Frontrunners

Week 12

2005-11-27T21:00:00.000-08:00

We had Paal Richard Petersen from Norway coming here to talk about S, M, L or XL in the Deaf community. Paal gave a short questionnaire to Norwegian people to answer. He can be able to measure how involved are Deaf people in the Deaf community, thus using S, M, L or XL. Part of his research, he also focused on which political parties did Deaf people vote. He showed us the results, in which Deaf people differ from the national average voters.

The potential reasons for that would be a lack of access to the information (subtitles) and Norwegian as their second language. We found his lecture very interesting.

Here is an extracted from Ole’s lecture on the use of sign language within Frontrunners from Week 12 report –

We were shown a Danish documentary on languages. The programme explains that there are about 6,000 known languages both used by national and tribes, better known as minorities. It has been said that in 100 years time, half of those known language will eventually disappear. From a statistic view, one language will disappear once in fortnight (2 weeks/14 days). An hour documentary contained Danish and International sign language.

It prompted us to think about the national sign languages, were these recognized officially by the governments? We are sure that a lot of countries’ sign languages were not recognized or known to be part of those 6,000 languages mentioned in the documentary.

Relating to the documentary, we focused on sign language naturally. Ole discussed with us about the Frontrunners’ use of sign language. Where did we obtain some signs from? How ASL was influenced and the lip movements of the English language were used. We were split into 3 groups; we obtained the theory of SWOT from Asger Bergmann in the Week 2 to determine the current situation of the national and international sign language.

It had been agreed that we all influenced each other with some international and national signs. We also agreed that in the first 2 weeks we did not understand each other clearly, as time goes by, we picked up each individual’s strengths in sign language and used each other signs.

We discussed about the strength of the sign language and the threats being cochlear implants refusing to include sign language in the CI programme.

Photos - http://www.mpi.nl/world/SignLang/WEB-FINAL/startpage-new.htm and http://www.deafgifts.com/onlinestore/detail.cfm?ID=SH103&storeid=1

Frontrunners Party at Copenhagen

2005-11-20T21:01:00.000-08:00

The Frontrunners Party weekend in Copenhagen begin with a trip to Tivoli. About 15 Deaf gathered together for dinner in pizzeria with couple of boozes. We then walked to Tivoli, Christmas Special which was opened on November 15th. Iva had just missed the opportunity while she was in Copenhagen a few weeks ago.

I have to say that Tivoli had captured my eyes very much with fantastic Christmas decorations and lights. I do feel for Iva which I would love to have by my side scrolling around the place. Instead, to live things up, Christo from Germany and I drank Danish warm rum that got me dizzy a bit!

I filmed the trip; it was a good shooting because the lighting in the night was awesome. We then met up with Mette Sommer who was a lecturer in Frontrunners project, and went to pub. We met Danish Deafies. I was too tired to continue, because I got some responsibilities for the following day in the Deaf Club.

We were staying in the same hostel we stayed a few weeks ago, which is 5 star, great firm beds. I was put in a room of 8 with two Belgian girls, one is an interpreter. On Saturday, Minna and I walked together to the Deaf club and prepared for the workshop. I took an opportunity to be the “speaker” at the whole day. The members of Frontrunners team led the workshops, while they are doing it, Katrina took 10 people, one by one, to be filmed by me. The question was given to them was “What does Deaf Awareness mean?” I decided to make that film because, earlier, Ole showed us a tape about Danish Deaf people’s responds on the same question in 1982. I wanted to see if there are some differences.

I am hoping to upload the clips to the website shortly.

The workshop ended successfully with heated debates on two topics (from workshops). We all went to Thai restaurant, just round the corner of the Deaf Club. We returned to the Frontrunners Party with Happy Hour (in fact, it is for half an hour) at 9pm. Many of us grabbed plenty of ammo to last us for the night.

We chatted and drank all night until 3am. It was the end of the Frontrunners Party. It was a great weekend. On Sunday, Lars Knudsen, a well-known presenter for the Deaf TV in Denmark invited Minna and I to stay at his place for most of the day to relax before meeting up with Filip to go back to Castberggaard at 8pm. While I was there, I took an opportunity to watch BBC Prime on TV with English subtitles. It has been ages since I saw English text on a TV screen. The last time was in the 3rd week of June. I watched Eastenders for an hour and half. So many stories had changed. It made me think about Wolverhampton and the British lifestyle!!

It won’t be a long until I see Iva and visit my family in the UK soon. Times sure flew fast. Back to Castberggaard for another week!

Week 11

2005-11-20T21:00:00.000-08:00

Week 11 is the busiest during my stay in Denmark. We had 2 lecturers coming in to talk about 2 important topics. Joe Murray, an American living in Norway came to talk about his PhD research on intermarriages (Deaf marry Deaf). In fact the Deaf community as minority has one of the highest intermarriages, with about 90%.

Joe explained about the history of American Deaf intermarriages, starting with Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone. He was a strong believer of putting Deaf and hearing people together rather than letting them to marry each other. It was thought that Deaf intermarriages will lead into having Deaf children, thus the growth of “problems” for the society.

Dr. Bell addressed many issues which many great Deaf leaders would turn in their graves. Much Americans intermarriage started to collecting data to show that many of those had hearing children, with a small percentage being Deaf.

It was an exciting to hear Joe’s research on Dr. Bell with his first pupil, and how his intermarriage affected Dr. Bell’s mind about his comments on intermarriages. I afraid I could not tell more, because the topic is an on-going PhD research for Joe Murray who expects to complete the dissertation in early 2006.

Another lecturer was Tomato Lichy, a well-known Deaf activist back home in England. He talked about protests in different ways. He even brought his partner, Paula with lovely 10-month old Molly.

