Brady Mikako, a Japanese woman who moved to England after falling in love with punk music, worked as a childcare worker at a free daycare center in one of the UK's poorest areas, vividly documenting how the hatred, discrimination, and exclusion born of poverty ruthlessly erode the daily lives of children.
The author refers to the two periods during which he worked at this daycare center, 2008–2010 and 2015–2016, as the “basement daycare period” and the “austerity daycare period,” respectively.
In the meantime, there was a major change in the UK's ruling party, which changed from the Labour Party to the Conservative Party, and there was a policy of 'austerity' that reduced welfare systems across society.
Compared to the "era of the underprivileged," when the welfare system supported the lower classes to a certain extent, in the "era of austerity," when all living expenses have been cut off, the number of starving children has increased, and class discrimination that goes beyond racial discrimination has become blatant.


The author vividly depicts the lives of children who bear the brunt of their parents' poverty, emotional instability, violence, and helplessness, and unflinchingly shows how austerity shrinks the human spirit and societal freedom.
Furthermore, it proves the strength of the community below that creates a world beyond the reach of the state, and emphasizes that this strength ultimately comes from treating each other as human beings with dignity.

Class segregation is taking place in early childhood education.
'Apartheid' has not disappeared.
In 'Kingdom', which should be 'united', this kind of division is occurring based on class, not race.
… … Children of middle-class parents had surprisingly richer vocabularies and could count more than children of lower-class parents.
What surprised me more than anything was not their apparent learning ability, but the nimbleness of their fingers.
It is said that brain development in infancy is related to finger movements.
I often do origami with my children.
A three-year-old in a daycare center can fold paper in shapes that a three-year-old in a daycare center could never do.
… … Children from slums are surrounded by children of the same class from daycare centers to elementary and middle schools, and they have no chance to become friends with children of a higher class, let alone brush shoulders with them.
This is also true for upper-class children, who see the lower class as people they only see on television or in movies, people who don't exist in the real world.

--- p.26~38, from “Children Living in a Parallel Universe with No Class Separation and No Contact”

Among young Europeans, 'anti-austerity' has become a 'hip' buzzword, signifying resistance to the system.
It is natural that there are many politically awakened young people.
This is because young people are the ones who are directly affected by austerity.
Austerity, which has led to unemployment, low growth, and widening social inequality, has produced a gloomy outlook among young people who, even after graduating from school, will not be able to find a job and, no matter how hard they work, will not be able to buy a home. They believe that "tomorrow will definitely be worse than today."
… …
There are generations that are suffering more from austerity than young people.
They are children younger than them.
… … I have previously used the terms ‘bottom’ or ‘underclass’ to refer to the poor in Britain.
But children have never been this poor.
… … Children playing with toys picked up from the street by immigrant women and disinfected in their bathrooms are actually living in 21st century Britain.

--- p.67~69, from “The Shadow of Austerity Cast over Europe”

Just having a variety of colors makes sense.
This is not limited to the relationship between caregivers and children.
No matter how much you shout and hang up placards saying things like “Let’s stop racism” and “All mankind is brothers,” there is a limit to how much change that can bring.
For society to truly change, its roots must change.
People who live with their feet on the ground meet foreigners in their daily lives, feel fear, come into contact with them, clash with them, and embrace each other, becoming accustomed to coexistence.
It is these experiences that move society forward.
This is a transformation that begins in a small, humble community, even if it is called the smallest unit.
There are no shortcuts here.

--- p.109, from “The Significance of Diversity Education”

“Mikako and I have been working here for nine years.
At that time, most of the staff, guardians and children were British.
We foreigners were a minority.
But we were treated exactly the same as the other employees.
This is a daycare center built on the idea that anyone, anywhere, any person, or any issue is welcome.
“Even if the staff changes, our spirit remains the same.”
… … News about the refugee problem and the conflict between whites and Muslims only conveys the superficial aspects of what is happening in the world.
There is something deeper going on within society, a living organism.
Here's a Muslim woman scolding immigrants for trying to exclude local Britons.
… … This is how change happens.
At first, one person changes, then two people change, then three people change, then five people change, then ten people change, and the community changes.
… … If you think about it this way, childcare facilities in the UK are not simply places to look after and educate children.
It is a place for movement to bring about change at a micro level.

--- p.119~122, from “Daycare, a cool place for social change”

The daycare center became a food bank.
… … In the days of daycare centers, the slum children who were anarchic, evil, and untouchable are now starving in the ‘food bank era.’
Britain was called 'Broken Britain' at the turn of the 21st century, but in 2016 it suddenly reverted to the Victorian era.
When you're at the bottom, you can see how political changes can transform society.
The Annie Daycare, which was established to open a future for children from the lowest class, has now been turned into a food warehouse to feed them.
Annie and the work we've been doing has gone to the food bank.
He who has ears, let him hear.
This is the epitome of austerity.
Daycare, completely defeated by politics.
… … Children laugh happily while their parents stand in line at the food bank, their dignity bruised, grabbing groceries from the shelves and stuffing them into plastic bags.
As long as we can laugh, we are not lost.
KEEP ON SMILING.

