#mostly classmates with developmental disabilities but also people who have the same disability as him who he thinks are more obviously disa

[autisticallyfeisty]

I was hoping the cast of How to Dance in Ohio wouldn't be the kind of people who think they're better than other autistic people

but then I read an interview where the show's composer is saying several cast members asked him if any of the characters were meant to have autistic accents and he and the librettist were proud to say they did not.

so there goes that hope.

this made me curious to know what the cast members sound like, so I watched an interview and uh

...most of them have noticeable autistic accents lmao

[thepricecaulfield]

Some thoughts about the relationships between Chloe & Rachel and Chloe & Max

I want to start with that this is my entrypost into this tumblr world. I posted here and there, youtube, reddit, discords, steam, elsewhere, mostly sat there and listened and wrote small texts, not big walls of texts, like this one is going to be.

I’m insecure if I should have posted this, but well, I give it a try, it is a text filled with analysis, personal experience and some theories, I tried to clear that in the path.

Warning! Spoilers ahead for LiS and BtS!

Here you go:

First of all: Pricefield and Amberprice are both valid ships, I prefer Pricefield and stay there, forever.

Chloe and Max harmonize in many ways, like Yin-Yang, they are total opposites of each other. They had a deep relationship (friendshipwise, platonic) in their childhood and were at their edge to puberty, but it wasn’t meant to unfold because of dramatic changes in their lifes: Williams death - Chloe in grief, not able to overcome that trauma, Max leaving her (Not on intention.). Max on the otherhand may (My opinion, since we have no proof, but when we take her psychical condition into account.) had the same problems, since she refers to William as her second father to her, so she may suffered also from grief and pain and was not able to handle all of this and how to comfort her best friend.

The Max and Chloe comeout is building up more slowly in LiS1, more deeply in my point of view. Max is insecure, not sure what her feelings are, I tend to say she has zero experience with sexuality in general and has no clue what she is into (f/f or f/m). She has some sort of developmental disability (such as High Functioning Autism/Asperger Syndrome), as she is in an IEP (Individualized Education Program, a program usually reserved for students with said condition) according to her Student File. She feels guilty for leaving Chloe and there is always this “Rachel Amber” reference in front of her during those five days. That makes things complicated as well. And we have the circumstances of a mistery around us and that Max is building up a lot of feelings towards Chloe later on.

When we have the chance to kiss Chloe the first time, Chloe is not shocked, but overrun, not expecting that Max is actually doing it. When we did the right things, Chloes smartphone background is replaced with a picture of Max. Several dialogs point into the direction that Chloe is interested in Max in a way, Max is not thinking of first. Some moves and dialogs of Chloe during the first episodes also hint in that direction (”Same sex marriage” dialog/messages for example.) The pool scene is the first real direct hint what Chloe is up too in my eyes.

The relationship/come out builds up more slowly, Chloe on guard somehow, but interested in Max. Max seems to get comfortable with the situation over the course of the episodes when we follow her diary.

The Both have a deep relationship as stated before from her childhood, that was overshadowed, but it was rekindled, since it never really broke, and I tend to say, that Chloe was into Max already before LiS, but in her heart. The dream sequences from BtS where William hints into the direction that a greater beauty is yet to come after he warns Chloe of the fire and shows her the sky filled with stars maybe the hint.

Rachel, I don’t hate her, but I don’t like her either in some way. She is elusive in many ways. The whole BtS plot reminds me of my own teenage time, first love, fulled by passion, a short episode, built to last not long enough. Passion is the keyword in here. Rachel crashes in there with passion, shows up on scene for Chloe, when she needs someone the most. And Chloe falls for it. I know this feelings, when you are alone, lost beloved people, in grief and pain shrouding your mind, puberty and adolescence is complicating everything, your whole world is burning and breaking apart.

An interesting part is, that Chloe is saying the following words to Joyce during her conversation after the Firewalk concert: “And sometimes, when we’re incredibly desperate and lonely, we choose the absolute wrong kind of people to let into our hearts…..” - this is somehow blowing my mind, since she just ignores her own words a few hours later.

