To Live with a Disability in the Midst of War in the Desert

Residents of the Western Sahara (Saharan Arab Democratic Republic) live in exile. They live in the middle of the most arrid region of the planet and face the constant nuisance of living alongside the army of Marruecos. There, in camps hastily made of scraps of cloth, metal, and wood, the dignity of persons with disabilities remains intact.

This is the testimony of Spanish author Montaña Guillén, who wrote _35 aniversario del Frente Polisario_ (35th Anniversary of the Armed Resistance). Although she wrote this call to action for the resistance in 2005, it is still important today.

Montaña Guillén

In December 2005, as another year has gone by, we board the plane headed for Tinduf (Argelia). Our objective: to see new faces, and add more names to the group of Western Saharan children with disabilities who will go to Spain next June.

On this occasion, something is different. Fatu, a little girl, accompanies us. She has returned to the camps to be with her family again, after having received treatment for her health problems. Her speech is joyful, radiant, and nervous, although her words can only express part of what she has seen in the days before our arrival; but these words can help us imagine the rest.

When she finally takes us to her house, her mother begins to relay to us in detail in hassanía, the local language (with brief interuptions so that a family member can translate her words into Spanish) her appreciation for all that we have done for her daughter. In this manner she is telling us in capital letters THANK YOU.

As in previous years, the selection of children has been difficult work as I see all of the families have stories of many difficulties and hope that their child will be chosen. I can only remind myself, 'we only have seven placements.' This year we will be working with fewer children, in response to the observations made by many professionals that we work with children during the summer. We want to offer them a better quality of life as long as they are here, and because of this it is important to avoid over-extending ourselves so that we are able to meet their needs.

We will be expecting several more children to come: three children between the ages of 7 and 8 years, two teenage boys, approximately 16 years old, and two teenage girls between the ages of 13 and 16 years including FATU, as she must continue with her medical treatment.

In the Western Saharan high school for persons with disabilities, we become reacquainted with children who have come in years past. As they approach us, they hug us and smile, as if remembering all that they experienced in Spain. Mamilla, the school´s director, comes and goes as she tries to facilitate our work. She asks about the workers she met in the summer of 2004, and sends greetings.


Also, this year we had been invited to participate in a workshop on disability in the camps. Our intervention, and a large part of our work in the camps, was focused on early intervention. In other words, we explained the importance of stimulation and following through with stimulation of the children as soon as they are born, in an effort to prevent or treat early various types of disability. There is still a long road ahead of them, but they have motivation, and we will be patient. Of course it is somewhat surprising that in a refugee camp we are finding this type of iniciative. They show a commendable interest in the secondary effects of not having food, water, or shelter.

Here, despite the fact that there is no employment, people are already speaking of social and labor integration of persons with disabilities. Here, where the family tends to be large and responsible for carrying out a lot of work in adverse conditions, people are speaking of participation in the center. In every space here people continue to remind one another that a person with a disability is before everything else a person who deserves complete respect. In a refugee camp, where they are in need of "everything," they still try to meet the specific needs of persons with disabilities.

Having heard these perspectives, we can try to get an idea of how much they want to achieve, however little they talk. I believe we have all learned from what they have shared with us these days. And, above all else, we applaud their strength. In summary, these work days were much appreciated professionally and personally.

Our host family has a one-year-old daughter, Dabba. As this illustrates, the community continues to grow. Its members do not lose hope that one day they will be able to overcome the struggle that has led them to adopt this marginalized territory, and return to the desert in which they grew up: The Western Sahara (now occupied by Marruecos).

Dabba does not yet know that she is a girl without a homeland, nor that the sand in which she crawls is not part of the Sahara. We hope that she will grow up to be a free woman, with country and passport.

Originally Published on http://wwwderechospcd.blogspot.com/ by Eduardo García

The 4 R´s Against Consumerism

It might appear that this article does not have anything to do with the rights of persons with disabilities. However, the words of Leonardo Boff concern one of the most significant problems facing our towns and we, as individuals, regardless of our race, ethnicity, disability status, are all affected. In this essay, Boff examines the origin of one of the biggest causes of hunger and exclusion; the epidemic of consumerism. It is for this reason that his essay has been given a space within our blog.

Four R´s against consumerism.

Hunger has been a constant in all of the societies in history. Nevertheless, today it has reached levels that are shameful and simply cruel. It reveals that humankind has lost compassion and empathy. Eradication of hunger is imperative from humanitarian, ethical, social, and environmental perspectives.

The pre-existing condition which is immediately achievable, and which should immediately be put into practice, is a new pattern of consumption. The dominating culture is obviously consumeristic. It gives central importance to the consumption of individuals, without encouraging self-control, and presents it as an objective of their own society and of their own lives. We are not speaking of consumption which is necesary and justifiable. We are questioning superfluous consumption. This type of consumption is only possible because the economic policies which produce the superfluous goods are continuously supported and justified.

A large portion of production is dedicated to that which is not necesary to make our lives more comfortable. Concerning that which is superfluous, it relies on strategies of propaganda, marketing, and persuasion in order to convince people to consume and make them believe that the superfluous is actually necesary and even the secret key to happiness. The foundation of this type of marketing is to create habits of consumption to the point that a consumeristic culture and an overbearing need to consume are created. They promote more and more artificial needs and respond to these needs with the mighty forces of of production and distribution. The necesities are endless as they stem from desire, which, by its very nature, is endless. For this reason, the production also seeks to be endless.