His lecture is very familiar to me because I recall the protests and I was involved in some. Tomato explained that it is vital that during a protest, we should NEVER TOUCH anyone. With that rule, the police will have a weak reason for arresting us. He also mentioned that stealing is forbidden, again it is one of the reason police are looking for to arrest people.

We felt that we learnt a lot this week, to know about intermarriages which are popular amongst Deaf and where we stand while protesting.

Week 10

2005-11-13T21:00:00.000-08:00

We had Patrik Nordell from Sweden coming here to talk about Deafism. At his lecture, we learned many new scientific words. Here is an extracted of his lecture written by myself for the Week 10 in the Weekly Report.

Firstly, he showed a diagram below –

The table starts from the bottom to top. We, at the moment, are on Deaf & Deafism.

Many doctors and the society think logically and forget about human. (Kierkegaard). He also developed the theory of Existentialism.

Nietische said “why should we listen to science?”

Foucault wrote about gay and minorities discrimination, many Deaf-related philosophers’ (Ladd, Haualand and Lane) theories came the closest with his theories.

The theory of Post structuralism is linked with Ladd and Haualand’s type, the theories are based on a group which influences each other instead of individual measurements.

Comte’s theory on the list of importance (from top to bottom)
1. Mathematics
2. Astronomy
3. Physics
4. Chemistry
5. Biology
6. Sociology

Looking at the list, Deaf/Deafism can be found in Sociology as a minority. Biology is where the unworkable ear is concerned. Therefore doctors automatically put it on the “priority” list of deafness.

Deaf people would never win in a battle against hearing society if we still follow Comte’s theory.

Patrik gave us a task –

Empiricism

We are to think of questions which a group of hearing would ask a Deaf person. We are to think of questions which a group of DEAF would ask another Deaf person. See below.

It is obviously that a group of hearing would ask those kind of questions in which Deaf people would think differently.

Positivism relates with data strongly. Patrik explained an example with a hammer from the hardware store. One person is expert on carpentry and the other is not. The expert would take the hammer and feel the weight. The other would pick the lightest one and probably the cheapest.

The expert DOES not need data, but the other do. Therefore it is the same with Deafism with so-called hearing experts on deafness. Deaf people do not require data because they knows, hearing do need data to understand deafness/Deafism.

Deaf philosophers start from the Ready-to-head and work their way to Present-to-head. They do research on deafness and what is required to support them. Those so-called philosophers for the Deaf ignore Indirectly communication and Language directly, jumping to Logistics in which they focused on the unworkable ear. (Cochlear Implants) This had lead to much confusion and misunderstanding within the Deaf community and the hearing society especially governments.

Audism was first used by Tom Humphries in 1975. It links with a discrimination of sign language and visual communication. Sometimes there is audism within Deaf people themselves who do not have enough belief.

To summarize his lecture, he asked us what are important within Deafism. We replied, with the diagram below –

The arrows shows how each can be achieved through. For example, Deaf Studies can be used to raise Deaf Awareness, thus reducing Audism. From the diagram, we see Deaf Community as a major role in advocating Deafism.

Deaf in the UK

Mette Sommer is a Sociology student in Denmark; she attended the Centre of Deaf Studies at University of Bristol for 6 months. She learnt a lot from Deaf in the United Kingdom.

She talked about the culture difference between Denmark and the UK. The UK tend to have a strong oral environment, they do use sign language, but with many lip reading and movements unlike some countries. Mette also commented on the way Deaf British dress, she thought they wore sexy outfits; it is a possible that an oral education may have influenced them to wear what “normal” (hearing) people wear.

She explained about the modules available at the Centre of Deaf Studies in the MSc course.

Mandatory Units
DEAFM1001 Deaf Studies in Perspective, DEAFM1003 Sign Linguistics, DEAFM1004 Research Methods in the Study of Deaf People, DEAFM1005 Deaf History and Deafhood, DEAFM1007 British Sign Language for Postgraduates

Optional Units
DEAFM2001 Assessment of Deaf Children in Educational Settings, DEAFM2003 Advances in Deaf Studies, DEAFM2004 Health and Mental Health in the Deaf Community, DEAFM2006 Multilingual Environment of the Deaf Schoolchild, DEAFM2007 Social Issues in the Deaf Community in Contact with Hearing Society, DEAFM2008 Deaf Culture and Deafhood, DEAFM2009 Sociolinguistics of Signed Languages, DEAFM2011 BSL Literature and Performance

University of Bristol has more modules for those who are interested in studying in BSc or Interpreting course.

Furthermore, she showed a video which was produced many years ago, to show that Sign Language is an important part of our life rather than oral. Dr. Paddy Ladd was the actor with Douglas Alker as the magician. Alker is the currently the Chairman of the Sign Community, better known as the British Deaf Association.

We learnt how British Deaf people live their life and how they advocated for their rights long time ago.

Week 9

2005-11-06T21:00:00.000-08:00

Markku Jokinen’s scheduled lecture on Genocide, a very much talked topic amongst Frontrunners, has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. Instead we were handed a task to create a week plan to teach a topic. In my group were Christophe and Ronan. We decided to teach Deaf associations about the potential of a “Business Plan within the Deaf Association”. We explained the business’ progress and how to get profits. Using examples from our countries (selling books, tee shirts bags etc.) we showed a list of percentage profits. We showed some potential items which can be bought at the cheapest possible price and re-sell with a profitable cost.

To see the documents of the weekly plan, please take a look at the www.frontblog.dk in Weekly Report, Week 9.

Week 8

2005-10-30T21:00:00.000-08:00

We went on an excursion trip to Copenhagen. Three members of Frontrunners’ Family (Stine – Filip’s other half, Jojo – Jerome’s other half and Iva – my other half) joined us for a week of exciting programme.

We visited uncounted associations/organizations and events. I got the task as a cameraman for the whole week. I enjoyed the trip and learnt a lot about each organizations and their goals and threats.