Chloe has major/minor mental issues and falls easily for someone like Rachel. Rachel seems perfect, but is broken inside. But she is manipulating people around her to her needs to a certain degree with great sucess. She is flipping switches as needed and attracts people she is interested in. I think she can be considered as being in her playphase, not sure what she is about sexualy and eager to find out what she is into, so she is willing to test it out with Chloe. But I pretend to say, that she is not gay, but more considered to be bi-sexual during her teenage years or later on when Frank and Mr. Jefferson get into play out of her experimenting phase. I know some people who had those phases in their teenage years between 14-17 and found their sexual identity not before they were 18. (Proud to say I know some gay women/men/transgender/bi-sexuals who found their identity and had their coming out.)

Several ppl analyzed the Tempest scene and mentioned that the roles where chosen perfect, that Chloe is a hostage to Rachel, mentally. I tend to say they are right.

Quote: “First things first: a tempest is a storm, the title of this mini-series is Before the Storm, and in Life is Strange, Arcadia Bay is about to be decimated by a giant storm that Max spends the latter half of the game trying to prevent from happening. This connection is obvious. Furthermore, all three episode titles for Before the Storm are references to quotes from The Tempest:

“Awake” references the Act I, Scene 2 call to Miranda from Prospero: “Awake, dear heart, awake! Thou hast slept well. Awake!” “Brave New World” is from Miranda’s speech in Act V, Scene I: “O brave new world, That has such people in’t!” “Hell is Empty” is from a much-quoted scene with Ariel in Act I, Scene 2: “Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”

Prospero is the architect of all that occurs around him, manipulating the relationship between Miranda and Ferdinand, and using the spirit Ariel and Caliban to mess with his shipwrecked enemies. He is the person who shapes the story of The Tempest, from creating the storm to treating other characters like puppets.” (Full article here: http://fandom.wikia.com/articles/life-is-strange-before-the-storm-the-tempest / There are many more articles about this around that state the same since the roles of Rachel and Chloe are given and the represent somehow the same roles in the play like they do in their life.)

Rachel can be seen as manipulative in that she charms everyone around her — her teachers, her classmates, and most of all, Chloe. She is the focal point that moves the story of Before the Storm forward. Rachel is also the thing that brings Max and Chloe together in the original Life is Strange, with her absence and the mystery around it bringing the two together.

Chloe builds up an emotional und psychic dependence (I tend to say borderline obsession.) for Rachel and Rachel sticks to that. She wants to be a rebel with Chloe and get out of Arcadia Bay pretty fast. But she tends to go her ways and switch ships to her needs later. Frank is one ship, and the Jefferson ship is real to, there is that crumbled letter on the junkyard. (http://life-is-strange.wikia.com/wiki/Rachel_Amber?file=RachelChloeLetter.png) (http://i.imgur.com/0f9UIFB.jpg)

Rachel is Chloes angel for the moment, her saviour for a short time, but not for the greater good. The realtionship they build up is not going to last long without severe damage for Chloes psychic health. The dependence Chloe is driving into is not healthy for her, but she gets there easily.

But we know from the third dream scene vom BtS that William predicted, that there will be a greater beauty to come and that Chloe has to be cautious because of the fire. The theme behind this dream is not truly clear, but many people back the theory, that William warns her about Rachel.

What I believe is that this is the truth and that the greater beauty to come is a reference to Max.

To summarize it:

Max & Chloe have a pure, deep and sure true love going on, build upon something they can rely: They complement each other with their traits and help each other to become better selfs. Chloes gets back into track, trying to beging a better life and keep her feet on the ground, Max gains selfconfidence, breaking the shell around her.

Rachel & Chloe have a passionate, stormy, and sure emotional love going on, build upon…..well, I don’t really know: They both corrupt each in some ways/many ways, Chloe infects Rachel with her rebellion to certain degrees and Rachel creates a dependency on Chloe that makes her easy to manipulate and worse, leaves her with this tendency of always putting Rachel first, basically not focusing on her own life that is a real mess.

