The Great British class calculator: What class are you?
Traditional British social divisions of upper, middle and working class seem out of date in the 21st Century, no longer reflecting modern occupations or lifestyles.
The BBC teamed up with sociologists from leading universities to analyse the modern British class system. They surveyed more than 161,000 people and came up with a new model made up of seven groups. To find out where you fit in use this calculator below.
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Interestingly when I only changed the detail that I own a house it put me in Established Middle Class with the point that I went to University!
Give it a try.
Bloody hell, I just found Irn Bru in Pakistan! #Pakistan #log #Islamabad #Scotland #Photos
Hans: My wife is sitting on a chair someplace. Some gray place. I thought she’d be in Heaven, but she’s sitting on a chair with a bullet in her head. I thought they’d have cleaned that kind of stuff up.
Seven Psychopaths (2012)
Marty: Maybe you’ve just eaten too many hallucinogenic cactuses tonight, Hans.
Hans: Nothing to do with the hallucinogens.
Marty: But you’ve just seen Myra on a chair with a bullet through her head.
Hans: In some gray place.
Marty: England?
Hans: It seemed a lot worse than that.
Marty: Wow.
- February 24
- , 2013
Some Yank dares disrespect IRN BRU on facebook, now whole Scotland is after him and won’t back down without his head on a stake!
- February 4
- , 2013
Enjoying coffee with Salman but someone needs to put a sock in mouth of this unnecessarily show off and loud family sitting right next to me. I realise you were dancing at Bamboo in Glasgow, now please just shut up about it! #log #photos #Pakistan #Lahore #Glasgow #Scotland (at Cinnabon Bakery Cafe)
A view of the University of Glasgow and Kelvingrove taken in 1928. You can see from the colour of the stone that the chapel is just newly built (it was dedicated on 4th October 1929). Check out other old pics of Glasgow at www.britainfromabove.org.uk. (Image reference SPW022204)
I am actually missing Glasgow :/
Pretend to Be My Girlfriend, and Other Strange Roommate Stipulations
OK, so it’s like Three’s Company, except backwards. Surely there are worse things than pretending to be someone’s significant other for cheap rent. (Complete article)
Reminded me of all the weird adverts I’ve seen on Gumtree!
- August 20
- , 2012
Spent most of the day discussing media strategy and then in a meeting about a big budget Pakistani feature film (by Pakistani standards). It is interesting what people are coming up with here.
Also got to sit down with some very interesting youngsters - let’s see if we can come up with something in next few days.
Was also checking air-tickets to Glasgow and they all seem to be crazy expensive these days, probably explained by the Olympics.
p.s. I literally hate how spontaneous I was yesterday - not my best self.
I do not have any of those exotic Scottish or South England accents. I speak pretty plain Islamabadi-English (or whatever that is) which sounds like a mixture of standard BBC and American English accents. Hope that helps with apologies for any disappointment that might have caused!
if you are looking for Sympathy it is in the dictionary between Shit and Syphilis.
Danny Bhoy, Scottish Comedian.
Tuesday Movie Recommendation: Perfect Sense (2011)
I cannot believe I actually saw a romantic film and didn’t cringe to the cliches before switching it off half way through. This film was really just wonderful, especially how it takes you on an emotional roller-coaster. There are moments which genuinely makes you sad but then these small instances which cheer you up. Set around an epidemic which is taking away the very senses you take for granted every day. Imagine one day you cannot smell, taste, hear and see?
Another great piece of acting by Ewan McGregor. Plus it is shot in Glasgow, so gets a little more of my love. (trailer / imdb)
I think I won’t be able to speak even a single word tomorrow and it even hurts when I try to. Not sure if I should blame dust or drinking cold water.
Anyway, not cool!
Plus thanks to watching Game of Thrones and perhaps this brutal summer I am missing Scottish highlands :/ I need an emergency trip to Northern Areas. At least a trip to Deosai plains.