We also took many opportunities to explore the city of Copenhagen, Iva and I went to visit the famous mermaid sitting and overlooking the city. Near to the mermaid, we paid tribute to Sir. Winston Spencer Churchill’s statue where is on the Churchillian Park. There is also a memorial tree which was planted last year to commerate the 60th anniversary of the Second World War.

We also visited Guinness World of Records and one spooky place which test our endurance! I would like to say thanks to Iva for being with me at that week. It was a good fun!

Week 7

2005-10-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

For me, Week 7 is probably the excited one because we had Peter Niemalä who talked about The Highway to Deaf Communities, mainly on Deaf History. The other one is Deaftopia, a video production task. Being a graduate of Digital Media and Photography, and Deaf History being my hobby, I took a big interest in seeing the presentation and doing the video production task.

Peter explained the core of Deaf identity, better as “Deaf World” often defined by the strong Deaf community. Focusing on Deaf sports, he talked about Copenhagen Deaf Football Club being the 3rd biggest Deaf sport organization in the world in 1876 after Ohio School for the Deaf’s Baseball and Rugby team in 1870 and Glasgow Deaf and Dumb Football Club in 1871.

He also collects photographs of Deaf graves which contain Deaf symbolic logos, for example, Antoine Dresse, the late Secretary General of the CISS. His grave has the CISS logo on it, along with Belgian Deaf organizations. John Lovett has a newly Deaflympics logo on his grave. That logo was released publicly just before his death.

Linking up with Deaflympics topic, he briefly talked of some interesting facts about athletes.

He showed us his hobby, collecting Deaf-related stamps. He currently had about 105 stamps, all with Deaf related, events, disabled event but with Deaf issue on the stamp, Deaf portrait, (in fact there is only one Deaf portrait – Terence Parkin, a swimmer from South Africa). He included ONE sample each of the most famous Deaf people (to us, deafened people) like Beethoven and Goya. In my note, Sir Winston Spencer Churchill, the Great Briton, was deafened in his very late age and wore hearing aids during debates in the House of Parliament. It is mentioned that he sometimes turned his hearing aids and dozed off. He was noticed by the whole politicians, but continued without the Prime Minister because after all, he won the war which got million of people’s respects. (Peter, if you are reading that, you may need to get a sample copy of the stamp of the great man himself to go with your collection).

Finally, Peter showed old films, which showed Edward Miner Gallaudet and George Veditz, with his famous signing quote – “As long we have deaf people on earth, we will have signs,… the noblest gift God has given to deaf people.” (1913).

Three cheers must go to Peter for his presentation on Deaf History to us, the youths!

Deaftopia

Vivien gave us a task of creating a commercial film which reflects Deaf as the majority and hearing as the minority (as opposed in the current situation). We had been given 16 hours to complete the task. We were divided in two groups. In my group, I had Thomas, Amanda, Sigrid, Jerome and Ronan. What a debate it was! We tried to agree on the ideal story to progress with the video production. Eventually we agreed to do the “Bionic Hand Implant” which is totally opposed as cochlear implant. I filmed, cut and directed the whole process. I found it enjoyable with actors, who contributed with additional ideas and placements.

After cutting, we decided to add subtitles which were in English. I thought the film is a BIG success, it is just BRILLIANT, considering we had 16 hours to do that. The film is more of a political side, oh; it would bring lots of debates amongst politicians if it was shown to them…

We watched the other group, “Silencexyl” it is really funny, and I would have to say it is brilliant! It is a good commercial amongst Deaf people who tend to make fun of their “disability”. The film does persuade people to look us as ethnic minority, and to protect our identity.

Both films have a big impact and will work on both Deaf and hearing audiences.

Week 6

2005-10-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

Hilde Haualand hauled from Norway, she is an anthropology, who studies human beings, the better and clearer definition would be “the comparative study of culture and society. She focused on Deaf society, being Deaf herself. She, along with two fellow hearing students wrote a dissertation on “Rome – a Temporary Deaf City! Deaflympics 2001” in 2002 as part of their Social Studies. In there she described the life of Deaf people during the infamous Deaflympic Games event. She researched that Culture happen between people, so many Deaf people influences each other. A Deaf space established by traveling and building a Deaf city, they take over the place, hearing people get a grasp of gestures and the use of pen and paper. Deaf people also expect the increased service level.

It is many Deaf people’s dream to live in the city full of Deaf people, just like any big Deaf event, but instead of a short term, forever.

It prompted me to think about the set up of a new “Deaf Town”, (or better, Sign Langauge town), in America. Laurent, South Dakota, the town is called, will be opened very soon and many people will be able to achieve their dream to remove the “Temporary” from the “a Temporary Deaf City”.

Still, Hilde has opened the door for us to realize the importance of Deaf Culture and the “Deaf space”.

Photo of Hilde - www.dagbladet.no/dinside/ 2002/11/03/352927.html

Swedish Deaf History Seminar

2005-10-09T21:00:00.000-07:00

The day after Dr. Yerker Andersson’s visit to us, I rushed to Kastrup Airport (Copenhagen) to fly to Stockholm to attend the Swedish Deaf History Seminar in Manilla School for the Deaf where Yerker attended in his youths.

Stockholm is a city full of historical buildings with fantastic history. I walked to the youth hostel where Tomas Hedberg, the Swedish Deaf History Society President advised me to go. I went in the reception, and asked for a bed for two nights. I received a room pass (high-tech card) and asked the receptionist where is the room, in which I was answered, (by lip-reading) “On the ship”.

I went out and in front of the hostel building, by the river bank, lay a good sized ship with beautiful design. I then went on the ship and used my card to open the door. Inside the ship, it looked exactly the SAME as any ordinary ships. I went in my room (or shall I say, CABIN), which contains 4 bunk beds. I really felt I am on ship ready for a journey round the world!

