At Foundations of Health today, we actually watched a documentary called "No Place Called Home". I really didn't feel like going to class today because I was just so stressed out, but I was glad I came as this documentary is very touching and it kind of makes you reflect upon certain things.
So the movie is about the Rice family and how they struggle to keep a roof over their heads. The Rice family are just one of the growing working poor in Canada. Kay Rice comes from a long generations of poor Canadians but she did a fantastic job raising 6 children who are healthy, smart, and morally upright. Society is ruthless to people like Kay and her children. She can't help it if she can't make enough money to support all of them. She does get jobs but she gets paid minimum wage she isn't educated. Society looks down on them and bully them for not wearing the clothes currently in fashion or for just being poor. Kay herself was beaten up and had to be sent to the hospital for she was wearing cheap, used clothes from the thrift store. The Rice family had been called disgusting and they weren't treated like human beings at all.
Some people would call the Canadian poor or the homeless bums; Bums who suck all of the taxpayers money, but on the contrary, Kay had never filed for welfare and she doesn't intend to file for welfare ever. The reason for this is that she'll lose the child benefits she gets and she doesn't want her children taken away from her.
One of the reasons why she can't escape poverty is that she has a hard time finding a roof over their head. Imagine, she pays $1000 plus for a home that is roach infested and unfit for residence. She is taken advantaged of because no one is willing to take her and her 6 children in as landlords fear that the Rice family will destroy the house that they will rent out to them. As Kay said, "No one wants to be poor and be looked down upon". I almost cried as I heard this because I share the same pain as her. She never did choose to be poor and she tries to get out of poverty but she just can't. Her children have great dreams and I wish that they achieve them.
Like Kay I really feel so bad and I get so angry whenever someone looks down at me. And as I have posted before, the only people who looked down at me were Filipinos.Anyway I won't go into the details of that anymore.I can on the other hand explain that in my desire to prove people wrong when they say that I'm a poor, cheap, contract worker, I actually made myself poor.
In Canada everyone is considered equal as everyone has the same opportunities and the same purchasing power. You can be just a mere taxi driver but you can afford to buy a big house. In my case, even when I'm still a university student and that I only work part-time, I was able to buy myself a 2010 Mitsubishi Outlander.Although I can afford to pay for my car, I'm considered poor because I'm using up more than 60% of my income.This is why I hate the Filipino mentality of social classes because in the end, trying to maintain a status quo will only bring unhappiness.
If people only minded their own business then people won't have to bother dressing up and buying expensive things to prove their worth because seriously: the amount of things you have don't define you as a person.
In Canada everyone is considered equal as everyone has the same opportunities and the same purchasing power. You can be just a mere taxi driver but you can afford to buy a big house. In my case, even when I'm still a university student and that I only work part-time, I was able to buy myself a 2010 Mitsubishi Outlander.Although I can afford to pay for my car, I'm considered poor because I'm using up more than 60% of my income.This is why I hate the Filipino mentality of social classes because in the end, trying to maintain a status quo will only bring unhappiness.
If people only minded their own business then people won't have to bother dressing up and buying expensive things to prove their worth because seriously: the amount of things you have don't define you as a person.
