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Employment for Mongs website

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Crippled Monkey | 00:00 UK time, Thursday, 27 October 2005

If you're having a bad day, don't read any further.

- Bringing Employment to Local Mongs - is a charitable website set up to help disabled people get into employment. Fantastic, disabled people certainly need all the support they can get. Power to them! Anything anyone does is . . . woah, hold on a second . . . yes, this is the 91Èȱ¬. Normal webcasting will resume shortly.

The front page of the BELM website reads:

"This is the official website of BELM (Bringing Employment to Local Mongs). Our job is to get YOU into employment. Why sit around all day grinning and making weird noises? Why not contribute to society instead of being a big, daft drain on resources? After all, there's only so much fun to be had by us laughing at you."

Ladies and gentlemen, it's a spoof website. Is it designed to cause mass offence? Has it been created by a crip with an over-developed sense of humour? Schoolkids who don't quite appreciate the world and its people properly? Someone shunned by a disabled they fell in love with?



The BELM logo from the spoof website reads: 'Bringing Employment to Local Mongs' and 'Because we're people too. Sort of.'

The shock value made us laugh in the office immediately. It might make you laugh. But, settle down fellow spackers, this isn't exactly cricket, is it?

In the past, disabled people have bought the domain names for big disability charities and created spoof or "we hate" websites at those addresses. Famously, Leonard Cheshire had to wrestle their domain name back off Paul Darke a few years ago. We're kind of getting the idea that this might not be a political disabled person, though.

We're bringing this to you as a public service, an appreciation of "what's out there on the web". We don't like linking to it and boosting their hits, but we thought you might want to see it. And outrage is probably the response they're looking for?

Nice inclusion of Scope's logo here too. If Scope didn't get the , they certainly ain't gonna get this one.

Tell us what you think by clicking the comment option below.

Update: A number of Ouch readers have contacted us to say that the site no longer appears to be reachable, although we're still able to access it from here in the 91Èȱ¬. We spoke to Scope's press office, and they confirmed that they - along with many individual web users - had complained to the spoof website's internet service provider about the material on the site. Scope also complained about the use of their logo without permission. In light of this, it would seem that the ISP has pulled belm.org.uk from the net.

Comments

  • 1.
  • At 12:00 AM on 27 Oct 2005, bert wrote:


Retard... ok, spas ok, crip that is fine those are ok reclaimed word but I don't like s... spa... Im not gonna say it but that one word annoys me! Ouch you disappoint, you never offended me before.

  • 2.
  • At 12:00 AM on 27 Oct 2005, RealmOfRats wrote:


The site is hosted on his NTL webspace,and it's breaking their terms and conditions, if anyone is offended,complain to NTL. He's a member on B3TA, a site home to humour, it's evident humour and contreversy is the main focus here, as it will draw in a lot of attention, people with this kind of humour don't care whether it's good or bad attention as it will be attention,all the same. It's an insult to humour and the internet-he's borrowed the overdone concept of outright offensiveness and contreversy and not used any originality,he's just mocked an often abused innocent group of people...because it sells.

  • 3.
  • At 12:00 AM on 27 Oct 2005, Mykeyboy wrote:


Well i for one think its the funniest thing since ever.

  • 4.
  • At 12:00 AM on 28 Oct 2005, Katie Fraser wrote:


It's a good thing they did pull the website off the websphere, otherwise it would have been too contraversial! Spoof websites that have stuff about disability aren't to be trusted. Oops!

  • 5.
  • At 12:00 AM on 28 Oct 2005, marmiteboy wrote:


Still not there, damn I needed a laugh the sarvo :-(

  • 6.
  • At 12:00 AM on 28 Oct 2005, me wrote:


funny you say that, i found the page no problem

  • 7.
  • At 12:00 AM on 29 Oct 2005, bert wrote:


each to their own but I just dont like that word, it has to much umph in it to be laughed off.

