The Invisible People

Something happened to me a few days ago, and I’m still furious about it. A couple of my friends have already had this earful – and to you, I definitely apologise – but I think it’s an important topic and thus it’s going to be my topic for this week.

As some (possibly most?) of you know, I’m hearing-impaired. This has a few implications for me: a) I wear a hearing aid and b) it’s hard for me to use the telephone. There are other things that I get squicky about, but they’re outside the bounds of this post (and might be discussed in a later post…).

Anyway. A couple of days ago I accidentally locked myself out of my online banking account by forgetting my password a few times more than necessary. In my defense, it was late at night, I was tired, and I’d been typing in Russian a few moments before. Hah. So what you’re meant to do is phone an 0800 number, and a call centre will reset your password, all from the comfort of your desk. Except…. I can’t use the phone. Cue problem. I sent an email off to an email address provided by the bank, and sat back and hoped they’d reply quickly.

As it happened, I had a gap between lectures the next day, so I hived off to the actual physical bank. Happily, they were wonderful. I can’t praise them enough. They weren’t sure what to do themselves, so they spent time phoning the call centre and talking to the managers there to try and work out a way of resetting my password. A little over an hour later, I had a new password and had gone off, happy.

That night, however, I received an email in response to my one, of the night before. Before I continue, I want to say that I’m glad they replied, and I’m glad they made an effort to find some answer to my query. Unfortunately, it didn’t really work.

There were two things I took exception to in this email. The first is what seemed to be a fundamental misunderstanding of my situation. The email stated that “if the matter is urgent, please call the Contact Centre on 0800 — —.” Never mind that in my email, I’d stated explictly that I can’t use a phone: “I am hearing-impaired and will not be able to hear you if I phone 0800 — — like the error message says.” It feels similar to someone saying, “Everyone here is green.” and me saying, “No actually, I’m blue.” and then hearing them say, “No no no, you’re green. See? You’re green. This is green. GREEN!” Wow. Maybe people just don’t notice, but that feels seriously insensitive.

The other thing I seriously did not like was a link that was included in the email, here. These are phones that work by having the hearing person speak into it as per usual, it being routed through to another person who types out what the first person says, and then it shows up on the hearing-impaired person’s phone as text, on a special screen. Bleugh. But according to the writer of the email, I can use one of these to talk to people. What she didn’t realise is that I might be hearing-impaired, but I don’t have one of these phones, aaaaand… I have no intention of getting one. It feels that she thought that every hearing-impaired person owns one of these. The fact is, I don’t own one because I think they’re weird, and aren’t going to help me personally that much. The reason I felt so offended was that she seemed to assume that all hearing-impaired people by default use one of these.

I think two things about that last point annoyed me: 1) “all hearing-impaired people are the same.” Truth is, there are a huuuuuge number of conditions and random things that cause hearing-impairment and deafness, and what one person experienced may be hugely different to what another person experiences, even if they both have the same level of hearing loss. So don’t come around trying to tell me that “ohh, you lipread, don’t you? And you sign, right? I know someone else who’s hearing impaired, and they do both!” *happy nod* LOL, no. No I don’t, just as no, I don’t want to use a Relay phone. The other point is, b) some people may use Relay phones, some people will not want to. I, personally, don’t. Yes, maybe this makes life a little more difficult for me; yes, maybe this makes it a little more difficult for people to contact me, but to be honest? It’s my choice, whether to use a Relay phone or an amplifier on my usual phone or nothing at all.

I got annoyed about this because I felt that it was yet another example of people not understanding and thinking they know better than myself about my own hearing impairment. I appreciate the sentiment behind the email, but.. Ignorance, please.

Apocalypse Now Now Now

This is probably going to be somewhat of a “hey, let’s take this idea and run with it” post, because I’m tired, I have an online Law test to do in an hour and a half, and it’s the end of the week. So this is going to be an idle, “what-if” idea.