Thanks for reading.

[nqobilemkhize]

I was not aware of the impact I could make

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of 17 goals that were developed in 2012 at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro.  These 17 goals success of all these goals is interconnected, success/failure in one affects the success of others. SDGs aim to meet the political, environmental and economic challenges of the world by 2030 and were developed to continue the progress made by Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from the year 2000 till 2015. Advancements made by the MDGs include increasing access to water and sanitation, decreasing income poverty, greatly improving maternal health and decreasing child mortality, development a movement for free basic education and “most significantly, the MDGs made huge strides in combatting HIV/AIDS and other treatable diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis”. In order to meet the 2030 SGDs set globally, South Africa formed a National Development Plan to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality. The Voluntary National Review in July 2019 revealed the NDP has a 74% convergence with the SDGs.

In this week’s blog we have been asked to present 5 SDGs, that one could work towards within the community they are currently working in. I have chosen to focus on the following (Please see image below for names) SDG 2, 3, 5, 11 and 4.

The township is made up of low-income families. The population in the community in question has been observed to comprise mostly of the youth with high levels of unemployment, poverty and low levels of education being rife. Though the population is mostly unemployed youth, a dearth of social and recreational facilities has been observed. This leads me to think “Why not make gardening fashionable among the youth?” SDG 2 seeks to end hunger, provide and achieve food security together with improved nutrition and lastly seeks to promote sustainable agriculture. What is food security? Food security is said to be “achieved when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. FAO. 1996. Rome Declaration on World Food Security and World Food Summit Plan of Action. World Food Summit 13-17 November 1996. Rome. The Park already provides a gardening programme for the elderly where a variety of vegetables are planted. In conjunction with IYD - a non-profit organization based in the community whose objectives are to uplift, revive and empower the youth of the area through focusing on education, health and social activities, the park (this will be a student project) can expand the gardening programme to the youth. At the Park youth will be taught how to garden and then urged to start their own gardens at their homes in order contribute to the fostering of food security in their homes. By involving the unemployed youth in this gardening programme occupational reconstruction will occur where the youth will use gardening “to remake ordinary life in response to a problematic situation.” (Frank, Gelya, & Muriithi, 2015). Principles of occupational reconstruction; the problematic situation being unemployment, gardening being the meaningful and purposeful action and voluntary engagement, creative transformations and hopeful experimentalism will be evident.

Every Monday to Wednesday morning at the clinic my classmates and I conduct health promotion talks to the members of the community who have come to the clinic that day. While promoting health and well-being by presenting on different topics (i.e. diabetes and healthy living, mental health, arthritis and developmental norms) we also promote occupational therapy as a profession. By doing this, we are promoting health and therefore contributing towards meeting SGD 3 – Good health and well-being. What else can be done by us students? Students in collaboration with the clinic and the local radio station (located on the same premises as the clinic) can provide health promotion talks on the last Friday of every month. The health promotion talks will be delivered to the community through the radio. Topics will center around the targets of SDG 3 which are to:

·  Reduce the global maternal mortality ratio

·  End preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age

·  End the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases

·  Reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases

·  Strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse,

·  Halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents

·  Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programs

·         Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all

(Sdgcounting, 2017)

During the past few weeks our health promotion talks have been well received. Every time we play the recording of our health promotion speech, the members of the community are startled at first but are soon observed to be listening attentively and some even come forward to ask questions. Because of the above, I am sure the health promotion talks through the radio will be well-received too.

