Fintan Ramblings

Tiptoe quietly into my bedroom at 4 am after night out with the lads, making absolute sure that I don’t wake my wife and baby up.
Remembering not to fling my clothes about and avoiding creaks along the floorboards As I just about to put my foot into bed my wife sat up like Dracula sprung out of a coffin.
Seeing her arms flapping about I manage to lip-read her face from the moonlight shining through a crack in the curtains onto her face.

What I lip-read as she was pointing to her ears “ turn your fucking hearing aids off its whistling”

Oooops , somehow my hearing aids managed to switch back on after I took them out and put them on a dresser !

The RNID and Sunday times have sparked disability hate crime.

Take a look at this link
http://www.timesonline.co.uk

Very shoddy journalism, which I think missed the very issue that we are most concerned with - see this link.

http://stopeugenics.org
We are protesting to protect an embryo from being tossed aside once it is found to have the Deaf gene.

Digg and Fark
http://digg.com http://forums.fark.com
along with so many forums and discussion board are headed with the words “string the deaf people up” “inbreeds” “ I hate deaf people” to “Fucking retards”

They are referring to inaccurate reporting and an inaccurate statement from Jackie Ballard that deaf people demand deaf babies over hearing.

This is a eugenics issue NOT a designer baby issue.

I am unhappy that forum boards are awash with disability hate which is against the law in the UK.

Neither Sarah-Kate Templeton (Sunday Times Newspaper) and Jackie Ballard (RNID) will apologise for it!

I am a married man and concerned by this proposal, which is to me is a seed to start legalised eugenics! Link Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill
I am deaf and my wife is hearing I went out with her and eventually got married for a simple reason that I love her.
She says the same and do not see my disability as people put it.
We went on to have 3 healthy boys who we are proud of!
There was never a question of will we produce disabled children on our first date or any thing like that!!
When we settled down to have children the only conversation we had is what if we have a Downs child.
There was no question if a child may turn out deaf shortsighted or any other disabilities.
We mention Downs as every one have an option to be tested; can you imagine the test for any other disabilities?
I often wonder if those women who abort Downs are more likely to abort with any other disabilities.

Quite naturally some people have mixed marriages because they don’t see a race issue. The same principle is the case if deaf people marry hearing people.
No one blinks if anyone marries their own race and goes on to produce children so why is it a problem for same disability to do this?

In America Alexandra Graham Bell noticed that if a deaf couple get together they go on to produce deaf children. However, if a mixed i.e. deaf with hearing you go on to produce hearing children, so social genetics was introduced.
You can find out more in these following links

We don’t need to tell you about nazi camps and we all know not only the Jews were sent to concentration camps and experimented on.. This has happened to all disabilities including deaf people.

But all that is in past… I thank God that people have defeated them and yes-deaf people have played their part in the war….
Time to put away the history books and relax… surely this cant happen again?

WRONG!

(Book mark these pages as they get updated as it happens)
Look at these links about the proposed Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.

http://www.grumpyoldeafies.com/2007/11/parliament_deaf_embroyo_select.html

http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2007-08/humanfertilisationandembryology.html

http://www.stopeugenics.org

American deaf bloggers are alarmed by this as if it happens in the UK it will happen in America and rest of the world.

I know this is not always the case, that its only deaf people produce deaf babies as I know 2 people who are hearing produce deaf children.
Can you imagine you are that couple needing an IVF, so you’re left with a few choices?
Would a hearing person accept this? Possibly if there are no known cases of deafness in their family as they are venturing into the unknown!
But to deny a deaf couple is wrong as we don’t see it as a disability!

I find this appalling to class us as abnormal when you know that
68% of people aged 16 years and over wear spectacles or contact lenses.
Is that not a disability? If not… then why wear glasses?
Why not stop everybody producing children with visual impairments?
After all this is caused by genetics??

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved labeling changes for erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs in the class that includes Cialis, Levitra, and Viagra, to display more prominently the potential risk of sudden hearing loss, and to guide consumers on what to do if they experience sudden problems with their hearing.

 http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2007/NEW01730.html

It brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “HARD of hearing” 

I came across a news artical about Hearing Dogs For Deaf People see this link in The Press.

A CHARITY that trains dogs for deaf people and is celebrating its 25th birthday this year is looking for a big moving away present as it leaves its training centre in Selby district.

Jenny Moir, a spokeswoman for the charity, said she hoped the new training centre would be operational by next summer. “The target for this appeal is a massive £2.5 million, of which we have worked hard to date to raise £1.5 million,” she said.

“We’re now looking for our final £1 million and need your help to raise the funds to build the kennels, training houses, accommodation and offices.”

She said £10 would buy a brick at the Bielby facility, with donors acknowledged in a book of recognition on-site.

As I am Deaf I don’t use Hearing Dog and for years I did not see the point of them till I came across Tina http://funnyoldlife.wordpress.com/

Even her Hearing dog called smudge got a blog http://justsmudge.wordpress.com/
A dog do more than what a flashing door bell can do, etc so pop along and read her blog for more.

By the way if you want to donate click on this link http://www.hearingdogs.org.uk/ look at bottom of page to donate.

