Deaf world: Some debates that will never end...

I was reading DeafPulse (which you get the 10 most recent headlines on this blog), and reading other Deaf web sites...

CI, aka Cochlear Implant. It's a big thing in the deaf world. I guess that it is alike to a Christian seeing Satan in person. :)

I'm fighting all I can on behalf of my dad, and the last thing on top of many illnesses is deafness... it goes without saying, pun not really intended that I have to rely on Sign Language to get understood. Or words on a piece of paper, but even then you have to write in big letters, as his eyesight is also getting worse. Also a miracle that my dad was able to remember a few signs and to make use of them.

On top of other illnesses, it feels like the last straw. At least for me. But it's no use to get angered, frustrated, or anything. It's life as it unfolds, with the best and the worst and you have to take that.

One thing I notice how the world, so wide and infinite, gets narrower for him. While I have also my own 'bouts (I hear well, but decoding human speech is a nightmare for me, so I sometimes appear to others as if I were deaf), but I haven't realized what it means being deaf.

We're in an audible world, from the doorbell, the telephone, radio, even television, when all these audible infos become out of reach, you live in a strange narrowed world, because all those audible you depend on during all your life... are no longer there, and you realize the sheer void.

I had that in mind when I was reading several heated debates about CI. Whether parents who took decision on behalf of their children, or as a grown up, to go for cochlear implants.

For my dad, it's way too late of course, but I have been thinking that in the very audible world that we live in, if I were in that situation at my age, I'd seriously consider the option.

Which doesn't mean I'd stop using Sign Language, far from it, but I have to realize that 99% of the people around me, from friends to neighbours to colleagues haven't learned it. So I have very little use of Sign Language (but I continue to wish that Sign Language should be taught at school, just like other languages, because it *IS* a full fledged language, with its own culture. It's *NOT* a sub-standard language, just for the "disabled", with the double quotes! )

I'm a fervent partisan of "Vivre et laissez vivre". It's a French phrase to just say to let people decide for themselves. I feel in cases like that, there's no right or wrong choices to take. These are just... personal choices.

But in the deaf community, it isn't different than other communities. There are always some outspoken (?) people monopolizing as many means of communication as possible, and claiming high and low that we should all go their way.

When there's a language, there is a culture. There IS a deaf culture. The dilemma is when you are a minority, then you are in survival mode.

Incidentally, this is the debate we keep having in my province (Québec). Anyone who wants to understand the language debate there, the key to do so is to view from the angle that we're a tiny minority in North America, even in our own country. 24% of Canadians speak French. Stated otherwise, that's 76% who does NOT speak French, and the numbers have been steadily declining since Stat Can began to do statistics, a hundred years ago...

So I see in the deaf community the same patterns of self-defense. The debate against CI is also that. It is perceived as removing people from the deaf culture, which is not entirely false, but it isn't entirely true.

It is my understanding that the deaf culture while being a minority and having to beg from the majority for its needs, is far from going extinct.

The geek in me, who sees technology progressing, I have to say: Who could have thought a few years ago that there would be plenty of "vlogs", video blogs, people signing merrily in ASL? there are web sites in ASL, and already movies in ASL? Who would have thought there would be plenty of materials on the internet to feed things like DeafPulse?

Aren't these things... an expression of a *culture*, that is vibrant and dynamic? I would think so, and thanks to the technology, for providing a support for which a language can be transmitted. In this case, *visually* transmitted.

I was looking at the millions of channels on digital cable. I was joking a bit, but I am serious, what about an ASL channel? I'd sign for it right away. What about newscasts, game shows, sitcoms in ASL? There are millions of deaf and hard of hearing people across the US and Canada. Sorry, but closed captioning doesn't cut it.

There are TV channels that are on the air with an audience less than that. Besides, there are already linguistic channels, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese, German.

I think it's a matter of time someone who has the money will come up with a nationwide ASL channel? (and put closed captioning for the NON-hearing impaired? ;) )

I'd be the first to sign up, that's for sure.

So it seems that debates like against CI are so futile and such a waste of energy... it's being at standstill while the world keeps moving forward.

What else to say, or sign for? PEACE and ILY? Maybe...

That's a way to sign Vivre et laisser vivre, I'd say...

-E

Mixed bag... Canada style

Ontario referendum: Gee whiz, they're about to vote... and I hear more about the Ontario referendum here in Québec... than in Ontario.

Mhhh... when someone says referendum and constitutional amendment, it's true that we get all excited here. :)

I had a chat recently with a former forum colleague living in Toronto, and I was floored to hear that he doesn't care about the referendum. However, the bickering about McGuinty, his wife and about confessional schools seem far more important than the referendum on the way Ontario will elect their politicians for many generations to come.

I can't proclaim that I'm an expert in Ontario politics, but that seems to be the general mood. This is sad, I think.
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Afghanistan: There's something quite indecent to see ministers Bernier and Oda parading in Afghanistan, at the government's expense of course.

At the same time, Denis Coderre whose been denied all government supports, has to go literally -on his own- to Afghanistan (and at the time I'm writing these lines, he's currently in Pakistan. He should arrive later today or tomorrow in Afghanistan). People are a little bit worried for his safety, should the words spread out that he's a Canadian elected official... and not an "ordinary tourist".

To hear minister Bernier saying that Coderre's trip to Afghanistan is "irresponsible" makes me puke.

Coderre (Liberal) *IS* a member of the Parliament, just like Bernier and Oda (Conservative, the ruling party here in Canada).

It is by the will of the Parliament and not of the ruling political party that our troops are there in Afghanistan.

