The message from the World Bank asking for information about the cost of the inclusion of people with disabilities reminds me of a certain exam
question:
"To keep a mentally ill person costs approximately 4 marks a day. There are 300,000 mentally ill people in care. How much do these people cost to
keep in total? How many marriage loans of 1000 marks could be granted with this money?"
This question was part of the curriculum that the National Socialists used to 'educate' children in pre-war Germany, and preceded the murder of those
300,000 people as the first (now almost forgotten) part of the holocaust. As a student nurse, it horrifies me that Doctors and Nurses were participants in
this slaughter.
History shows us that humanity has to come before the balance sheet, people before profit and that human rights are not just laudable sentiments, but
essential for our existence.
Noone should have to justify the 'cost' of their inclusion in everyday life, rather it is those that continue to exclude that need to justify themselves.
"We speak and the word goes beyond us to consequences and ends which we had
not conceived of" Gadamer
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