07.05.04
This time, it is highly probable that I will be tough and impossible, because I am really mad. I decided yesterday to go to my University Department and I used the tube. Luckily, I wasn’t alone. Just as I reached the Syntagma Square, I caught myself gasping at the view. Right now that I am talking to you, they have put barriers around the whole Square due to the completion of the Olympic works! The only way to get out of that labyrinth is to use the stairs that lead to the back side of the Square (which is impossible to do for those of us who use a wheelchair) or to follow the wheelchair users’ signs, in order to get in a passage that reminds one of a sewer or something. What I know is that I had to dive in the ground and pass over broken planks and pipes, breathing a gallon of dust and dirtying my clothes, ending up on another door with the same signs, having to get out on the pathway, lead my wheelchair from the huge pathway (that had no ramp) to the street and then cross it.
This time, it is highly probable that I will be tough and impossible, because I am really mad. I decided yesterday to go to my University Department and I used the tube. Luckily, I wasn’t alone. Just as I reached the Syntagma Square, I caught myself gasping at the view. Right now that I am talking to you, they have put barriers around the whole Square due to the completion of the Olympic works! The only way to get out of that labyrinth is to use the stairs that lead to the back side of the Square (which is impossible to do for those of us who use a wheelchair) or to follow the wheelchair users’ signs, in order to get in a passage that reminds one of a sewer or something. What I know is that I had to dive in the ground and pass over broken planks and pipes, breathing a gallon of dust and dirtying my clothes, ending up on another door with the same signs, having to get out on the pathway, lead my wheelchair from the huge pathway (that had no ramp) to the street and then cross it.
It might seem stupid to you but it wasn’t so much the route that I had to follow that annoyed me as the irony that I had to face, since, in short, I should even be happy with the ‘ENTRANCE FOR WHEELCHAIR USERS’ – as the sign said. I am asking here: Couldn’t there be a passage (made of planks or something), on which somebody could move with the wheelchair relatively easily? What happens when someone does not have the aid of a companion and therefore has to make it alone? WHY IS IT TAKEN FOR GRANTED THAT, DURING THE DAYS PRIOR TO THE OLYMPIC GAMES, WE (those of us who have mobility problems or some other kind of disability) WILL STAY INDOORS? I wonder what Mrs. Bakoyianni has to say for all this. I am sure she will not even bother to give an answer. She will smile and rush to remind me of how many good things were done in our country throughout the last years, for the purpose of upgrading the living standard of Greek citizens. I don’t disagree. This is the proper answer for someone who exercises politics. But the conclusion is different.
It seems that it is more important to build ‘Sugar towns’ and to organise fairs and festivities than to secure conditions of easy mobility for the citizens. For that reason, it must be made clear that none of us (at least this is what I want to believe) expects sensitivity but respect of our basic rights. From that point of view, we don’t just denounce the ignorance or the indifference of some people. What we (have to) do is to exercise our own policy contrary to all other policies that marginalise us and render us second-grade class citizens. The definition of a friendlier environment for people with a disability must not be provided from people who do not understand our needs. Consequently, it is obvious that we, being directly interested in everything that has to do with them, must find the way to SPEAK UP for everything that bothers us and cooperate with the authorities so as to make together the decisions regarding the solutions to our problems. If this doesn’t happen, many of our established rights are going to be lost.
Since a weblog is never enough, I decided to come out again on television. My sister says that I will become quite eccentric in the end and that I will be converted into a television seed (like Mrs. E. Louka). I personally believe that, since I can put up with the media ‘game’, I am obliged to speak for the part of all of us. In all likelihood, you will watch me on this evening’s news on ‘Alpha TV’.
It seems that it is more important to build ‘Sugar towns’ and to organise fairs and festivities than to secure conditions of easy mobility for the citizens. For that reason, it must be made clear that none of us (at least this is what I want to believe) expects sensitivity but respect of our basic rights. From that point of view, we don’t just denounce the ignorance or the indifference of some people. What we (have to) do is to exercise our own policy contrary to all other policies that marginalise us and render us second-grade class citizens. The definition of a friendlier environment for people with a disability must not be provided from people who do not understand our needs. Consequently, it is obvious that we, being directly interested in everything that has to do with them, must find the way to SPEAK UP for everything that bothers us and cooperate with the authorities so as to make together the decisions regarding the solutions to our problems. If this doesn’t happen, many of our established rights are going to be lost.
Since a weblog is never enough, I decided to come out again on television. My sister says that I will become quite eccentric in the end and that I will be converted into a television seed (like Mrs. E. Louka). I personally believe that, since I can put up with the media ‘game’, I am obliged to speak for the part of all of us. In all likelihood, you will watch me on this evening’s news on ‘Alpha TV’.
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