l’azile

It is funny (not in a ha ha sense but in an ironic sense) that after I got home tonight, this article from Wired.com was waiting for me in my RSS feeds. Originally titled “Why We Freak Out at Freaks” (and, after several complaints in the comments section to the post, changed to “Why We Stare, Even When We Don’t Want To”), the article explains why staring when one sees someone who looks different “actually makes sense, at least in an evolutionary sense”.

I found it funny because while I was out walking around looking for a decent restaurant with a nice atmosphere to have supper in my neighbourhood that would actually be open on a Monday night (I eventually gave up and ordered in Chinese, which ended up being pretty good), I was stopped by a young man on a street corner who asked me what was wrong with me. Needless to say I was thoroughly annoyed but I will get to that in a minute.

Continue reading… de-evolution

Comme d’habitude, je suis en retard pour le party puisque je n’ai appris la nouvelle qu’hier : la Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ) oblige, depuis juillet 2008, les fabricants de fauteuils roulants motorisés à limiter la vitesse des « véhicules » à 10 km/h. Sans doute le fait que je n’utilise plus de fauteuil roulant motorisé depuis quelques années maintenant, sans compter que mon ignorance des actualités locales est légendaire, y est pour quelque chose. Mais bon, maintenant que je le sais, je dois dénoncer haut et fort cette mesure scandaleuse.

Déjà qu’on qualifie un fauteuil roulant de « véhicule » pose problème. Un moyen de locomotion, certes, mais pas du tout dans la même veine que des autos, motos, vélos, etc. Certains compareront un fauteuil roulant à des jambes ce qui se rapproche un peu plus de la réalité mais encore là, je trouve que l’analogie est pauvre. Simplement, cela représente un moyen pour certaines personnes handicapées de se déplacer, de bénéficier de plus d’autonomie et il n’y a vraiment rien qui puisse s’y comparer.

Certains groupes de personnes handicapées ont dénoncé cette mesure; il paraît qu’il y en a qui seraient même prêts à interpeller la Commission des droits de la personne s’il le faut et je leur souhaite merde. Mais la réalité est que la communauté est partagée. Sans doute le fait que la plupart des gens qui travaille dans le milieu et qui représente les intérêts des personnes handicapées n’est pas handicapé y est pour quelque chose…

Je ne me lancerai pas dans des longs argumentaires parce que, de toute manière, les chialeurs à l’origine de cette mesure discriminatoire s’en foutent et j’ai d’autre chose à faire que de perdre mon temps à essayer de convaincre des gens qui ne pigent pas. Mais je me permettrai de dire « tassez-vous calice au lieu de rester plantés là à nous dévisager ou à vous imaginer que vous êtes tout seul sur la planète ». Déjà ça, ça règlerait bien des problèmes.

Mais bon, si on se permet de limiter la vitesse à laquelle on peut se déplacer en fauteuil roulant, eh bien moi j’exige qu’on oblige les fabricants de vélos, skates, patin à roulettes et compagnie de limiter leur vitesse à 10 km/h. Car après tout, tout compte fait, ces « véhicules » sont beaucoup plus nuisibles à la santé de tous ces pauvres bipèdes.

Comme on dit en anglais, « fair is fair ».

PS. traduction googlienne de « tassez-vous calice »  : « pack your chalice ». Trop mourant.

PS2. Un article sur la question sur le blogue de Parole Citoyenne signé par Pierrot Péladeau qui explique infiniment mieux que moi la sournoise gravité de ce geste.

Some guy called Jonathan Keller from Motor City has been photographing his face every day for the last eight years and posting the photos on line. It is a strangely fascinating experiment if you are into that sort of thing and yet it is actually very ordinary somehow but for some reason I find his follow-through quite admirable.

He claims in the oft entertaining FAQ that the project will continue until the day he dies and that “only then will it be complete, and worth its true value”, though “unfortunately, [he] won’t ever see it finished”.

He has created a timelapse animation of the series called “Living my life faster” and it really is quite something to see though I must admit it almost triggered an odd epileptic seizure.

