One has to love political correctness

Extending this ever so slightly on losing my job, I decided this was an ideal time to go back and be my own man. I am profoundly deaf by the way and I never really had the slightest problem being my own man.

Well I started with applying to be a courier but they would not take me on the grounds that I cannot use a telephone. Being able to text message someone doesn't count. So I suggested to them that I would buy a GPS and be able to find anyone. I was told this would not work. People are looking for problems that do not exist and they promptly hire a non-English speaking person who because he can hear is bound to do better than me. Despite the fact that I have a bionic ear.

I then applied for a taxi license and on being interviewed was told that I wouldn't be able to hear a person on the back seat talking to me. Yes but I can lip-read them in the rear-view mirror, they can write me a message on their cell phone or on a piece of paper. They then used the excuse of a person suddenly wanting to go somewhere else and I would not cope with them. Patiently I explained that I knew my limitations and what I had in mind was a hackney (there's a distinct difference) and this would be pre-booked and I would be taking patients who were sick to hospital from outlying areas and that it was a set route, so why on earth would they suddenly want to change their minds.

You might think that I have gone off topic but you would be wrong. It is political correctness which is at the bottom of all this. By law in this country a third of your labour force have to be disabled, but it is window dressing, so they hire one guy in a wheelchair and ignore the rest.

Despite having driven heavy machinery most of my life including front end loaders etc. I now have to be certified by a doctor, in this case a woman, who would not sign my application for a Heavy Duty provisional licence because she had been told by the authorities that I would not be able to hear an explosion in the back. This had to make me laugh as I'm presuming a hearing person after being blown to bits is able to put himself back altogether and announce; " hey, there was an explosion."

This all has to do with doing the politically correct thing. What it has actually boiled down to is while they assume that they are doing this to help me, it has had the exact opposite effect. Not only has it made me feel small and vulnerable but has also excluded me from doing jobs I am quite able to do. Should I be grateful?

I often yearn to be back on my farm In Africa with my two hundred strong workforce and the joys of suddenly seeing a Kudu in the bush, without having to put up with a lot of patent nonsense by people who assume they are doing me a favour.

Pictures courtesy of Photobucket and self.