With inclusion at its heart, London will transform lives - Times Online

This is a great article by the great athlete Tanni Grey-Thompson. I do agree with her view completely.

With inclusion at its heart, London will transform lives - Times Online: "With inclusion at its heart, London will transform lives With five years to go, our correspondent says the capital will provide a platform for disabled athletes to effect real social change Tanni Grey-Thompson So the Games are coming home. Today, exactly five years before our Paralympic Games begin, the London 2012 road show is completing its summer UK tour at Stoke Mandeville, near Aylesbury. It was here, in 1948, that a wheelchair competition involving injured Second World War veterans gave birth to the modern Paralympic movement. Sir Ludwig Guttmann, the pioneering neurosurgeon, who came up with the idea of sport as an aid to rehabilitation, was inspired as much by budget constraints as he was by social altruism. The soldiers were proving a drain on his hospital’s stretched post-war resources. A similar sense of pragmatism lay behind my advice to the Games Select Committee, shortly after the bid win. I told them that I couldn’t comment on the proposed Paralympic performance model; it would depend how many of our forces were injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. The collective eyebrow-raising was priceless, but false sensitivity is a waste of time when you’re faced with a win-win situation."

Perry DeAngelis

My favourite podcast has been the Skeptics Guide to the Universe (even if they cannot spell sceptic properly). I listen to the show each week, and find the conversations very interesting & stimulating. It is quite odd listening regularly to these type of podcasts, as you do get to know the different characters involved. So I was quite saddened to learn of the passing of one of the "sceptical rogues"; Perry DeAngelis. I did not agree with all his politics (as he was a quite bit more "to the right" of my own), but I always found his comments amusing, and stimulating. Even though I never met him, I will miss him passing, and my thoughts are with the rest of the panel from SGU, his family & his friends.

Spotted in Hermanus

There were a number of different people abusing the parking bays in and around the Harbour at Hermanus. I was not able to take photos of them all...as I could not park!! If you are, or happen to know, the owner of CA 658 899, and the diver or passenger is disabled then could you suggest that their permit is displayed when parking in a designated accessible parking bay. If the occupants are not disabled, then perhaps we need to point out that stupidity does not qualify...

www.skillsportal.co.za | employment_equity Disability is a thorn in the side of the skills development strategy

This is a very honest, open admission:

www.skillsportal.co.za | employment_equity Disability is a thorn in the side of the skills development strategy: "Disability is a thorn in the side of the skills development strategy
23-MAY-07
By Ivor Blumenthal - CEO of the Services Seta

It is difficult to publicly admit. Seven years into the Skills Development rollout it is apparent that even where we are meeting our paper targets established by the National Skills Development Strategy, where Setas are tasked to ensure that 4% of our benefits is spent on people with disabilities, we are nevertheless failing people with disabilities terribly, especially those with mental disabilities."