God and Budha, I have a deep sense of fear today, now - sitting in my chair at home.
I pray that YOU will give my motherland the wisdom and courage to be a different kind of leader in the globe.
I pray that YOU will enlighten her people - for them to look in the eyes of their oppressors and who they oppress
And see all of them as human, just human, just like ourselves.
Lord, let us not forget what had been done to us;
And let us stop this cycle of oppression right here - with us;
Let us not do to others what we struggled against for!!!
For in many language, the common proverb exist about not doing harm to others that we do not wish upon ourselves.
God and Budha, how can we not see the power that is within us for destruction & construction!!!??
How can we not see what we are doing to others?
How dare us not see what is happening is what we experienced
And as a nation had been deeply traumatised by the very same experience we are responsible for others going through?
There is a saying in my motherland - all are brothers within the 4 seas of the world.
What does it say about who we are if this is the way we treat our brothers?
Are we better than those who had done it to us in history (or even continuing now)?
Friday, April 24, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
South African Election 2009
I only decided to write about the election within the country after hearing why one of the nurses at work vote. She said she voted for the ANC because it is the party which gave her the rights to vote - for me, this is alarming!!
We can never deny the good that had been done by the Mandela ANC, the development in the country under the Mbeki goverment. But for the future, it is not necessarily who did the most good can offer the best future. But I suppose, this is my own views not the views of millions of other voters including a lot of the ones I know.
I just wonder about politics - what do we need to do and what can we know as citizen and myself as an OT
We can never deny the good that had been done by the Mandela ANC, the development in the country under the Mbeki goverment. But for the future, it is not necessarily who did the most good can offer the best future. But I suppose, this is my own views not the views of millions of other voters including a lot of the ones I know.
I just wonder about politics - what do we need to do and what can we know as citizen and myself as an OT
Friday, April 17, 2009
my journey of disability
I was at a masters class today talking and throwing ideas around 'how do I really feel about disability?'...
I found myself silenced - this is a very interesting and strange phenomona - how can a health professional who fights her life and with her fellow collagues about disaiblity not have something to say immediately.
I pondered and the first reaction I felt was anger, injustice, hopelessness, sadness, gulit.... the list goes on. Then I asked myself, why did I ended up as a health professional - how did I ended up as an OT? The answer was obvious to me:
When I was small, I was a high achiever that hated people teasing other students around me about them being fat, stupid, lazy, useless and will not amount to much. My brother was one of those who were teased. I as a child couldnt stand by and watch others do this to others (the others who included my brother). Those whom are labelled are human beings just like others and myself were - we were all children,how can one child be so nasty to another one? It makes no sense at all. This was why my motto for a long time were -"to give hope to the hopeless and to help the helpless; never again shall I ever let them stand alone and be attacked in this world!!!"
What is deeper than the heroic picture of myself - is my marganlisation experience as a 7 year old who were perceived to have some incurable diseases because I was in Africa 1 week more than we had time for holiday. Nobody wanted to be my friend, everyone ostersied me and joked about how infectorious I was. There was that boy who I had fought cats and dogs with that year - it was him who sticked out his hand to me and said "dont worried, I will be your friend" as I cried out of frustration and hurt. I wanted to be that someone that stands by people who faces very difficult struggles and challenges in life.
Now ask deeper: what do I fear if that was me???
I fear loneliness, not having the chance to maxmising my achievement, not having the freedom to be, to do and to become who I wanted to be, I fear to be put inside a box where there is a ceiling enforced onto me saying "this is it, you will never be any better than this". No, I will not accept this is it, this is me and this should be how it is for people like me - i cannot let this happen to somebody else. It hurts so much for me, I would never wish someone else to received the same rejection, margelisation, othering that I experienced in a small incident.
I found myself silenced - this is a very interesting and strange phenomona - how can a health professional who fights her life and with her fellow collagues about disaiblity not have something to say immediately.
I pondered and the first reaction I felt was anger, injustice, hopelessness, sadness, gulit.... the list goes on. Then I asked myself, why did I ended up as a health professional - how did I ended up as an OT? The answer was obvious to me:
When I was small, I was a high achiever that hated people teasing other students around me about them being fat, stupid, lazy, useless and will not amount to much. My brother was one of those who were teased. I as a child couldnt stand by and watch others do this to others (the others who included my brother). Those whom are labelled are human beings just like others and myself were - we were all children,how can one child be so nasty to another one? It makes no sense at all. This was why my motto for a long time were -"to give hope to the hopeless and to help the helpless; never again shall I ever let them stand alone and be attacked in this world!!!"
What is deeper than the heroic picture of myself - is my marganlisation experience as a 7 year old who were perceived to have some incurable diseases because I was in Africa 1 week more than we had time for holiday. Nobody wanted to be my friend, everyone ostersied me and joked about how infectorious I was. There was that boy who I had fought cats and dogs with that year - it was him who sticked out his hand to me and said "dont worried, I will be your friend" as I cried out of frustration and hurt. I wanted to be that someone that stands by people who faces very difficult struggles and challenges in life.
Now ask deeper: what do I fear if that was me???
I fear loneliness, not having the chance to maxmising my achievement, not having the freedom to be, to do and to become who I wanted to be, I fear to be put inside a box where there is a ceiling enforced onto me saying "this is it, you will never be any better than this". No, I will not accept this is it, this is me and this should be how it is for people like me - i cannot let this happen to somebody else. It hurts so much for me, I would never wish someone else to received the same rejection, margelisation, othering that I experienced in a small incident.
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