Having respect for each other. Grenfell Tower

Subject: Having respect for each other. Grenfell Tower

"How can it be". "How can it be".

We often talk of the disconnect in society. We talk of a schooling system that creates a divide. We talk of a post code that creates a divide. We talk of a multicultural divide, a cultural divide. 

Listening to a BBC program this morning, a small group of tenant/survivors from Grenfell Tower, the tower block which went up in flames like a Roman candle two weeks ago, had been invited to come together to debate with officials (if they could be found) their ongoing horror.  It becomes clear that not only in the decisions to clad the building with a product that was suspect as far as the fire itself was concerned but in all subsequent decisions and day to day actions the authorities have been found unable or unwilling to cope.

How can it be that there is still no coordinated advisory group that the survivors can turn to for authorities answers.

How can it be that in such circumstances people are still being treated as individuals.

How can it be that hospitals do not have a list which they can release to say that so and so is being treated in hospital.

How can it be that if a person accepts help through the Samaritan good will of people the acceptance of that good will counts against them when the final account is drawn up.

How can it be that politicians still treat this catastrophe as a political football.

How can it be that the responsible council members have gone to ground and are not available. I suggest they are still pocketing up their pay cheque.
Here we have, at its rawest the divide in our country. 

The people in those flats were from a subset in our culture. They were not valued and still are not valued. The powers that be and this includes all of us who passes on the other side of the street when you see a homeless person begging or when you read and nod your head in your right wing newspaper of the benefit fraudster whilst at the same time speaking to your accountant to find ways to minimise your tax. 

Poverty is a virus and spreads throughout our community. With poverty comes disdain like a transmittable disease it distorts our humanity as we pull up the drawbridge and protect our own by ignoring the plight of those less well off than ourselves.

The appropriate Minister comes onto the program to speak to the group as a whole but then wants to split the group into individuals to discuss individual needs. A famous divide and rule tactic traditionally used as a method of defusing a situation. 

The politician waffles on with well heeled platitudes whilst the tenants are desperate to identify their problem. They are desperate to maintain their unity, they are desperate not to lose their homogeneity as a group. The spotlight is on a group of people, people who have known the inability of councils throughout the land to be sympathetic, empathetic to their predicament. Stay as a group, feed off each other as a group, watch out for each other, be as it used to be when I was growing up. Our neighbourhood didn't have much in material strength but it made up for that in the collected empathy and the respect we all had for each other.