Apocalypse NOW NOW NOW

Imagine if 2012 did mean the end of the world. Touch wood it won’t, of course, but let’s imagine for a second that it did. What would this mean for us?

1) Rick Santorum might not be the President of America for very long. Guys, this can only be a good thing- have you seen his politics? Although, to be fair to him, he might just be the most demonised out of a very bad lot. I mean really? Newt Gingrich? He’s been around since President Clinton, and he’s not exactly, hmm… “reliable”. He attacked Clinton vociferously over the Monica Lewinsky thingy, while secretly having an affair with the person who later became his third wife. Yes, third. A good political thinker? Possibly, I don’t know. Reliable or truthful? Certainly not.

2) I’d never finish my degree. Sad, I know. But hey, at least I’d have the satisfaction of knowing I got into law school, even if I wasn’t actually alive to practice law. Hahahahahahahahaha…. No. I’d rather practice.

3) Supernatural would never have a final season. SCORE. This would mean that Dean and Sam would actually get to ride off into the eternal sunset of the non-existent mind, forever alive and forever hunting. Personally, I think this would be a huge change from what the probable ending will be- I can’t envisage an ending without angst (like, bucketloads) so this partially seems like a good idea.

4) There might be a zombie apocalypse afterwards. Now, I haven’t actually watched The Walking Dead, and to be perfectly honest I’m not likely to, but apparently it is very good, and I think that having our very own would be an awesome present for the fans of that show. LOL, no really. I think it would be an interesting social experiment to see how people would cope. Personally I think I’d cope ok for the first few months, but then  I’d crash and burn as I decided to go and save all the books in the world from the slathering jaws of the ever-pervasive zombies. LOL. No wait, I meant that.

5) Another affect of Apocalypse Now Now Really Now is that this blog would cease to exist. Sad, I know.

6) All forms of law and order would cease to exist, thus rendering Kim Dotcom’s potential convictions absolutely null and void. Megaupload would then become the dominant website on the planet, and a new form of economy would spring up, based on free sharing of all kinds of files. Cool.

7) Historical jokes would become irrelevant. This would probably also render my sense of humor null and void. Wait, that’s a law joke.

8) Although there would be some survivors, there would probably not be enough to repopulate the planet to its current population level within 36^4 generations. This would plunge the world back into the Dark Ages or possibly the Middle Ages, from whence we caaaaame *cue sinister, Mordor music*.

9) Without wishing to infringe on anyone’s political sensibilities…. John Key might become a good ruler. A benevolent dictator.

10) The Auckland rail loop wouldn’t get built.

 

And there you go, folks. That’s what we’d look like in the apocalypse. Tragic, isn’t it? I promise I’ll get back to more serious posts next fortnight… if you want…

Free At Last

A very wise and revered man said some forty years ago, “ Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.” Although they were first spoken in reference to the American Civil Rights movement, in the years since this speech was made, Martin Luther King’s words have become synonymous with the fight for equality, especially racial equality.

Equality is something I passionately believe in: the concept of equality and the active practice of equality in every day life. I do not believe that one group of people is better than another group; that one sex is better than another; that one religious community is better than another. In some ways, my belief n the power of equality is connected to my belief in the power of democracy: it is fascism, not democracy, that forces people into narrow, boxed definitions because they are inherently better that way. Democracy- the rule of the ‘demos’- the people- by definition accepts difference as good and healthy.

Around on the internet, on my web travels, I see a lot of campaigning for gay rights. And I support this. I think it’s shameful that one group of people in power should try and dictate how others should live.

But there are two ‘bases for discrimination’ that make me so furious I can barely see straight, and both of them I experience. The first is religious discrimination. This might sound bizarre, but as a practicing, dedicated Catholic, I experience rather a lot of religious discrimination. “Oh, you’re a Catholic? Hahaha! How many children are you going to have?” Or, “Oh, you’re Catholic? You don’t use contraception, do you?” Or, “All Catholics take the Pope’s word as Gospel, are rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth conservatives and in their free time, picket abortion clinics.” Why is it that without a religion, I’m a perfectly nice, ordinary girl, but as soon as I mention I’m Catholic, it’s open firing season?

