I am planning to discontinue this blog and several, in favour of  one blog, Radio666fm.com: Pictures, Songs, & Stories From The Great Beyond.

I won’t be changing my style, heaven forbid. I just want to integrate all my interests into one blog, and write as Tony under the guide of various characters, of which Mephisto reigns supreme.

In time, I will be migrating the posts in this blog over to Radio666fm.com: Pictures, Songs, & Stories From The Great Beyond, in the interests of continuity. But for now, I will be leaving this blog up.

However, I will still be maintaining the blogs Visual Instincts, Professional Deaf Australians, and Gone Fishing, and a slew of others.

See you over at Radio666fm.com

Yes, this symposium is very complimentary of his great intellectual prowess, and liberal thinking, that politicians are renowned for.  The great intellectual tradition of farting, for which he hopes to mine with great intellectual rigour, thoughts, perspectives, and views of great Australian philosophers, mechanics and laboratory assistants, who know nothing about deafness, other than what can be cleaned from horror stories handed down by people who themselves don’t know anything about deafness.

Reed the press release, included below, and then write, if you are so moved, and express your tears of gratitude to the Australian MP, who wasn’t even popular as the opposition Leader [Ha, Ha, Ha], here. But then again, he is a doctor isn’t he!

Still, there is light on the horizon, for Nelson that it is. There are some cyborgs out the ready to rain him with Hosannas from up high! But do write to him, here

———————————————————————

Media Release

19 August 2009

Nelson silences deaf people

Dr Brendan Nelson MP will tomorrow exclude the voice of deaf people from discussions about the needs of deaf babies and children.

Dr Nelson is hosting a parliamentary symposium on infant and early childhood deafness at Parliament House, Canberra, tomorrow, 20^th August. According to a list sent out on 4^th August, 24 people have been invited to the symposium. Of these 24 people, 12 are providers of audiology, cochlear implant and speech training programs which exclude the use of Auslan (Australian Sign Language); four are medical doctors, three of these specifically cochlear implant surgeons; and two are Cochlear Limited (the manufacturer of the cochlear implant) representatives. The remaining six are a provider of general support services for deaf children; a parent representative; an education expert; a representative of the general deafness field, including service providers; a deaf person who has recently published a book about his life experiences; and Health Minister Nicola Roxon’s advisor.

A total of 22 hearing people (including only one representative of parents of deaf children), and two deaf people will come together to decide what is best for deaf children. However, of the two deaf people, one is representing service providers as well as deaf people so is hardly likely to be in a position to put the interests of deaf children before the interests of service providers. This leaves only one deaf person who is, however, able to represent only his own personal views.

Concerned about the serious lack of representation for parents and deaf people, and the obvious bias towards cochlear implants as “the solution” to infant and childhood deafness, Deaf Australia wrote to Dr Nelson requesting a place at the symposium. Dr Nelson refused this request.

Recently the Australian Government released a report, Shut Out! which details the lived experience of people with disabilities and the shocking extent to which they are excluded from Australian society.

“Dr Nelson is clearly intent on continuing this appalling record of exclusion by deliberately refusing to allow at the symposium an advocate for the very people – deaf people themselves – who have most to offer the discussion and the most important stake in the decisions made,” said Deaf Australia President Kyle Miers.

“Until policy makers look outside the medical and allied professions and make an effort to understand and accept what bona fide representatives of deaf Australians and their families have to say, deaf children will continue to have access only to very limited services that do not address the needs of the whole person or ensure they receive the best possible language acquisition and education programs to fulfil their potential. This is the tragedy of the current situation in Australia and we see this symposium as unlikely to do anything to improve it,” Mr Miers said.

Recently Deaf Australia sent to the Australian Government a policy advice paper outlining the current situation for early intervention programs for deaf and hard of hearing children, and calling for the development of a national plan for the widespread provision of world’s best practice bilingual early intervention programs for deaf children, including those who have a cochlear implant.

Bilingual early intervention programs, provided that they also support the family to acquire Auslan, are the only programs that allow the child to acquire a native language (Auslan) naturally and to also acquire a spoken language. Every child should be enabled to develop to the extent possible their ability to speak. No child should be denied access to Auslan.

“Regardless of what happens at this symposium, Deaf Australia will continue to work with the Australian Government towards reforming our early intervention programs for deaf and hard of hearing children,” said Deaf Australia Executive Officer Karen Lloyd AM.

About Deaf Australia:

Deaf Australia, established in 1986, is the leading national peak body managed by Deaf people that represents, promotes, preserves, and informs the development of, the Australian Deaf community, its language and cultural heritage. It provides an information and advocacy service for Deaf people who are bilingual in English and Auslan (Australian Sign Language).

