Bandaid 30 and questions on charities attitudes to disability

Bandaid 30 and questions on charities attitudes to disability Inspired by a excellent piece I read over at disability now by Ian Macrae http://www.disabilitynow.org.uk/blog/bandaid-30-and-lessons-disability The piece makes some excellent points and draws some interesting comparisons between the roles of charity with helping those in Africa and those who are disabled in this country and the attitudes present in each. I can identify with allot of what he writes in terms of how charity can make us who are on the receiving end feel as a result of their work. Allot of charity relies on portraying the objects of a charity as poor things and need to be pitied I get this allot with blind charities like the RNIB and similar ones who will often make out blind people are incapable of living independent lives and do nothing to challenge the popular idea of disabled people needing help for even the smallest of daily tasks and that life is a existence. While for some it may be pretty depressing but many blind people I know live very fulfilling lives. I republish the disability now piece by Ian below "As the charity single hits No 1 on the UK chart, the thoughts of a British/African musician raise some questions on charity of Ian Macrae Let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way first. I’m writing this blog post sitting in the headquarters of one of Britain’s biggest disability charities. Scope funds the Disability Now website and also pays my wages. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t ask and address difficult questions relating to charity and disability. Indeed the fact that I am sitting where I am empowers me to do so. So I was fired up to read a recent piece by Fuse ODG a British musician who comes from the Ghanaian diaspora. In it he explained why he had felt unable to accept Bob Geldof’s no doubt strongly persuasive invitation to join the Bandaid 30 project. Not only did he object to the re-written lyrics, he also recognised the irony of Africa, which he described as a resource rich continent constantly being portrayed by those outside it as death-ridden and poverty stricken. Acknowledging that the starry line-up, striking though negative images and charitable sentiment associated with the song might deliver short term benefits, he also said that the long term damage would be more difficult to undo. The question central to this point of view is to what extent do initiatives like Bandaid happen and exist to promote themselves and sustain their existence> ? As a service user of one of the big old impairment charities, I have previously come to a similar realisation. As blind people we were always suspicious about the fact that we were often portrayed and presented as worthy, even deserving of public pity. It was clearly in the charities interest to present us in this way because that’s what persuaded the public to put their hands in their pockets and donate. But what was not in question was whether such imagery was of benefit to us or whether it served instead to perpetuate the charities’ existence. Our suspicion was that they were serving their own ends and agenda. While charities may think that this disabled point of view is all well and good, they also argue that without fund raising they would not be able to go on providing the sorts of products and services we needed. But we disabled people go on to ask more questions. What’s the trade off? Is it worth the price? And to what extent should we sell or be sold out? Could Bandaid 30 have done things differently? Almost certainly as a bunch of African musicians, including Amadu et Marianne, the Blind Couple of Mali halve demonstrated. But the other thing the single has brought about is a commonality between a twenty-something British/African musician and a blind journalist who is getting on a bit. Neither of us like being portrayed as objects of charity."

tories block disability rights march

I follow various people and sources on twitter and recently found out about a march going on in Birmingham to protest at the Conservative party annual conference on the 3rd of October. This is to protest against the proposed reduction of DLA and other such benifits disabled people, such as myself will feel in the coming years as welfare cuts take affect.

This is a protest i wanted to attend to voice my anger to the tories for treating disabled people in this way and stand up for our rights. THis email below is a email i recieved from the campaign and it looks as though the tories are preventing one of the most crucial human rights, the right to protest.

take a read of this.

ONCE AGAIN DISABLED PEOPLE DENIED THEIR HUMAN RIGHTS Protest at Tory Party Conference update


We have amended our original leaflets which are attached to advise people to meet at Chamberlain Square since following a lengthy meeting with the police last week we are still not in any position to arrange anything beyond that. Originally the police had agreed that we could rally at and march past the conference centre.



We are now being refused permission to march past the Tory Conference by the Tory controlled Birmingham City council and West Midlands police. Last week we were told that the march would have to start from outside the city centre and would take some obscure route through a suburb of the city. It would have been impossible for disabled people to get to this.



There was a suggestion from one of the council’s employees there that we could travel via an inaccessible rail station, obviously also ignoring the fact that anyone who needs assistance to travel by train has to book at least 24 hours in advance and only one wheelchair per train is allowed even if the train is accessible .



We then managed to get agreement that the route would be based in the centre and that we would be assembling at Chamberlain Square. Other than this after 2 hours we were no further forward.



We have a legal, democratic right to protest against these cuts which we know have already resulted in the deaths of a number of disabled people and which if not stopped will lead to further deaths. We want to be able to exercise our rights and disabled people from all over the UK are planning to attend this march.



If we are prevented from protesting outside the conference this will deny us of our rights under the UNCRPD article 29 - Participation in political and public life “ States parties shall guarantee to persons with disabilities political rights and the opportunity to enjoy them on an equal basis with others…” and article 5 - Equality and non-discrimination “states parties recognize that all persons are equal before and under the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection and equal benefit of the law.”



We are asking individual disabled people and especially our DPOs to email to insist that we are allowed to rally and march past the Tory Party Conference on October 3rd.



Leader of Birmingham City Council - Mike Whitby -mike.Whitby@birmingham.gov.uk

Copy to cabinet member for Equalities and HR – Alan Rudge – alan.rudge@birmingham.gov.uk



West Midlands police- for attention of Inspector Matt Ward

contactus@westmidlands.pnn.police.co.uk

or directly onto internet form at

http://www.west-midlands.police.uk/contact-us/email-us/index.asp



Please copy any emails to any press and Disability Now to increase their interest in this event



Local press in Birmingham.



Birmingham Mail news editor – Andy Richards andy.Richards@birminghammail.net



Editor Disability Now – ian.macrae@disabilitynow.org.uk



Able magazine – editorial1@cravenpublishing.co.uk









You may also want to ask our Lords and Ladies to support us and if so

email



Baroness Jane Campbell – campbelljs@parliament.uk



Baroness Rosalie Wilkins – wilkinsrc@parliament.uk



Baroness Grey-Thompson – greythompson@parliament.uk



Lords Morris and Rix have no email contact details but can be written to at

House of Lords. London, SW1A 0PW





The road past the conference centre and into Centenary Square will not be totally sealed off and there will be footpath access anyhow for the general public.