--- p.207~209, from “Daycare Centers, Completely Defeated by Politics”

Even in the past, low-income daycare centers were poor and more chaotic than austerity daycare centers.
The nursery embodied 'Broken Britain', an anarchic country where morality and everything had collapsed and nothing remained.
But there was no division like now.
White underclass people who made racist remarks, intellectual hippies with super-liberal ideas, immigrant childcare workers, and immigrant families all somehow lived together in the same place.
Not all people of different faiths and backgrounds were close.
That doesn't mean the conversation was consensual.
But they didn't hate each other unnecessarily.
There clearly existed a community of 'people below' who were neither 'right' nor 'left'.
… … Nothing will change just because you miss the old days.
Some people say that lamenting that things weren't like that in the past won't improve the situation, but rather that it will simply regress.
But if something good that existed in the past is no longer there, isn't there a need to deny the attitude of looking back and asking what it was like back then?

--- p.212~213, from “Things That Used to Be There But Are No Longer There”

indigence.
Dress the children poorly.
Unable to break up with a domestic abuser, the children are forced to witness domestic violence.
The man you live with or you yourself are dependent on alcohol or drugs.
Or have a past history of being diagnosed with addiction.
I have depression.
I take my child to the emergency room again and again.
The child is always hurt.
An elementary school student guards the house alone.
Children often get lost in places like supermarkets and shopping centers.
These are all things that are considered 'weaknesses' by them.
From what I've learned while working in child protection in this country, all of the above fall under the "red flag" category.
If there are multiple instances of abuse, even without evidence or facts that the parents are abusing the children, local governments can take the children away from the parents on grounds such as mental abuse.
… … She is fighting with all her body and soul as a beast called mother.
To prevent the child from being stolen while sleeping.
Someone might take the child away while you're just sitting there blankly, so don't let that happen.
… …
“Supporting children means supporting their parents.”
That's not just a nice-sounding idealism, nor is it the rhetoric of a politician.
This is a realistic child protection theory that only someone who has been on the scene and swept the back of a beast called mother can spit out.

--- p.252~254, from “A Beast Called Mother”

There are quite a few women like this at the support center.
Clearly, he has some talent.
However, these are 'middle-aged women' who cannot go out into the world and turn their talents into money due to disabilities or mental health issues.
… … She is a different type of lower class woman from the women who indulge in alcohol, drugs, and sex, have children one after another, and live off government subsidies.
But charities like this center also owe their existence to the abilities of these women.
Some people are amazing cooks, some have incredible math skills (for a British person), some take pictures that rival professional photographers, and some draw incredibly well.
“The world does not leave those who have power alone.”
This is something my former boss used to say all the time.
But here, people with incredible abilities are being forgotten, covered in dust in a corner of the world.
But maybe that 'power'
I'm not sure if practical skills are included at all.
Clearly, the 'work cash flow', which is the ability to put yourself forward and connect with others, will account for about 80 to 90 percent.
If that's the case, then the women I mentioned earlier have no 'power' at all.
It just has an amazingly outstanding 'working ability'.
--- p.269~290, from “People Who Cannot Exchange Talent for Money”

It would be nice if the weather was a bit more favorable for the children in poor areas who are not usually taken around by their parents, so that they can make good memories, but for some reason, when they try to go out from the daycare center, it is always cold.
It often becomes a terrible weather with heavy rain, storms, and wind blowing as if it were destined to happen.

… … If you think about it, these are unfortunate children born into families where unusual things happen on a regular basis, like becoming homeless or having parents go to jail.
If these kids were gathered together, the situation would turn around and good luck would come, just like a minus meets a minus and turns into a plus, but life wasn't that easy.
The gathering of negative energy only brought heavy rain, storms, and wind.
… …
"Why does it rain only on me? Even on clear days, lightning strikes my head."
I think the lyrics were like this.
If this song depicts the delicate inner landscape of a young man, then for the children in the daycare center, it is physically and truly pouring down rain, so saying things like "It's all in my head" is of no use.

--- p.280~283, from “Why does it rain only on these children?”

In daycare centers in the lower levels, single-mother families are overwhelmingly numerous.
… … Not yet in school, no friendships or relationships
Before infants develop relationships with others, such as their own emotions, their entire lives depend on their mothers.
… … It is not strange to try to forget these overly dense and inescapable human relationships with alcohol, drugs, or sex.
What I am saying is that it is not strange if you think about it from the perspective of human reality rather than saying 'right or wrong' from an ethical perspective.
… … As I was organizing the children’s work, I found that there were surprisingly many cases where the subject of the work was mothers.
Mom's face, Mom's mood, What Mom does, What Mom likes.
Morgan has a piece titled 'Piss or Mom's Beer' that fills the canvas with gold.
Alice also has an overwhelming piece called 'Angry Mother', which is made by dabbing red and black paint on drawing paper with a brush and then poking holes in it with the tips of scissors.
Comparing these powerful children's artworks with the mothers' writings reveals a subtle balance between the two.
… …
“‘It’s a beautiful piece of gold paper,’ Morgan replied when I said to him.
'This is the color of the beer my mom spilled.
I opened the cap and threw everything away.
“It flowed down like a shower.”
In a world that is rotten and decayed, there is a beauty of its own, even though it is rotten.

--- p.286~289, from “Love in a Rotten and Crumbling World”