  • 8.
  • At 12:00 AM on 31 Oct 2005, Tri21 wrote:


Ouch - I am disappointed in you, how could you find this funny? I don't find it at all funny, just incredibly offensive. People with DS have a learning disability, or have you forgotten that? Targetting people who often cannot defend themselves isn't clever or funny, just sick. And 'mong' is a horrible word used by very ignorant people.

  • 9.
  • At 12:00 AM on 31 Oct 2005, Laughing Boy wrote:


Get over yourselves, it was funny as hell.

  • 10.
  • At 12:00 AM on 31 Oct 2005, Mr. Tea wrote:


Hey everyone, it's ONLY A JOKE! And a very funny one at that, in my opinion. And let's face it, how many people with DS are actually going to get offended at this site - or is it just non-disabled people getting offended 'on their behalf'? In fact it's this sort of condescending attitude that disability awareness campaigners should be trying to combat...

  • 11.
  • At 12:00 AM on 31 Oct 2005, Tri21 wrote:


I managed to acces it, it has NOT been withdrawn.

  • 12.
  • At 12:00 AM on 31 Oct 2005, Jason wrote:


The website seems to be back up. Personally, I think it's funny. I think it's too silly and over-the-top to be really offensive.

  • 13.
  • At 12:00 AM on 31 Oct 2005, Lonewolf wrote:


It's humour. Yes it's over the top but that's one of the things that makes it so funny. Freedom of speech still exists and if peopel don't like this sort of thing then don't look at it. I'm somewhat left-wing, i'd go as far as to say socialist but this does not upset me. People who get upset by what is just purile humour and then complain loudly about it to anybody who will listen give liberals a bad name. Do something useful instead of complaining about this.

  • 14.
  • At 12:00 AM on 31 Oct 2005, djrich wrote:


I laughed my arse off.

  • 15.
  • At 12:00 AM on 03 Nov 2005, GoldfishSamurai wrote:


I find it outragous that this site has been pulled. As for all the people out there getting uptight about it, all I can say is that it must be nice to have that little to worry about inorder for this to become an issue. I find the censorship enforce here a real shame.

  • 16.
  • At 12:00 AM on 04 Nov 2005, Lisa wrote:


Has it ever occurred to you that this site might just be taking the proverbial out of all those real, patronising moronic politically correct websites out there? Anybody who looks at the website and seriously thinks the person behind it actually believes that all people with DS are dribbling idiots, needs of a sense of humour injection and an IQ upgrade.

  • 17.
  • At 12:00 AM on 07 Nov 2005, Ivarr wrote:


Well, I didn't find it amusing at all - but ultimately it's all down to context - is it some disabled type trying to say something ot is it some non-disabled person after cheap laughs? Having said that, I still didn't think much of it - but that's just me. If anyone can enlighten me on what the motive behind it is, I'd be able to make a better judgement.

  • 18.
  • At 12:00 AM on 07 Nov 2005, Cap'n Tallbeard wrote:


This is ridiculously funny

  • 19.
  • At 12:00 AM on 07 Nov 2005, Shoosh up your lips wrote:


You can't do anything withuot offending someone. The site does not seriously promote anything vindictive, it's just a bit of humour for some people. What one person may find funny, another may not. We don't have to be PC all the time. If you don't like it, stop trying to force your opinion on others. I find that offensive.

  • 20.
  • At 12:00 AM on 18 Nov 2005, Mark Baggley wrote:


I think it should be removed as do the people in the photographs know they are being used in that way? For example, if I set up a page called Child Abusers and then randomly copied pictures from an MP's web site, would this be acceptable? If they have used disabled people (or non disbaled people "pretending"), I'd still find it offensive, but like the site says, I'd ignore it.

  • 21.
  • At 02:32 PM on 03 Nov 2006, BJ Smith wrote:

just fyi - free information on employment and history for disabilities

www.mnddc.org

This post is closed to new comments.

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