Tag Archives: Human rights

Day 1010: My thoughts on Sign Language Ban Imposed on N.J. Girl

Some rules and regulations hinder instead of help– that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 12  : 53  PM on day 1 010 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to pray, brush my teeth, read Deuteronomy 27, publish my Disability of the Day feature,tweet and Facebook about my campaign –  no luck –  stretch my hamstrings,     practice sitting up straight to strengthen my core muscles, feed myself an avocado sandwich and banana for breakfast and practice typing with both hands.

Today I read Sign Language Ban Imposed on N.J. Girl – an article about a twelve-year-old girl who has a hearing impairment being banned from using sign language on the bus because according to the school board and school district it’s a safety hazard – and the absurdity of the whole situation got to me rules and regulations are supposed to protect people not infringe on their human rights banning  someone with a hearing impairment from signing would be like banning me from using a wheelchair I don’t want  to use the wheelchair I need to use the wheelchair.

Day 559

What happens on your birthday is a reflection of what has happened your whole life – that’s what I learned today 🙁

It’s 7: 30 PM on day 559 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to prepare and  publish my Disability of the Day feature,prepare and publish my Kid of the Week feature,   feed myself a  uzhunnu vada–a savory Indian doughnut – and chutney  for breakfast,   brush my teeth,   tweet about my 21 For 21 Campaign – no luck  –    feed myself rice and curry for lunch,  watch This Means War – a raunchy romantic comedy starring  Reese WitherspoonChris Pine and Tom Hardy it was basically about two CIA agents who fall for the same girl I really liked it was really funny and the ending was refreshing nobody ended up being the loser 🙂 – at the Hemingways Mall and feed myself a McDonald’s vegetable burger for dinner – I have switched from being vegan to being  a vagetarian for  lent (being vegan is just to extreme for me when you’re vegan you basically give up everything you eat meat, eggs yogurt, cheese ect) – continue to tweet about my campaign – Justina (@justinav) made a donation (thanks Justina I really appreciate it)  (21 x 9 = 189 x 4 = 756 cups of food for the hungry = a very happy twenty-one-year-old) (Note: I extended my campaign to midnight to give more people a chance to donate I will donate all the money raised to the  United Nations World Food Programme  first thing tomorrow morning).

As you know today is my 21st  birthday and you would think my whole family is with me right now  but you know where my father, sister and brother are right now…. they are at the gym – my dad just bought a cake said Happy Birthday and left with my sister and brother   – I suppose I shouldn’t have expected anything different it’s pretty much always just been my mom and I although my sister and I are going to the movies this afternoon that’s something I guess, what really makes me sad is that people on Twitter seem to care more about my birthday than my family does (see some of the tweets sent to me below). Do you see the truth of your life every year on your birthday?

 

margot ‏ @jollydots1

 

@Nisha360 happy birthday, I hope you have an amazing day!!!!!!!!  Love Margot

 

 

 

Michelle ‏ @michelmme

 

@Nisha360 happy birthday nisha! Hope you have a great day and may all your dreams come true! Hip hip horaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiii xx

 

 

 

 

 

Care-Aware™ Calendar ‏ @Care_Aware

 

#HappyBirthday to awesome @Nisha360: 1 young woman w/cp who shows, each day, that each of us can #makeadifference!☼ #water

 

 

 

Chrissy Pappas ‏ @ChrissyPappas

 

Hey @Nisha360, wishing you a wonderful birthday! All the best!

 

 

 

Betsy Cross ‏ @BetsyKCross

 

Happy Birthday @Nisha360!

 

 

 

Michael Carr ‏ @USMMariner

 

@Nisha360 @polipaca @BetsyKCross @notjustagranny@steelerbrian @pfellas @HappyOddGirl @wonderoftech > HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Nisha !

 

 

Day 558

Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow. – Ralph Waldo Emerson 

It’s 6 : 27  PM on day 558 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, tweet about my 21 For 21 Campaign – no luck – prepare and publish my Disability of the Day feature, tweet about my campaign – no luck –   feed myself a  Batura and potato curry  for breakfast, tweet about my campaign some more –  no luck – drink tea by myself, tweet about my campaign some more –  no luck – feed myself rice and curry for lunch and continue to tweet about my campaign – Michael Carr made a donation (thanks Michael I really appreciate it)  (21 x 8 = 168 x 4 = 672 cups of food for the hungry = a very happy almost twenty-one-year-old).

