Communication

Over the last two days, mrs B had someone staying who was profoundly deaf. The person concerned could not lipread, and was barely able to speak. So, communication went by means of a pad of post-its and pens. Which drew out a story, as eloquent as if by spoken word. I do not give out details of guests on this blog, for reasons of privacy.

The point I'm making is that a little bit of inventiveness will go far to circumvent a minor obstacle such as deafness. It helps to include people who are otherwise only too easily excluded. I am not belittling the handicap that deafness is. I am merely stating that it need not be a major problem to communicate with people like that.

On that subject, Indigo (the writer of Raven's Lament) highlights the plight of people in Native Indian reservations across the US. She refers to an article that shows that rape and other abuse of native indian people in reservations goes unreported, unprosecuted and unpunished. I have to say that having read AOL blogs for 15 months now, it has opened my eyes further to the underbelly of American society. Hurricane Katrina served to drop my jaw on the floor, once I saw how people in New Orleans were treated.
Don't get me wrong, things aren't that rosey in British society either. And a similar situation exists in Australia, where the Aboriginals are treated as less than human, even now, in the 21st century.

I am bound to say that America's much-loved president and self-proclaimed leader of the free world (George W. Bush) could do worse than clean up his own backyard, before rummaging around in someone else's.