האתר המקיף לחיים עם מוגבלות

Lucky people can describe their lives and share their stories with the audiance.Here is an example of a character who knows how to tell interestingly about herself. Margalit Tobi is a woman who is blind from birth. She shares her story with the audiance in her performance "Mother's Little Princesses", performed together with the singer Gila Hasid. Margalit shares her life story with the audiance and both women sing songs written by Margalit and composed by Gila. For a long time I wanted to get a chance to watch this performance and when I heard that they are coming to Jerusalem, I was the happiest person ever.

The title of the performance hints about the strong connection between children with disabilities and their parents. For parents, and especially for child's mother, the worry for these kind of children is quite manifold, compared to the worry for children without disabiities. Margalit Tobi was born in Israel like me.She is blind from birth, also like me and has studied in school together with children without disabilities, like me, as well. Yet, there is a great difference between me and her.  The difference is that I am a man and she is a woman. In the film that was made many years ago, her husband comments that the fact that Tobi walks with the aid of a guiding stick has drawn him towards her because he saw it as an opportunity to bestow his help upon her. In the performance, Margalit describes the way in which her schoolmate was secretly in love with her. This person was sitting next to her during school hours. I am not sure that a schoolmate of mine has ever fallen in love with me while we were in school. I think that there is a great difference between the attitude towards men and women who walk with the help of guiding sticks.  

Many times, when people feel free to hold my hand without asking me first,  I am jealous of blind women who definitely hesitate more often before holding that hand. But Margalit describes how people who help her cross roads, for example, pose to her patronizing questions and if you want to hear about a very good example for a patronizing attitude, I can give you the following one:

One time, while I was on the bus, an old woman was slowly descending the bus. The driver, full of good intentions told her: Slowly, slowly, old lady!! You really remind me of my old mother, who has passed away last year.".

There is another important point that Margalit talks about during the performance: Do blind people have to enjoy certain experiences just like non-blind people? For example, I heard about a group of blind children that came back from a trip and were telling how much they enjoyed the panoramic view. This is absolutely a contradicting remark because, for example, they could enjoy the sensation of the wind over their faces as well as the atmosphere, but if they choose to describe the panoramic view, in the words of the guide, it is simply an attempt to imitate the non-blind and this is ridiculous. I remember that during the the nineties, while I was in Europe, I didn't look for musical shows or interesting restaurants but visited almost all the museums in London and Paris.

I an not sure whether there is a specific tourist guide book for the blind, but it is terribly needed. If blind people want to learn how to enjoy a trip anywhere, they must go to places and not where regular tourists go, but try to go where they can hear and feel and eat, with senses that are equally active for them as well. I think it would become a very good idea to tell about interesting festivals in this blog because festivals can turn out be a good opportunity for blind people to really enjoy their trips.Margalit describes how she tries to enjoy the colors of firecrackers.

When I was young, on my Kibbutz, Kfar Menahem, you know, I walked close to a firecracker performance on the eve of Independence day. Suddenly, the firecrackers flew around me. As this happened, I suddenly felt like a soldier under fire. It was a very thrilling emotion for me. It was the first time I really enjoyed firecrackers.

I also feel that blind persons must not be passive, so when someones comes to visit them, they must host him and not give them the chance to host you. I wish that I would have acted so, but I am not like that. I'm actually too lazy to change this attitude.

Hey, by the way, I suddently thought of something nice: Many times, people ask me if my critique on movies is different because I'm blind. Well – the answer is: sure. Let me give you an example: As you actually know, Uri Zohar made alot of scandelous movies during the early seventies, and after them, he suddenly he became very religious. In one of his movies, named "Peeping", Arik Einstein and a young lady went into the lifeguard's room and Uri Zohar asked the people around to go away to leave them alone. When I saw it, I said to myself, oh, this is a very noble act of Uri Zohar's part and also it's probably an example for his new life style. But the real truth was that Uri Zohar actually wanted to be left alone to peep alone by himself at Arik Einstein and the young lady making love in that room. What do you think about my misinterpretation of the situation, as a result of the fact that I'm blind and did not see the real scnario with my own eyes?