🖋 SWANK Dispatch | 23 November 2024
WE MOVED HERE TO SOCIALISE. YOU MADE US SICK.
Filed From: Flat 22, 2 Periwinkle Gardens, London W2
Author: Polly Chromatic
Filed Under: Asthma Stigma · Social Exclusion · Disability Discrimination · Verbal Adjustment Ignored · Hostility by Health Status · Snobby Expat Observations · SWANK Sovereignty Log
💬 FROM THE RECORD (AND STILL NOT READ):
“We felt isolated in Turks and Caicos and came here because we love the people and socialising…”
“…however people here don’t like that we have asthma.”
“It’s like you are all angry at us for having asthma. Period. That’s how we feel.”
(But we feel better now that you are all helping.)
How British.
The nation that prides itself on queues, etiquette, and empathy—
couldn’t stomach a child with a nebuliser.
🇬🇧 A VERY BRITISH IRONY:
We left the tropics for community.
Instead, we found shame with side-eye.
Here, you’re punished not for speaking too loudly—
but for breathing too audibly.
Asthma became our accent.
And you made it foreign.
🧠 ACCESS STATEMENT (REPEATED IN EVERY EMAIL, IGNORED IN EVERY ROOM):
“I suffer from a disability which makes speaking verbally difficult.
I prefer to communicate telepathically to minimise respiratory strain; however, email is fine.”
But in Westminster’s elite social script:
– Inhalers are uncouth
– Telepathy is impolite
– Email is invisible
– And asthma is a personal offence
We asked for community.
You offered performance notes.
Polly Chromatic
Moved for connection. Received bureaucracy. Documenting every exhale.
📍 Flat 22, 2 Periwinkle Gardens, London W2
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