The other thing that makes me extremely angry is when people hear that I’m Catholic and immediately start making smart-alec jokes about the pedophile scandals that hit the Church last year and before. No, I don’t know any priests who were pedophiles; no, I haven’t had sex with a priest; and yeah actually, I do still believe that the vast majority of priests are good, holy men who take their role seriously. I’m in no way brushing aside the experiences of the victims of those pedophiles: I think what happened was despicable and outrageous, but the fact remains that those priests were a tiny, tiny minority among the worldwide population of priests. Not every priest is a pedophile, and not every parishioner is secretly covering up dastardly crimes within the church.

Another thing, within ‘religious discrimination,’ that I cringe and try to take deep, calming breaths at, is ‘Jew jokes’. I’m not Jewish, but I have good friends who are, and my great-aunt and her sister were two of the children sent out of Vienna on the Kindertransport, as Hitler was closing the city in 1938. Their parents did not survive the Holocaust. I believe that what Hitler did was an atrocity beyond the power of words to explain it, and that if Western civilization is to survive, there must never be another Holocaust. Because of these two reasons, I cannot cope with ‘Jew jokes’. Guys, that’s anti-Semitism. If you make ‘Catholic jokes’ or ‘Muslim jokes’, or ‘Hindu jokes’, it’s the same thing. Just leave off mocking other peoples’ religion, whether for fun or maliciously.

The other thing that leaves me sitting in my chair, clenching and unclenching my hands, trying to calm down, is ableism. This isn’t a word that’s often heard in New Zealand, but it means ‘discrimination on the basis of disability.’ I did an earlier blog post on my experiences as a hearing-impaired person, so go check it out if you want. More recently, however, I’ve experienced complete indifference to matters of disability.

There is a Member of Parliament who has just been elected, Mojo Mathers, who is profoundly deaf. She has been elected to Parliament, like every other MP, to represent her party and her electorate. And yet… she’s being blocked from doing this, simply because the Speaker of the House, Lockwood Smith, decided that she should have to pay for a note-taker from her own MP’s allowance. Worse than this, in my eyes, is the fact that when she pointed out that her allowance wouldn’t cover the total number of hours she would need (around 1000), he said that she was wrong, and about 80 would do it. To the best of my knowledge, Mr Lockwood Smith is not profoundly deaf, and he has no idea what Ms Mathers needs. She does know; she’s the one living through it.

People using wheelchairs are fairly noticeable, although I recognize that this can work in both good and bad ways. But people using hearing aids are completely disguised. We are the invisible disabled. And so when Lockwood Smith refused Ms Mathers the so-needed help she is entitled too, he pushed an entire group of people- some 700,000 New Zealanders- to the sidelines. And yet somehow, it hasn’t seemed to matter. After all, we’re invisible.

This- this prejudice, this discrimination, this unwillingness to see- is unsustainable. And like Martin Luther King, I too have a dream. I dream of a world where everyone is equal, regardless of sex, gender, race. Regardless of religion, creed or beliefs. Regardless of ability or disability. Regardless of their past, regardless of their present, regardless of their future. I dream of a world where the reins of prejudice will lose their power and acceptance and equality shall reign supreme. I dream of a society where people will be accepted, as they are, without changes, without white-washing. I dream of a world where “all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

 

 

 

 

-All Martin Luther King quotes from the website American Rhetoric.

If Only It Was Awesome: Twilight Revisited

I found this article today  http://io9.com/5872490/if-famous-writers-had-written-twilight and I thought it was hilarious. I’m all for taking the mickey out of certain things, including Twilight, so I decided to do a one-year-anniversary retake harking back to my old blog entries on Twilight, around this time in 2011. This time, instead of analysing it, I’ve decided to do a fun entry, taking the mickey out of it. With that, I have a few additions of my own to this article.

