That’s a good question

There are 760,000 Australians on the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the system that - if they feel like it and your personalised plan says you get to have it - provides funding for everything from personal hygiene care to support workers to therapies to assistive technology. It's already very hard for disabled people to get on the NDIS, regardless of your disability. It's near impossible to access most support and equipment without being on the NDIS. And the government has announced that they want that number to drop to 600,000 in four years. 160,000 of us cut off the Scheme - and countless more denied access. This will cause deaths. People will die and people will suffer because there is no safety net. The NDIS is the only option for most of us. Even private health insurance doesn't cover most of these things. Nobody will swoop in to save us.

The bill wants to give the (non disabled!) NDIS minister basically unlimited power to cut our funding. They're already planning what they'd do with that power. What rights they'll strip from us. What dignity and freedom they'll remove to make their budget look better.

The bill wants to force people to try every treatment out there before they're allowed to be on the NDIS. Including if the treatment is literally impossible to access. There’s a lot of us living in regional areas or out bush who can't just pop to the capital cities for specialists. This will especially hurt disabled First Nations people in regional and remote communities, who already experience limited access to healthcare.

If you're australian and worried, the ABC did a good breakdown of the proposed changes.

I know australia stuff doesn't really pop up on the radar on this site, but I want everyone to know what's going on. What we're fighting for here. Your australian disabled friends might be NDIS participants fearing for their life, rights, and freedom. They might not be a participant and afraid these changes mean they never will have access. We deserve better. The government built a system with no backup plan, and now they want hundreds of thousands of disabled people to pay the price for their bad planning.

In 2021, Swarovski (the company that makes the very sparkly crystals you see in certain jewelry, on figure-skaters' twinkliest outfits, on red carpet dresses), decided they didn't want the grubby fingers of small-time jewelers, clothing designers and costumers and crafters on their shiny beads and rhinestones anymore. They decided to limit their sales to "luxury" and couture creators, not girls who sell stuff on Etsy. The tenor of their press release on the subject was snide and insulting. Resellers (like your favorite bead shop) would no longer be allowed to carry their product; the average Jane on the street would not be able to purchase them. You could only get them if you had an authorized business agreement that bound you to very strict brand behavior. And those of us who still had good stock of the crystals would no longer be "permitted" to use the brand's name in our listings for sale.

Every bead shop and craft supply place and many, many small clothing makers--wedding shops, prom and dancing dress suppliers, the sort of salt of the Earth mom and pop time machines of shops that are the backbone of the field--scrambled to find something that could replace them. The last of the stock dwindled quickly, all of us grabbing what we could get while there was any chance of it, and then it was gone and we no longer had any access.

I was Big Pissed about it at the time. It was just so goddamn stuck-up, when wholesalers and indie jewelers had made them so much money, when some people I knew--when *I!*--had been brand-loyal for decades. But with no recourse, everyone pivoted fairly quickly, most of us to Preciosa Crystals. Those are Czech, quite sparkly, and considerably less expensive than Swarovski. The faceting method they use is different, but not worse; any differences are hardly noticeable when you're seeing them as a hundred pinpoints of light.

Well, out of nowhere, Swarovski just dropped this: https://www.harmanbeads.com/swarovski-brand-policy-update

"Effective June 1, 2026, Swarovski updated the distribution and brand usage policies introduced in 2021. Businesses may now purchase Swarovski Crystals without signing a Brand Control Agreement, and Authorized Distribution Partners may once again sell Swarovski Crystals to resellers, including bead stores and online retailers. Businesses may also use the Swarovski brand name when following Swarovski’s Proper Use Guidelines. Designers, manufacturers, artists, brands, retailers, and resellers are now eligible to purchase Swarovski Crystals through authorized distribution channels."

They want us back. A lot of the companies who could have kept a brand relationship with them also have swapped to Preciosa, over the last half-decade, in solidarity with indie creators and out of a sour awareness that it could be them, next. And it doesn't hurt that Preciosa was able to expand their line quite a bit now that everyone who wanted sparkle had no choice but to go to them.

And I'm not seeing nearly anyone who intends to return. The feeling is, "Y'all told us to fuck off! Off we fucked! And now, that's what you can do, too!" I'm seeing a lot of "How many of us did you stab in the back?" comments from the people whose money they're hoping to attract.

There are real labor problems here. Base pay is often insulting. Customer tips carry too much of the burden. Workers need better protections, more transparent algorithms, protection from arbitrary deactivation, and actual recourse when the app or a customer screws them over. Car-dependent delivery is also an environmental and infrastructural problem, though in a denser city I’d still be doing this work; I’d just be doing it by bike.

But when people talk about delivery work, I rarely see them talk to actual delivery workers. I see a lot of abstract arguments about convenience, consumer decadence, “hustle culture,” and internalized neoliberalism. Meanwhile, when I’m out working and waiting in restaurants for orders, the other Dashers I meet are usually people who only speak Spanish, people who read as neurodivergent, visibly physically disabled people, or some combination of the above.

I have not met this mythical Disco Elysium poor ultraliberal hustlegrinder-wannabe people seem to be arguing with. Maybe that archetype exists somewhere. If it exists among any kind of gig worker, it would probably be rideshare drivers. But most of what I see looks less like “rise and grind” and more like “this is one of the few forms of work available to people who need flexibility, low barriers to entry, limited managerial surveillance, or a way to work around language barriers, disability, burnout, chronic illnesses and injuries with symptoms that come and go unpredictably, caregiving, résumé gaps, or discrimination.”