Deaf Australia is funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.

Further information:

Deaf Australia Inc.: www.deafau.org.au

Contact:

Karen Lloyd

Executive Officer

Email: karen.Lloyd@deafau.org.au

Ph: 07 3357 8266

For along time, I’ve harboured some serious ambivalence towards the implant, I still do, BUT I’ve always understood the choices that people were making, and WHY they were making those choices. I am a lot more savvy of the Deaf, deaf, hearing issues, surrounding the implant, than most bloggers profess to do. Sure, sometimes it’s not always apparent from what I write, but then again, many of the criticisms I have received, ignore many of the issues I raise. Perhaps, the menace of probing questions threatens the borders of their comfort zones? Or is it simply easier to accuse Deaf people of bias, critical and non accepting of diversity?

Meanwhile, the implant infestation continues unabated. It has invaded my family home.

Yes. SHOCK! HORROR!

Another B-Grade Science Fiction movie, "Let’s Do The Time Warp Again!"

Cue: Dr Frank’n’Furter, "How u do I, see you’ve got yerself, a cute little implant-tee!"

Sorry, couldn’t resist. Hard not to do the sark.

Anyway, my first encounter with the implant was when me mate Slakbarsted, not BARSTUD, but BASTARD, decided to succumb to the surgeon’s knife, and get himself the latest in hearing accessories. He did it twice, and is now bilateral [which makes me think, is there heterolateral and homolateral? Hmmm!? maybe heterolateral is someone who wears a hearing aid and an implant, and a homolateral is someone who wears an implant of the same model and make. Then it begs the question, what if a person only wears one, does that make them sololateral. The connotations of this word, are just too awful to contemplate!]

My second encounter, was when my Deaf brother’s partner, decided to get the implant. She wears a hearing aid too, thereby making her heterolateral. Even my Deaf Brother is contemplating the implant, labouring under some new age thesis, that the universe meant for us all to hear. That’s why we have ears.

My third, and recent encounter, was with a deafie who is also bi-lateral, and Deafie who grew up with an implant, and has rejected it when she came of age.

One thing that has become clear, is the implant is a more advanced hearing aid. Sure it does things a hearing aid doesn’t do, but it is still simply a hearing aid. The wearer still has to take it off, just like u would a hearing aid. I know Rachel., for one, was been huffing and puffing this very point, many times in her blog, but monotonous "Hosanna’s!" render’s any receptivity mute! Quite frankly, anyone who walks the Hosanna! Hallelujah! Route when discussing assistive listening devices, methods of integration, and how much more fulfilled they are because they are part of the mainstream, la, la, la, gets stonewalled.

Whereas my mate Slakbarsted, is alot more level headed, and so I am able to talk, discuss and ask all the questions I want.

When Slakbarsted told me of his decision to get the implant, I made it quite clear that I would not reject him. I haven’t and I won’t. He is my mate. But I did harbour a fear, that he would reject me, and the Deaf world, in favour of the hearing world. Slak, a revelation for you mate!

Of course, there is alot more to the story than this, which I’m not going to divulge, as it belongs to our personal sphere. If he wishes to elaborate why he decided to have the implant, he is welcome to speak for himself in the comments, or another blog post.

Happily, it turns out he has rejected neither. He has embraced both worlds. When I complimented him on his improved signing, I was actually expressing an appreciation of his embracing both world’s.

The first thing I hate about the implant, is how fucking awful it looks. I’m sure that one day, it will improve to the point, where it is virtual indistinguishable from a hearing aid. But until that day, you have to content yourselves with looking like freaks. That is one of my personal idiosyncrasies, my hatred of looking freaky [there’s alot more issues at play than just the aesthetics of the implant]. After all, I grew up with the box in the bag and a ear piece, before I progressed to the more normal looking behind the ear aids.

The second thing I hate about the implant, is the horror of subjecting myself to the surgeon’s knife. Then comes all the other attendant bullshit, which I can do without. I already have enough trouble adapting to new hearing aids, which take me a while to get used to. The new digital aids, require attending your friendly audiologist for any adjustments required. So, why would I put myself through all the other crap? Granted, everyone is different [see, I can acknowledge people making choices different to mine!]

The third thing I hate, and along standing one, is the kudos you get from hearing people, who loudly proclaim how lucky you are to be able to hear, and blah, blah, blah. In doing this, they actually make you feel more like a freak than you already are. The assumption that you have become more normal, and a better person than you were [already are], is patronising. For all th rhetoric about diversity, equality, and tolerance, there is the underlying assumption that normal is something they are and you’re not.

