12 Comments
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Melva Ritchie's avatar

Great reflections. It sounds like you've been inspired and encouraged to keep going on the advocacy and awareness loop. Wouldn't it be awesome if MPs were at that conference.

David Collins's avatar

My thought, too, as I read this Melva (and Bex). Why wouldn’t the Minister think this type of conference was compulsory to holding her office?

Brian Rathbone's avatar

Yes Melva, we must keep holding politicians to account; hold their feet to the fire of citizen dissatisfaction; expose their lack of political will for all to see.

Every day for the next 152 days leading to the Election on 7 November.

kathleen Murdoch's avatar

I think you're great Dr Bex.

Your commentary on disability subjects is invaluable.

We tried Enabling Good Lives.

There as limited access in the Waikato, we had to find someone to do the accounts which were complicated, we ended up in trouble with IRD because we were deemed an employer.

\The whole thing was more trouble than it was worth.

Dr Bex's avatar

Oof. That sounds like an unsupported disaster. Sorry you didn't get the kind of scaffolding or practical you needed

Paul Singh's avatar

Thank you Dr Bex, for this insightful and inspiring post.

Jayne Fowden's avatar

What a wonderful post! Thankyou. The artwork you included is a powerful description of the status quo. The lived reality of navigating administration disconnect between creating communication mechanisms of support, challenging barriers and activating change, is a constant battle against obtuse interpretation, forcing people whose lives are governed by the status quo to travel through whitewater rapids on an upturned waka. That swallows lifetimes whole.....

Dr Bex's avatar

Thanks Jane! I'm going to pondering that piece of art for some time I think.

Jayne Fowden's avatar

Re; "Systems, and the people in them, revert back. Systems, and those working within them, will tend to revert back or default to the ‘old’ ways of working....when systems revert, and pushing again, explaining again, and carrying others forward (again)."

This also landed in my inbox this morning. While it may seem that the subject matters are unrelated, once yo see the pattern, it can't be 'unseen'. Link There is no such thing as a safe minority. Henry Nowak's murder was a tragedy. What is being done with it is something else entirely By Satbir Singh; https://www.opendemocracy.net/henry-nowak-death-no-such-thing-safe-minority-sikh-nigel-farage/?ref=weekly-newsletter

Liz Francis's avatar

I wholeheartedly agree with you that we need to "surround sound" everyone with the positive messages about community, justice, care, etc. Afterall, it is by such repetition of the coalitions' negative evaluations that so many have been sucked in to accepting without question the messages about austerity, etc. I hope we can keep on encouraging each other to shout out our worth.

Brian Rathbone's avatar

I’m with you with bells and whistles on Liz 👍

David Udy's avatar

Thanks for your insights Dr Bex. Absolutely we need to resist!!!