Aside from the hair (facial and otherwise), he has not changed much in the last eight years but I imagine that, if he can keep going (and, barring any unfortunate circumstances, I imagine he will), it will be kind of interesting to see the changes in the long term. Which I guess, or at least hope, is ultimately the point.

Thursday night, I attended a euh, I guess you could call it a gathering, organised by University of the Streets at the Santropol Roulant. The theme of the evening was “Beyond a handicap: Are you and I really that different?“. Michael alerted me to this event and I was curious so despite being dead tired after a very long day and just really looking forward to ripping off my prosthesis as soon as I could, I made my way to St-Urbain street and participated in my first “conversation” (that is what all the cool kids are calling it these days).

About a dozen people participated in the evening: from what I could tell, four or five persons with disabilities, including myself and the two guest speakers, and about eight individuals without disabilities who had for the most part some kind of relationship with people with disabilities, whether professionally or personally.

It was all very pleasant and polite, which I guess is a good thing for these types of things. And I appreciated my evening and left with the sentiment that it had been worthwhile to go. Plus it was really nice seeing Michael again. But… I also felt frustrated by a few things and hopefully I can explain why without coming off as arrogant or insensitive or just odd.

Continue reading… same difference

As I mentioned recently, I have had a flickr account for a couple of years now. I do not get a ton of traffic and actually, that is fine with me. I mean, it is nice to get comments, especially from people I know, or to have people favourite a photo of mine once in a while. But at the time, I started my photoblog more as a way to work through some stuff and there is still always a part of me that feels a bit unconfortable about what I put out on the Web anyway (which is one of the things flickr is useful for, i.e. figuring out how I feel about what I put out there).

It has been a lot of fun at times and not so fun at other times. And it certainly has been a learning experience. I am by no means a great photographer. I am not even a good one. Sometimes, I am happy about a certain photo I took because I think it is pretty or because I think I actually succeeded in conveying whatever it was I was trying to convey. But most of the time, it was just a lucky shot either way (especially considering what a really crappy camera I have; I have dropped that thing so many times I am amazed it still works). But I see it more as a personal visual log and I do not expect other people to find it interesting. So I am often perplexed by what some people find interesting in my photos. Or what could have possessed them to favourite something I posted.

Three days ago, I posted a few photos to flickr. Nothing special, or so I thought. A random picture taken in a post office, one of the black squirrel I have kind of befriended and throw peanuts at every morning and one of a rather ordinary poster I photographed during my last visit to the rehab institute. Of these three, the photo of the rather ordinary poster received an insane amount of traffic and it took me a few days to figure out why.

Continue reading… the sum of my parts

Or maybe that should be “The diplomats! The diplomats!”

Sorry to disappoint but no, Tattoo has not come back to grace us with his cheeky presence. But perhaps just as cheekily, the virtual game Second Life now has its very own “Diplomacy Island”, thanks to the Diplo Foundation, a non-profit “knowledge organisation” that promotes meaningful participation in international affairs through, among other things, the development of information and communications technologies (ICTs) for diplomatic activities. As explained on the Diplo Foundation Web site:

“Diplomacy Island is the next step in over a decade of research and development in the field of Virtual Diplomacy. Through Second Life, Diplo will explore new possibilities for diplomatic representation and interaction. Diplomacy Island will also be another channel for Diplo’s main mission of assisting small and developing countries to participate meaningfully in international relations. At the Island, Diplo will also promote development issues among Second Life citizens.”

My first thought when I read about this was “the end of the world is near”. Now, do not get me wrong. I think that ICTs are without a doubt useful tools for a wide range of human activities and we sure have come a long way in the last couple of decades.

Continue reading… the plane! the plane!

