Beijing blog
Day One- Disability and visibility
It is less than 24 hours into our week-long stay in Beijing, and jetlag has given way to adrenaline as we focus on the task ahead. CBM is in town as the only NGO to be part of a special exhibition, Care and Rehabilitation China 2008. Our participation over three days has taken months of behind the scenes planning and negotiation with the various stakeholders involved on the part of the China office, the Asia desk in Bensheim, Germany and CBM’s Regional Office in Bangkok. Paralympic athletes who medalled in Athens are lined up for autograph signings. We have printed a special ‘Asian’ edition of our 100 Years Profile document, which carries a very positive, not to mention photogenic message. We’re ready to do our bit to raise the profile of disability in China.
There is a second reason for our presence here in this venerable capital- to support CBM’s ambassadors as they compete in the Paralympic Games. The Paralympics is important to CBM because it is a time when the whole world sees how enabling, empowering and inspiring it can be when individuals, communities and countries come together to celebrate the achievements of Persons with Disability. That this is happening in a country redolent with the past and forging a modern history all its own is both exciting and a challenge. Exciting, because the pace of modernisation in China carries great potential for spreading the message of inclusion. A challenge, because of the enormity of the task. Recognising that that inclusion is an essential aspect of future progress is a quiet revolution that may not be feted by history. It is not a goal but a constant process of change.
China has changed the lives of its people in so many ways over the centuries. Looking around, I feel that society again has a role to play in measuring the unacknowledged contribution of Persons with Disabilities. I feel hopeful that change will happen here as elsewhere. It is easy to be cynical about statistics, but progress is something we can now realistically talk about. The extraordinary achievements we are already and will no doubt continue to witness over the coming week have their seeds in the struggle that is innate to the human condition. We are spellbound, moved and euphoric because we see our own potentialities mirrored in each Olympian; they have the power to change their destinies, and, if we let them, ours too. This is all the more fascinating in a country where Persons with Disabilities were, within living memory, partly ignored and hidden from view.
Day One- Disability and visibility
It is less than 24 hours into our week-long stay in Beijing, and jetlag has given way to adrenaline as we focus on the task ahead. CBM is in town as the only NGO to be part of a special exhibition, Care and Rehabilitation China 2008. Our participation over three days has taken months of behind the scenes planning and negotiation with the various stakeholders involved on the part of the China office, the Asia desk in Bensheim, Germany and CBM’s Regional Office in Bangkok. Paralympic athletes who medalled in Athens are lined up for autograph signings. We have printed a special ‘Asian’ edition of our 100 Years Profile document, which carries a very positive, not to mention photogenic message. We’re ready to do our bit to raise the profile of disability in China.
There is a second reason for our presence here in this venerable capital- to support CBM’s ambassadors as they compete in the Paralympic Games. The Paralympics is important to CBM because it is a time when the whole world sees how enabling, empowering and inspiring it can be when individuals, communities and countries come together to celebrate the achievements of Persons with Disability. That this is happening in a country redolent with the past and forging a modern history all its own is both exciting and a challenge. Exciting, because the pace of modernisation in China carries great potential for spreading the message of inclusion. A challenge, because of the enormity of the task. Recognising that that inclusion is an essential aspect of future progress is a quiet revolution that may not be feted by history. It is not a goal but a constant process of change.
China has changed the lives of its people in so many ways over the centuries. Looking around, I feel that society again has a role to play in measuring the unacknowledged contribution of Persons with Disabilities. I feel hopeful that change will happen here as elsewhere. It is easy to be cynical about statistics, but progress is something we can now realistically talk about. The extraordinary achievements we are already and will no doubt continue to witness over the coming week have their seeds in the struggle that is innate to the human condition. We are spellbound, moved and euphoric because we see our own potentialities mirrored in each Olympian; they have the power to change their destinies, and, if we let them, ours too. This is all the more fascinating in a country where Persons with Disabilities were, within living memory, partly ignored and hidden from view.