Also, the Canadian government isn't ... a branch of the Conservative party.

So Coderre has every right to be in Afghanistan and meet our troops there. As a member of the Parliament, it *IS* the duty of the Canadian government to bring him to Afghanistan, safely. So there, Mr. Bernier. You should be ashamed.

Since we're having a minority government, it's not very politically savvy to soooo openly pissed off a member of an opposition party, one of the parties that has helped the Conservative... to stay in power. Capitche, Mr. Bernier?
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Mr. FixIt revisited: Funny, there are times I feel like I'm a doctor . :) I think that I'm also a church minister, which people confess their worst sins. :)

I'm a little bit under the weather (cold... sigh!!), but yesterday I got a call (err.. a SOS) from a friend that her computer doesn't work and she needs it absolutely for this weekend.

When I had my tech forums years ago... I had coined this phrase: Put a rubber on your modem!

Upfront, she confessed that she visited many "dirty" sites (porn, and many gay *male* porn, to my surprise) and she had installed many "viewers". She thinks she went to one dirty web site... too many. She also does file sharing, and I spare you the names, you know them, and I despise these programs. Oh... anti-virus? She got it... but the subscription expired 2 years ago. You get the picture. In other words, I have to do miracles... as always...

Oookay. When a nice lady sends you a SOS... I can't say no. :) So I brought with me my laptop, some CDs and DVDs (including an old version of Knoppix, a fully functional Linux operating system, which is always useful to boot a sick PC with it) . I spent the afternoon and part of the evening in bringing her computer to a reasonably functional state.

I'm a data professional, much like a doctor when friends call me to help with their computer problems. So I don't blush easily at the things I see on someone else's computer.

I'll make this clear: I don't blush at the things you think that will make me blushing, but I wish you blush at the things *I* see!

Funny how people feels ashamed when I click on a file and suddenly a naughty picture appears on the screen, while I see nothing wrong with that (raise your hand if you don't have any dirty pics on your computer! So you see my point. :) ).

However, I'm a little pissed off when I see pirated softwares, pirated songs, etc, while to most people, they don't mind. We're talking of intellectual property... and that is my daytime job, as a computer programmer. So, respect my job and the job of my brothers and sisters, please!

(For the same reason when I'm giving music CDs to friends, I buy retail, I don't make copies. I want respect for my work, so I respect others' work. It's reciprocal... and I think that my salary is high enough to afford the seemingly "extra" cost ...)

Since I can put links here, I might mention an interesting online diagnostic tool that has been around for years: Housecall, by TrendMicro ( http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ ). It was useful yesterday, as the computer was too sick to update the already installed anti-virus nor to install another anti-virus.

Oh, it goes without saying, anti-spyware programs like Adaware and Spybot are also "must have" programs (that must be kept updated!) on a PC...

I appreciate friendship... but I wish for my friends... the best. Really! ;)

-Doctor Eskimo...

The ugliness of deaf politics: When survival of a culture is at stake...

Off Berke's blog, two recent examples:
- Bickering between two prominent deaf bloggers
- Twisted comments about an article on cochlear implants

As a hearing person, you may not be aware that cochlear implants (CI) are a big big hot potato in the deaf community. They are no replacement ears and CIs have issues of their own, but their benefits can not be ignored. CI is perceived as a threat to the deaf culture. Why learning Sign Language... if you can "hear" ? That's the rationale...

Before going further, some definitions according to Mr. Webstah (emphasis is mine):

LANGUAGE:
A systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meanings by a community.

CULTURE:
a) The customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group shared by people in a place or time.

b) The integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations.

So you see the link between language and culture. Also the most important point about culture, any culture: Survival.

This is why ASL (American Sign Language) is paramount. If a language become threatened, it is the culture of a community that is at risk of disappearing.

There's something extremely intimate about a culture, and this is why you see verbal inflation, and sometimes violence. Case in point, the riot on the campus at Gallaudet last fall.

Gallaudet is the only deaf university in the US (Considering the size and population of the United States, it makes you wondering!). At stake, the survival of the university.

If you think this is happening only in the deaf community... substitute ASL with French. Location? My homeland, Québec. Same battle for survival. If you happened to have read our press at one time or another from the mid 70s up to early 90s, when we were passing language laws (Bill 22, 101, 178, etc...) up to our last referendum on secession, it wasn't pretty. Not pretty at all.

(We also fought hard for our universities, to a point Gallaudet students might be proud of us, but I digress. :-) )

It is the battle of a minority culture drowned in an overwhelming culture and fighting for its survival. I could go on with other examples. Similar battle... one common issue: The survival of a culture.

Back to the deaf culture, CIs are a red herring. In my opinion, Sign Language is here to stay and its culture is *NOT* at risk.

There will always be deaf people learning Sign Language, even with CI, and there will be hearing persons like me who will also learn Sign Language. For a slew of reasons.

The problem, and it was also similar in Québec at the height of our verbal inflation... the tone is so militant, so vitriolic... it drives away their natural allies.

I just wish that the deaf community would evolve. Visibly, it is in "survival mode", and this is why you see such inflation of words (and at times squarely violence, ie, Gallaudet). I wish the deaf culture would evolve into a mature phase, like many cultures.

I have been on both sides of the issue. In my younger years, being militant and fighting for my culture, and now, I'm learning sign language and discovering its rich culture...

I'm going to say in the same way what people have said about my own culture back then:

The deaf culture is here to stay.

Somehow, it is a message that will fall on deaf ears, sadly...

Cheers,

-E