Since you mention Israel, I question whether Palestinian residents of the West
Bank would be recipients of the benefits of the treaty. I'm not sure that
disabled Palestinians who are Israeli citizens would even be covered. I agree
that the needs and concerns of blind people are important, but one can't narrow
one's concerns to the needs of blind people or disabled people because the
issues of so many marginalized groups are related to each other. Example: We
can't think only about libraries for the blind when the current administration
is planning to defund all public libraries.
Miriam
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<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Kane Brolin
Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2018 11:58 AM
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Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Americanism fragility
To Carl, Roger, Bob, et al.
I am not super-active on this or any other list, but I do read a lot of content
and have attempted to interact personally with Bob/Moustafa on these matters.
What I find is that he is extremely good at formulating these rants, but he
puts forth no effort whatsoever to respond to specific, well-thought-out
counterpoints made by those of us who have been the recipients of those rants.
What I find sad, but true, is that communicating with Bob about any of these
arguments he makes is a waste of time, as he knows what he believes and has
decided that launching these torrents of words in a monologue is much more
pleasing than engaging in a truly open dialogue with anybody else. Bob,
perhaps some of your rants should be directed at Saudi Arabia, an extremely
conservative monarchy which styles itself as an Islamic paradise but which is
perfectly content to engage in multi-billion-dollar weapons deals with the
government and corporations of the United States.
Tired of Americanisation impacting your country, to say nothing of Yemen?
Perhaps Saudi Arabia should be a prime target of your verbal venom, Bob, not
just the United States or the Zionist Jews.
And for those of us like most of us on this list who happen to live with
blindness, I think this type of nationalistic and religious bickering is a
waste of time. I note that legislatures in both Israel and Egypt are
struggling with updating their disability laws so that rights guaranteed to
disabled citizens in those countries conform to United Nations model standards
of equality. Far better to work among the different countries to make life
better for all of us in terms that will make a practical difference to the
lives of common persons who live with disabilities. I don't think it was blind
Westerners who ravaged the Middle East or who crashed planes into those
buildings to cause the horrific wreckage and slaughter on 9/11/2001. So I
propose we all find better, more constructive methods of dialogue and optimize
the use of our limited time and resources for the good of all. For Americans,
this would include encouraging the ratification of the Marrakesh Treaty
Implementation Act (S-2559), which now enjoys bipartisan support in the United
States Senate.
http://www.districtdispatch.org/2018/03/marrakesh-treaty-closer-reality/
This international treaty, whose language was worked out in the city of
Marrakesh in predominantly Islamic Morocco, has already resulted doubtlessly in
many more blind, Islamic youth in the Arab and North African world gaining
access to reading materials--including, one would hope, Islamic religious
literature. While the USA has been slow to ratify this treaty, many American
citizens were intimately involved in the treaty's formulation, and many other
countries already have put this into force--including some African countries
such as Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Camaroon, Kenya, Ghana, Sierra Leon,
Sudan, Togo, and Chad--not to mention the Syrian Arab Republic and the Russian
Federation. Oddly, neither Saudi Arabia nor Egypt has yet ratified. For the
full list, see
http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ShowResults.jsp?treaty_id=843
Let's all use our time more wisely and work together for the furtherance of
good things that all of us should be desiring in common.
-Kane