The fourth thing I hate, is how hearing people still make the assumption because you wear an assistive listening device, your deafness is obliterated, and that you can hear, even if you take them off. Hell, they don;t even think you take them off. I use to get that a lot. "Do you take them [hearing aids] off when you go to sleep, have a shower?" Ask my mate Slakbarsted about that one. When he told me about a particular incident, it reminded me, that the implant is still a mechanical device that can be switched off, or taken off.

It is actually a relief to be able to deal with the implant issue, and express my curiosity about it, without the attendent "Hosannas, it’s a miracle!" But then again, the golden rule is to ask a Deafie, never a hearing person, and make sure they are Aussie. You will be guaranteed some sense of level headedness. Then again, I could be wrong!

But, can the implant peacefully co-exist with Deaf people? Of course it can. Like any technology that has gone on before, it has its detractors, but if the truth be told, us Deafies are a lot more level headed than the rest of you rabble, give us credit for. Take out the bullshit, sorry, the "Hosannas and Hallelujahs", preach a little more level headedness, knock that integration chip off shoulder’s… and maybe, just maybe…

New Words For The Implant Lexiconography. Deafinitions welcome:

Sololateral

Heterolateral

Homolateral

Bilateral

One thing I should make clear, is that I do not advocate, under any terms, violence or physical abuse [and that includes verbal] towards people who make choices different to our own. I’ve had criticism because I would not pander to the victim mentality beloved of some Deaf people. That’s OK, as long as it doesn’t cross the threshold into my physical space. The heated verbal exchange that occurs in cyberspace, is different in that I can choose to ignore, embrace or challenge it. However, an email containing a threat directed at me, yes, I would consider as crossing the line into my physical space. Just let’s be clear about that.

When I write, as Mephisto, All The Young Dudes or which ever character I adopt at any given time, I write with the full knowledge that I am aiming at a particularly arrogant attitude, challenging an idea or imparting some well deserved criticism. Sure, I can be close to the bone, but in the realm of free expression, all comers have to take it on the chin as much as I am obliged to do so. More to the point, I am filling in a need that is all too sadly absent from the Deaf blogosphere, where extreme sensitivity, or should I say hypersensitivity, reigns, and nice words are equated with community and fellowship.

I have my detractors, and I have my supporters. My writing style, is not everyone’s cup of tea. Especially those who don’t like to be challenged too much. But that’s OK. I’m not going to tone down my style, in order to appease some misplaced notion of sensitivity. I would expect other bloggers to do the same. But then again, I am an Australia, and Australians have finely honed bullshit detectors. We are, finely honed bullshit detectors. That’s my trouble I guess, people don’t like being caught out!

Yes,

“Diversity, tolerance and respect demand that we try our best to allow each other room for expression.”

but it also demands that we allow criticism, and the right to express the opinion, that the monotonous drone of CI stories is just that, a monotonous drone. I find it rather amusing, that rather simply defending the right to express, and even defending the right to say otherwise and continue along their merry way, the CI adherents, in particular, are a rather sensitive lot, when it comes to defending the CI and their chosen lifestyle.

“Does anyone really have the right to say that since they no longer want to read or discuss something, that nobody else should blog about it?”

Yes, we do have the right to EXPRESS [say, write, sign, however] that we find such and such topic BORING, and that nobody else should blog about it. What we don’t have the right to do, is STOP that someone else from blogging about that boring subject matter. There is a distinct difference between SAYING and STOPPING! Besides, neither I, or Dianrez, were advocating that bloggers stop writing about boring subjects, like th CI. We were EXPRESSING the opinion that we WISH they would write about more interesting things, like, well, the latest mapping exercise which placed Australia in the northern hemisphere, and how Rachel flew down unda to find nothing but water where Australia used to be, and that the Cochlear Implant Laboratories has been moved to the Iceberg Titanic, somewhere down in Antarctica. But she didn’t bring her winter clothes, much to everyone’s disappointment.

Sure, as KL, of The ASL-Cochlear Implant Community, says:

I believe that diversity is absolutely necessary, required and designed into us by God. We NEED to be unique. We NEED to have different opinions and ideas.

But the problem in critiquing blog content, is whether the blogs are being critiqued individually or as a whole. Individually, each blogger has their own voice, that’s true. But when taken as a whole, as a collective voice, then the charges of monotonous droning becomes quite apparent. I will go as far as saying that, this monotonous droning has spoiled DeafRead and failed to enhance deaf village.

And to add to KL’s comments, that right also includes the right to write and not think! Just because I can, doesn’t mean everyone else can. Think that is! Furthermore, you can’t stop me forming the opinion that I do. The incessant chatter about the CI, mapping, et al, does not encourage any other view point other than shouts of “Hosanna!”

