INCLUSION - The Time Is Now

Today, the 15th “Inclusion - Transforming Global Rights into Action” Conference ended in Berlin. The goal of Inclusion is to offer a forum for people with and without intellectual disabilities to exchange opinions, network and formulate strategies for the implementation of the recently ratified UN Human Rights Convention for People With Disabilities. For this groundbreaking convention to become common practice, much work needs to be and is being done: awareness building, policy formulation, monitoring of already implemented measures.

These are the basic tenets of the Convention:

* The right of disabled people to make decisions for themselves.

* The right to be included in the community.

* The right to inclusive education.

* The right of families to get the support they need.

* The right to live without poverty and discrimination.

More information about INCLUSION and the UN Convention here.

Ahoj Prague

The One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Prague opens today with the Iranian film “Green Days” by Hana Makhmalbaf. More information here

Films screened at partner festival One World Berlin are available on realeyz.tv, such as BOY WHO PLAYS ON THE BUDDHAS OF BAMIYAN, TAMBOGRANDE or TERRORISTS: THE KIDS THEY SENTENCED.

Who Is Gretchen K. Berland?

About Gretchen K. Berland the director of ROLLING:

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Section of General Internal Medicine

Clinical & Teaching Activities

Inpatient attending, St. Mary’s Hospital (Yale Primary Care Medicine Residency Program), Outpatient attending: St. Mary’s Family Health Center (more…)

“mondkalb” magazine

mondkalb: A Journal for Organized Affliction

mondkalb isn’t really a magazine for people with disabilities. Although the majority of its editors and authors are disabled, most of its readers aren’t.  The concept for the magazine came about in late 2006 during a Youth for Nature seminar on disability. The idea was to produce a free magazine that would be distributed for free to cafés and bars, libraries and adult education centers, clubs, social and political project groups, in areas for the disabled in public buildings, and so on. One important stipulation was that the articles wouldn’t be targeted at insiders only - in other words, only to readers with disabilities or their families. The aim was to catch the interest of regular club goers, who should fish it out of the magazine racks and have something enjoyable to read while sitting with their beer.  The point was to highlight the entertainment value of disability – not only with sarcastic and bristly articles, which  “mondkalb” of course offers, but also  with some more serious and generally informative pieces. Disability is presented here in a cultural and political context and not as a marginalized interest group.

[Editorial note: every rental of  ROLLING on realeyz.tv supports "mondkalb": the director donates all proceeds earned through realeyz.tv to the dedicated folks at the mondkalb media project .]

Galen Buckwalter And His Band SIGGY

Interview with Galen Buckwalter, Protagonist of the Documentary ROLLING from aversion.com

I’m Not Working For the Pose-Down

Aug. 23, 1999

by Matt Schild

Siggy Sometimes it’s the little, almost logical, coincidences helping a band continue. From the random chance of finding band mates with the same vision to work with to the random possibilities of finding fans able to tune into a band’s sound, it’s as much the small bits adding up for a band as it is big pieces. At other times, it’s a band’s tunnel-vision commitment to its music helping it endure its harder times. For Los Angeles’ Siggy, it’s surely been a symphony of good luck, coincidences and moxy holding things together.

A five-piece following in the sonic footsteps of bands such as Television and Richard Hell, Siggy’s members’ ability to hang their futures on pegs outside of the music world has helped it to flourish, said the band’s front man Galen Buckwalter. (more…)