Friday, August 25, 2006

Is DH a dole bludger?

DH has received two comments recently advising her to "get a job" and stop being a drain on the taxpayer. While 2 letters are hardly a statistical sample, we all know that their content is representative of the currents of resentment in the community. These are the currents that allow Howard and Co's Wedge Politics based on stereotypes and misinformation to get workers to cut off their own noses to spite their faces. Like bulls at a red rag, both DH's readers jumped straight to the conclusion that DH was a habitual dole bludger, when the reality is that she has held a variety of very responsible jobs (see her profile). Most of her periods of unemployment were years ago. before her child went to high-school.
 
Her search for work is subject to the demands on her as a carer of a dependant with a disability. She has various health issues of her own commensurate with her age and a lifetime of stress, having no family support whatsoever and no assets and resources other than her wits, often dimmed by depression. She works hard but cannot work fast, and its a moot point whether the economy will be better off with her gumming up the works somewhere. 
 
Nevertheless, rest assured,  she will be foisting herself and her various ailments on some unsuspecting employer any day now. But with the Right's Welfare to Work(house) jamming square-pegged employees willy-nilly into the first available round-hole jobs, all she can say is "Caveat Employer".

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

“Aspergers is a reason for difficulties in peoples lives not an excuse for it.” Is the quote I start my book off with and I should know, I have 2 family members who are Aspergers/Autistic myself. But I can still manage to get out there and find a job, get a degree, get on with life and make it as much of a positive experience as I can.

I don't think you're a dole bludger that requires a hell of an insight into your personal experience that people just aren’t privy to, but I resent that you feel Centrelink and Housing are deliberately out to get you for whatever perceived issues you believe they are. Thanks to them you have a degree, you have a roof over your head that you will likely never loose & a steady income. How much better off are you than so many others?

Why don't you just accept that incredibly large bureaucracies are not perfect and will make mistakes and will rectify them as much as they can. You act like everything is a witch-hunt against you. I read your profile and am astounded that an intelligent and articulate woman with such experience is unable to rectify her current living conditions or life experience.

Why don't you actually focus on the positives in your life right now and stop using your child's disability as a defenceable excuse for the situation you currently find yourself in? You have achieved so much in your life regardless. of that.

Everything in life is a choice except death and the fact that you take up space on this planet whilst alive. Embrace the choices you have made, because honestly, your diary reads like a mechanism for being heard and an effort to gain power and control back over your life. You can do that without the sensationalism of your words.

You are not a victim.

DH said...

The purpose of this blog is to expose the impacts of govt policy on personal lives. DH is satirical sub-personality of the author who has a full and varied life and gives back as much to her community as she gets. The blog should be read as a satire, not as a life story or a personal apologia.