The Washington Protection and Advocacy System (WPAS) released its much anticipated report (PDF document, 38 pages) on the “Ashley Treatment” yesterday and confirmed what many of us already knew. That the sterilisation portion of the “Ashley Treatment” was conducted illegally, resulting in the violation of Ashley’s constitutional and common law rights as, essentially, no court order was sought and obtained. Furthermore, the report states that the violations appear to have occurred as a result of:

• a lack of policies at [Seattle] Children’s Hospital regarding the sterilization of minors with developmental disabilities;
• an opinion of Ashley’s parents’ counsel that no court order was required. This legal opinion was not supported by Washington law;
• reliance upon that opinion by doctors at Children’s Hospital and the mistaken belief that the opinion of Ashley’s parents’ counsel constituted a “court review”; and
• insufficient internal controls at Children’s Hospital to ensure that Ashley’s independent legal interests were protected.

Continue reading… watchdog organisation says “Ashley Treatment” is illegal

Cela fait bien 20 ans que je vis à Montréal, cette ville aux mille visages, et ça n’a pas été long après mon arrivée que je me suis sentie faire partie de la place et me considérer une montréalaise, presque comme si j’y étais née. Montréal douce, tough, exaltante, riche, quétaine, tendance, accueillante, parfois chiante, un peu fo-folle et belle, toujours belle, même dans ses moments les plus gauches ou les moins joyeux.

Et pourtant, je me rends compte aussi que par moment, je la connais bien mal, que j’ai parfois plus idée de ce qui se passe ailleurs, des enjeux, des luttes et des développements dans le pays à côté que dans la rue à côté, pour les gens et les commerçants du coin ou dans les divers forums publics de mon arrondissement.

Mais il se passe pas mal de choses à Montréal. Il y a des projets et de belles initiatives qui ont eu des impacts intéressants, qui ont enrichi la vie économique, culturelle et communautaire de la ville. Il reste aussi plusieurs besoins encore à combler et plein de défis à relever pour que Montréal soit la « plusse meilleure » ville au monde ;)

En quelque part dans tout ça, j’ai un rôle à jouer tant pour mon épanouissement que pour celui de mon quartier, ma communauté et ma ville. Et un des moyens qui peut m’aider à jouer mieux et davantage ce rôle est celui d’avoir accès à l’information me permettant de connaître et de comprendre les intérêts et enjeux locaux et qui me donne les outils aussi pour agir.

C’est ce que vise le projet Montréal, ville ouverte, initié pour l’instant par un petit groupe de citoyens mais qui espère voir ses rangs grandir avec d’autres citoyens, groupes d’intérêts et organisations qui ont à cœur le développement sain, équitable et dynamique de Montréal et qui voit l’information comme un levier important pour y arriver.

Essentiellement, on souhaite en arriver à organiser une rencontre de type « Barcamp », réunissant une soixantaine de personnes actives dans la communauté afin de réfléchir, d’imaginer et de contribuer à la création d’outils et de politiques pour mieux partager l’information.

Une première rencontre a lieu mardi soir prochain (le 08 mai) afin de lancer le projet. Pour en savoir plus, rendez vous sur le site de Montréal, ville ouverte et si vous souhaitez y participer, écrivez-moi ou laissez-moi un commentaire ici et je vous transmettrez les coordonnées.

Note: If you do not read French and/or have no idea what all that was about, this post from Michael should help.

A very interesting post by ballastexistenz on a kind of disablism many persons with disabilities have to deal with. Drawing on some of her own experiences, she discusses more specifically how persons with cognitive or developmental disabilities are accused of being manipulative and/or considered impertinent by certain health-care professionals and she does an honest job of trying to figure out why this occurs, where it comes from.

Reading her post, I was reminded of the many times I was confronted with some of the situations she describes and that I vaguely touched upon in this post last year. And because I am at the core an idealistic fool, for the life of me I can not understand why, as a species and as a society, we have not gotten past this kind of stuff yet.

Came across a very powerful video the other day (Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising’s Image of Women) at Back in skinny jeans and while it is stuff we have all heard before, a little reminder now and then will not kill us. The video can also be found at Google Video.

It is some 30 minutes long so make yourself comfortable. And although the speaker, Jean Kilbourne, describes many of the ads she talks about in her presentation, there is also a study guide for the video available at the Media Education Foundation that includes a synopsis that could be helpful for those who may have problems with a video format.