Monthly Archives: Mar 2024

Autumn Season here – New Zealand

What changeable weather have we experienced this far? It is Autumn season, and it is getting closer to my birthday in early April.

This year, there were plenty of disasters around the world, such as the Gaza-Israel war, the Russia-Ukraine war, the Baltimore Bridge disaster—Maryland, the US, NZ in recession, disability cuts in NZ, increasing poverty and famine, financial recession, many job cuts and the list goes on. The world has gone through more catastrophes this year than in the past years. There are more scammers, con people, fraud, banking and social media than before. There is one for me, but I am not satisfied with one service via Facebook Meta since someone hacked and planted malicious software on my previous Facebook. I did not have any issues for over ten years until recently. Meta is hopeless on social media because no human contacts are on their side. Why should anyone pay to get their Facebook back when any service assists for help by resolving and removing the malicious software on the account? It is grossly unfair for people with disabilities, D/deaf people and other older people with disabilities as they are living low-income daily lives. Why should we or anyone else pay to get their Facebook back when Meta and other contract companies that help people to get their Facebook back are making huge money?? It is grossly unfair for everyone like me who earns very little income!

Our government decided to cut back disability funding for carers and support workers without warning. Unfortunately, these three ministers of the parliament have not consulted with Whaikaha and the disability sectors before deciding on funding. We, people with disabilities and families of disabled members, are really piss-off and massively disappointed that we are unable to get carers/support workers so we can have our own entitled rights to live through lives. We do not have wealth in our finances as we pay the mortgage, bills, food, power, petrol/diesel, and Wi-Fi equal to other community members.

I’m looking through the window this morning, as there was fresh light rain overnight. What can I do next in our daily lives?

The leaves on the many trees on our property are starting to show signs of changing colour from green to brown-yellow, and birds and bloody rabbits are seeking food before Winter kicks in.

Last week, I woke up to find fog in the early morning before starting to work.

“I hope I can be the autumn leaf that looked at the sky and lived. And when it was time to leave, gracefully, it knew life was a gift.”—Dodinsky.

I am starting to focus on preparing the stories and labelling the names of the people in the photos, but it takes time. I am also waiting for the previous Facebook page to return, so I need to find funding/donations for this project. The major shift is to use emails to contact and research the children of D/deaf parents through Ancestry.com and Family Search. I am grateful to have a couple of Deaf seniors help me with naming the people I do not recognise in the photos, making time to meet other Deaf with poor mobility/limited dementia as soon as possible around Waikato and doing the interviews by collecting stories and photos. Unfortunately, I do not get paid for this! If the lotto brings us luck!

Night came, and it became chilly as we settled for the evening. Today is a good Friday. We were relaxing throughout the day, and there was some sunshine basking down the field, and dogs played around the field. I spent most of the time shifting and copying many photos of the old days onto the desktop.

What do you bring tomorrow, as it will be Saturday? There is more ominous, violent, and sad news worldwide. There is no such happy news to share.

It is time to harvest and store vegetables and fruits from the garden through the winter season. Let’s hope the wet weather stays away so I can safely store all crops in the freezer and pantry before the winter season arrives.

One afternoon, I came home from the Waikato Hospital after assisting/supporting a Deaf older man (ninety-one years old) to find my main Facebook went disabled/suspended for no reason explained by the Meta Team. However, they sent a link regarding community standards. I know these community standards, but why and what are they mentioning if I have done wrong? I am still waiting for a reply from them and still have yet to decide which post or something I may have done against the new Guidelines because they have yet to give me an explanation or example other than a page of Community Standard. I presumed my Facebook was hacked, and I am struggling to work to get to the bottom of the solutions. Update: I knew that someone took the blame on me and told the Meta team that it was me. However, the hacker, not me, breached the community standard rule and lacked empathy and respect. I reported one of the posts to the community standard team that someone posted the post by breaching the rule in the first place. Yes, it was a cunning step plan by the hackers.

For a long time, I read their guidelines and instructions, but in the end, I have been thinking about people with disabilities, D/deaf people who are struggling to understand the English language. The answer is no because it is not a friendly and accessible format to meet all people with disabilities and Deaf people, such as in sign language videos and simple, clear English language. In the end, many people made a new Facebook and started over again.

Accessing the help and support centre on Facebook/Messenger can be a daunting task due to its complicated navigation. Where are the human services behind the Help and Support Centre? Update – someone mentioned the long waiting time frame by one of the people, and this person said there are too many users who need to respond. Oh wow! No wonder most people who had their Facebook hacked wait a very long time to get their Facebook back. Another issue is the high repair price and the need to avoid another hacker in the future.