We are thus creating a society, denounced by Marx, marked by fetishes, tied down with superfluous goods, and dotted with shopping malls. These shopping malls are truly sanctuaries of consumption, complete with alters featuring idols who tout miracles. But these idols are fictitious and society remains unsatisfied and empty as nothing has been gained.

As we can see, consumption is rampant and makes us nervous, as we do not know the Earth´s limit to this infinite exploitation of resources. It is no surprise that President Bush calls on the American public to consume more and more in an effort to save America from its economic crisis. The economy of America may be saved in this manner, but at what cost to the sustainability of our planet and its ecosystems? In contrast, we recall the words of the late Robert Kennedy on March 18, 1968, "Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product - if we judge the United States of America by that - that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife. And the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans." Three months later, Robert Kennedy was assassinated.

In order to topple this consumerism, we urgently need to adopt practices in which we consciously choose to behave in a countercultural manner. We must incorporate into daily life the following 4 R's: Reduce the amount of consumption, reuse objects, recycle products to give them another life, and finally, reject marketing, whether it be overt or subtle, which pushes us to consume. Without this spirit of rebellion against all attempts to manipulate our desires, and with the effort to follow other paths dictated by the moderation, in favor of prudence and consumption which encourages responsibility and solidarity, we run the risk of falling into the traps of consumerism, increasing the number of the hungry and damaging our planet which has already begun to become more and more destroyed.

Leonardo Boff

Originally Published on http://wwwderechospcd.blogspot.com by Eduardo Garcia

Decree is published and on May 3rd, the Convention took effect...Not quite

On May 2nd, the organized civil societies of Mexico came to agree that the government of Felipe Calderón does not know how to listen.

On May 3rd, 24 other countries put into effect the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities without any type of reservation. Meanwhile, Mexico has published a decree which gives power to the aforementioned convention but contains a modification which stems from a most obstructive type of conservatism.

A little over two weeks ago, in Mexico City, the federal government had given signals that it was willing to open the discussion on the removal of the Interpretive Declaration which does not favor the autonomy of persons with disabilities. Nevertheless, the publication of this decree shows us, again, the authoritarianism and the closemindedness of the administration. This administartion does not believe in cohesion on a profound level. It merely uses persons with disabilities for the political spotlight and economic exploitation. It lifts them up to stage “politically correct” stunts, only to then cast them off into the folklore of the commiseration, where nobody is dangerous.

To continue, we present the Published Decree for your consideration.

EXECUTIVE POWER, SECRETARY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Published Decree on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Optional Protocol, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations the 13th of December, 2006.

On the margin, a seal bearing the National Coat of Arms which reads: “The United States of Mexico.”

The President of the Republic,
FELIPE DE JESÚS CALDERÓN HINOJOSA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF MEXICO, addressing its citizens,

On March thirtieth, two-thousand six, the plenipotentiary of the United States of Mexico, given the authority for this measure, signed with a referendum the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol, as adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations, on December thirteenth, two-thousand six, whose texts in Spanish can be found in the annexed certified copy.

The aforementioned Convention was sent to the Chamber of Senators of the Honorable Congress of the Union for their consideration, with the Interpretive Declaration which in its continuation spells out, as with the Optional Protocol, being proven by the aforementioned Senate, on September 26, 2006, following the decree published by the Official Journal of the Federation on October 24 of that same year.

“INTERPRETIVE DECLARATION IN FAVOR OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

The United States of Mexico make the following interpretive declaration towards the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities:

The Political Constitution of the United States of Mexico, in its first article, establishes that: ‘(...) All discrimination motivated by ethnic or national origin, gender, age, disability, social condition, health condition, religion, opinions, preferences, civil state, or any other type which attempts to go against human dignity or has the objective to rescind or reduce the rights and liberties of persons shall remain prohibited. The ratification of the Convention of the United States of Mexico reaffirms its committment to favor the promotion and protection of the rights of Mexicans who suffer from a disability; those who reside within Mexico, and those who reside in foreign countries.The country of Mexico reiterates its firm committment to provide conditions which allow any person to fully develop, as well as to fully exercise their rights and liberties without discrimination. Consequently, with the absolute resolve to protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities, the United States of Mexico interpret paragraph 2 of article 12 of the Convention, in the sense that in cases where there may be a conflict between said paragraph and the national legislation,the norm applied will be- in strict adherence to the pro homine principle- that which grants greater legal protection, safeguards the dignity and assures the physical, psychological, emotional, and hereditary integrity of persons.”

The instrument of the ratification, signed by the Federal Executive working under me on October 26, 2006, was delivered to the General Secretary of the United Nations on December 17 of that same year, in conformation with the precedent set by article 41 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol, with the Interpretive Declaration signed previously. Therefore, as it shall be observed, in accordance with the precedent set by fraction I of the article 89 of the Political Constitution of the United States of Mexico, I sign into effect the present Decree, in the residence of the Federal Executive Power, in Mexico City, Federal District, April thirtieth, two-thousand eight.

TRANSITORY

Only.- The present Decree will go into effect May third, two-thousand eight. Felipe of Jesus Cauldron Hinojosa.- Closing flourish.- The Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Patricia Espinosa Cantellano.- Closing flourish.

Originally published on http://wwwderechospcd.blogspot.com/ by Eduardo Garcia