Paralympics

[allenuk]

We've got the paralympics in London at the moment.

I'm torn between immense respect and admiration for those taking part - we know just how hard it is to walk a mile, let alone run/swim/cycle/etc - and my 'natural' disinclination towards sporting activities!

I mean, when I had all my legs, I wasn't interested in the Olympics, or sport in general, I mean not at all. Perhaps I was missing some essential male gene.

I think I'll have to come down on the side of the respect, having just seen the women's butterfly swimming race. Amazing, not just for the fact of being able to swim so fast with missing arms or legs, but having the courage to stand on the starting blocks in swimming costumes, on one leg, or with one arm, when most amputees hide away their empty trouser legs etc.

The Olympics, with all that corporate sponsorship and associated money, left me a bit cold, but this lot? Something else.


Allen (London)

[barclay]

agree !

[allenuk]

Curious spin-off to the Paralympics (which in themselves have been a great success, in spite of the lack of world-wide publicity you might have expected).

Our government (Conservative, but it could have been Labour, or Republican, or Democrat) has been intent on cutting benefits to disabled people (and everyone else for that matter) in order to pay for bailing out the bankers, and for our small but crippling (sic) contribution to the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The success of the mass of disabled people competing in the Paralympics has led to an undercurrent, never overtly stated, but there nonetheless, on the lines of "if these people can do it, why can't the rest?" 'Do it' meaning get a job, get out of their wheelchairs, get off benefits, generally become productive members of society.

Don't know about the situation in North America, but here there are probably about 1 or 2 percent of those on benefits who shouldn't be on benefits (I've never got any, as it happens) but there is already a lot of suffering amongst the disabled community due to these latest cuts. People who can scarcely stand are being assessed as being able to work, and having benefits denied. But I'm sure we're still better off than poor disabled people in the US. How about Canada? Does that go its own way, or follow its southern neighbours?

A.

[cherylm]

Allen, I'm going to have to think on this one and get back to you...there are a LOT of problems for folks dealing with disabilities here in the US, but the types of problems can turn on matters other than "simple poverty." I'd try to explain it now, but it's almost midnight and I'm sleepy........ I do agree that any number of folks who are looking for a political "target" can find one based on many, many misconceptions that exist about the disabled.