deaf in the city: not much pity edition

Today's No-Pity brings us Mark Gravolin. I had to laugh out loud at the title of this article from Australia: Mr. Gravolin has to make a deaf-defying run!
First, deaf-defying? I'm imagining him running down the street middle finger extended. Second, ears, legs, running, what's he defying here? Maybe his balance was affected too.

Still, he's working with Deaf Access Victoria, so regardless of how he's painted, he must be a bit more than deaf-defying.

One more: Australia... go read this GORY article about deaf children waiting for cochlear implants. Folks, it's a prime example of how parents get hoodwinked by greedy doctors. There's great reasons to get cochlear implants for some people - but not all. See the below:

Robyn King, mother of 1 year old James, diagnosed 2 days after birth, described her plight in being unable to communicate with James and the year-long delay before his scheduled CI operation in July.

Robyn said "we went to the supermarket yesterday and all he did was squeal the whole time; we're walking around the supermarket, a real high pitched squeal, and that's all he does and everyone just turns around and looks at you. There's no vocal speech there at all, they say he can't even hear himself screaming."

James is almost one year old. He has no language development whatsoever. This is a tragic missed opportunity. If the medical profession had given Robyn and James access to New Zealand Sign Language, Robyn and James would be able to communicate with one another while they are waiting for their CI operation.

The deaf child needs access to language at the earliest possible opportunity. Sign language can be taught to the deaf child before oral language. International studies have demonstrated that babies who learnt sign language before learning to speak show a 12-point difference in their IQ to babies who did not learn sign language.[2]

It is currently fashionable to teach hearing babies to sign, but to deny deaf babies any language development until they are fitted with CI.