This was the second of three keynote talks given at the 2013 New Zealand Disability Support network Conference in Wellington. Citizenship is a real possibility for people with disabilities - it is the failure of society and our social systems to enable and support citizenship that we must address.
Européennes 2024 : projection du Parlement européen à trois mois du scrutin
Citizenship Right Here, Right Now
1. Keeping the flame alive
Reflections on our history, our present and our future
Dr Simon Duffy ■ The Centre for Welfare Reform ■ 14th-15th August 2013 ■
Wellington ■ New Zealand Disability Support Network
4. Being a citizen is better than being
‘normal’
it brings us together as equals
but also as unique free individuals
Equal and different
6. What is wrong with institutions?
1.Devalued lives - the institution defines your place, your role,
your purpose.
2.No freedom or control - the institution strips you of freedom
and personal authority
3.Impoverishment - economic power is nullified
4.Sheltered, but homeless - a home is more than a roof - it’s vital
to control privacy and security
5.‘Care’ not help - ‘care’ already assumes the passivity and lower
value of the person ‘in care’.
6.Disconnected - the institution cuts you off and leaves you
within a hierarchical system where abuse can become natural
7.Loveless - relationships have no place in the institution
7. 1. Direction - It’s risky if my life lacks meaning and value
2. Freedom - It’s risky if I cannot direct my life, communicate or
be listened to.
3. Money - It’s risky if I lack money or if I cannot control my own
money.
4. Home - It’s risky if I cannot control who I live with, my home
and my privacy.
5. Help - It’s risky if I’ve no one to help me and if I cannot control
who helps me.
6. Life - It’s risky if I am not a valued member of my community.
7. Love - It’s risky to have no friends or family.
Why citizenship is safer
11. Demanding of man that he assumes his condition and
not till his neighbour's field, he [Rebbe Yaakov-Yitzhak,
The Seer of Lublin] said: "There are many paths leading
to perfection; it is given to each of us to choose our own,
and by following it with great dedication, we can make it
become our truth, our only truth."
Elie Wiesel
16. I used to think that freedom was freedom of speech,
freedom of the press, freedom of conscience. But
freedom needs to include all of the lives of all of the
people. Freedom is the right to sow what you want. It's
the right to make boots of shoes, it's the right to bake
bread from the grain you've sown and to sell it or not to
sell it as you choose. The same goes for a locksmith or
steelworker or an artist - freedom is the right to live and
work as you wish and not as you're ordered to. But these
days there's no freedom for anyone - whether you write
books, whether you sow grain or whether you make
boots.
Vassily Grossman
21. You could no more make a city out of paupers than out
of slaves.
Aristotle
Self-interest is the most powerful engine for individual
and social development, in other words, social progress,
in other words social justice. It is when the most
disadvantaged in society have the opportunity to
improve their lives in their own self-interest that change
will take place.
Noel Pearson
26. Then the old Vainamoinen put this into words:'Strange
food goes down the wrong wayeven in good lodging;in
his land a man's better at home loftier.If only sweet God
would grantthe kind creator allowme to come to my
own landsthe lands where I used to live!Better in your
own countryeven water off your solethan in a foreign
countryhoney from a golden bowl.'
The Kalevala
31. There are eight degrees of charity, one higher than the
other. The highest degree, exceeded by none, is that of
the person who assists a poor Jew by providing him with
a gift or loan or by accepting him into a business
partnership or by helping him find employment - in a
word, by putting him where he can dispense with other
people's aid. With reference to such aid, it is said, “You
shall strengthen him, be he a stranger or a settler, he
shall live with you” (Lev. 25:35), which means strengthen
him in such manner that his falling into want is
prevented.
Maimonides
36. True love leads a man to fulfilment, not by drawing
things to himself but by forcing him to transcend himself
and to be something greater than himself. True spiritual
love takes the isolated individual, exacts from him
labour, sacrifice, and the gift of himself.
Thomas Merton
42. Resources multiply in networks created by intentionally
building relationships that cross boundaries & serve
people's deepest purposes.
Seymour Sarason
46. Citizenship is the full realisation of our interdependence
- the value we bring to each other in all our differences.
The lame rides a horsethe maimed drives the herdthe
deaf is brave in battle.A man is betterblind than
buried.A dead man is deft at nothing.
From Viking - Havamal
47. If you found these slides interesting you might like to read...
48. Lots of free resources on all these topics and more:
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