The shower and toilets are fantastic; it is REALLY like a true ship! For 20 Euros per night, I am extremely pleased with what I have. I took a few hours to get a sneak preview of the Old Town which is nice and warming.

The real reason for me to be in Stockholm began on Saturday morning, the Swedish Deaf History Seminar. Using a free map from the Information centre to navigate myself to the Manilla School for the Deaf, approx. 5 km, it took me a good 40 minutes walk. I walked through an island full of green and trees; I enjoyed that environment since it is similar to traditional English countryside.

Eventually I found my way to the Manilla School for the Deaf, a true historical building. I was greeted by the Secretary and the President of the Swedish Deaf History Society. The seminar contains three key speakers (one speaking in English, one signs in Swedish Sign language and last one as American Sign Language).

First up on the stage in front of a good turnover of 55ish people, all but two, were Swedish, was Douglas Bahl from Minnesota, USA. He talked about the life of Olaf Hansson, a Swedish-born who moved to Minnesota and became an architect. He became deafened just before teenage on one ear through a cold weather, without a warm hat. He then became completely deaf, according to his diary; there was a strong draught in his room which caused it.

Shortly after the death of the father of Olaf, the family moved to Minnesota. Olaf grew up learning to become one of the finest architects. He designed over 100 buildings which were built. Many of those buildings were Deaf schools, Deaf clubs. He also designed many private homes and churches.

Only four of his buildings are currently on the historical landmark (meaning it could not be demolished, only to preserve). There are two more important building which Douglas is still fighting to become a historical landmark. The first one is Dawes House (one of the building in Gallaudet University, it used to be a boys’ dormitory). All the buildings in the Gallaudet University were designed by hearing people. The second one is a Norwegian church in USA, which is so beautiful, but the church refused to help and make the building a historical landmark, because the church is “humble” it is for everyone to attend and pray, not for “fame”.

Myself and Doug’s partner, Sue, sat together to look at the American Sign Language interpreter. Indeed I know International Sign, but it has a bit strong influence from the ASL so I could understand it.

The second speaker, who spoke in English, is Tiina Naukkarinen, a Deaf Museum project worker from the Finnish Deaf Association. She talked about Carl Oscar Malm, the Finnish-born man who moved to Stockholm to establish a Deaf school – Manilla School for the Deaf.

She also talked of Malm’s pupils and associates until his death. Both presenters showed many old images on Powerpoint which the audience enjoyed looking at.

Lastly, the President of Swedish Deaf History Society, Tomas Hedberg, talked about the history of Manilla School for the Deaf, dating back to its establishing in 1809. We then were given a guided tour around the school which was enjoyable.

After the tour, the Swedish Deaf History Society held an AGM, and all five members of the Board are to continue, with Tomas Hedberg still on the President role. One of the news that they have completed the printing of the Deaf History International (DHI) Conference 2009 in Stockholm poster ready to be put on display in DHI Conference in Berlin, 2006.

Prior to the end of the day, Tomas showed Doug, Tiina and I the sport gym building which is separated from the school, it is the only building in the area to be recognized as a historical landmark! The school building looked so much better and older than that sport hall!

On the evening, we went to Stockholm Deaf Club with Thai food waiting for us. The meal was good and we were given an opportunity to use pen and paper and walk around the building reading questions on the walls about Deaf History. There were 12 questions in Swedish language, but I had Tomas helping translating it. Umm… out of the 12 questions, I only got 4 correct. I should have known two more, and the other 6 are Swedish related. The winner of 8 answers received a box of chocolate.

On Sunday, we met up in one of the Stockholm’s graveyard for a tour. There were 21 famous Deaf people buried, with many others less famous. We were shown to the important ones. I took photographs of every grave; all of those are different style. We spotted the great Alfred Nobel’s, who introduced the Nobel Prize, grave.

It was an end of the Deaf History Seminar, I truly enjoyed it throughout, and Stockholm has won the bid to host the DHI Conference in 2009, to celebrate Manilla School for the Deaf’s 200th Year Anniversary. I plan to go there, and will book the accommodation on the ship!

Week 5

2005-10-09T20:59:00.000-07:00

This week we had a visit from Dr. Yerker Andersson, then President of the World Federation of the Deaf (1983-1995) He was in the WFD Board from 1975 until his retirement from the President post totaling 20 years of service. He was born in Vallentuna, Sweden in 1929. He was a former pupil of the Manilla School for the Deaf in Stockholm from 1937 to 1945. He then left for Gallaudet University in which he studied Sociology.

He talked about how WFD has changed through time and the partnership with other international disability organizations.

A short facts about the World Federation of the Deaf

WFD was founded in 1951 by Italian, Cesare Magaretto

Orders of the past Presidents –

V. Ieralla (Italian) 1951-1955
Drago Vukotic (Yugoslavian) 1955-1983
Yerker Andersson (Swedish/American) 1983-1995
Liisa Kauppinen (Finnish) 1995-2003
Markku Jokinen (Finnish) 2003-present

Unfortunately, there is no more detailed information than the information above. The History of the WFD book, written by Jack Gannon (Deaf President Now!), was scheduled to be published in 1995, but with numerous of delays, it is being chased up and hopefully the historic book of the World Federation of the Deaf will be published in time for the WFD Congress in Madrid, Spain in July 16th 2007, on my 25th birthday. It would be a nice birthday present, but if anyone plans to purchase one for me, please constant me first, because I do not want 10 copies for my birthday!!

Finnish Association of the Deaf’s 100 Year Anniversary

2005-10-02T21:00:00.000-07:00

On the same time of the World Federation of the Deaf Congress on Human Rights taking place in Helsinki, Finland on 30th September and 1st October 2005, the Finnish Deaf Association (FAD) invited all participants to celebrate their 100th year anniversary.

