On a visit to the new National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff, he told a group of deaf children standing next to a Jamaican steel drum band, 'Deaf? If you are near there, no wonder you are deaf.'[3][1]
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- He told deaf children that being near a drum band explains their deafness, a hurtful remark.
- In plain terms
- He blamed the children’s hearing loss on their proximity to music.
- What can you take from it?
- Do not attribute disabilities to superficial causes.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How can we better educate ourselves about disabilities?
- What impact do such remarks have on children?
Another view
The comment is factually wrong and offensive.
More from Duke of Edinburgh Philip
Angering local residents in Lockerbie when on a visit to the town in 1993, the Prince said to a man who lived in a road where eleven people had been killed by …
Permalink to quote #17 In 2002, he asked an Indigenous Australian businessman, 'Do you still throw spears at each other?'[4][1]
Permalink to quote #19 To a British student in Papua New Guinea: 'You managed not to get eaten then?'[1]
Permalink to quote #16
Related quotes
[Public school is a place] where the sensitive experience a horrified dissociation from reality that can sometimes never fade away.
Nick DrakeNick Drake quote #8 But even when we are sharpened and quickened intellectually by argument, by discussion, by reading, this does not actually bring about that quality of sensitiv…
Jiddu KrishnamurtiJiddu Krishnamurti quote #9 The only way to ensure that our promise to provide every opportunity for students with disabilities, and help them achieve their full potential, is to give our…
Gordon SmithGordon Smith quote #9