Thursday, July 23, 2009

A local council for all

Excerpts taken from Anthony Thanasayan’s Wheel Power today;

He was surprised that some able-bodied people had objected to the disabled-friendly project by MBPJ.”

“The blind were rather tickled by the objection of some sighted people who thought that the project should have been done at another place where a popular eye hospital is.


Check out the complete article Here. Mr Thanasayan was kind enough to even mention my name there.

So anyway, naturally after getting my parents to read the article, we discussed on the issue at length. And we came to conclusions that those who criticised the project are either downright selfish or that none of their family members are disabled, hence, their lack of sense of empathy.

As we have stressed on it for the zillionth times, this said project –a stretch of pavement- is universally designed, which means it can be used by EVERYONE.

Let me spell it out in case these people still didn’t get it. E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E. And that includes you able-bodied morons who thinks the pavement reconstruction is a waste of money.

Or the taxpayer’s money to be more precise.

Well, fuck that. All of us pay our taxes too. Our dads, our brothers, sisters, wives, mistresses...they’re all taxpayers.

If this selfish-bunch thinks they have their say, then please keep in mind that WE too, in the disabled community have our rights to uphold.

And like it or not here’s something to add up to your misery; we are here to stay because the good people at MBPJ have a few more disabled-friendly projects on the pipeline!

So be afraid...wooooo...

Ok seriously, If it is too hard for you to be with us, than be prepared to come up with better reasons to back up your rationale behind such hostility.

But don’t be too naive to think the disabled will throw in our towels and wheel home crying to our moms (and mistresses).

We’ve waited for such goodies to come our way for ages that we must be out of our mind to back off now. I mean, finally at least one PBT is doing it right.

As Anthony aptly puts it, the disabled community is glad that MBPJ is going on a right direction with its forward-thinking plans for all its residents.

And when he said ALL, you better believe it because for one, a politician he is not.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

So long, Good Ol' Captain!

Capt Yusof Ahmad (1947-2009)


I woke up this afternoon only to be greeted by shocking news.

‘Capt Yusof Ahmad, aka The Ancient Mariner, died in his sleep last nite’, as the message went. Immediately I thought it could be a mistake, as only a week ago the good ol’ Capt and his family had lost his beloved mom.

Then another message came in to confirm the sad news.

When I first started I remember ANCIENT MARINER being one of very few blogs highly recommended by everyone. They were spot-on. His blog has been in Let’s Go Land’s link list ever since.

We met regularly later on through events and even bumped into each other a few times around the neighbourhood. He was approachable and had parted a good advice during one of our meetings that I will forever remember it for the rest of my life.

His demise will be a great loss to all of us in the blogging fraternity. The Good Ol' Captain will sorely be missed.

Bon voyage, sir.

Al-Fatihah.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Pondering over pathway

Here’s a quickie.

Earlier today I was somewhere in PJ, wheeling alongside the who’s who in the disabled community to protest against, get this, a group of able-bodied residents who had conveniently objected the local council’s decision to create a more disabled-friendly environment around the township.

For the record, the PBT had reconstructed a stretch of pavement and made it functional for everyone, and that includes not just the disabled but as well the able-bodied themselves.

Tell me if I’m missing out something here but when this project works in every single resident’s favour, I fail to see why the need for some quarters to bark about unnecessarily.

Like it or not, this is what equal rights is all about. When all this while most pavements shut wheelchair-users from accessing on it, the new universally-designed footpath caters to both sets of users.

So what’s the fuss really about? They get to still set their foot on the pavement and equally so are our wheels.

Not that the pavement was designed to make life a living mayhem for the jaywalkers, no.

So until that actually happen I sincerely suggest these people to quit being a selfish bastard and shut their pie-hole for once.

And with that said, I’ll be off again.

Salam mesra.