the class divide

I watched a programme on tv last night. I usually watch fluffy stuff to relax but this appealed to me as its content matter , the class system in Britain, has been at the forefront of so much that I read and see at the moment.

Growing up in a different sort of class system its interesting for me to observe one in another country not of my birth.
the programme, a dispaches special, took two teenage girls who live on opposite ends of the same street in Clapham , London ,and followed them for a week finally allowing them to enter the others world. London in itself is such a boiling pot of cultures and I have found its the norm to have a good area smack , bang on top of a council estate.
Rich girl , Alice , attends a private school and lives in a 6 bed Georgian house. She has strong opinions. For example " labour has the laziest men in politics , in a way , basically because they take from the rich and give to the poor so the poor can be , like , really lazy and not working"
she is 15 though and has lived in a bubble of privilege. Later , on a bad day, she says " I don't give a shit what state school kids do they can go and die for all I care"
And it kept coming, the fear of "chavs" ( council estate yobbos, hoodies etc) her fear of being poor and having her children go to state school and just all round bigoted views which obviously come directly from her mother when we meet said woman.

poor kid Natalie lives in a flat in a tower block with her Mum and 5 year old brother Gabriel. They live on benefits of £150 per week. Only have 1 bed and no other furniture to speak of. I felt a sort of horror when they took the cameras into her house . I felt angry that they are given the home but have no incentive or need to have better or get a job. However the programme carried on and it emerged that Natalie's dad was shot in Egypt when they were on holiday there and she was 6. Her mum plunged into depression and she seemed mentally disturbed in the scenes were she featured. They went into council housing and that was that . her mum is not stable enough to keep a job and she was 6. It emerges that she cares for her mum and her brother . She got her mum to to get a government loan so they could buy a bed for her brother and paint the walls in his room . Slowly my preconceptions of the benefit class started to fade.
Just like Alice , I learned a lesson, empathy is key in life. Don't make assumptions.

In South Africa , where I grew up , we have people living in shacks. the poverty is overwhelming. Some other African and Asian countries have it even worse . Is there a level of poverty. should we feel sorry for British people who live in a welfare state? Last week I would have said a resounding no, But now i think each person has a story and each case is different. I needed to get out of my middle class bubble and recognise that.
By the programmes end Natalie ( the poor kid) was visiting Alice ( the poshun) . She could not believe it when she saw they had a piano. They all smiled condescendingly as she sat down and then their faces changed as she played a piece of music beautifully. I sat there in tears. I wish her all the best life has to offer. I know she has the drive to get out there and change her circumstance.