Better next time

Subject: Better next time.

I have been troubled listening to the survivors of the terrible catastrophe at Grenfell Tower lay out their demands to be rehoused and recompensed for their loss. Coming from an era when you accepted your lot in life and gained strength in not asking, I find the "rights issue" which seems to predominate people's lives these days difficult to come to terms with.

Housed in good hotels, whilst proper accommodation is found, seems to be a reasonable solution but the stumbling block is that what is on offer is not permanent. The problem as they see it, is the fact that the accommodation offered, after they move out of the hotel, is itself temporary with no official statement that their final occupancy will be close to the schools their children go to or the housing of a quality which they deem a fair replacement. 

My immediate reaction it that you accept what is offered and only when the blame for the fire can be determined can you expect damages to be paid which go toward rehousing.
One of the things I overlook when I listen to their stories is the dreadful damage done to their mental stability. The fire was not just an individual catastrophe but a collective nightmare which is made more horrible by the constant telling of the loss. The fire spread so quickly with such ferocity that lives were going up in smoke right in front of the survivors eyes.
People they knew, relatives, it seemed the sort of place where the poor gathered by word of mouth, sharing rooms, some illegal but tied by ethnicity and having little choice.
Looking at the war torn survivors stumble out of the last ISIS stronghold clutching their few belongings, wild-eyed, shell shocked children clutching at their mothers skirts, wondering into which hell hole they were being led now. These are the same Middle Eastern bloodline as those who staggered out of Grenfell Tower. People cursed to understand and withstand disaster, people who assume that life is unfair stacked against them but the women at least never the less continue to have babies, create families, and make the most of 'motherhood', having ones own children, watching in their children's eyes the hope that it will be better next time around.