Recently, one Deaf person said a large number of Deaf people worldwide have their Facebook locked, disabled, or suspended, and they have no understanding of why. There is no explanation or example to show Deaf people where they have done wrong. They received a long page with the whole English language, which could have been more beneficial for them to understand, or they had low literacy and no sign language video format. Imagine Deafblind people struggle with their disabled Facebook page as well.

On Facebook, there are always continuing posts of too many advertised videos and shopping advertised bombs to anyone’s personal Facebook page. Advertising media could be more pleasant and allow us to choose what we would like to see or remove advertising away, but it invades our interests, which we are not interested in on our personal Facebook page. Where are our rights to remove this?

Consider whether Facebook should make themselves more robust and safeguarding or still make no difference for us!

As a deaf community liaison/deaf advocator under the social service for many years, many people with disabilities/deaf, D/deaf people and the provider services staff came to see or emailed me to request assistance, advice and help.

Listening to their requests and delivering the best solution to meet their needs is essential. I always give them the option of problem-solving solutions as much as possible. The more problem-solving solutions worked out well, the fewer solutions made more tackle or find a way to reach out to another agency and change a different process.

It is not an idea to push them around to send them off to another agency if your job role is limited, not in your job role or unable to deliver.

It is best to listen to and understand their problem solutions, troublesome reading letters, and requests for help from the hospital, such as medicines and health issues. Then, make a plan of goals they may wish to increase their confidence on their own, one step at a time.

In the past, I have had several D/deaf individuals and D/deaf with disabilities individuals request funding to gain their independence, such as a mobility van, flashing alarm lights and doorbells or a laptop. Several of them have received a copy letter from one peculiar Deaf person of Auckland and copied it to the Lottery Grants. In return, several D/deaf persons’ application letters for the funding were declined. They visited me with their declined letters, and I read them to explain why their funding application was rejected. I discovered the original copy example letter by the Deaf person of Auckland was incorrect and did not provide more details for the application funding paper. I asked the D/deaf individuals if they would happily reapply the funding applicant by rewriting the information with the correct information to the Board of Funding. Of course, they were desperate to get a laptop or mobility van funding. I helped them and provided my supporting letter for the Funding Applicant Grant. Within three months, they got the funding approved and, much to their delight, could obtain a laptop and mobility van for their course.

Most of the D/deaf people, D/deaf with disabilities people and older people come to see me when they get a strange message or their Facebook issues – note I still have Facebook issues, and it is not an easy task. It is challenging to teach them how to learn from their mistakes and their money scammed out. If there is a support team, we ask them if they resolve the issues by keeping the promise. Anyone trusts or moves forward by letting the bank/police know when dealing with the support team problem-solving matters. Of course, there is a cost of paying or not depending on how much money is involved in returning to normal. Mostly in the end, they can not afford to have their Facebook back which mean lost everything. They continue to make a new Facebook account. I don’t know about my Facebook but who know? The higher price to pay or not depending on the bank and our savings for our future and health. There are many people, even people with disabilities, D/deaf people and D/deaf with disabilities people are struggling with their finances for the home, food on the plate, bills to pay for power, car and petrol and the list so on. The critical financial needs are a roof over you, health and well-being, and a journey to live a longer life.

Scammers, cowboys’ constructions, online shopping, and other activities, and apps such as WhatsApp have stolen millions of people’s lives and finances. I read many stories from many people worldwide about a slight chance of getting their finances back or not. I still need to find out about my chance of getting Facebook back with the community groups. So, a promise or not?

What about a Separate Relationship agreement through the Lawyer when a couple goes through a separate/divorce stage by selling the house and contents? That is a very hard one for most people with disabilities and D/deaf with disabilities, even D/deaf people too. I have been working with a couple of people for over a year, and one person finalised the paperwork, but her life was not an easy option for her future with the children because of less finances in return from her ex-partner. The second person is waiting for confirmation of the acceptance to pay the ex-partner of the price to pay. However, the second person does not have enough finances to live a long life in the future and needs a friendly, accessible home where the ex-partner has a new partner, paying the rent without problem. A promise or not? My partner’s previous past went through, but in the end, he chose to do something foolish so that his ex-wife would not get any more financial support from him again a very long time ago.

There are many other types of going through relationships, living together, trusting each other, family and friends, and the list goes on. One or two worst are the Government and the Law and Policy Makers. Everyone does not have faith in them – for example, Putin, Donald Trump, Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigerian, Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan, Hamza Abdi Barre of Somalia, and the ideologies of the countries, finances, and creating nuclear wars and ongoing wars until they decide when to end. Everyone in the world is getting frustrated and tired of the ongoing wars that wreak people’s lives, making them go into poverty, malnutrition and, of course, no medical supplies. Where are there promises for these people suffering and struggling in war countries?