This is Stephen Hawking, a professor at the University of Cambridge and a leader scientist in theoretical physics, quantum gravity, black holes and a lot of scientific stuff I can't even understand.
He is paralyzed from head to toe because of a neurological disease he's been suffering from for 40 years. Despite that, he wrote books, articles, made theories and won a load of all the awards and medals you can think of in different countries.
This man is so lucky he was not born in Jordan, or else he'd be referred to as that retarded cripple who collects change at the sidewalk in Sagf El-Sail....
Among all the disabled people you see in the streets and know about in Jordan, how many times
have you ever seen a prime minister, an ambassador, or even some medium-level official in a crappy ministry who is disabled? An amputee? a blind or deaf man? Someone ambulating by wheelchair? Someone who walks in "a funny way"?
Never.
The sad fact is that physical disability in Jordan is considered a form of mental retardation.
Blindness, Deafness or a missing arm or a leg are reasons for Jordanians, even well-educated enlightened Jordanian, to think that your brain is under-developed.
Do you want to see a picture of another "retarded" man?
Franklin Roosevelt, the longest-serving president of the United States, ruled the US for 12 years while sitting on a wheelchair.
And that was in the 1930s..... that's how much we are behind them.....
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That's how much we are retarded!!
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18 comments:
When I came to the US and saw how the sidewalks are built in a way that people on wheelchairs can use and how buildings are built in a way that a blind can find any room, using Braille room numbers, without help I was saddened for the status of disabled people in Jordan. I know a deaf Jordanian who has a PhD and teaches in a university in the US. I wonder what he would be doing in Jordan.
Makes u rethink who is the retarded! ha :(.
H.
His book "A brief history of time" is my favorite book of all time, I think you should read it.
you right! this something keep hitting me in the nerve! i cant understand why we keep looking at cripple people in empathy way, and even when we talk to them !
they don't need out empathy , they need our support , they are not mentally retarded ! just give them a suitable environment and you will see how many geniuses will born!
How sad to read this.
The truth is that we might be further ahead of you in the US when it comes to building wheelchair ramps, etc, but people still mock the disabled and question their right to exist. Look at Atillisa, Iowa where the disabled were locked in a bunkhouse for 35 years and worked as slaves. Look at Corpus Cristi school in Texas where residents were forced into human fight clubs in the middle of the night when no one could hear their screams. People think they are better than the disabled and treat them like dirt. We can all start and make a difference. Volunteer to coach a Special Olympics game, smile and say hello to a disabled person. We can change the world one person at a time.
THANKS for this good post
I just know the blog from
http://arabicos.blogspot.com/2009/02/blog-post_12.html
Jaraad... what's also concerning to me is that for the most part the new bulising being built do not take in consideration the disabled. Even governmental builsings do not take that into account. I totally understand why a disabled person in Jordan might wanna stay home and never leave.
Haitham... you got your answer!
Genki ... sometimes students are wiser than their teachers!
Wesam... I'll put it on my 100- books-to-read-list
Dr. Mohammed... we feel empathetic because we know we have created a terrible environment for them to live in. If I get any disability no way I can live one day in Jordan
Anonymous... I second you that the disabled do get abused and they do suffer. I'm taking care of a 52 year old lady with cerebral palsy who tells me about some horror stories she went through at nursing homes in the US. But the difference is that they can go outside and get an education and a job. They'll face bigoted people, but at least they're not looked upon as useless pieces of flesh the moment they're born and locked in some small room in the house until they die.
that really put me down.
nothing changes the retardness we have, sometimes i think loosing hope is ok.
this reminds me when i was in sweden how many retards, handicapped, wheel chaired etc.. ppl i saw out in the streets and was thinking is the city all made of freaks, just to realize that it's only because we always hide them inside the walls that we dont freaking see them in Jordan.
:-)
So sad...
Stephen Hawking... I wish to meet him some day... he is one of my idols...
We, Jordanians, are worse than jews in this regard :-)
Do you know that jews prevent any one with less physical integrity from entering a jewish temple?
Well, we are worse than them :-)
Sadly YES.. Physical disability in Jordan is considered a form of mental retardation..
In other countries they go everywhere with their family's restaurants,, picnics,, the beach.. Everywhere.. The society treats the normal way of treating the others..
I didn't know that Stephen is disabled! Thank you for the info! WOW!
Lubna... yep, it's sad to know that we have thousands of human beings locked inside their parent's houses where they'll live and die without anyone knowing about them.
Sataney... I didn't know that, but that's not common among Jews living in the US at least
Rula. exactly, that comes to us as a suurprise whenver we leave Jordan.
ArabObserver... good to know you're still alive!
You're right ... Well said!
Dr
You need to have some realistic expectations from Jordan and the jordanians.
This is not one of them.
This is so true. I have a Jordanian friend who fell in love with a man in a wheel chair. He is absolutely lovely, there is nothing wrong with his mind or his spirit, he owns his own business and makes good money. But he is in a wheel chair. So for 3 years they have been dating, and they love each other, but her parents will not accpet him as a son in-law. Because he is in a wheel chair he is not suitable for their daughter. He is beneath her.
I don't get it - I really don't, and I feel so sad for my friend who will maybe never be able to marry the man she loves.
But Jordanians from all origins are mentally retarted...even if they have all their body functions... decades of underdevelopment...poverty...opression...inequality...frustration...lack of freddom
What would you expect!
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