Politics... Grab the Money and Run

Greetings,

RANT WARNING!
Please excuse me as I let off some steam about Australian politics and politics in general. This will have some relation to disability services in my country and may serve as a lesson to others.

Politics in Australia seems to be at the moment, grab the money and run. Or to be more exact, pay-off our fat-cat friends, rip the money from the most undefended of the country, and then when we get removed, let the country pay for our life-styles in retirement. I do not know exact figures but I am going to estimate that millions, if not billions, of dollars have been paid to media magnates, and mining moguls, while the normal Australian is told to tighten their belt. The DISABILITY pension has become more and more restricted, not to mention if you are under 35, magically they will review you and kick you off it to work because, "You are too young to be on a pension." This among other things. Then when they retire, we are expected to pay their pensions, which they get before the retirement age that they set, as soon as they quit politics. Seems if you are a politician the rules just don't seem to apply.

So let me get a little more on target...

To qualify for the Disability Support Pension (DSP) in Australia, you need to achieve 20 points on one table, which they have adjusted again to make it more difficult. These are the Social Security (Tables for the Assessment of Work-related Impairment for Disability Support Pension) Determination 2011, these can be found here. What this means is if you have, multiple conditions which combine together, rather than a single condition alone which causes you issues, you won't get it.

Under the previous tables there were individuals who have since been taken off the DSP, mainly because they were under 35 who had previously gained it due to medical issues of a spinal nature. The tables have been tightened so much that there are people who are in wheelchairs who do not qualify under the new tables and have been removed from the DSP and placed back into the workplace, and often with little or no support.

So while the rest of Australia tightens their belts, and her most vulnerable individuals suffer our politicians go on and do what they think is "best for the country". In my opinion they are doing what is best for their bank accounts and their futures with their nice safe pensions which the Australian population has to pay.

So, I usually complain about people making complaints and giving no solutions. I will give a solution which will solve many of the problems. Make the same rules apply to the politicians as apply to the ordinary Australian. Same age for pension. Same restriction for getting paid pension and other benefits (residency and means testing for example). Reduce the pay of politicians down to the same rate as any other government administrator.

Cheers,

Henry.

Doing Nothing

Greetings,

Why is it that as soon as you tell people you are on a Disability Pension, they assume that you sit around doing nothing for the day? Or they start asking questions why and start judging you? In response the first for my particular case, I will present the following post. For the second, I will simply state that several medical professionals and government officials agreed that it would be pointless for me to find work and that it was appropriate that I be placed on the pension. Unless you know my medical history and also have the requisite training of both sets of professionals, you can keep your opinions to yourself (apologies for the small rant). Now on to the important stuff.

Assumptions

In my particular case I do not sit in front of the television or computer playing games or watching videos all day. I feel I have more important things to do with my life. Sure there are days when I do these activities but there is a reason for this and it is the reason that I am on a Disability Pension. However, aside from the things that we all have to do each day, I do keep myself rather occupied. How?

Blogs

Including this one I have two other blogs which I work on in order to facilitate the spread of information on various subjects. Aside from this one which is my more personal one and has a general focus on fibromyalgia and what I do to deal with this particular condition, there are two others.

One is focused on the exploration of the English language, or to be more precise Elizabethan English it can be found here: http://oldewordes.blogspot.com.au/ This is not required research nor was it required in any other way I decided that it was a subject that I was interested in, so I started to research it. I started this particular investigation in to the language so that at some point in time I would be able to better understand it and even possibly, produce it. How did I become interested in it? Well, that leads on to my third and most popular blog.

The other blog, and my most popular one having: 19,000+ hits, 78 posts and 22 followers who have registered, is about fencing. It is also the blog which I have been writing the longest. It is about fencing, as in swordplay, not methods of keeping properties marked. For the most part I focus on general topics and issues with regard to the subject, but it does tend to reveal my greatest joy which is the research and participation in Western Martial Arts. This reveals something else that I do in order to improve myself, and maintain fitness.

Fencing

So, hopefully I will not have to explain what sort of fencing that I am talking about here as I already have above. If not, go back and read it as I am not explaining it again. Anyway, fencing was something I got into before I was diagnosed and before I started having all of my medical issues which have led me to be on the the Disability Support Pension. I started with foil during my first sojourn to university life and decided that I liked it... a lot.

When I found out that the medieval and recreation group, the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) did a form of fencing which was historically based, well I was set. I got to combine a physical activity which I was doing in with research into the history of it. Fencing nut plus history nut, throw that in and I did not look back. For the most part at the beginning I was doing it all for myself, this was to change.

Best way to find people to play with is to train them yourself, so I started training people. I was learning new techniques from manuals and all sorts of sources along the way as well. What can I say, but about 15 years later I suspect that I have had in excess of 30, possibly even more, students. There are still more. In fact much of my time is actually spent researching things to teach them so that they improve. Thus along with the blogs, you throw in two or three nights a week of training, and my "wasteful time" gets smaller and smaller I can tell you.

Research 

Research is something I do, and I do to keep my wits about me and so I can keep learning things. Best way to stop a brain from stagnating is to research, and this is something that I do. Sure I have mentioned my blogs and the research which is involved with them, and sure, they do take up the highest percentage of what I research, but there are always other subjects which will catch my eye.

Occasionally I will get interested due to a film, documentary or something I have read. Crazily enough, one of my lots of research was actually a result of watching my wife play a game, which was historically based. Some of the subjects are not "academically sound" for sure, but research is research. You find something you are interested in and you find more and more stuff about it. Sometimes there is no "final end result", but when you are doing it for yourself there is no problem here at all.

Conclusion

To say that I spend most of my time doing nothing is, quite frankly, insulting. Sure I do not have a regular job like most people do, but it sure as hell does not mean that I am sitting at home doing nothing. I can tell you that is the complete opposite of what I am doing most of the time. I have blogs, I have fencing and I have research to keep me occupied. Sure I do spend some time in front of the television playing games or watching movies, but I ask this "Who doesn't?" No one works all of the time.

Sure what I do is not paid and does not fill the usual work hours, but I think that what I do fills a function. I can tell you that there would be a lot of people who would notice its absence. In fact there are. I have been told so. Indeed if I decided that I should start being completely ruthless with my time and how much it is worth I would have a lot less students than I do now, and a lot less friends too.

Before you make an assumption about what a person does or does not do and about how they do  or do not spend their time, think. Decide whether you would like the same assumption made about you. If not, don't do it. Find out what they really do, you never know you might find something and someone interesting and worthwhile.

Cheers,

Henry.