Headline Oct 07, 2014/

''' THE DEAF : 

THE VERY SPECIAL O'' LORD ? '''

IN UTTER HUMILITY,   -I hesitate to give you the exact figure,  for  the  thousands of you,  from the world over-

Across every divide and barrier,  who soared skywards, and  joined in the Muslim festival. I thank you all. 

!WOW! prays for your happiness,  and  for your esteemed thinking. Great things must be attempted!  Great things must be done!

The world has a historic guilt. The principles of democracy must see the world modernise and go forward  

I offered,  -my and by-   prayers, by the O''Captain, and then went on to celebrate it with the very special  -The Deaf Students.

The world, as such,  -stays profoundly deaf to,  fearlessness, sacrifices, giving, sharing and simple plain, tears.  Even collective shame.

Born, terribly deaf,  William Mager,  a film-maker, gained some hearing just recently. It was a technical wizardry, not and never a miracle:  -a cochlear implant in his head which turns sounds into a nerve signals.

Switched on in a glossy central London hospital, it prompted   ''probably the worst day of my life'' , he says. 

Harsh, robotics sounds bombarded his brain. Now things are improving. The noises are becoming  ''meatier and richer''  as the brain learns to interpret the din.

Around   220,000   people  worldwide have had cochlear implants since the devices were approved in the  1980s.  They typically allow deaf people around 70% of normal hearing.

That might seem like  unalloyed   good news: : surely some hearing is better than none?

But not all deaf people are keen or grateful. Some protested outside hospitals when the new devices came in. It is demeaning, they feel, to be viewed as a problem to be fixed. And the gadgets threaten their culture.

Though Mr Mager still uses sign language, people with the implant and their friends, colleagues and families need it less. 

That undermines the struggle by users of the  200-odd  sign languages to be recognised as linguistic minorities.

New technologies mean more worries for deaf activists.

A recent paper by the  University of  Miami   concluded that in a decade most of the genes linked to deafness will be identified. That could lead to easier treatment for,  some fear, the abortion of fetuses bearing those genes.

Implants are getting cleverer, too. 

A three year-old from North Carolina is the first child in America to have one wired differently into his brainstem.

A touching video of the  boy/student  hearing his father speak for the first time has gone viral.

Yet Joe Valente,  a deaf Professor  of  early-years  education at Pennsylvania State University, points at research showing the  risk of infection from cochlear implants, particularly for the young/students.

Deaf children with implants  who use only spoken language perform worse at school than their peers who learn sign language.

Cristina Hartmann, a  deaf lawyer from New York who received her implant at the age of six, complains that even after a decade of speech therapy she did not talk and hear like a normal person.

And  70%   hearing is still a handicap, certain pitches can be inaudible and noisy places confusing.

More than 90%  of  deaf children are born to hearing  parents, who typically take decisions with little knowledge of  deaf culture or politics.

The idea that deafness is not disability, for example, strikes many outsiders as perverse.

Two cases in recent years of  deaf couples  looking for congenitally deaf sperm donors to ensure deaf  offspring   prompted derisive media coverage.

Yet deaf culture is not just the preserve  of ideologues.

The Honour and Serving of this research continues. Thank you for reading and sharing forward. And just don't miss the next one.

With most loving and caring dedication to the Deaf Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all on !WOW!  -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' Listen Up '''

'''Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless