Humanity in Autism

I have been doing some unusual amount of reading regarding congenital disorders lately. It happened ever since I met this wonderful and amazing woman of our time a few days ago. So amazing and unique she is among us because of her autism – and her condition is not a classic one, but a highly-functioning autism that could probably set anyone still at their tracks.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like you to meet Temple Grandin (whom I ‘met’ on HBO) - a lady of monumental strength that has braved against the strong tides of social stereotypes. In a field that is dominated by mostly brawn-but-no-brains men, she managed to single-handedly revolutionise the US cattle livestock industry; from a brutal system to a much humane one that teaches all of us to treat every living being with dignity and respect, especially if its ultimate sacrifice is meant to keep us alive. And as a frontliner in advocating autism, she will make you understand yourself better as a human being by ensuring you understand what the disorder really is first.

But what made my neurons in the brain all fired up is not regarding how the disorder comes to be. It is rather how the public approaches the whole issue. One of the major highlights that I learnt from the movie ‘Temple Grandin’ and after numerous fact-finding with brain-cracking almost brought me down to my knees with shame. It’s a reminiscence of my childhood during the schooling days.

Before I continue, to give a brief idea what autism is, it is a behavioural disorder with strong evidence of genetic predisposition. Community afflicted with this disorder will have a hard time blending into society and to communicate, but they excel in fields that require logical thinking like math and science. Sounds like Asperger’s Syndrome, but autism is not to be confused for that though both of them share strong similar traits. Most importantly, autistic people comprehend the world in a much different and specific way than us that makes them weirdo in the eyes of many – they pay more attention to details and processes rather than the bigger picture, rendering them to have more inputs from their sensory system. Thus they are more easily irritated (hypersensory) and may act in many different, strange ways to ease themselves.

So here’s the part that my old-self (and also many others) wasn’t aware of: autism can range from very mild, almost-undetectable ones to very severe types like what Grandin has. Remember that you used to laugh at kids who acted all odd and sometimes throwing tantrums, or the ones who you think were dorks and unable to solve the simplest question or carry out the most basic tasks? These people could very well have autism or other types of disorders like Down’s and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). They didn’t ask for these to begin with, and certainly they didn’t ask for your teasing, labelling and discrimination that arrive after. Above everything else, they don’t need your sympathy, but they will really appreciate your support.

As I continue to read further, it was horrifying to discover past related misconceptions which were based on pure assumptions driven by fear and unfamiliarity that could actually plunge the whole family into unnecessary hardship and humiliation. Ever wonder how the term ‘refrigerator mothers’ came into existence? It is used to describe mothers of autistic children whom members of public believe the emotional detachment that the mothers exhibited towards their offspring that offset the disorders in them. Makes you laugh? Think how was it like being a mother of an autistic child back in the 50’s and 60’s.

However, with the knowledge we possess today, fear towards these disorders should be something relatively of the past. Education for both communities is the key here – to integrate the involuntary outcasts and to have the society to accept them. We may have found the root of these disorders, but similarly to Grandin’s thoughts, a cure is not the answer since it will wipe out neurodiversity that makes mankind’s evolutionary feat our greatest survival arsenal in my belief. After all, half of the men and women who had and are going to transform this Earth into a better place for everyone are actually identified with somewhat kind of behavioural disorders with varying degrees, like the great Temple Grandin herself!

Nevertheless, solutions are everywhere. One of my favourite philosophers, Sir Ken Robinson who is a famous education reformist that has encountered numerous cases of ADHD (and other similar disorders) among school children said, there is no such disorder. They are proven on paper, but they are still subjected to plenty of debate. Reason he said that was after helping a child diagnosed with ADHD by her teachers to secure a better future. Recalling from his account, she may not be able to sit obediently or acquire long attention span in class, but her feet were able to lift gracefully in the presence of music much to the astonishment of her joyful mother and bewildered teachers.

So, all this just points towards one thing: that kids with such disorders are just normal after all, like each of our precious selves, they just need some direction to find where their passion really lies in and an avenue to express themselves. It’s actually not that complicated as we think.

p/s ‘Temple Grandin’ is now airing on HBO. Try to catch it!

Humanity: Point to Ponder

This world has 6.725 billion people living in it. There is 61 million of us in the place where I am in now, and another 27 million in the place where I came from.

The two most dearest to me are 11,000 km away from me, while another one is just upstairs sleeping.

So what’s the point I am trying to say here? Am I saying that being far from home makes me miss my parents a lot? Not that I don’t, but if that’s my point, what has it got to do about my brother in the room upstairs?

When there are so many of us, and all of us are just not very much different from one another, then what makes you so different from others? What makes you significant in the eyes of others?

It’s not money, status or skin colour that sets the difference if you’re asking me – that’s a hoard of rubbish, superficial reasons. Compare your parents or friends to the unknown guy sitting next to you in train. Who makes you more comfortable, and why?

If you are guessing the answer to all those questions up there right, it’s because of the connection you have with them. Will you pay much attention to the lady at the opposite side of the street? The man who delivers the paper to your house before sunrise? How about the stranger who gets your fallen stuff for you from the floor when your hands are full? The answer is ‘No’ of course, you don’t even know them in the first place to begin with. Even if you do, it will eventually slip your mind over time.

In fact, ask yourself how many people have you passed through on the street today without looking at them? You don’t even know ain’t it, because you can’t even count all of them. If you can’t even count all of them, it is for sure you can’t even be knowing every single one of them. Let’s be realistic here.

And now, next question. What makes you have a connection with another? Is it by the pretext of blood for family, and by feelings for friends and lovers? If it is by blood, is that mean you have the obligation to treat the blood-bound party better? And if it is by feelings, is that mean you have the obligation to approach another party to establish a connection with them then?

