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I have lived in Woolwich since 1984. My mum has come over three
times since I have been living here. The last time she came was
in 1995. She was eighty-one years old then and she was a bit absent
minded. My dad had not long died and I think she was disorientated.
We took her out on a few visits, but we didn't have a car so that
was a bit difficult. She was here for six months and then when she
went back home, she was back to her normal self. Old people often
tend to get disoriented when they go to a strange place, especially
to a strange country, and I think she felt better at home in Trinidad.
My dad never came. He never left Trinidad after he went there from
Tobago when he was twenty-one, and the only two times he returned
to Tobago was for his mother's funeral and his father's funeral
and that was it. All my brothers and sisters have been to visit
me here. I live with my sister and my daughter Victoria who is 23.
My other sister lives in New Jersey, and the rest are back in Jamaica.
I don't dislike living here. I like living in England. I think basically
we have never had any problems over here. I would like to go back
maybe once a year or every two years or so and come back for six
months of the year.
back to top ^^
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Mr Fazal Rahim Shah
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I kept the handbag-making business going for forty years and then
I handed it over to my sons. I've never been unemployed. I never
claimed anything until I retired. I consider Britain my home. I
arrived in 1960, and I changed my nationality in 1963 from Pakistani
to British. The reason was that I used to go to different fashion
shows on the continent where our handbags were being shown. And
being a Pakistani passport holder, it was very difficult for me.
Every time I had to apply for a visa, and some countries would grant
you one and others wouldn't. So I argued with the Home Office and
told them the problem. And they said, under these special circumstances,
they would grant me a British passport and dual nationality.
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My eldest son is in the handbag business near Southend, and he
has got his own house. The second son is a manager in Safeway stores.
And the third one is doing his A-levels. I take them home to Pakistan
every year. I have a home there, with the same facilities as here,
a similar house. And I have a car there. Now I spend five months,
six, seven months a year in Pakistan. I spend the winter there and
the summer here. My wife's family left her some land. They are a
very well-known family in Pakistan, as army officers and landowners.
I am very close to my in-laws over there. We phone every week, to
talk to our families. We don't write now like we used to; we phone.
And I have land there too. I lease my land to someone, because I
can't look after it myself. I go back to the village when I can
and collect whatever I have to.
All my siblings have built houses along one street. The whole
piece of land belonged to my father, and he divided it into four
parts. And I built on mine, and my other brothers built on theirs.
The other two brothers live in theirs. My children are not interested
in going to Pakistan to live at the moment. But whenever they go,
they have a house there, they have a servant, they have a car there.
They can go and live there any time.
Now I'm very busy with community work. I have many meetings: I
am a police adviser, I go to council meetings, and Community Health
meetings. I'm an executive member of the Greenwich Council for Racial
Equality. I also run an Asian Community Hall - I'm the secretary
there. So I'm involved in loads of activities. I got involved in
community work because I was interested in Asian welfare, especially
older Asian people. We are trying to get a home for older Asians,
to acquire it from the council and then go on from there.
In this country, Asian women - especially older Indian and Pakistani
women - are the most neglected group and nobody cares two bits about
it. The government doesn't provide, social services don't provide.
Women are getting sick by sitting at home, they are getting fat,
having diabetes heart problems. Asian men and women have 60% of
the diabetes in this country. And the basic reason is that they
don't have activities; they don't have anywhere to go. I'm talking
about the first generation. Because they were economic migrants,
they spent their whole strength earning money. Everyone got money
and wealth, they bought houses, but they lacked social outlets,
cultural opportunities and English language skills, so their isolation
now is a problem we are trying to address.
The daughters of these first generation women have got married
and gone away. The boys don't want to live with their parents, even
though there might have room enough. They want privacy, they want
to live on their own, so they spread out. I don't blame them, but
what happens is that the old people get left. Like me in this house,
there's just me and my wife and my son. So the extended family is
disappearing, which is a shame. And our aim is to provide for the
old, especially the women.
I don't regret a single minute of coming here. I'm very happy.
I'm very comfortable and very happy. My sons are educated and doing
very well. I have no problems. I consider that I have the best of
both countries and both feel like home to me. I hold a dual nationality
and that's how I feel. I am British through and through, and I am
Pakistani also.
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