The currently President of the FAD, Markku Jokinen, (who is the President of WFD as well) and Vice-President, Liisa Kauppinen invited all of us to the City Hall reception with the Mayor of Finland in presence on Friday 30th September in the evening. She praised the FAD for passing the 100th year mark and was given the new published book on Finnish Deaf History from Markku Jokinen. In the reception, a beautifully served buffets and drinks, which we enjoyed enormously.

On Saturday after the ending of the Congress, we were also invited to join with other 1,000 Finnish Deaf people marching to the Parliament House. The reason of the march is to gain more interpreting services. The Prime Minister of Finland addressed in front of us as well with other political leaders, giving their support to the Finnish Deaf people’s needs. The march was successful with a great sunny weather, but once we were standing for a long period of time, we were getting colder!! Helga Stevens, President of the European Union of the Deaf (EUD), as well a Member of Flemish Parliament (MP) in Belgium was invited to address on the importance of the Deaf people’s needs and the partnership between European countries and the EUD.

THE FINNISH MUSEUM OF THE DEAF

The FAD was founded in 1905, 100 years ago. In 1907, the museum has been established by number of donations from Fritz and Maria Hirn, who were students of Carl Oscar Malm, the founder of Deaf education in Finland. The collection grew with the first exhibition being Carl Oscar Malm’s museum room opened to the public in 1915. Now the special museum is owned by the FAD. The objective of the museum is to collect, research, exhibiting the cultural heritage of Deaf and sign language users in Finland. The aim is to increase knowledge of the history and culture of Deaf and sign language users to help Deaf people to find their identity.

The museum is for both the public and researchers so that they know the only place to visit regarding Deaf issues. It will only show the permanent exhibition of Carl Oscar Malm’s room but other part of exhibit will be changed from time to time to attract more public. Many researchers or artists can donate their exhibition to the museum at any time.

The museum is a proud owner of a collection of Deaf issues, since the 18th Century.

At the moment, the museum is hosting the Centenary Exhibition of the Finnish Association of the Deaf, titling “From Deaf-Mutes to Sign Language Users”. This exhibition is to show how time has changed the society’s attitude towards Deaf people. Deaf people were labelled as “Deaf-Mutes” 100 years ago. Now the FAD is calling us “Sign Language Users”. It doesn’t matter who is more deafer than other, as long the access are for “Sign Language Users”.

It is not all, the Finnish Museum of the Deaf also produced three leaflets, one is the Centenary Exhibition of the Finnish Association of the Deaf, secondly, The Finnish Museum of the Deaf and lastly, about Carl Oscar Malm, the founder of Deaf education in Finland. The leaflets are in colour and covered in three languages – Finnish, Swedish and English. They also made a poster focusing on the Centenary Exhibition of the Finnish Association of the Deaf.

FINNISH SIGN LANGUAGE HISTORY

The FAD and the Finnish Museum of the Deaf put together and published the new book on “Finnish Sign Language History”. This is the very first time that a book on Deaf History being published in Finland. The 560 pages, cost 55 Euros, is in Finnish language, but with about 15 pages of summaries in both Swedish and English.

Week 4 - Helsinki, Finland

2005-10-02T20:59:00.000-07:00

We attended the WDF Congress on Human Rights. It is my first time witnessing any WFD event. To me it is similar to Deaf History Conference, Clin d Oeal Festival in Reims. We were there to watch key speakers (should I say speakers? Or SIGNERS??) about Deaf issues relating to Human Rights.

We also brought our Frontrunners Campaign, against Genocide. I understand the terms of the meaning of the word – “GENOCIDE” it means the elimination of a minority. The Holocaust and Rwanda massacre are examples. Our message to the public that doctors could play with us as “an experiment” with an aim to eliminate Deafness. What they did not aware of, we do have culture, and we are classified as a minority (but not yet approved officially).

Our message – “The Genocide Game, An Universal Playing Game for Doctors”, it tells that we DO FEEL that it is a genocide against our minority. Some hearing people may be offended by the message, but what the hell, as long it hits them where it hurts knowing that Deaf people DO feel victimized by the hearing majority society. I hope it would give a positive attitude from doctors to realize that Deaf people DO HAVE a culture, language and history. I am not against Cochlear Implants (better known as CI); I will ONLY ACCEPT it as AN OPTION. (Doctors will say CI is an option, but they do really put a pressure on parents saying “your child will have an opportunity to hear birds singing!” Oh please!) Since when the doctors advise the parents of deaf child to learn sign language or go to Deaf association to seek further advices? Huh!

As you can see the design, (Designed by me, idea created by the Frontrunners team) a bowling ball being attacked at Deaf organization (pins). It is only a matter of time…

At the Congress, we watched speakers/signers presenting their papers. I felt that Thorsten Afflerbach is the only one who had an impact on me because he EXPLAINS HOW we (as Deaf) could find ways to achieve our goals. He also tells us of many options and recent researches could help us. Finally we got one person explaining how to PROGRESS… The rest of people often talked of theories, working together and staying positive…

To see more summaries of each papers, go to Week 4 Report at http://www.frontblog.dk/Weekly%20Reports/Week%204%20Helsinki/Week%204.pdf by our lovely Sarah Houge of Minnesota, USA.

Week 4 - Tallin, Estonia

2005-09-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

Most of the group opted to take an opportunity to visit Tallinn, Estonia which is 1 hour and half boat journey from Helsinki, Finland. The weather was excellent on the day of depart. Tallinn is a city of “two towns”, one is the modern town and the other one is the old town. We spent most of the time in the old town.

At first, I thought Tallinn ought to be cheapie, but I was wrong to think that… It is slightly expensive… To compare Tallinn with Prague, the city is similar in building structure but Prague is bigger, better and cheaper!

I took some photographs on building structure and to get the photographic feel back to me since I had no free time to play with my camera skills since graduated from the University of Wolverhampton on the same subject with Digital Media in 2004!

