Articles about deafblind woman, rising health costs in America

Deafblind woman attacked
BBC has a fantastic website by people it disabilities, for people with disabilities called 'Ouch'. Reading it feels like an insight into another world. They have some bloggers with some great stories to tell including one amazing deafblind woman who's doing a PhD. Here she tells a story ' My story: deafblind street attack' which is quite scary.

High health care costs in the US
I used to work in the Australian health sector and it seemed to bag the US for spending twice as much money but when we look at them they're not looking healthier than us. This article in the NY Times argues that the high health costs aren't such a bad thing. Incomes are rising so people can afford to spend money. The can also afford higher technology health care. It also offers some ways that health care costs can be reduced. The High Cost of Health Care.

Economics and disability

My major studies were in economics and while I've never worked in the field, but always use economics it to make decisions in everyday work and life. Here are some articles I found interesting that are a look through the lens of economics into the field I work in, disability.

This article is titled 'The Decision to Abort When Faced with a Down Syndrome Diagnosis'. These guy wrote this article co- wrote quite a popular book called 'Freakonomics' and sadly his son was sick and was faced with the possibility of becoming deaf but instead died.

Another article is about the unintended consequences of anti- discrimination laws in the US. They actually cause less employment of people with disabilities. It makes it so hard to fire them that they don't want to employ them in the first place. Logical when you think about it. FREAK-TV: Is the Law of Unintended Consequences the Strongest Law Around?

UXO casualties in 2007

There is stacks of unexploded ordnance (UXO) which are bombs that didn't explode when America dropped them during the Indochina war. Lao is the most heavily bombed nation in the world, having more bombs dropped on it than the total bombs used in WW2. Therefore accidents happen.

Last quarter 2007
The statistics from the National Regulatory Authority, the entity responsible for coordinating UXO issues in Lao show that in the last quarter of 2007, there were five deaths and eight injuries. This is how some of the accidents happened:

• Played with the grenade HE Frag F1
• They made a fire near the house and the 23mm of artillery underground exploded
• He found the mortar fuse then hit it and it exploded
• They played with the UXO with a stick causing it to explode
• He played with the UXO by throwing it against a tree causing it to explode
• He cut the vegetation and hit the 33mm of artillery causing it to explode

Six of the casualties were children (three male and three female), six were adults (all male). Males have a higher rate of casualties because they are work outside. Statistics are collected from 9 of Laos' 17 provinces, I'm guessing from the most heavily bombed ones. I would expect that these casualties are underreported because not everyone, particularly in remote areas, would not know to report them.

2007 statistics

These statistics for the 9 provinces surveyed

• There were 30 deaths
• There were 69 injuries
  

• 19 deaths of male children
• Nil deaths of female children
  

• 11 deaths of male adults
• Nil deaths of female adults
  

• 27 injuries male children
• 7 injuries female children
  

• 30 injuries male adults
• 5 injuries female adults

Chicken fighting

If I ever want to participate in chicken fighting, I can, because my Lao counterpart has given me all I need to know.

• Selecting a good chicken is important. You need to check the back of it's neck, the wings and the neck to make sure it's strong.
• You should feed it a special diet of egg mixed with paddy rice and then dried. Feeding it vegetables is important too.
• It needs to exercise. My counterpart made a chicken running machine comprising a cylinder with a handle. He also puts the chicken in the water so that it flaps about for exercise. He places the chicken down a large tube and it exercises by trying to get out.
• If it's not winning, trade it in!

He mentioned that some people seal the chicken's wounds during a fight by putting a hot iron in it, but he thinks that's going to far. He also boasted that his best chickens can take out another with just one kick.

The shooting range

I went to the shooting range in Vientiane. I was a bit scared, but a few friends have been, so I thought 'why not'. It’s quite open, and when I walked in I saw someone using an air rifle and another shooting a really loud gun. I had a go of using the rifle. The woman loads the bullets for you one at a time. They cost 15000 kip for five. Pity I didn't really understand the woman's instructions of how to use the rifle and ended up completely missing the target. They put the target, which is a piece of thin cardboard on a string and draw it down the range. The particular gun I used was from the 'USSR' and the other I saw was from 'West Germany'. The boys sat there with their rifles and five bullets and waited for the woman to load the bullets. She never did, so they just had a go themselves.

The other cheap bullets are the handgun ones which cost 17000 kip for give. This is less accurate than the rifle but really easy to use. I'm not sure what other guns you can use but their bullets are around 20000 to 30000 kip which is probably a bit out of my price range. It's quite a casual setup with a small dog wandering around between the guy with the air rifle and the target. There is a small bar there too but I really hope the don't serve alcohol.

