Government of the Republic of Serbia
Author: Bojana Dimitrijević (Social Inclusion Blog)
“Dear reader, if you like running, I really believe you will understand me. I am over a year old, very energetic and ready to run the marathon, but there is no one to hear me out, so I keep sitting on a shelf with my older sisters.
We rarely leave the house, because nobody calls us to visit. Our owner took each us out once, to the copy shop, the municipality and the National Employment Service. They did give us a nice reception there.
They expressed their admiration, petted us gently, but we had to go back right away, into our cramped, dark boxes that decorate one of the shelves of our owner. We, of course, see the shelf as a temporary residence, eagerly waiting to move into a working organization and decorate the office wall of our owner.
The move, unfortunately, is going very slowly. If you ask me why I am in a crouch, the answer is quite simple – so I can spring into a run more easily, as soon as they call on me for the labour market marathon. And I am sure that in the race I could tell them many interesting things, that my talk would not diminish my results, just as the disability of my owner did not prevent me from coming into this world. (…)”
The lines you have just read are the story of a diploma – a certificate on the completion of doctoral studies, its owner currently looking for work. This story might not even exist if the owner was not a person with disability who (what a coincidence) chose “Obstacles to the employment of Persons with Physical Disabilities in Serbia” as her doctoral thesis. As she often says herself, everyday encounters with the obstacles she wrote about in her thesis are the best evidence that “everyone falls into their own trap”.
But let us get back to the story of the diploma.
As the youngest of three sisters, this diploma is highly valued in our society, since it was created as the product of the highest degree of education. (…)
“As a diploma, I am a real modelling type – my legs are 9.5 long (of a possible 10), although my sisters are also among the tall ladies of our kind (8.48 and 9.25). I can proudly say that all three of us have always, quite sure of ourselves, been standing solid on our own feet. They were never made of glass. On the contrary, they always tended to consist of the solidest possible material.
However, our long, strong, beautiful legs are not the safest guarantee for winning the labour market race. Why this is I cannot say with absolute certainty – there are many factors that interfere (that many members of our kind complain about), but it always seems to me as if there are invisible rocks around my feet, stubbornly holding me back from running. (…)
But maybe there still is no adequate timekeeping device that would keep up with the tempo I would run through this marathon? Or perhaps the organizers are afraid someone could (by accident, I guess) trample me? Worry not, my friends – I am in excellent shape, so even if I fall I will quickly get up and continue the race. If the issue is perchance with the differences of my owner, I hold no competence there. I have absolutely nothing to do with this characteristic of hers, and thus to all those who try to disqualify me from participating in the race because of this I can say that they have me seriously confused with someone else.”
(…)
The text in its entirety can be found on the Social Inclusion Blog.
Photo: Rupa Panda
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