As you know I’m turning 21 tomorrow and in honour of that I’m going to share with you a list of things I want to do during the course of my life. Take a look:

Bucket List 2: Realistic goals

  • I want to learn to take care of myself so my mother can take it easy
  • I want to publish my book The Accidental Philanthropist
  • I want to be able to pay for everything I need so I don’t have to rely on my parents financially
  • I want to stop lying by omission (I don’t correct people’s incorrect assumptions for example someone  heard that I planned to do a writing course so he asked how are your exams going and I’ll replied fine because firstly the truth takes a long time to explain and secondly  I don’t want to hear the condescension in peoples voices when I tell them that I spend my days working as a social media manager, helping people and blogging)
  • I want to go to Europe to see the sights
  • I want to go to a Taylor Swift concert
  • I want to go to a Jason Derulo concert
  • I want to go to The Script concert
  • I want to show the world that people who are “disabled” are normal people with hopes, dreams and feelings
  • I want to use my experiences as a disabled person to help parents of kids who have “disabilities”
  • I want to continue making a difference in the world

 

Day 557

Extraordinary things can happen when ‘ordinary people’ came together with a common purpose – that’s what I was reminded of today 🙂

It’s 5 : 57  PM on day 557 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, prepare and publish my Disability of the Day feature,  work,  tweet about my 21 For 21 Campaign,  drink tea by myself,  feed myself a vegetable burger for breakfast, tweet some more about my campaign –  Chrissy (@ChrissyPappas) made a donation yesterday (thanks again Chrissy I really appreciate it)  (21 x 7 = 147 x 4 = 588 cups of food for the hungry = a very happy almost twenty-one-year-old) –  feed myself rice and curry  for lunch and brush my teeth once more.

A couple of days ago my brother came from school raving about this video he watched in school called Kony 2012 and upon his recommendation I watched the whole documentary today what surprised me the most was that Jason Russell – the co-founder of Invisible Children Inc and creator of the Kony 2012 video –and I actually had a lot in common we both believe that ‘ordinary people’ who come together with a common purpose can achieve extraordinary things only he is working to save children in Uganda from Joseph Kony – one of the world’s worst war criminals – and I’m working – through various campaigns – to make sure that children all over the world have food, water and everything else they need. Take a look at the video below and you’ll see what I mean about Jason and I having the same message for the world:

Day 556

Sometimes you’ve got to do something for someone without worrying how it will be perceived – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 1 : 43  PM on day 556 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, prepare and publish my Disability of the Day feature,   work, tweet about my 21 For 21 Campaign – thanks to Panos Fellas (@pfellas) of Children’s Ark UK who made a donation yesterday afternoon and Wayne (@WayneMansfield) of    Jindalee Foundation who made a donation this morning  (21 x 6 = 126 x 4 = 504 cups of food for the hungry = a very happy almost twenty-one-year-old) –    feed myself a vegetable burger for breakfast  and watch TV (Note: In case your wondering why I published this post so early today it’s because I have to go to the dentist this afternoon and don’t know what kind of condition I’ll be in when I return (wish me luck)).

As those of you over fifteen may know sometimes you can do something with the best of intentions and it can get taken completely the wrong way which is what I hope will not happen when Mrs. T opens her Facebook inbox to find my message – I suggested to her that she buy her daughter an Ipad and install Proloquo2Go app on it (her youngest daughter has a speech impairment and this app would make it easier for her to communicate) (watch the video below you’ll understand what I mean) – but if it does I will be okay because I will know that I did it to better the life of that girl who nobody in our community even attempts to talk to when we are at community gatherings (at parties and stuff some people would come over and talk to me while totally ignoring her even if she’s sitting two seats away from me and I would think why don’t you talk to her). Do you worry about the outcome of your good deed more than you do about the intention behind it?

