ABSTRACT
Here are some of my precious stories. Events that shaped me. You won’t have heard of them. It’s time to start listening to what we have to say. Sooner or later, you’ll listen. You will have to.
It’s difficult to explain to you about places you may have never experienced. You have seen people like me, though. In shopping malls, in fast food restaurants, in minibuses with steamed-up windows. In small groups, shadowed by senior, more competent adults; middle-aged women or young trendy blokes with goatee beards. Our cultures sometimes cross swords. You have words for people like me. Retard, Joey, defective, idiot, spaz, mong. You might not use these words now but if pressed you would shamefully recall a childhood vocabulary that flourished with such insults.