I watched the Opening Ceremony from the UK, as Tanni Grey-Thompson, the well-known wheelchair medallist, commented that this ceremony, elaborately hosted by the Chinese, was the most impressive of all Paralympic opening ceremonies by far. More impressive still, Beijing has pledged to stage a fully-accessible Paralympics. With the Games themselves so far garnering more press attention than ever before, it feels like we are truly part of something greater than our individual efforts. Athletes like Paralympian and CBM ambassador Henry Wanyoike are not just winning medals; they are making their conditions visible to the outside world. In Henry’s own words: “Thank God for getting blind, so I have the possibility to show the world what disabled people can do."
Beijing is a megalopolis already hurtling headlong into the 21st century, so will the Olympics as a force for social change dilute or accelerate the process? One barometer of this is how visible disability has become in the city. I had heard before coming here that in the time between the end of the Olympics and the start of the Paralympics, the whole of the Beijing subway had been made an accessible zone. Eager to test this assumption, I set out on foot with a Chinese colleague to explore the city. Beijing Capital Airport had featured special gangways, signings and widened entrances. Now, walking from our hotel to the subway, we notice tracks on the pavement for the benefit of the visually impaired. Toilets carry signs in Braille. The subway has wheelchair access including lifts and ramps leading up to the main entrance with rails and plenty of berth for manoeuvre. So far, so good.
Access is one aspect, visibility another. The founder of CBM, Ernst Christoffel, once walked a short distance in Constantinpole with a friend. At the end of their promenade, he turned to the friend and asked him how many blind people he had seen. The friend replied that he had seen none. Christoffel had seen eleven. Yesterday, walking around the city, I noticed two people in wheelchairs and one blind person. Knowing that China has an estimated 83 million Persons with Disability, or one in fifteen members of the population, this does not seem even to scratch the surface. I think back to the words of the Chinese Olympian Ping Ya Li, who said that winning Gold was not the end, but the beginning of her struggle for acceptance. China won 63 medals at the Paralympics in Athens, and is aiming to double that this week. How many more lives will such victories change?
Hosting the Paralympics in China has gone some way towards making life functionable for ordinary Persons with Disabilities. But until such people not only exist, but are seen, heard, understood, and can make their mark, there is more to do.
Beijing is a megalopolis already hurtling headlong into the 21st century, so will the Olympics as a force for social change dilute or accelerate the process? One barometer of this is how visible disability has become in the city. I had heard before coming here that in the time between the end of the Olympics and the start of the Paralympics, the whole of the Beijing subway had been made an accessible zone. Eager to test this assumption, I set out on foot with a Chinese colleague to explore the city. Beijing Capital Airport had featured special gangways, signings and widened entrances. Now, walking from our hotel to the subway, we notice tracks on the pavement for the benefit of the visually impaired. Toilets carry signs in Braille. The subway has wheelchair access including lifts and ramps leading up to the main entrance with rails and plenty of berth for manoeuvre. So far, so good.
Access is one aspect, visibility another. The founder of CBM, Ernst Christoffel, once walked a short distance in Constantinpole with a friend. At the end of their promenade, he turned to the friend and asked him how many blind people he had seen. The friend replied that he had seen none. Christoffel had seen eleven. Yesterday, walking around the city, I noticed two people in wheelchairs and one blind person. Knowing that China has an estimated 83 million Persons with Disability, or one in fifteen members of the population, this does not seem even to scratch the surface. I think back to the words of the Chinese Olympian Ping Ya Li, who said that winning Gold was not the end, but the beginning of her struggle for acceptance. China won 63 medals at the Paralympics in Athens, and is aiming to double that this week. How many more lives will such victories change?
Hosting the Paralympics in China has gone some way towards making life functionable for ordinary Persons with Disabilities. But until such people not only exist, but are seen, heard, understood, and can make their mark, there is more to do.