If Ian McEwan had written Twilight: Bella would be involved in a tragic ballooning accident, where despite Edward’s desperate attempts to save her, she would die. Edward would mooch about for the next 3o0 pages, despairing of the fact that Jacob – his rival for Bella’s attention – survived the accident, and pondering the existential meaning of life. He would then decide to go off and join the army, nearly getting killed in a war, whereupon on his return he would find out that Bella’s death was all a mistake – she didn’t really die – and they would fall into each other’s arms.

If Leo Tolstoy had written Twilight: Bella would be a Russian princess, who would decide to have an affair with the mysterious and smoldery-eyed Edward, betraying her stolid and unimaginative husband Jacob. Upon realising her mistakes, Bella would fall in front of  James (instead of a train), begging to be killed. He would happily oblige. Edward would run off and join the army, to go and fight in the Crimean War. Alternatively, Bella would be a Russian princess, Edward would join the Masons (?), something would happen, Bella would ruminate for ten pages upon her place in society, something else would happen, Edward would ruminate for twenty pages on the nature of capitalism, something else again would happen, Jacob would ruminate for thirty pages on the societal implications of being a werewolf. They would live happily ever after(?).

If George Orwell had written Twilight: Bella and Edward would carry on a forbidden relationship in the upstairs attic of a small antiques shop, whereupon they would be ignominiously caught by Jacob, the ‘O’Brien’ character, who would secretly have a crush on Bella. Edward would be taken to Room 101 where the interrogator would realise he has no fears, and he’s certainly not scared of rats. Edward would smolder at the interrogator, who would obligingly open the door for him. Edward would then rescue Bella, and they would all live happily ever after.

If Audrey Niffenegger had written Twilight: Everything would be about to happen, and everything would already have happened. Edward would know before he met Bella that she would turn into a vampire. This would send him into a spin, and he would beg Jacob to marry Bella instead. Knowing Edward. Eventually – because everything is preordained – Edward would have a passionate affair with Bella, and end up being killed by Jacob. As he knew he was going to be.

If J.K. Rowling had written Twilight: Bella would be a brilliant witch, who would fight the most evil dark vampires on the planet, the Volturi, with the help of her loyal sidekicks, Ron and Harry – oops – I mean Jacob and Edward. Bella would get together with Jacob, not Edward, and Edward would be left to mope off and marry Jacob’s non-existent little sister. A token Weasley – I mean vampire/werewolf – would be killed in the final battle, and Bella’s school principal would give his life so she might live (!) but nevertheless happy endings ensue.

Ugh. Upon reflection, I think I’ve just murdered some of my favourite novels. Remind me why I did this again? Please tell me if you have any more suggestions! I apologise most sincerely if I’ve murdered any of your favourite novels, it wasn’t my fault, I’m just a humble literary comedienne.

And finally, from the article up at the very top, I present to you:

 

 

Twilight, by Dr. Seuss

Jake likes a girl. Her name is Bella.
Bella likes a different fella.

See this vamp? This is Ed.
Ed is pale. Ed is dead.

Ed saved Bella from a van.
Ed must be a special man.

Ed won’t kill boys. He won’t kill girls.
Ed gets fed on deer and squirrels.

This is James. He’s a tracker.
He’s a sort of vamp attacker.

James hunts Bella for a thrill.
Will Ed kill him? Yes, he will.

But James gave her a little bite.
Will she be a vamp? She might!

Edward fixes Bella’s cut.
She won’t be a vampire.
But…

She becomes one. Read some more.
She’s a vampire in book 4.

New Year’s Resolutions

I’m normally not too hot on New Year’s resolutions; most of the time I end up writing them in my journal and then losing the page. But this year I want to share some of them with you; I want these to go well. Really well.

1) I want to write more. I want to finish Daughters of Lugh, and a couple other projects as well.

2) I want to eat less and exercise more! Honest!

3) I want to be more organised, so I don’t end up doing everything the night before it’s due. Bane. Of. My. LIFE.