Jeannette Johnson, of A deaf Pundit fame, said it best [in her comment to Enough with the CI Blogs?]:

I think the problem is, there’s such an emphasis on diversity, but the notion of the CI itself is about blending within the larger society.

So for people to tell us, accept diversity, then turn around and tell us, but children need Cis, because their lives will be easier due to less intolerance and discrimination…

It’s quite of a dichotomy, and I think that rubs some people the wrong way.

Reading:

Boring As It Gets!

Enough With Blog About CI Surgery.

If I’m Part of a Majority, Then What is Our Identity?

Is There A Hard OF Hearing Culture

I mentioned to a mate of mine, this past weekend, how bored I am with Deaf and deaf blogs. It seems us Deafies and deafies cannot write about anything but our deafness. I have to say, I’m basing this judgement on the blogs that appear on DeafRead and the deaf village aggregators. Both which must bear some blame for this, as their inclusion criteria exclude anything that is not OBVIOUSLY Deaf or deaf related. Their editorial criteria does not encourage the expression of diverse viewpoints. A has been stated many time sin the past, their editorial policies actively curtail the breadth of topics open to discussion, and crimping the bloggers writing style.

Having said that, it still begs the question though, are we capable of any other dialogue with each other, and the hearing world, other than the endless, and monotonous, drone that has characterised Deaf and deaf dialogue?

I don’t have a problem with blogs about hearing technology per se, and that there is room for all voices, and diversity is good. The information necessary. But there is no real thinking, let alone diversity, happening in the Deaf and deaf blogosphere. It seems that everyone is defensive [understandably]: justifying their deafness, their identity and their, whatever. That is all very well, but I can’t help shaking the feeling that deaf bloggers, in particular, are unwilling to delve into any serious analysis of their perspectives, their choices, and expectations of themselves and their relationship with the hearing world. Not in the way that many Deaf bloggers do.

deaf blogging is a cacophony of a 1000 dissenting voices all arguing for the freedom to express their individuality by thinking a like. Then again, I could be wrong. deaf blogs are like 1000 different brands of coffee all made by the same producer. [Source: My Brains]

Reading deaf blogs is like reading about people whose self esteem is so lacking, that the only way they are fulfilled as human beings is by talking and hearing. They greet any tool that plugs them into the holy grail that is the hearing world, with glorious shouts of "Hosanna!"

I quite agree that the ability to speak and use whatever residual hearing they have, makes a Deaf person’s life easier, not infinitely easier, but easier all the same. But the crux of all these stories, is how WE are making most of the effort to integrate, and participate in hearing culture, and losing ourselves in the process.

Then there is the recurring theme of abuse, from Deaf people, for their choices in communication and technology. I quite agree that bad behaviour is bad behaviour, and should not be tolerated. But, the impression I get is that is the assumption that such criticism and bad behaviour is an integral part of Deaf culture. Blanket statements that do not even attempt to understand why Deaf people are reacting in that way, nor the processes that led up to such behaviour. I’m not advocating tolerating bad behaviour at all, I’ve had my share, but unlike many deafies, I’ve actually done my homework, in order to UNDERSTAND the forces at play. The forces that shape us as people.

It’s not all bad, but it gets boring. If I read 100 Deaf blogs, I will get a sense of 100 distinct personalities. If I read 100 deaf blogs, I come away thinking, who are the people behind them? They look different, but they all think the same.

Then there is the same repetitive rubbish about integrating and mainstreaming as pertaining to being normal. There is a woeful lack of critical analysis and thinking about the oppression handed down by the hearing world. The focus on speech, hearing and integration, provides a convenient distraction from investigating such issues. Not much attempt is made to understand culture and the role it plays in determining our perspectives, how we approach our deafness and how we fit into the wider world. The assumption is to hear is normal, and everything follows on from that. It’s a variation on the God Made Adam and Eve, Not Adam and Steve argument.

As for the CI, that’s for another post, as I have been fortunate to delve into some personal myth busting, but for now, let’s meditate on Dianrez’s words:

My wish for the upcoming CI generation is to know that although they may have more options than the generations before them, they are still welcomed along with their families to the Deaf Community to make their own unique contributions, and that ASL is the way to ensure this resource is available to them. I hope they are not being fed incorrect information such as that Deaf people are limited, or living in a lonely world, or are deprived of opportunities. Nor that they are successful because of the CI. Nor that they have to meet the expectations of the Hearing community even if it does not mesh with their own capabilities. And my wish is for all d/Deaf people to unite in telling the hearing community to see us as capable individuals

Reading:

If I’m Part of a Majority, Then What is Our Identity?

Is There A Hard OF Hearing Culture