We see, we hear, we stand, we voice. But is that what makes us human?
We do not yet know what a body can do.
Contention I: Ablenationalist Imaginaries
Listen to The Newspaper “National Yemen’s” view of the status quo in 2011.
National Yemen 2011 [“Yemeni’s Handicapped By Poor Care, War Lack Aid,” National Yemen, January, 2011, JP Miller]
How should we respond?
USAID is framing assistance to Disabled Organizations (DPOs) through a medical model—This stigmatizes the disabled as deviant bodies in need of a Cure
Albert 2004 [“Is disability really on the development agenda? A review of official disability policies of the major governmental and international development agencies,” Bill Albert, September 2004 Produced Produced for the Disability Knowledge and Research programme, JP Miller]
USAID’s Medical-Humanitarian frame is demonstrated by this policy-maker’s description of The Yemen Association of Landmine Survivors
Freeman 2010 [Laurie, Foreign Affairs Officer for State Dept “Yemen: U.S. Effort Helps Landmine Survivors Realize a Better Tomorrow,” March, 2010 blog.state.gov, JP Miller]
Assistance and Media interact to frame Disability as Medical Vulnerability.
Your decision must instead imagine engagement with disabled organizations through the lens of experiment and policy alliance.
Goggin 2009 [Goggin, G., Disability, Media, and the Politics of Vulnerability, Asia Pacific Media Educator, 19, 2009, 1-13. JP Miller]
This Ablenationalist framework projects vulnerability as coming from outside the self—Vacillating between humanitarian assistance and imperial wars of extermination.
Soldatic 2006 [“Disability and Development: A Critical Southern Standpoint on Able-Bodied Masculinity,” Karen Soldatic and Janaka Biyanwila, Graduate School of Education; Organisational and Labour Studies; University of Western Australia, TASA Conference 2006, University of Western Australia & Murdoch University, 4-7 December 2006, JP Miller]
Our emotional-ethical complicities pre-determine what we think we can know.
Catastrophic imaginaries erase the complexities of lived reality—
Reducing Middle East geopolitics to unaccountable violence.
Morrissey 2011 [John Morrissey, , Department of Geography, National University of Ireland, “Architects of Empire: The Military–Strategic Studies Complex and the Scripting of US National Security” Antipode Vol. 43, pp 435–470]
Theoretical and Emotional Framing of Disability Predetermine Policymaking
Lang 2001 [Raymond Lang. Senior Research Associate at the Overseas Development Group of the University of East Anglia. January 2001. “The Development and Critique of the Social Model of Disability”. Pages 2-3. fitz.]
united states federal government should substantially increase media accessibility tools to disability organizations in yemen
Contention II: Complex Affinities
Our account risks over-simplifying the complexities of disability in Yemen.
Can the critique of Ablenationalism account for Abu-Habib’s story?
Rousso 2003 [Gender and Education for All: The Leap to Equality Education for All: a gender and disability perspective Harilyn Rousso 2003, JP Miller & kirk]
Or Nohra's experience…
Grut & Ingstad 2006 [“This is my life – Living with a disability in Yemen: A Qualitative Study,” Lisbet Grut & Benedicte Ingstad, 2006, Sintef Health Research Report, JP Miller]
Academic debates must MAP the nuances of disabled lives against aid policy and systems of oppression—Refusing Ablenationalist scholarship framed as the avoidance of catastrophe
Snyder & Mitchell 2010 [Introduction: Ablenationalism and the Geo-Politics of Disability Sharon L. Snyder David T. Mitchell Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, Volume 4, Number 2, 2010, pp. 113-125, JP Miller]
These maps of “civil society” and the “state” emerge through complex histories of truth and power
Chamberlain, 2011 [Robert Chamberlain, “Steady Mobbinʼ (OK, youʼre a Goon, but whatʼs a Goon to a Goblin?): Redrawing the Theoretical Map of the Middle East” http://www.columbia.edu/cu/polisci]
Refuse DPO policy framed as the reduction of vulnerability.
Instead play off ambivalent experiences caught between social suffering and empowerment—Forming connections amidst fragile moments of communication
Kim 2011 ['Heaven for disabled people': nationalism and international human rights imagery,’ Eunjung Kim, Gender and Women's Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA. Online publication date: 17 January 2011, JP Miller]
Yemen offers a key site for political action—
Media assistance provides local DPOs with tools to expand their influence in aid planning processes
Turmusani 2005 [Majid Turmusani (Researcher specializing in disability and development issues. Disability World Issue no. 26 Decemeber - February 2005, JP Miller]
We do NOT have a master plan to solve the “problem” of disability in Yemen - But disengagement from USAID whitewashes your complicity by locking-in frames of Medicalization and development.
Bradley 2005 [Tamsin Bradley. Senior Lecturer at the London Metropolitan University. June 1 2005. “Challenging International Development’s Response to Disability”. GLADNET Collection. Pages 71-72. /fitz.]
