Sir, I write on behalf of the Tayside Deaf Community, Deaf Links, Tayside Deaf Forum and Dundee Deaf Sports and Social Club who were outraged at The Courier’s use of the term “deaf and dumb” to describe a deaf witness in a report on an Angus court case on July 24.
It is shocking that in 2013 a sheriff allowed such offensive terminology to be used in his court, a deputy procurator fiscal used the term in court and a newspaper thought it was okay to print it, not only as part of a quotation, but from choice.
It is a known fact that the word “dumb” now means idiotic, brainless or stupid and it is beyond offensive to refer to deaf people in this way.
Deaf Links, Tayside Deaf Forum and Dundee Deaf Sports and Social Club are continuously campaigning in the Tayside area to raise awareness of issues related to deaf people, empower local deaf people and campaign for them to be rightfully treated as equal citizens.
Referring to a deaf person as “deaf and dumb” only serves to compound the public’s perception that it is acceptable to use such a term and increase the stigma deaf people suffer from the inference that because they are deaf, they are therefore stupid.
Mrs Alana Trusty Manager, Tayside Deaf Hub, The Old Mill, 23 Brown Street, Dundee.
Keptie Pond still no answers
Sir, It is two weeks or more since there was a little flurry of articles and letters, in The Courier, about the state of Arbroath’s Keptie Pond and what has happened in the meantime? Not much, I would suggest. Four councillors visited the pond on Tuesday July 23 the first day it has rained in weeks. Good timing.
Why were they photographed at the opposite end of the pond to where the inflow pipe and pump are located? It could not be to check if there is water in the borehole. It has long since been grassed over.
They are wrong to suggest the pump has worked intermittently over the last month. It has not worked for a year and then only for one day.
It was mentioned in one of the articles that efforts were being made to contact the contractors who dug the borehole, installed the pipe and inflow pump. Has contact been made yet? Is the pump and installation still under guarantee?
Is there, indeed, any water in this borehole, or have the council spent £45,000 on another pig in a poke? In the meantime the pond steadily empties through leaks and evaporation and the weeds, sludge and algae continue to accumulate.
John Milne. Addison Place, Arbroath.
Trusted Britain wide of mark
Sir, I read with interest and incredulity George K MacMillan’s letter on Wednesday, July 24. His assertion that Britain once had the trust of the rest of the world is wide of the mark.
The truth is that Britain by virtue of forging a substantial empire by the use of military force established itself as the leading power in a hegemony of the world’s trading nations in and around the Victorian era due to the strength of the pound sterling. It used its position of power to collect trading levies from the others in the group and was consequently disliked by them all.
After the Second World War Britain, on the verge of bankruptcy, was obliged to seek loans from the USA and Canada. It became indebted to its so-called friends whose substantially much lower financial outlay on the war effort had ensured that their economies were solvent.
The USA used the situation to replace Britain as the leading power in the new hegemony and as part of the arrangements Britain was no longer in a position to benefit from imposing trading levies on the other nations.
The problem with the UK is its embedded class system, dominated by wealthy individuals who all reside in London and the home counties. They still consider the UK a major power and some of their number are pressing for an exit from Europe as they can’t see how disadvantageous in economic terms it would be.
Allan MacDougall. 37 Forth Park, Bridge of Allan.
Controversy avoided
Sir, So the third person in line to inherit the throne is to be named George Alexander Louis (Courier, July 25). That creates no controversy as most people know the significance of all three names in royal history (north and south of the border). But I couldn’t help wondering if things would have been quite so smooth if the new heir had been a girl. Certainly the conventional names we associate with female royals Elizabeth, Mary, Anne, Victoria might have been accepted with hardly any comment (well, given Mary Queen of Scots’ turbulent life there might have been).
There might have been, too, some pressure from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to have the name Diana included. There might equally have been some pressure from other parts of the royal household not to have the name included.
It does make you wonder what kind of politics goes on in both Buckingham and Kensington palaces. We have at least been spared days of endless speculation in television and newspapers over the matter. Those who yearned for a female heir at least have the consolation that it is just possible for a second female to take the throne in this century. Work that out for yourself!
Bob Taylor. 24 Shiel Court, Glenrothes.