I just wanted to say how much I agreed with this. I remember thinking as a child how very lucky I was to have been born in the UK, wondering why I was allowed the luxuries of a stable country, and how chance had determined that. Of all the billions of people I could have been born as and experience existence through and I was lucky enough to be born here into a stable, loving family.                               
                                                            
I've visited Alexandria in Egypt three times, it is where my husband is from, and they were very eye-opening and humbling experiences. The last time I was out there we stayed in a hotel on the third floor of a building. It had its shiny marble floors and pillars, huge luxurious beds, air conditioning and old fashioned cage elevator. The usual security were at the outside entrance and appeared to have a screened-off office area beside the lift. I paid no attention to the area until a few days into the holiday, I think it was the first day of Ramadan, and we could hear a child crying as we were going down the lift. When we reached the ground floor there was a girl of probably seven years old standing beside the security guards' office crying to one of the security guards. My husband took out some coins and gave them to her and told her to get some sweets. The security guard thanked him and I noticed, for the first time, what was really beside the lift... a home. A lady was standing at a cooker preparing the breakfast (I apologise if that's wrong term for it, it's how my husband calls it,) there was a television, a sofa and a small room at the back with a bed in. The living area was separated from the corridor by a screen to one side, but the side next to the lift was exposed, for ventilation I suppose, which meant that everyone using the lift could see into the home. That moment of realisation was quite overwhelming. It's something that we simply can not contemplate here. Something we are shielded from. I wouldn't say I felt pity for the family, that sounds too detached. We are all people, of the same origins. If chance had been different it could have been me living beside a lift.

When we were outside I asked my husband in shock if that was their home, and why the girl was crying. She was crying because they didn't have any lights or decorations for Ramadan. I can't imagine having a Christmas without decorations. I can't imagine living and cooking for my family beside a lift. I can't imagine how the man must feel for not being able to provide a higher standard of living for his family. How would that feel? I can only imagine it would feel hopeless. That is the correct word for how I felt, not pity, but hopelessness. There must be many many more families living in similar ways around Egypt, and probably in even worse conditions. It opened my eyes to the struggle for survival. Gave an entirely new dimension to life. Yes, we can see such things on TV, but it takes more than that to experience the world and gain empathy and compassion for other people.