What The Actual Fuck?

A friend posted an article on Facebook the other day, about scientists working on a plastic eating thing to help reduce landfill. I didn't read the article because before I had chance my brain went "What the actual fuck?" Don't get me wrong, I applaud the fact that science is trying to help solve the massive environmental problems facing our planet but it staggers me that we're so stupid as a species.

Imagine you have a lovely white dress. It is fresh and clean and perfect for the occasion. Now imagine you lay in the mud and roll around. Your pristine dress is now filthy, smelly and not fit to be used. You decide that you have a problem and go and invest your wages in a new white dress. The next week you wear the new dress. You see a cowpat. You lay down in it and roll around. The dress is ruined. You spend your money buying a new one. The following week you wear the new dress. You see a muddy puddle. You lay down.........at what point do you stop wasting your money on new dresses and simply decide to stop fucking rolling in crap??

It's the same principle here. Whilst we need to deal with the amazing about of shit we've done to this planet of ours, why do we keep doing the things that fuck it up? I'm pretty damn certain that no one in their right mind would buy a new dress every week just so they could roll in mud. They would simply not roll in mud. Yet as a species we continue to pollute our own planet, destroy trees and fields and lakes, dig holes and fill them up with rubbish and generally treat the place like a teenage boy treats his bedroom. We do this in the knowledge that we cannot go and buy a new planet. We do this in the knowledge that we are not just sowing the seeds of our own destruction but watering them and harvesting them too. We are simply too bloody lazy and too intent on pursuing own own pleasures to stop our wanton damage.

It's not just the environment that we're stupid about. Knowledge is a wonderful thing. 24 hour news, the internet, newspapers.....all these things can provide a wealth of information from the latest events in the world to the best restaurants to eat at in our home town. The thing is, these things only provide knowledge if we use them wisely otherwise it just gives us a load of old bollocks. Reading, researching and then making up our own minds is how we should do things but hey guess what? We're too bloody lazy to do that so we just believe everything we hear and read, especially, and this is key here, if it comes in the form of a meme on Facebook or if our cousins best mates sisters uncle said it.

And what about politics? Many many people spend vast amounts of time bemoaning the loss of our NHS, complaining about the appalling state of our railways, whinging about how the cost of living keeps rising and wages don't and so on. These are ordinary people. Not radicals, not raving lefty nutters, not activists. Just Susie who works in the hairdressers or Bob who does the local window cleaning round. They are horrified at the unfairness in society and how broken our country is. They know all these things are affected by our Government and our Politicians AND THEY CARRY ON VOTING FOR THE SAME PEOPLE ANYWAY. The very people who are fucking them over. Why? Because they're too sodding lazy and intent on pursuing their own pleasure to do anything about it.

It amazes me that a species that produces such genius, is also capable of behaving in such a mind numbingly, stupidly destructive way and not just to each other. Racism, sexism, discrimination of all types and violence whilst abhorrent don't surprise me, because essentially we are selfish but it is for that very reason, selfishness and self preservation, that means I can't understand the human beings ability to rush full pelt into self destruction. We all know what we're doing to ourselves on a global scale but we do it anyway, simply because we're too fucking lazy and intent on pursuing our own pleasures to change our behaviour. We have set ourselves above every other species on the planet, made ourselves the rulers of the world, all based on our so called superior intellect, yet you don't see any other species destroying itself just because it can't be bothered to do anything about it.

I look at us humans and feel justified in thinking "what the actual fuck?"

The hidden cost of disability

You may not be disabled yourself but you probably know someone who's disabled, even if you don't realise it. Many disabilities are obvious but equally many are not. Some disabilities are physical, some mental. Some don't require frequent treatment, some do. Disability is as varied and diverse as the stars in the sky but they all have one  thing in common - the impact on the people living with them.

Some of the impacts are pretty clear. Having a disability probably means you have to adapt your life in some way. It may mean you need regular medication, it may mean you need adaptations to your physical environment or you may need help from someone to do everyday tasks. Some of the impacts are not so clear. Many people with disabilities become depressed as they try to come to terms with being perceived as different from everyone else and actually being different from how they once were. Many people have difficulty finding work or have to give up their jobs.

We hear stories on the news of people involved in terrible accidents or atrocities that have left them disabled in some way and maybe we think "How would I cope if that were me?" and we shudder and feel relieved that it's not us needing a wheelchair or a guide dog and so on. One thing we don't often think about however is the cost of being disabled, and by cost I DO mean financial cost. It's bad enough to live every day with a disability, for your life to be turned upside down, for everything most people take for granted to be a challenge but to suddenly realise that it actually costs you money to be disabled it quite an eye opener.

There are a lot of wrong assumptions are what you get for free if you're disabled. For example, it is assumed that all disabled people get free prescriptions. In fact, you only get free prescriptions if you have one of a few specific conditions such as diabetes or thyroid disease. The vast majority of long term conditions requiring medication DO NOT qualify for free prescriptions. I have to take 5 different types of drugs every day. Based on current charges that costs £41 a month. Every month. For the rest of my life. That's nothing compared to the amount of medications and treatments some people have to pay for.

It is also assumed that any adaptations you require are paid for by the Government. Again this is not true. Some things are provided but cut backs mean that local councils, who are primarily responsible for making adjustments etc, just don't have the funds to provide people with all that they need. So the cost of anything above and beyond the basics falls to the disabled person.

The thing that really bites financially though are the things that most people wouldn't even think about. Those with difficulty walking have to pay for taxis where most would walk or use public transport and those that rely on a car, have to pay for extra petrol for trips that most people would do on foot. People who have difficulty using their hands have to pay extra to buy ready prepared food because they can't use a peeler or a grater or lift pans. People who have continence issues have to pay for extra washing products. If you are unable to work, you will probably pay extra in fuel costs because you're at home and use more electricity or gas to keep warm and to see. All these little extras add up over the course of the months and years and yet remain a hidden cost.

Now I know what you're thinking "ah but disabled people get benefits for all that stuff". Firstly it's a MAJOR assumption to think that all disabled people get benefit. Some don't need it. Some need it but don't get it because successive Governments have made it increasingly hard to qualify. Many get it but find it doesn't cover the costs involved because contrary to popular belief it isn't a fortune. The Government would have us believe that disabled people are getting money that they don't need which is why they're trying to cut disability benefits by £30 a week. Just think for a second what £30 a week means to you. A takeaway for the family? A night out at the pictures? Some new jeans? But what if £30 a week was the difference between being warm and cold? What if it were the difference between eating and starving? Or the difference between taking medication and not? Life and death......for the sake of £30 a week.

I do not know a single disabled person, myself included, who gets benefit that they do not need. Forget the indignity of having to prove over and over again that you really are disabled to even qualify for benefit. Forget the incomprehensible delays in actually receiving any help. Disabled people need their benefit just to have a semblence of a normal life. To do the things that everyone else takes for granted. And like so many things in modern life, it costs. No one wants to be disabled. No one asks for it and we would give up our benefits a thousand times over to not be disabled. But we can't. So stop and think for a moment when you read in the paper how much it costs the country to care for disabled people and remember the hidden costs for the people who are actually affected. Us.