4) I want to be more organised, so I can have more time with my friends without feeling guilty because I should be studying. Did I mention Bane. Of. My. LIFE?

5) I want to calm down and not get annoyed at people… So not a good idea…

6) I will be grateful for the people that matter in my life, and I will show them that I am grateful.

7) I want to keep my room/house tidy.

8) I will not buy books when I have no space for them.

9) I will not buy any more shoes, except if they’re really adorable. I have 27(?) pairs already, I don’t need any more.

10) Tenth but not least, I will GET GOOD GRADES. XD

That’s about it, for now at least.

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope 2012 is an awesome year for you all, and that you are all very blessed.

(I went to see Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol a few days ago… And I thought it was kinda awesome. Here’s a picture of Tom Cruise.)

The Transmissions Will Resume

Well, as promised, exams have finished (there’s a dance party in the corner over there! ——>) and so this blog is back up’n'running. Literally.

A long while ago, I liked a page on facebook called “The Sexual Tension Between Trotsky and Lenin.” As a Russophile, and as someone with a sense of humour, I thought it was kinda funny; a harmless joke that put a rather funny slant on the events of the 1920s onwards in Russia. And then I was talking to Bandit about it on the bus today, and it got me thinking. Trotsky and Lenin, and Stalin, and Nadezhda Stalin and Kalinin and Kirov were all real people. And regardless of whether you like or dislike Russian history, I still have qualms about making a joke like that. And it’s not honestly because of the sexuality aspects of the idea- they’re, to me at least, somewhat irrelevant. Instead, it’s the idea of making a joke out of something- or someone- like that.

The thing to understand is that Trotsky and Lenin were real people, as I said before. And they did terrible things, and had terrible things happen to them. (Well, Trotsky at least). Turning this into a joke is at the very least, ill-advised, for several reasons.

Firstly, there’s the “Dear Leader” aspect of it. Apparently, people write fan fiction about Hitler. I refuse to go looking for that, because no. Just no. But if people turn what were real events, that happened to real people, into either a joke, or some kind of wish-fulfillment fantasy, bad things start to happen. Like the  article in The Guardian (I think; I’ve lost the link) about “vandalism” in a ‘Jewish enclave’ in (I believe) New York. “Vandalism” as in anti-semitism. People can say, “Oh, it’s not a big deal, it’s only some overturned-and-set-alight cars and some anti-semitic slogans written about on walls,” but the fact is that that’s the beginning. People go further along this path of not recognising the utter horror of what Hitler did, and some day, there might be a repeat. And this cannot be allowed to happen. I think if there was ever a repeat of the Holocaust- I can’t even begin to imagine- there are honestly no words to explain how sick I’m feeling as I’m writing this. Physically sick.

And this is the other thing. I’m not German, or Jewish, or French, or Russian, or Ukrainian, or Eastern European of any sort, and the only link I personally have with the Holocaust- apart from the fact that I’m a human being, and we all have some link to it- is my great-aunt and her sister who as children were put on the last train out of Vienna as the city was closing during Anschluss. So you could say that I have no idea how horrific things actually were, and on some level you’d be right. But see, this is the thing with history: what you read in books and what the people living it experienced are so completely, radically different. Do I know what went on in Nazi Germany? Yes, to a degree: I studied history to a very high level in school, and it’s one of my majors in university. Do I understand the honest horror of Nazi Germany? Nope, not at all. I could hide behind my Scottishness and my geographical distance here at the bottom of the world, and say, “Oh, well you can’t really expect me to understand!” Instead, I’d rather say, “I don’t understand, I’ll admit that, but educate me!” As people living in a post-World-War-Two era, we get taught Nazi Germany and the Holocaust in school practically every year until Year 13. Yes, it can get boring, yes, it can be repetitive, but we need to know this. It’s a part of our collective memory; a part of our collective trauma. But there’s no way we can fully understand it unless we can understand the real horror of it all. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure how this can be accomplished; all I know is that it has to be.

