Followers With Physical Disability

QUESTION: Do you have any followers with disabilities?

ANSWER: Hell no!

I wonder how you can deny it so emphatically because we don’t know who follows us in that fake world called the internet. I once saw a woman rushing Drake, the Canadian rapper and threw her arms around him. He quickly disengaged himself. She was a fan. A fan? Next thing you know, she accuses him of violence that resulted in a broken finger.

It is a fake world, therefore it’s possible that we have followers with disabilities and they don’t divulge it because they know the reaction: Hell no! Being in a wheelchair, or having any disability is not the ideal. This is why we look away when we see people in motorized chairs in public. They could be driving themselves or support staff from the Health Ministry might be helping them.

The internet is fake because it is anonymous. It is also a spring, where we get 20% genuine information that can help us one way or the other. The system has a box where we are supposed to show our pictures, but we don’t. Therefore, we cannot fault people with disabilities from hiding their physical and health status. They go online to relax, to interact with people who love painting, cycling, singing, soccer, outlandish hairstyles etc. In fact, there’s very little personal information online, unless you are a music star and you want the whole world to wish you happy birthday.

People with disabilities can read our minds when we meet them at the mall, or on the bus. They can see the irritation and our silent question about why they are out here in public. That’s why you and I have followers that have physical and other disabilities. No, they don’t tell us. Why should they, when I don’t tell that I’m wife #3 to a rich oil man with six wives, who has forgotten that he has a wife #3?

Nonqaba waka Msimang

Executive Blogger