That does not make the current system good. It means the current system is filling a real gap that a lot of supposedly better systems do not even acknowledge.

As a disabled person who is burnout-prone and demand-sensitive, contracting as a delivery driver has given me an unprecedented level of financial flexibility. I can work when I have capacity. I can stop when I’m deteriorating. I can build my day around my actual body instead of being trapped under a manager who thinks “reliable” means “able to perform the same way every day no matter what.” That matters. It does not cancel out the exploitation, but it is also not fake just because it is politically inconvenient.

And delivery itself is not some inherently decadent evil. Sometimes people live alone. Sometimes they are sick. Sometimes they are disabled, exhausted, overwhelmed, grieving, overloaded, or recovering from something else - perhaps the stress and fatigue induced by their own job. Sometimes they need medicine, groceries, or a meal that will actually unplug their sinuses instead of whatever generic community-care slop someone thinks they should be grateful for. Humans are allowed to need specificity. “Food” is not the same as “the food I can actually eat right now.”

A serious labor critique would ask how to make delivery work safer, better-paid, less tip-dependent, less car-dependent, less algorithmically punitive, and less precarious. It would ask what kinds of flexible, accessible work should exist for people who cannot thrive in conventional employment. It would ask how cities could support bike delivery, worker cooperatives, public infrastructure, and real protections without simply replacing one bad system with a moral sermon about how nobody should ever want takeout.

But a lot of the discourse does not do that. It treats convenience itself as suspicious. It treats wanting flexible work as false consciousness. It treats the needs of disabled people, immigrants, and other people who can't fit into traditional employment structures as details to be swept aside in favor of a cleaner political image.

Most ironically, the reflected edge of the bar, which in an offset view would tilt more acutely to the right, is revealed to be a visual decoy, leading us to believe that the vanishing point lies directly behind the barmaid. Thus, the paintings most obvious perspectival clue turns out to be its most subversive perspectival violation.

samah’s original campaign and account are shared by 90-ghost, but it was shut down as her organiser’s bank account was deactivated

proof samah asked me to use my paypal / ko-fi account here

starryeyedgiant is the ko-fi link used to raise funds for ammar's weekly digoxin injection - he needs this on time every week by 4 pm tuesday samah's time, or he will need a more intensive $3k+ injection in addition to this one to avoid his heart giving out - in total requiring $5k+

currently, because it is winter, he also needs another immune globulin injection to keep his immunity up and protect him from winter illnesses

we have consistently failed to meet this deadline, and recently this has been getting even worse. almost no one has been donating, forcing more and more costs to incur - first the night time travel, then one for IV fluids, then one for an injection resuscitating him so he doesn't fall into a coma

we were given a final deadline yesterday where ammar would have lost consciousness and we wouldn't have been able to give him another injection. if that hadn't been paid, he probably would have died

and now, we are starting with $0 to cushion us for next week. i am very worried about him, and if people are going to let him die.

$0 / $2540

samah's gofundme campaign is focusing on raising the money for purchasing passports so that she and ammar may leave for egypt. samah was able to find a deal that lets her have a passport for both ammar and herself at once for $10k in cash

this will let her finally get him the heart surgery he desperately needs - as mentioned, the digoxin is only a temporary measure and the longer ammar is on it, the more it will also damage his heart. he can't take the injection for much longer

unfortunately, as mentioned, we have figured out the rates for what the bank is taking in fees when we send the money, and it means we need roughly $4k more than before to make up for what is lost

thus, the goal is now higher

edit: the goal is now higher again by $265.60 as samah was forced to use $239.70 from her bank to pay back a doctor. we only received $27.20 to make up for that, and therefore the total has changed from $30,791

and now it is higher again, as samah was forced to use $168.60 from the bank to pay back iv fluid costs no one else was willing to pay for. we only received $34 to return it, and therefore we need $168.20 to be added to the total

and for the third week in a fucking row, it is higher. samah had to use $71.16 from the bank to pay for the immune globulin injection, because this time no one even cared enough to raise money for this, and therefore we need $88.95 added to the total

$12,048 / $31,314

samah requires an inhaler in order to breathe properly, and without it has much difficulty doing so, leaving her very ill. previously she was able to freely obtain it from charities, but there has been no stock available recently

we are raising money for this on systemprotocol, as this is something we are uncertain if we will be able to obtain without money, and she needs it very badly - she is the only one capable of taking care of her husband and ammar, so being sick is extremely bad for her

one inhaler lasts her for 15-20 days and is $148 in cash - this is $417 after fees. i have set the goal for two of them as per her request, making it $810, but just one is sufficient for her

if she doesn't get this in time once she runs out, she will be forced to take a cortisone injection, which at $300 in cash is $845 total

$0 / $833

adopts for donating

pwyw commissions for donating

the current cash conversion fee is 45%, with the paypal fee being 32%. everything is thus priced accordingly. breakdowns for prices are under the cut

$13,118 / $31,314

after almost 3 whole weeks, we finally were able to once again raise the full amount of ammar's weekly needs, and samah + her family were able to evacuate the hospital and return home after the urgent danger of israel threatening and bombing it

i also see that we were able to raise money for the gofundme campaign in the interim, and i'm quite grateful for that

we still need to raise $18,196 more to be able to buy a passport for samah and ammar, which is unfortunately quite a lot, but i hope small and steady donations will be able to raise this amount with patience

we now only have the final day left after today, and as always i will make the post for it on that day. i am rather worried as we currently do not have much raised in preparation for it, i hope we can raise what we need in time