I do feel relaxed walking around Tallinn, mostly, with men – Ronan, Filip and Jerome. We even visited the oldest pub in Estonia – Guess when it was opened? Ahem… 1993… Well, we know that Estonia was divided from Russia by that time… The beer in there is good, but not the best.

There were many antique shops in which my parents would love to visit. Some antiques focused on the Second World War leader figures. There were many of old war items, medals, guns, knives, models etc of Adolf Hitler and Lenin and their parties (Nazi and Communist). I asked the shop assistant in writing, whether they had anything related to the late great Sir. Winston S. Churchill. Obviously I received a no-no nod from the assistant. Who would put WSC in the shop full of Nazis and Communism items…

Anyway, it was a good experience to taste a “Russian” country, it is a worth visiting for a day or two.

My Theory Part III

2005-09-24T21:03:00.000-07:00

We were asked to make a “dream team” – in related to organization. I was in a group of four with Jerome, Filip and Sarah. We debated for while about the roles within an organization. We need to consider the requirements of each role to go with the dream team.

As you can see, we created an organization structure.

I have always believed that the financial officer always have the power than any role in an organization because that person can say yes or no depending on the financial situation.
We use low power distance approach (work together more instead of barking orders which is defined as high power distance). As you can see the image, the supervisor/coordinator works with 3 idea creators to develop plans and pass on the details to the financial officer who can give the go ahead. (Who said money isn’t everything!?!) If the financial officer did not give any go ahead, the plan will go back to the creators who will need to modify the plan with the financial officer’s advices regarding funding.

When it is approved, then the supervisor/coordinator goes directly to the General Secretary who then will sort out the paperwork in the background. That role will require giving summaries to 2 Public Relations Officers and Media Officer who then will tell the news to the public through all means of communication.

The idea of “public relations officers” probably came from the “Deaf President Now! Campaign” which there were 4 “Voices” (or Signers) with 7 organizers in the background doing all the sweat work. Those 4 “Voices” got all the attention and were remembered for their “big effort” in achieving their goal.

So in the dream team, the idea creators and the public relations officers can be recognized by the community and praised for their hard work which would be acceptable. The Supervisor/coordinator, financial, Secretary and media Officers will get a little attention because they work in the background.

My Theory Part II

2005-09-24T21:02:00.000-07:00

This time, I will define the difference between Deaf and hearing people. It is a short and to-the-point theory, but here it is –

Language
Of course, Deaf people uses sign Language whiles the hearing society use spoken language.

Communication
When a Deaf person meets a hearing person – what is the communication? Not sign or spoken languages. A pen and paper may come in handy. Sometimes, we have an interpreter acting as third person.

Education
Deaf schools always are behind in National Curriculum, so therefore a Deaf child of 12 years old would have a reading skill of 8 or 9 years old. Hearing people are expected to match their skills with the national curriculum’s standard.

Ability to hear
Need I to explain that???

Visualize
My optician said that Deaf people have better skills with their eyes than hearing people. They rely on hearing, while Deaf people could visualize things and explain in “visual” or better known as “gestuno” language in order to make some hearing people understand what they are saying. Some of the signs are related to visualize.

History
We do have our history, dating back to thousand of years when the word “Deaf” first mentioned. The history helps us to understand and develop our identities better. Deaf History has its value.

Experience
Deaf people have experienced much oppression from the hearing society, which hearing never had. Therefore we share similar experiences within the Deaf Community.

Community
We recognize ourselves as a part of Deaf Community, mixing with other sign language users socially, in sports and much more.

My Theory Part I

2005-09-24T21:01:00.000-07:00

The discussion on Deaf Culture had prompted me to think about Hard of Hearing (HoH) people. I have an experience socializing with them through International Federation of Hard of Hearing Young People SummerCamps.

So I have designed an image which looked like a chart. In fact I showed it as two hills, where Deaf people are on the one hill and hearing on the other. The hills represent “normal” life which the hearing society is. Deaf people are on the one hill because they KNOW that they are “normal” enough, so I have put them on the same height as hearing hill. The only problem is – COMMUNICATION. From one hill to another, Deaf people will need to find a way to work with hearing people to BUILD a bridge so that we will receive 100% equal access to everything.

From my experiences with the HoH people, they do have more complicated problems than either Deaf or hearing. So I am putting them on the ground in between two hills. HoH people often could not able to find their identity properly because they are often rejected by BOTH Deaf and hearing societies. For example, Deaf hill can view them as “not Deaf enough” and hearing hill can see them as “Deaf”.

Hard of hearing doesn’t ALWAYS mean that they can hear better than Deaf people or hear a bit less than hearing people. The most common thing that all HoH share – they could speak their native spoken language. The main problem with HoH people, that they could not receive information from a hearing person’s mouth 100%. They also could not 100% understand interpreters or sign language. Back to the pen and paper method? If they do that in the hearing society just to gain 100% communication – the hearing hill will just define them as “deaf mutes/and dumb”.

My thought is that they cannot win. Let’s hope HoH could solve the problem and find their identity OR CREATE a new one for themselves. In fact, how many books/researches have been devoted to the HoH people? Not much…

To conclude, HoH could climb on EITHER side of the hill to show whether they are more into Deaf Community or hearing community. Deaf people should be aware of their situation and offer any help if needed to order to help them finding their identity.

Week 3

2005-09-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

We focused on doing our blogs, updating and finalizing the http://www.frontblog.dk/ website which looked so much better! With some new additional in our Frontrunners team, I had to re-do the front cover design with their body on it.

We had a great two days heavily discussed about Deaf issues and Culture. Indeed it is the hardest theories to accept or understand because there were so many authors claiming that theirs are the best.

However we had come to the conclusion on several Deaf issues –

1. Are we Deaf or Disabled?
2. What is a “Deaf School”
3. Genocide within the Deaf Community
4. How to develop a Deaf Identity? Sense of Belonging?
5. Why Sign Language best/important for Deaf people?

We were spilt in groups of 2 or 3 to discuss each topic. To see the conclusion of each topic see http://www.frontblog.dk/Weekly%20Reports/Week%203/Week%203.pdf.

Before the debating, we were given the brief of the World Federation of the Deaf and it’s objectives and goals in order to prepare ourselves for our trip to the WFD Congress on Human Right in Helsinki, Finland next week (Week 4).

Deaf Day, Gothenburg, Sweden

2005-09-18T21:00:00.000-07:00

Four of the Frontrunners attended the Deaf Day in Gothenburg, Sweden at the weekend of 16th to 18th September. Minna and Ronan traveled to Malmo where their friend pick them up and drive up north. Amanda and I went by train, it was our first experience to travel on train “over the water level” to other country. (In the past, I was on a train UNDER the water level from London Waterloo to Paris).

There were about 20 International visitors attending, with the majority being Englishmen bringing their alcoholic experience to Sweden teaching people how to drink like men.

When we first arrived Gothenburg, Amanda and I were going to check in the hostel when a middle-aged woman pointing her finger at me. She said “Are you French?” I nodded no, she then signed “English” in Czech sign language which made my brain turn upside down, and she was a Czech-born, who married a Swedish man. She recognized me from TKN (Deaf Club Television) in the Czech Republic. (She watched a programme about me through Czech Television’s Archives in the website.)

Anyway, it took me a while to modify my Czech sign language from International Sign!! The first night we went to a bar party, the Swedish beer is ok. I felt that Tuborg (Danish beer) is the best so far.

On Saturday, Deaf Day begin, with exhibitions of Deaf equipments, organizations, groups etc. I met up with a old friend whom I knew from Deaf History Conference in Washington in 2000. Amanda and I did few filming interviewing youths about “What is Deaf Culture?” Interesting, one German replied that CODA (Children of Deaf Adults) – for some of you, it means hearing children of Deaf parents – is part of Deaf Culture. I then asked whether Deaflympics is part of Deaf Culture – again he said yes. I also mentioned that CODA is accepted, but they could not be accepted in Deaflympic Games regarding their ability to hear. Well, he did not thought of it before, that’s the beauty of interviewing while on film, and I can make the interviewee go stuck on some questions hehe!

We witnessed the Clin d'Oeil winner of the Best Picture, created by an American, who married to a Swedish woman, in Sweden. I have seen it in Reims when the very same person received the award for Best Picture. There were some dance performers and Deaf humour shows. I did enjoy my time there, a great experience to see a true Swedish party! (Englishmen still claim that they are the best drinkers, well I probably agree!)

Week 2

2005-09-16T21:00:00.000-07:00

We had lectures from Kasper Bergmann on World Bank, Alda Padeiro on World Federation of the Deaf Youth Section and Asger Bergmann (father of Kasper) on SWOT and Organisation.

It was interesting to note that both Kasper and Alda used PowerPoint for their presentation, of course it is the 21st Century, we assume the technology to influence us with those high-tech presentations. I, an addicted computer user, love that field.

Surely, we learnt a lot on World Bank and several international organisations thru PowerPoint which is 100% clear. We even got handout of that presentation afterwards. Alda Padeiro did the same thing; we understood the lecture and asked many questions to give us 110% knowledge of what they were talking about.

Onto Asger Bergmann, his presentation approach is very different; he did not use high-tech method. He used a “guid auld chalk on blackboard” method. That method made me focus on the lecture more with us copying notes from the blackboard. It was entertaining to see Asger murmuring over what to write on the blackboard, and wiping off any errors. I liked that approach because I believe teachers are just human beings and they do make mistakes just like us. Kasper and Alda did the inputting 100% with little rapport from us.

Whether the high-tech method or the chalk on blackboard method is the best way to teach – I’ll leave you, readers to think it through and comment if you wish!

Here is an extracted summary of Asger Bergmann’s background and his presentation written by me for Week Report (See http://www.frontblog.dk/Weekly%20Reports/Week%202/Week%202.pdf)

Asger Bergmann was born in 1947 in Aalborg to Deaf parents. He grew up with a hearing brother. He attended Gallaudet University for a year in 1975. That was the time when a new world was introduced to him – a Deaf world. He saw many advanced in terms of technology and access to the hearing world. He then brought the knowledge back home and started to campaign for many things for the Deaf people. He is the currently President of Danish Deaf Association (DDL).

ORGANISATION

In his first part of lecture, he explained known organizations’ structures and how those organizations were formed –

Nordic Deaf Council (DNR)

It was formed in 1907 covering Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland. Every 4 year, the DNR holds few days meeting with representatives from each country to discuss the improvements and plans for the future. That way, they could help each other to make Nordic countries a better place for Deaf people.

They had NO constitution just like United Kingdom. Both believes in tradition – they knows how and what to do in order. The DNR had own flag which were passed on to each country who will be hosting the following meeting. In the meetings, the main language is Swedish; it had a strong influence in Nordic countries.

The DNR will celebrate their 100th year anniversary in 2007 in Denmark.

European Union of the Deaf (EUD)

It started in 1985 with the British Deaf Association (BDA) asking the European Union about a section within the EU for Deaf. Since it was possible, the BDA then found funding to invite 15 European countries to the meeting – and to agree the opening of the EUD.

World Federation of the Deaf (WFD)

Founded in 1951. In the WFD’s constitution, International Sign must be used in any congress and other WFD events. But it was American Sign Language (ASL) which had a strong influence on other countries.

STRUCTURE OF ORGANISATION
Asger then explained about two Deaf organizations from Finland and Denmark –

FINLAND
5,000,000 people
KL (Finnish Deaf Association)
120 workers

DENMARK
5,000,000 people
DDL (Danish Deaf Association)
14 workers (rising to 25 due to small projects)

What is the difference? – The number of workers.

