For the next two days, members of the 🇿🇦 Western Cape Network on Disability (WCND) will be presenting at a 2-day event on Unseen Disabilities organised by the South African Human Rights Commision (SAHRC).
There are several reasons why this is a big deal.
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For me, the biggest is that there will be presentations by bedbound people with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME, previously called #MECFS) and #LongCovid, and two of those presenters will be there in person, which means EVERYONE will be issued with N95 respirators.
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I will be talking mainly about neurodevelopmental disabilities, and my associates will be talking about intellectual disability, deafness, and late hearing loss.
This is not SUCH a big thing, though, because all of us do get awareness-raising opportunities from time to time.
Hey, it's 1985 and I have an idea for a movie! In 2020, a virus hits the world and by 2025 nearly half a billion of the survivors have brain damage so severe that they don't even remember to protect themselves against further infections. They start using robots to think for them.
The virus also affects the empathy centre of the brain, so wars break out, and by the time depicted in the movie, there are at least three major genocides on the go.
Also, the richest man in the world, named Elon, is building rockets because he wants to become the ruler of Mars (here I'm borrowing a bit from Wernher von Braun's novel).
"What do you think they [the protesters] want?" Harris Faulkner of Fox News asked Trump. "What do you think they need right now from you?"
Trump's answer, verbatim:
1/
"Protesters for different reasons. You're protesting
also because, you know, they just didn't know. l've
watch... I watched very closely. Why are you here?
They really weren't able to say, but they were there
for a reason, perhaps."
2/cont'd
"But a lot of them really were there because they're
following the crowd. A lot of them were there because what we witnessed was a terrible thing. What we saw was a terrible thing. And we've seen it over the years."
Dit lyk my ek gaan op 'n stadium my familiegeskienis moet begin uitpak hier...
...van die eerste 17e-eeuse Hugenoot af, deur die slavinne wat later grondbesitters geword het, tot die Boererepublieke, konsentrasiekampe, die verbanning van manne na St. Helena, die uittog van Afrikaners na Argentinië,...
...die Duitse sendelinge in die Oos-Kaap, die Skotse Protestante,...
Americans, if you're devastated by the news that RFK has been confirmed as health secretary, if you're afraid that this will result in the death of millions of people, then I have bad news and good news for you from history:
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The bad news is, yes, it is likely that millions will die.
But you can also save millions by learning from the past and being inspired by it.
See, we went through this in South Africa with AIDS-denialist as Minister of Health from 1999 to 2008.
Dear 🇿🇦 South Africans dreaming of a better life in the 🇺🇸 US
I want to share something with you that appeared on my Facebook timeline today.
It was written by a happily married American mother whom I have known online for years via autistic self-advocacy networks.
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Wendy shared it publicly, so I am going to post it verbatim and link to her original post at the end of the thread.
For now, I'm posting it as-is without comment; perhaps I'll add something later.
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“To my non American Friends,
It may be nearly time to have a difficult conversation. I hate to be a burden, which makes this harder, but soon, no really telling how soon, we may need your help.”