ramps and raised side kerbing. Somewhere in his 40’s complete with nose ring, enlarged earring, denim jacket and bright purple sports chair with – I was to discover and jealously admire – REAL shock absorbers. He was an import from London and a para, after a work related accident 5 years ago as a result of which he retired with a compo payout. I admire anyone who can be as bold and forthcoming.

He told me that he had moved to Cork because; at least in his experience better than London. This is a bit of worry but no doubt time will tell. In fact upon learning that I am indeed an Aussie, he proceeded to tell me that when he was recovering from his accident the staff in the English hospital sat him down in all seriousness and told him to pull out all stops in order to move as quickly as possible to one of four countries; these being, Australia, New Zealand, Germany or Florida I think it was. Anywhere but England it seems.

Just my luck! Well we’ll see.

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