Me and my father have a very interesting relationship. He was always very demanding of me and I was always very headstrong. If you want me to do things, I wished to be sat down with and explained stuff before I decide if I really want to do it. Something which I would say my father took a very long time to learn and I let’s say took a very long time to understand that it is not always possible (ok we established a middle ground with help of my mother).
In my father’s recent words I was ‘a child he and my mother played with even in their imagination’, me being the first born - it has really taken me over two decades to somewhat understand him and above all his expectations. I have a feeling that I will learn rest of the secret when I become a father myself (if I do).
Back to my father at the moment. What not many people understand and unfortunately not many “philosophers” and “social commentators” say, not only my father has seen me grow up but I have been a witness to my father’s evolution as a person for last these many years of my existence. And in this, such a wonderful phenomena, which so many people overlook; I have found immense respect for my first friend, teacher, mentor and an ever present feeling of comfort.
Last year when someone trashed my car (it had to be written off) in Glasgow, even knowing that my father is in Pakistan and can do nothing about it, and of course I didn’t want to get him worried - I for some weird reason just wanted to talk to him and just ask me how I am doing? I called up, didn’t tell him anything but those 5 minute of talk were enough to get me going through anything.
What sort of parents you get is one of those things where you have no say at all! You just have to be lucky, and I am glad that me and my siblings had that wonderful luck at this very important thing of life!
I am not sure if I am the son my father wanted me to be, but I am glad that I have him as a father on whom I can always count on (insert picture of Superman here!). I sometime however do not understand how he can hold this much compassion and sense of forgiveness for others in himself (not sure if I can ever develop something even close to that).
Once again thank you Pa for everything. We all love you and wish to thank you for everything you have done and continue to do everyday. It is a pity that I couldn’t spend this birthday with you as you are in USA (SKYPE should sponsor our family).
Talk I had with him earlier today:
Me: Religiously speaking if someone dies at water, he/she is a martyr.
Pa: Yes.
Me: So if someone dies because of this horrible summer in Lahore, is he/she a martyr or an idiot?
Pa: *chuckles* perhaps half of both!
Thanks Pa :) HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
p.s. See you made me make a personal post on my blog!
p.s.s. I used to have this Chemistry teacher in high school who would just trash the hell out of me. She was like this hyper-active elder sister who just wanted you in particular to learn the whole Britannica. One day I said, Ma’am can I guess your birthday? She was like okay. I said 2nd of June. And she was like how did you find that out? Well because you are as hard on me as my father!
Pakistani-Canadians: Falling below the poverty line (by Murtaza Haider)
Pakistan-born immigrants are the new face of poverty in urban Canada. The Canadian census revealed that 44 per cent of Pakistan-born immigrants fell below the poverty line making them the second most poverty prone group of immigrants in Canada.
While they may project an aura of opulence during their visits back home, their life in Canada, however, is often full of struggle and frustration. Thousands of Pakistani trained engineers, doctors, and PhDs are driving taxis or are working as security guards in large cities. In fact, one in three taxi-drivers in Canada was born in either India or Pakistan. Several others are unemployed thus becoming a burden on Canadian taxpayers. (complete article)
my add: This is in a stark contrast with how British Pakistanis are doing. But then again, I do find that Pakistanis like many other migrants are filling the jobs which have a “good” chance of unreported earnings. Like even in UK you will find majority of corner shops, retail businesses and of course taxis driven by Pakistanis - all of these businesses offer you a chance of not reporting your exact earning hence underpaying the tax.
But yes overall from what I have seen from my own travel, there are problems like women not going to work, men trying to not let their children become assimilated in the new country, leaning too much on the Mullah and Masjid, on top of living with a constant suspicion about Gora (white people). Every single family I know who has accepted that they are now Canadian are doing very good for themselves, even while retaining their Muslim identity.
Another thing which you might have to understand is that sometimes the migrants take their whole family along with them and then with a single bread earner and lack of any social and cultural support system (available to them readily back home), it becomes a next to impossible uphill climb.
