... o' the North, who else would write of our Paralympic athletes in moronic terms bordering on the obscene.
You may not agree with me, try him for yourself here, ...
... for the record :
You may not agree with me, try him for yourself here, ...
... for the record :
The charity Scope
commissioned the pollsters ComRes
to survey disabled people and
their parents and carers last winter:
46 per cent of respondents thought that attitudes towards them had worsened in the previous year;13 per cent thought they’d improved;76 per cent had direct experience of other people refusing to make adjustments to allow for their circumstances;73 per cent said that the assumption had been made that they didn’t work.64 per cent had some experience of hostility or aggression.
The 2012 Paralympics can change the way people think about disability, somehow I think there might be a severe hill to climb when considering the bigots of Wales.
Returning to the FoS award, this is the man who looks towards an Independent Wales ........
...... much like the Third Reich I expect.
I've experienced disablism for most of my life and feel obligeds to challenge it whenever possible.I would also challenge any form of bigotry.
ReplyDeleteAs a native of Wales I have also experienced ignorant anti-Welsh racism in recent years. This has inclined me to support natinalism especialy since Leanne Wood became leader of Plaid Cymru. She is in favour of socialism, women's rights, anti-racist policies and impliedly disability rights as well.
Jac o'the North attended a rally I was at, and I can confidently state that he is a total idiot.On a blog put up by Alwyn ap Huw, Jac o' the North referred to Pussy Riot as 'slappers', expressed delight that they were in jail and said he would like to live in an independent Welsh state based on Putin's Russia.
I was not surprised then that on his own blog he said something like 'I'm always glad to see little cripples getting out in the fresh air but how can we call them athletes? My impression of an athlete is someone who is physically perfect.' I groaned mentally and read no more. I hope it didn't get worse.
I don't want to defend him but you must remember that Jac o'the North is a moron.He's honestly oblivious to the offence he's causing. I'd like to think that he doesn't speak for anyone but himself.
I don't believe he is representative of Welsh nationalists but if he was, I'd have to revise my views. I'm happy for the UK to split up if the successor states provide liberty, justice and respect for all. But would it be worth preserving our separate cultures, languages and identities at the cost of living in a fascist state? Of course not.
Please don't judge the rest of us by him. I'd like to say 'Don't let this idiot upset you. He's not worth it'. But then, like all idiots, he's dangerous.
Marianne Hancock, Abergavenny
For the record (as if it matters to you), here's what I wrote. What, exactly, do you object to?
ReplyDelete"I was amazed to read today on the BBC website that David Beckham has sent a Paralympics message to the troops in Afghanistan. Why single out serving soldiers? Is it to tell them that some in the UK Paralympics team are former comrades? Or perhaps to remind them - as if the thought doesn't already haunt them - that they might qualify for future Paralymmpics? I wouldn't expect David Beckham to consider these things, but I have to ask what the people who put him up to it were thinking.
As you might have guessed, I have trouble with the Paralympics. Don't get me wrong, I believe that disabled people should be encouraged to lead as full a life as possible, and facilities should be provided for this, and I have the greatest respect for those competing, but . . . The very term 'disabled athletes' is almost an oxymoron. From ancient times, athletes have been the fittest, fastest and strongest individuals in any society, this applied in all continents and all cultures. Yet here we are going against this universal belief and encouraging people watch disabled, often brutally maimed, people compete against each other.
Maybe it's the idea of competition I find unsettling. For am I alone in thinking there's an element of a Victorian freak show in the Paralympics? Or am I being unnecessarily squeamish, maybe failing to understand what it's all about? Possibly, but I know enough about the darker corners of the human mind to know that there are men and women who are sexually aroused by disabled people. It's reasonable to assume that the Paralympics may be the only sporting event these perverts watch.
Away from subjective or emotional considerations, how are the Paralympics organised? In other sporting contests it's invariably, and literally, a level playing field. At the Olympics just past, anyone up against Usain Bolt began their exercise in futility from the same starting line. Or if Bangor City ever draw Barcelona in some European competition the game will start 0 - 0, (though how long the score will stay like that is another matter!). In able bodied sports everyone is considered equal. But the Paralympics are different; so how are the varying disabilities, or degrees of disability, compared and weighted?
Which perhaps raises another question: shouldn't we be encouraging disabled people to do more with their lives; to play a bigger role in society, to help those even less fortunate than themselves, rather than pumping themselves up on steroids and being 'competitive'?
Others will have their own views on what I've written so far, and I'm prepared to be swayed by rational argument, but there is one aspect of the Paralympics on which I am immovable. These games are another excuse for another orgy of unionjackery. The UK's Paralympians are being used as an excuse to fly the flag and persuade us that it's great to be British. It won't work. In fact, these all too regular 'Britishness' offensives are now taking on an air of desperation.
The only thing that stops many from laughing out loud is that this time our masters are hiding behind the disabled and the maimed. (Which they'll do again come November 11th; adding the dead.) Some of whom suffered their injuries fighting our masters' pointless and illegal wars. That these poor souls are still being exploited tells you all you need to know about the UK. Why it is no place for any self-respectiing Welshman."
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