This was filmed without their knowledge and they were having a discussion
I know its not real sign language, but its interesting and not surprising that hearing people use their hand to explain.Has anybody seen people who on the phone and their hands are flying about and they don’t realise they were doing it lol

Its learn to sign week from 1^st October 2007 in UK.

Learn to sign campaign have its own blog see here http://learntosign.org.uk/.

If your living in Bristol pop along to Bristol City Council http://www.bristol.gov.uk they are running a big event there.

If you just discovered this blog its NOT to late to join a sign language class, ring up your local college or Deaf Centre and ask they will be happy for you to join even if you’re a couple of weeks late.

Below was taken from Dans website

DISHING THE DIRT ON THE R.N.I.D.
THEY STEAL OUR VOICE; THEY STEAL OUR CASH;
THEY LOCK US AWAY.
RNID (otherwise known as Really Not Interested in the Deaf)

The Royal National Institute for Deaf People is basically a million-pound charity that is strangely unpopular with the very people it claims to serve.

For example, the Government recognised British Sign Language (BSL) as a language in its own right. The RNID showed very little interest in the 5-year BSL recognition campaign, which was led by community based BSL users, until BSL was finally recognised and the Government put up £1 million for bidding.

Suddenly, they were ‘experts’, despite being led by hearing people who can’t sign! The RNID with their wealth of resources are actively bidding against the deaf campaigners and their organisations for the government’s money despite being asked not to.

We want rights, not charity. We don’t want to see ‘Deaf Pounds’ going straight into the pockets of the RNID’s fat cats. If they couldn’t support the campaign why should they get the cash?
This is typical of how these charities operate.
SLOW TO ADVOCATE FOR POSITIVE CHANGE
BUT QUICK TO TAKE RESOURCES AWAY FROM THE PEOPLE.

Their Chief Executive is hearing which sends a clear message to Deaf People and the wider world that they (deaf people) are not capable of running their organisation. Deaf people say that they are ready and willing to take over the organisation and work with the disability movement for concrete change.
If they seriously want to advise the government on employing deaf people they could start with themselves.

The RNID is the main culprit for keeping Deaf people locked in ‘care homes’ that they have set up all over the UK. Until the RNID is GOT RID OF deaf people will not have the chance of full inclusion into our society.

Despite all this the RNID is still whispering in the ear of government and is recognised by this government as a leading advisor.
We call on the government to listen to Deaf People
not the RNID

We call on the RNID to get our of out lives.

This study has been done before, with walkmans remember them?

And another study with MP3 players done in America, why did RNID conduct a study in UK?

Brian Lamb, Acting Chief Executive of RNID, said: “MP3 player manufacturers have a responsibility to make their customers aware of the dangers by printing clear warnings on packaging and linking volume controls to decibel levels.

Why target mp3 players?

Not everyone uses that format from a technology view,this was also said about ipods
In ear mobile phones damage hearing too.
Warnings are there on booklets, but RNID wants it to be bigger and clearer!!
Sound like a nanny state very similar to smoking having health warnings on cigarette packets.
Spending money on research like others have already done is wasting money.
Its just another case of “RNID letting people know we are here and donate more money”
So come on RNID do what your supposed to do and represent REAL needs for Deaf people to which clearly you don’t.

You may have seen previous posting about This is England!

This one how a came across Shane Meadows film director
http://finllfixit.co.uk/11/05/2007/this-is-england/

one of his films got shown on tv with subtitles as I wrote here
http://finllfixit.co.uk/13/06/2007/a-room-for-romeo-brass/

then my frustrations with the DVD distributor in not replying to my query
http://finllfixit.co.uk/30/06/2007/not-getting-anywhere-this-is-england/

and the reply that they wont be releasing film with subtitles here
http://finllfixit.co.uk/02/07/2007/this-is-england-we-wont-be-watching-it/

Can you imagine my surprise when I got a email from Dave who run the Shane Meadows forum

Hey there,

It’s Dave here who runs the Shane Meadows website. Just thought I’d let you know that I just got hold of the 2 disc edition of This Is England and the film does have subtitles!
How weird is that?? Especially after I recall you sent Optimum numerous emails asking about subs and they eventually responded by saying that it wouldn’t have any! Bizarre!

The DVD even has an audio describe track for the visually impaired too. I’ve not seen that on DVDs very often.

Hope to have you back on the forums again soon… when you can then discuss the finer points of This Is England!

All the best,
Dave
www.shanemeadows.co.uk

I have replied thanking him for letting me know via email as he noticed I didn’t frequent that forum since then.

So I am wondering is it the power of blogging that made them take notice: did many deaf people complain after reading my blog?
Did the Shane Meadows forum sympathise with me and give em a kick up the arse?
Who knows!

I do get numerous emails asking how I got on/any luck, so they will be pleased, as so many of us want to see this.
Dave also told me he bought it from play.com, but the website does not say if it contain subtitles. How ever he did warn me that “the extras on the second disc don’t seem to have any subtitles ”
This doesn’t surprise me as majority DVD extras don’t do this.

As you can see it’s a lack of information from DVD distributors and even websites that sells these films.
Why go through all the trouble of adding subtitles or even audio describe and not advertise the fact?