The KL used 130 workers to cover ALL categories relating to Deaf Communication in one building.

The DDL is different; they only focus on Empowerment & political work. (14 workers). There are small categories which are not under the control of DDL. But however, the DDL have at least 1 representative in their Board, so that no-one will lose track of what is happening to those small categories.

It had been debated whether is the best method – Finnish or Danish. In a quick conclusion, there are some positives as well negatives in both organization structures. More views on the organization structure are needed from experienced organizers will help to give people a proper conclusion.

Deaf President Now! Campaign (1988) is an example of a great organization skills and teamwork. There were 4 “voices” who signed aggressively to rally many Deaf people to support them. Many of the public thought they did all the work; in fact, there are 7 more people who were the “brains”. They organized the campaign beautifully; it had a heavy impact on Deaf Community – a Deaf President of Gallaudet University.

Following that event, the world was invited to attend the Deaf Way I (1989) in Gallaudet University. Many countries opened their eyes at Americans and began to realize that it is important to fight for Deaf Rights. It had been said that Deaf Way II (2002) is less impacting than the first one for older people. Young people treat Deaf Way II as a “normal” event. It is understandable for youths to feel like that since there are lots of services, access for them while they are growing up, forgetting about older people who fought their way across the government for access etc.

SWOT

SWOT contains 4 categories which are important for organisation skills and development.

Strength
Weakness
Opportunity
Threat

The goals of SWOT are –

To get rid of Threat
Reduce Weakness
Improve Strength

The best way to start is to look for any positives from either Strength or Opportunity and use those positives to get rid of negatives in Weakness or Threat. The Opportunity section is very useful to get rid of both Weakness and Threat.

Any organization will need to do SWOT which will give the team the clear picture of what the organization’s goals will be. It also will help to solve many weakness and threats.

Ending the lecture, Asger asked us to do homework –

“DEAF PEOPLE IN THE WORLD 2020”

Vision (Future dreams, feelings, wishes and knowledge)
Goal (Priorities)
Strategies (How to reach the goal)

Using SWOT will help us to find the goal and best strategies to achieve the best possible world for Deaf people in 2020.

Week 1

2005-09-09T21:00:00.000-07:00

On our first week, we had Allan Thesbjerg, a technician at Castberggård teaching us how to use the camcorder, transferring the tape to the computer using 1394 port (Firewire). He helped the group who had no experience in that field to do their personal profile in International Sign. Their “Introduction to the Frontrunners” programme was signed in their home country’s sign language.

While the group are doing their filming, Thomas Philip, a native Danish, from Copenhagen and I talked about the http://www.frontblog.dk/ layout design, he did the html format while I did the background, mug shots and converting some files into .pdf format.

Allan also taught us how to edit by using Microsoft Movie Maker which is available to find in any computer. I knew how to edit, but I also helped out with editing on some clips.

The website is not yet completed, but it would take us a week or two to finally complete it with clearer pathways to other pages. Watch this space!

Kayaking Time!

2005-09-04T21:00:00.000-07:00

On the weekend at Castberggård, we drove to the sea front and tried a new sport – kayaking. It is similar to canoeing but more difficult to balance. We went on kayaking by the coast for approx. 3km to the lighthouse where we stopped for a lunch and getting to know each other more. There was a sense of a great group gathering and excited to work together for the next 3 and half months.

Of course, we all expect someone to slip up and fall into the water and that had happened to that Irishman – Ronan. He tried to unbalance Filip’s kayak trying to get him to fall, but it was the other way round. He learnt his lesson!!

Prior to the lunch break, Ronan wanted to bet that he could take a fag out and light it while on the kayak (the cigarette pack is in the waterproofed box in front of the kayak – which is a bit out reaching), Filip and Ronan agreed to bet on one bottle of beer. He slipped and fell into the water! But he was determined that he could do it again. With another beer at stake, Ronan finally achieved the goal! He was jumping with Ole arriving on time to see his weird side!!

We learnt that Ronan is a clumsy boy ever since he was a kid, always trying daredevil things!! But still I admire his bravery and his thickness on his skin when he cocks things up.

On the way back to Castberggård, the men (Filip, Ronan and I) were asked to put back all kayaking back on the trailer and to ensure all the kayaking were tied properly because earlier the day, one of the kayaks fell over from the trailer in the middle of the road – luckily there were no cars around! Ironically, at the very moment, that kayak fell over, we were chatting about Final Destination 2 (with the tree trunk falling over from the truck!!) We kept our mouth shut right after that incident!

Kayaking was indeed a great way to start the group’s gathering with all mixed emotions happening all day!

Welcome to Frontrunners Blog!!

2005-09-01T21:00:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

Welcome!

Some of you may know that I am in Denmark as from September 1st until December 15th to take part of the fantastic programme called FRONTRUNNERS.

Frontrunners is an international leadership project which 12 Deaf youths from all over the world meeting together in Castberggaard Folk High School in Vejle. (The school was named after Peter A. Castberg, the founder of the first Deaf school in Copenhagen in 1807).

In the programme, we will be learning about Deaf Cultures, Identity, History along with organisation skills and structure. We will be able to develop our knowledge in both organisation and management skills. It is a good programme for my CV.

We will be taught by some famous international Deaf leaders from all over the world about their specific areas in depth.

We will not only stay in Castberggård, we will be travelling to Deaf related events - either social or study all over the Europe. Trips various including Helsinki, Finland for WFD Congress on Human Rights, Gotheborg, Sweden for Deaf Day, Copenhagen for various of Deaf issues etc.

I will be posting my news online when I have time. I will be telling about events where I attended and what I have learnt.

Enjoy the Blog!

Gordon