 

Day 555

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. ~ George Santayana

It’s 5 : 24  PM on day 555 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, publish my Disability of the Day feature,  drink tea by myself,  feed myself a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast,   tweet about my 21 For 21 Campaign – no luck –  continue reading Catching Fire – the second book in The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins –    and tweet about my campaign – still no luck does nobody care that someone dies of hunger every 3.6 seconds I guess not 🙁

Today is Human Rights Day in South Africa – a commemoration of the 21 March 1960 Sharpeville massacre, when the police mowed down 69 unarmed people and injured 180 others who refused to carry the hated dompas identity document that was meant only for indigenous Africans – which I believe is the perfect opportunity for us to ask ourselves what we can do to make South Africa a better country as I know that even today not all South Africans have the same opportunities. Are you making mistakes in the present because you failed to learn from the mistakes of the past?

 

Day 554

Passion shared is joy doubled – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 7 : 39  PM on day 554 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, publish my Disability of the Day feature,  work,  tweet about my 21 For 21 Campaign – no luck – drink tea by myself,  feed myself a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast,  continue reading Catching Fire – the second book in The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins –    feed myself rice and curry  for lunch and watch TV.

As you may know I love reading almost as much as I love writing and giving which is why it saddens me to see kids playing with PlayStations and the like instead of reading I myself didn’t start reading as a hobby until my teenagers years I remember thinking along the lines of who would enjoy reading all I see is a bunch of words on a page so I completely sympathize with the kids of today having said that I encourage all the kids out there to read because although all you see in books are a bunch of words if you have a good imagination you can use those words to create a picture almost like watching a movie in your mind. Do you share your passion with others?

Day 553

Multitasking is a myth– that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 7 : 03  PM on day 553 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, prepare and publish my Disability of the Day feature,  work,  feed myself a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast, work some more, tweet about my 21 For 21 Campaign – no luck – feed myself rice and curry  for lunch,  continue reading Catching Fire – the second book in The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins –  watch TV, exercise, watch some  more TV and feed myself a carrot for dinner.

Today while working I turned off all distractions – usually I would be doing a hundred things at once while working – and because of that I got three times as much work done thus I conclude that switching from task to task and calling it multitasking is just a waste of time. Do you fool yourself into thinking you’re multitasking?

Day 552

The energy with which you do or say something is just as important as what you do or say– that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 5: 27 PM on day 552 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to prepare and  publish my Disability of the Day feature, publish my Kid of the Week feature,  work,  brush my teeth,   feed myself a  Batura and baked beans  for breakfast, drink tea by myself, continue reading Catching Fire – the second book in The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins –  tweet about my 21 For 21 Campaign, work some more, read some more, feed myself rice and curry for lunch,      tweet some more about my campaign, drink some more tea by myself  and continue tweeting about my campaign – thanks Ruth Fanshaw (@HappyOddGirl) for the donation you made yesterday evening so far four people have donated (21 x 4 = 84 x 4 = 366 cups of food for the hungry = a very happy almost twenty-one-year-old).

This afternoon my grandma – my paternal grandma – and I were having lunch together and when I saw her playing with her food I asked frustrated because I had to repeat myself are you full to my surprise she replied with equal frustration although I couldn’t understand what she was saying – ever since her hemorrhage in August last year she hasn’t been able to speak clearly – just goes to show we are constantly transmitting and receiving energy. What kind of energy do you transmit when you interact with people?

Day 551

You live in dysfunction for an extended period of time and pretty soon that becomes your normal – that’s what I learned today 🙁

It’s 4: 27 PM on day 551 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth,   feed myself a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast, drink tea by myself,  prepare and  publish my Disability of the Day feature, tweet about my 21 For 21 Campaign, prepare my Kid of the Week feature for tomorrow,  tweet some more about my campaign, answer a few questions for a blog post that I’m going to be featured in – I’ll probably tweet the link to the blog post when it is published so keep a look out – and continue tweeting about my campaign – for all my hard work two people promised to make donations better than nothing  I suppose 🙂

Today my father was calling my mother names and I just carried on doing what I was doing like they were having a casual conversation which disturbed me I guess it’s kind of like a drug addict building up a tolerance to drugs I have built up a tolerance to the environment I’m living in but that’s okay because I know that I know this is not normal. Has dysfunction become your normal?