Eeeek, there are an awful lot of very large black crows in Brisbane, more than I ever saw in Sydney (the drought? the place? the parks?); both have lots of ibises; but Sydney has lots more seagulls, of course. And a large crow just soared towards me, then planted its scrabbly feet on the edge of the roof. (A window between me and it.) And I'm not at all superstitious, or into omens, or anything like that: but it's hard not to be reminded of the many many fairytales, even stories in Plutarch etc, of the omen of the crows as Tiberius or someone else headed off to the Senate.
But I'm not off to the Senate: no, a much smaller version of the Forum today. About to meet with other "parents of children with disabilities" at My Time which still doesn't quite work for me. Maybe today will be more interesting, and less aimless cups of tea and M looking bemused. But maybe I'm just jaded because I was writing reports for work till 10 last night, and still have a lot I want to get done. Stymied by a computer glitch yesterday afternoon when M was asleep and giving me space to do some work but, no, was not able to be productive and could have screamed.
But it was a day of "could have screamed" all round, with Abe and I speaking to each other horrendously. He has a soft voice, and he asked me a question this morning that I couldn't make head nor tale of, with a doorway between us, the radio on, and M giggling away on the bed. SO I asked 3 times for clarification, and then got the most acid, exasperated tone back, which I objected to ("don't use that tone with me, sunny jim!"). And he replied that it was just because he was speaking more loudly, he didn't have a "tone" at all. But unfortunatley it was the same peevish tone his father uses with his partly deaf mother, which upset me no end. It's one thing to hear yourself turning into your own parents, but to turn into HIS PARENTS?? Fuckin' hell. Will have to do some "happy friendly sexy" we'd better talk about this babe work on that one this weekend: without scaring the horses.
Back to today: and have convinced Abe to go the physio at the hospital with M, barring work crises on his part. And the woman who we see there is fabulous -- but I'm a tad sick of reinterpreting therapists for him, and would like him to learn some of it from her, and see just what it might mean.
Besides, I need a few hours to do yet more work, before my final hand over next week.
Would also quite like to read the article on Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and male identity, using Bourdieu's critical social theory to analyse it. A friend sent it to me yesterday, from the Social Science and Medicine journal (Gibson et al, Vol 65, 2007 if anyone wants to track it down), and although it's a male condition etc, sounds as though it could be useful. This is the abstract:
"Men with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) are part of a growing population of community-dwelling persons dependent on life support technologies. This Canadian study drew from Bourdieu’s critical social theory to explore the identities and social positionings of 10 men with DMD in relation to dominant discourses of disability, masculinity and technology. Semi-structured interviews with participants and participant-generated video diaries revealed that these men were materially, socially and symbolically marginalized through inaccessible built environments, social arrangements that limited their engagement in community life, and the multiple ways that their bodies were negatively marked across social space. Furthermore their marginalization had been
embodied
through processes of socialization and internalization of
subordinate social positionings. While the men created positive personal spaces for recognition and success, their
achievements were severely circumscribed by significant social inequities."
So I'd love to have time to get into that, or maybe to explore some of the more banal, but important, social policy and other stuff, like research on children with disabilities from the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare from 2004; and the 2006 bulletin update on same.
Then there's the disability educational policy stuff for early childhood in Qld (and the lack of fit between state and federal systems: is that going to change, Mr Rudd, or are you just going to keep using education to wack people over the head with?); as well as wider stuff on social inclusion and early childhood
Or maybe I should just start with the question of legal rights and discrimination and all that, by seeing exactly what's what via HREOC
Ooops, bugger, or I should really get my act together -- "rattle my dags" as my fab NZ friend Maggie would say -- and load up the 53 bags required when taking a child anywhere, and get going. Sorry M, you've been very patient this morning! Eeek.