But lots of people “know” about the Holocaust. “Know” in the vague, intellectual-understanding way that I talked about earlier. Far fewer people know about the horrors that took place in Soviet Russia. (Un)fortunately for me, these horrors are something I’ve read way too many books about. The Purges of the 1930s. The gulags. The corruption. The canals built by forced labour, so deadly that it is possible to say of the Baltic-White Sea canal that it is built on bodies. (I believe it’s approximately one body to every meter of canal.) Too many people don’t know about these horrors; too many people think “Stalin!” and think, “Oh, the other guy with the moustache.” Too many people think “Trotsky!” and don’t realise the full extent of his own policies- he advocated continuous revolution, guys. CONTINUOUS. Like, carrying on going forever. Too many people look at Lenin and don’t realise that he was happy to ‘sacrifice’ thousands, maybe millions of people in the name of the revolution.

So I’ve burbled on for a while about this in a vaguely historical-nerdy way, but to sum up I’d like to use the example of a TV show. Downton Abbey, season 2. From what I’ve seen of it so far (Mum- who against all odds has become a fangirl for this show!- and I are currently up to episode 4) DA clearly shows the horror and devastation of war- in this case, World War One. This is a great achievement, because I feel that too often, war in pop culture isn’t as terrifying or damaging as it is in real life. Showing the reality and horror of war and genocide is, I believe, a duty we all have. It doesn’t have to be done by displaying needless, over the top violence on TV; but nor can it be done by memorising dry, dusty facts about the death tolls, places of death, and so on. For our culture to finally face up to the horrors wreaked in the past century, we need to stop, step back, and listen. Listen to those who went through it. Listen to their tales. Listen to the tales of their children. Accept: this is our history. Yes, it is violent, horrifying, inhuman. But it is our history, and we need to know it.

This Blog Is Having An Existential Crisis

It is indeed. I started this blog in December last year, intending it to be a blog about writing. Partially, this was to keep myself looking at issues in writing, in the hope that I’d eventually get over what turned out to be a nearly 10-month-long stint of writer’s block. And you know, yeah, it worked. It’s been a great deal of fun, thinking of things to write about on here, but then two things have happened.

1) University and other things. It’s been an incredibly hard year for me, and not only because my course load is slightly stupidly ridiculous. Ok, it’s a lot ridiculous. You get the point. So I decreased the number of blog posts per month to two, hoping that would take the load off a little. It didn’t really work, especially when I did a writing course that also had fortnightly assignments…

2) Relevancy? What relevancy? The sad fact is that not many people actually write. A blog about films, or about books, would be much more relevant… And so I’ve tried for a while to focus less on the art of writing, and more on the art of story-telling, as shown in films, books and other media. And yet- not to sound self-pitying- I sometimes wonder whether people actually care. I mean, I find this sort of stuff absolutely fascinating- and I can analyse it to death- but it doesn’t really make for a wide reading audience.

So, it seems to me like I have three options.

1) Close This Is My Line down, and write it off as a bad idea. I’m not honestly particularly keen to do this, but…

2) Carry on the way I’m going, and hope that I’m not going to lose my wings and fall any time soon. Again, probably not the best idea, considering Icarus’ precendent…

3) Change the focus of this blog. And here becomes the problem. What should I change it to? If you read this blog, what would you like to see more of? Within reason, obviously; I’m not going to morph this blog into a gourmet Spanish cuisine blog, mainly because I know nothing about gourmet Spanish cuisine!

So, I hope this hasn’t sounded too self-pitying. I genuinely want to continue this blog, but I need a different direction if I’m going to do that. Comments, as always, are welcomed.

In other news: This blog will be taking a hiatus at least until the middle of November, when my exams finish. Although I’m not going to be doing NaNoWriMo this year (unfortunately) since my exams go for two weeks into November, I’m going to try to keep to the 1,667 words per day idea that NaNo has, and try to get a good portion to my novel done. So… This Is My Line may start back up middle of November, or early December, depending on how my own little NaNo goes. Until then folks! xx