Being a social animal, we cannot really much escape from these two factors that ensure our survival by being with people. To think it from a realist’s view, it sounds foolish to invest in something that is formed by the basis of ‘feelings’ and ‘blood’ where these two things itself can’t be touch nor possess a value – literally. But well, being human is like these, and solving this is like solving humanity’s greatest puzzle: our creation.

As hard as it may sound to understand ourselves and how we perceive the relation to the people around us, it is just as easy to cut these connections off. All it takes is only for one party to forsake either one of these elements that makes us human whether intentional or not, and both will end up like the 6.275 billion on the street, passing through each other paths but couldn’t be bothered by each other. If we would divide the number of people we know with Earth’s population, we will find that the ratio tells us that each of us are next to nothing as the value projected will be almost reaching zero.

My brother would say that it is God almighty that creates us like that. I would say it is all in the nature of Homo sapiens. But no matter what we believe, we as human beings can be unique and hypocritical at the same time; crudely put it - weird. And there is of course one thing which we can agree together: Family will always come first no matter what.

Or do you have a different answer from me?

How about the Fritzl children?

For those of us at the Equator grumbling about the daily menacing heat and glaring sun, life for 18 year old Elisabeth Fritzl took an inhumane route when her father, Josef, had decided to incarcerate her in a dark cellar meant for nuclear shelter under their home back in 1984. Claimed to shield her from the hedonistic outside world where booze and sex mattered to most teenagers then, the primary paternal instinct went animal when the father had begun to rape her almost everyday without hesitation whether night or day. The incestuous act resulted in the birth of 7 children over the torturous 24 years; where four are adopted (one had passed away and burnt in the heater) and raised by the father and his wife, while the other three continue to live in the dark – until recently where Austrian authorities stepped into their home to discover one of the worst domestic crimes of postwar era.

For once, the whole world directed its attention towards the plight this victimised Austrian mother and her three children that lived most of their life in a 60 sqm windowless cellar locked by eight metallic doors with sophisticated remote lock mechanism. This modern day soundproof dungeon was only equipped with a TV, recorder and radio. The case might seemed solved when Josef had confessed his actions after Elisabeth had divulged the crimes of her father under police interrogation. However, we tend to overlook one fact – how are the three siblings going to adjust themselves under the light?

The blue print of the cellar where Elisabeth and her three children lived for 24 years; the space were originally 35 sqm where it was expanded by Josef to 60 sqm (left room) to welcome the arrival of the children. Notice the eight-door security at the right.

It all began when Kirstin, 19, had collapsed that prompted her mother to plead to Josef of the immediate medical attention her daughter needed. Hospital staffs confirmed that the eldest daughter has contracted liver failure, but were wary of the information provided by Josef who engineered the fake disappearance of his daughter who had left the house to embrace a religion cult only to abandon the adopted babies that she bore at the footstep of their house. In need of reliable and deeper information to save the young woman’s life, the hospital launched a nationwide call for Elisabeth to present herself to fill in the gaps and the police reopened her file of missing person. To avoid suspicion, Fritzl had no choice but to agree with her daughter to appear at the hospital, which led to the unravelling of the Fritzl incest case.

Only shy of one year from her eldest sister, Stefan, and 5 year old Felix experienced sunlight and crowd for the first time when they were brought to hospital for examination. Deprived of sunlight throughout their childhood, all three siblings are ghostly pale and highly susceptible to bone diseases due to lack of Vitamin D. Kirstin is reported to be missing of most of her teeth despite reaching adolescent. According to Time, the confined space damaged the siblings’ spatial orientation, while making their eyes much more sensitive to the light. Their muscles are greatly weakened as well. While faced by a myriad of health problems, the greatest obstacle of all proved to be social integration of independent sustainability. Compared to his older siblings who are greatly mentally marred, Felix is much more aggravated by the reality perception and contact of the outside world, and predicted to be much quickly adaptive to the society.

Experts from University of Liverpool foresee that both Kirstin and Stefan might have problems later in life to initiate a romantic relationship that they might see on TV due to the fact the confined room holds no wall that would spare the exposure of promiscuity and perversion at a very young age. Nobody can be certain of the extent of their sexual development. It is unknown either whether did he abuse any of the children during their captivity until recently.

The 21st century biblical Lot

In the previous court hearing, the Captain Hook look-alike Josef Fritzl testified that he is no animal. Justifying his statement, he declared that he only has sex with adult women but never children, reasserting the personal fact that he wished to lock her up for good but the sex was all because of ‘fond of having children with her’. Permeated with Neo-Nazism idealism during the invasion of the socialist thinking envisioned by Hitler in Austria when he was young, Josef stands today as one of the most iconic symbols that debate the possible extremism in human behavioural psychology of one’s upbringing that questions an individual’s rights and capability in drawing the line of right from wrong. He shows us the primitivity of mankind being a young species despite the tremendous rate of globalisation behind the civilised human brain.

Being isolated and brought up like in a separated ecosystem, treating the three Fritzl siblings summons all the knowledge of the latest expansion of medical science. That is why the emergence of these brothers and sister arouses the interest of many scientists and psychologists who wish to study them. It may sound opportunistic at the expense of a traumatic event that will spur an array of emotional discomforts, but doctors and experts have agreed to put the siblings’ rehabilitation the utmost priority. At least for now, the situation of family is improving due to better diet, quality of air and supportive treatments. But few years down the road, we might never know how deep the wound is inflicted on these children because of one man. We can only see for ourselves then the outcome and the future of the Fritzl siblings.