Fear of foreigners in Laos

The journalist in Laos wrote an article titled 'Fear of foreigners in Laos' upon one year of a Lao ecolodge in the northern province of Luang Namtha. He talks about the Lao government disliking foreign influences in Lao.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/JB02Ae01.html

I just wonder where he gets this information from because after a year I’ve found it hard to get information around here. Generally, people just rely on rumours. He highlights the point that the Lao National University, Lao’s only university opened in 1996 which is very recent. It does not yet have postgraduate courses. My friend says that students are expected to learn long passages of Marx’s texts. Lao doesn’t produce textbooks so they learn from Lao or Thai textbooks.

Another Quiet American

This is a book by Brett Dakin. It’s a short account of his time in Vientiane volunteering at the Lao National Tourism Authority about a decade ago. He has found out about the history of businesses and buildings around Vientiane which is still relevant. Many of his experiences are similar to mine with respect to cultural differences the challenges faced and the interactions with the Lao people.

Australia day party

The Australian embassy held a party for Australia day at the ambassador’s residence. Ambassador's, Australians working in Lao, government officials and NGO representatives attended. These events are important to get the support from the high- level government officials such as the Lao Deputy Prime Minister who was there. The ambassador made a great speech highlighting democracy and a fair legal system as contributing factors to Australia’s success. I think they were hoping the Lao folk would hear.

Overseas opportunities

There are donors that have been really generous with providing education opportunities for people in my office. Here are just some of the opportunities in the past year:

• A couple of staff have gone to Bangkok and attended training with the Asia Pacific Centre for Disability
• Others went to Bangkok for various UN agency workshops
• Some have visited Japan for some training
• I myself went to Phnom Penh

Further in the past, others have gone to India, Vietnam and China.

These training sessions are generally available to program staff only. Unfortunately the support staff which are essential to the running of the organization such as the accountant or the public relations officer don't get as much of a chance to develop their skills and travel at all.

There is still the challenge of transferring the knowledge back to those in the office and applying it their work. I suppose application is always the challenge of training! There is also a problem with the daily allowances these events pay. The allowance is usually quite reasonable. Around Lao there can be issues with the first person who opens the application form to apply for the event. It is also hard to democratically select someone in the office to go to these professional development events. Some friends have mentioned that they're not sure why some people in the office are selected to represent their organisation overseas. We were handed some tips about working in Laos by the UN Development Program that said sending someone overseas might mean that while they're away well decisions can then be made in the office!

Lao braille

My friend is working on a project to suppport blind children in being educated. He has the first and only braille printer in Lao and one of his first tasks was to learn how to fix the machine. His mission is to teach blind children how to use the computer. His first task is to translate a computer textbook into Lao braille. The trouble is that he doesn't know braille so he is trying to get a Lao person to translate as he reads out the Lao text. If someone could come up with a computer program that translates Lao to Lao braille that would be very helpful! Each Lao letter should translate specifically to one braille letter.

Currently blind children take notes in braille by punching it into paper. I met a blind guy uni student from Japan- an amazing guy he was. His English was perfect and he was a naturally good public speaker. He has a note taking device that can connect to the computer. He can type notes which can be read as one line of braille. He says up to a couple of books can be saved on it. I hope that this will one day be available for Lao!

Killing fields and prison

Choeung Ek Killing fields
I managed to resist crying while at the killing fields which meant I was able to hold it off for the rest of the day. The killing fields was one of hundreds around the country during the Pol Pot regime. The killing fields where people where killed and buried. 30, 000 people were killed in these killing fields alone- men, women, children, killing families at a time. You can see bones poking from the ground where rain has weathered the ground. After the country was liberated from the Khmer Rouge the families and friends of those killed came and trashed the buildings at the killing fields so none of the original prison buildings were left. There is a memorial stupa with 17 levels of skulls excavated from the area. There are skulls that clearly indicate the person was killed by a blunt object. Our tour guide rattled off a whole bunch of methods they used to kill people and pretty much all of them were violent. Strangely enough there is a shooting range just 5 kilometres away where you can try shooting an AK47- not quite my thing.

Tuel Sleng Prison
We didn't make it there the first day because Mia Farrow was holding some kind of protest to bring attention to the events in Darfur. This prison was one of where many where Pol Pot's regime were held people before they died. Tuel Sleng Prison used to be a high school and is located near central Phnom Penh. It's strange because it does look like a regular school from the outside and seems in good condition. Inside though, you can see how the classrooms were divided into concrete or wooden cells 2x1 metre. The Khmer Rouge did systematically document all the people that entered the prison with a photo, and apparently a biography too. There are thousands of portraits on display of those that entered the prison. The photos shocked me because they looked like such healthy people, and probably were, upon entry to the prison. Some even managed a smile. It also creeped me out that a large proportion had their hands tied behind their back- the prisons where I come from aren't allowed to do this. There were also photos of people laying dead in pools of blood and mothers with their children. There were torture instruments for display used to make people give confessions. Very scary stuff- I hope we can learn something from what happened. Only 7 prisoners survived of the 17, 000 imprisoned there.