She does not have a phone, anybody who needs to speak to her on the phone must go through her boyfriend first and if he deems the reason given good enough, he will pass the phone to her. She has permanent scars on her back from beatings from him yet she still says “but I’m also partly to blame”. That is a client at the Park. “Why?” I ask myself. Are the laws on gender equality in South Africa not strict enough? The Constitution does state that “the state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth.” . Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. (1996).  The Domestic Violence Act (DVA) No 116 of 1998 and the Criminal Law (Sexual Offenses and Related Matters Act (SOA) No 32 of 2007) were formed in response to violence against women in South Africa. Many campaigns have also been formed to combat the violence against women one of them being the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign. SGD 5 seeks to achieve gender equality by 2030 and one of its targets is to eliminate all forms of violence against all girls and women. In support of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign, my classmates and I on this block can start raising awareness about the campaign by informing the women and young girls of the community about the purpose of the campaign, urge them to attend events of this campaign that will be hosted near them and impart information on how to seek help from organizations like POWA and FAMSA. The reason for only raising awareness about the campaign is because by the time the 16 Days of Activism begins our block would have ended.

Without realizing it, my classmates and I are contributing to meeting target 11.7 of the SDG’s which seeks to “provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities”. We are transforming an unused piece of land at the Park (which is a green space itself) into a ready/story-telling/skit enacting corner by demarcating it with colorful rocks and making benches out of pallets. The objective of our green space is to use the environment as a treatment and education tool as this private space can be used for reading, story-telling and skits. relaxation, peace, and an escape from heat. In the Community Rehabilitation Matrix through this green space the Education pillar will be targeted, in particular early childhood, non-formal and lifelong learning.

Undoubtedly children with only physical disabilities and no cognitive disabilities experience occupational dysfunction which Joubert (2007) describes as “a state in which an individual cannot or can only partially perform everyday occupations due to physical or mental impairment” and occupational injustice defined by Watson (2004) as “a situation or society in which the recognition of and provision for the occupational needs of an individual or community are not recognized”. This is due to not being allowed to receive an education from a mainstream school because the buildings of the schools do not cater for children with disabilities. Target 4.5 under SDG 4 seeks to “eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations”. Advocacy is an integral component of an OT’s job. To contribute to reaching target 4.5 part of our (my group and I) handover to the three schools in the area that we worked with could present to the school principal the benefits (to the child and the school) of accommodating a child with a physical disability. The mental and emotional effects of exclusion would also form part of that presentation to substantiate why it is important to include children with physical disabilities in mainstream schools. Occupational Therapy based recommendations and accommodations will also be provided.

This week’s blog topic revealed the agent of change I am and can be. Being forced to not only look at the SGDs but the targets set to achieve those goals provided me with a more in-depth understanding of the SDGs and challenged me to think of ways of how I can do my part. To contribute to the achievement of one target if not a goal as a whole a year is definitely going on my vision board.

 The journey continues

#Growing #Learning 

References

Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. (1996). Cape Town: Juta.

Environment, U. (n.d.). GOAL 11: Sustainable cities and communities. Retrieved November 06, 2020, from https://www.unenvironment.org/explore-topics/sustainable-development-goals/why-do-sustainable-development-goals-matter/goal-11

Frank, Gelya, & Muriithi, Bernard Austin Kigunda. (2015). Theorising social transformation in occupational science: The American Civil Rights Movement and South African struggle against apartheid as 'Occupational Reconstructions'. South African Journal of Occupational Therapy, 45(1), 11-19.

Joubert, R. (2007) Indigenous fruits from exotic roots? Revisiting the South African Occupational Therapy Curriculum. Doctoral Thesis, UKZN.

Inanda, Phoenix. (n.d.). Retrieved November 06, 2020, from https://www.sahistory.org.za/place/inanda-phoenix

Sdgcounting. (2017, June 06). SDG 3 Indicators. Retrieved November 06, 2020, from https://medium.com/sdgs-resources/sdg-3-indicators-43806cbf63e9

SOUTH AFRICA’S VOLUNTARY NATIONAL REVIEW (VNR) REPORT 2019

Sustainable Development Goals. (n.d.). Retrieved November 06, 2020, from https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html

Watson, R. & Swartz, L. (2004). Transformation through occupation. Whurr Publishers. London.