Seeing the king

During the education workshop I saw a dance troupe perform. The members of the troupe were people with disabilities, mostly deaf people. They had performed during the closing ceremony at the last Olympics and have performed to an impressive number of world leaders. They did do some good singing and dancing. The king of Cambodia attended. The way they select the king is unusual. The last king had resigned. This king was selected by a council and the next king of Cambodia. This is the first royalty I have ever seen! He once did work with UNESCO.

Inclusive education

I had the opportunity to attend a seminar 'Education for All Flagship on the Right to Education for Persons with Disabilities: Towards Inclusion Regional Workshop in Asia' sponsored by UNESCO. There a few flagships designed so that resources and people form a network, this one being about people with disabilities. It was interesting to see what is going on in the region. It seemed that there were more special education programs available in Cambodia than in Laos. Someone raised concerns that aid money was not getting to Cambodia because the government won't work without bribes and went to Africa instead. Actually, it is the same with the Sweden and Lao. They are a pulling aid out of many countries including Lao and want to focus on Africa. It was mentioned that during the Pol Pot regime 70-80 % teachers died. Starting at year zero with zero teachers, students and schools, there are now 100,000 teachers, 3.5 million students and 900 schools.

People are still battling attitudes in this region. Some Thai guy found a kid that was 11 years old with a disability in a chicken cage. Another found a kid with cerebral palsy at home alone. Neither had ever gone to school, but in the short time this guy saw that these children could do things by themselves given the opportunity.

Some key points

• Inclusive education is about ensuring the right to education and providing the resources needed by the individual to be educated
• Everyone has limitations and some learn faster, some slower. Inclusive education is about acknowledging diversity and including them all.
• People with disabilities may need education from a young age to prepare them for school. For example, deaf children should be taught sign language from a young age so that they have language skills like hearing children when they start school.
• Home based and/ or informal education is important and should be supported
• Sometimes you need to push on with implementing inclusive education because you will never have all the resources you need.
• The world is with a diverse range of abilities. If children with disabilities are in mainstream education children will learn to appreciate diversity and include people with disabilities in their work and activities as they get older.
• Sometimes it is not suitable for people with disabilities to be in mainstream education because it may be difficult for the school to get adequate resources to meet their educational needs
• Children learn from each other, not just from the teachers so it is important to consider them as a resource in education.
• Children have the right to free, compulsory education that is available, adaptable and accessible.

Museum, royal palace and Wat Phnom, Phnom Penh

The national museum is in a beautiful wooden structure and worth visiting. Cambodia has had much Indian influence, for example the Wats of the Angkor and Hindu. So there were many an image of Shiva and Ganesh and other Hindu gods in the muesum. I have noticed that in each of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia's national museums they have shown maps displaying their largest empire at any point in time which is sometime in the distant past. The Khmer empire covered most of Laos up to Burma and most of north- eastern Thailand when it was its most powerful.

The Royal Palace is another place worth visiting. There is a pagoda with a whole floor of silver tiles. There is also a French building right in the middle of the palace grounds which looks a bit odd. Wat Phnom is pretty good because there are a lot of monkeys around which are amusing to observe. You can buy them lotus seed heads and bananas for them to eat- at least it's pretty healthy.

Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh is a good place to visit. The people are friendly. It's another place which makes me swear I'll be a kinder person when I get home! Initially it seemed like a bigger version of Vientiane, and I could image Vientiane looking like Phnom Penh in five to ten years. The motorcycle, car to bike ratio seems about the same. Some women wear skirts that are exactly the same as the Lao sinh. The traditional dance is quite similar between the countries also. They celebrate the same new years. They have just one big mall in Phnom Penh and one separate department store. They have usual Thai chain restaurants such as Dairy Queen, Swensens, Pizza Company and MK Suki. The poverty here seems more apparent than in Vientiane- there were many more people begging. I was there to attend a workshop about implementing inclusive education for people with disabilities in the Asia Pacific region.

I was staying in quite a nice hotel and I noticed about three western couples with an Asian baby. I'm guessing the westerners were French and the babies were Cambodian. A bit of a wild guess but these couples around their late 30s- 40s could have been picking up these children for adoption. In Cambodia did read that a couple of countries, UK and USA I think it was that put an emergency ban on adoption from Cambodia due to child trafficking concerns.