 
Love Thy Neighbour
What life skills did the housemates learn during their spell in the House?
As the housemates soon discovered, living with a group of strangers is no easy task. In order to keep the peace, you need a whole range of basic life skills such as respect for other people's opinions, the ability to listen to their viewpoints and to accept their differences, such as their sexuality or religious beliefs.
Muslim Hasan was the only housemate with strong religious beliefs and as a result, the others were often curious to learn about his lifestyle. But some of the housemates were more tolerant of his beliefs than others.
On Day Two, the group quizzed Hasan about marriage. Tommy wanted to know if Hasan was allowed to have more than one wife. When Hasan explained that he could have four wives if he chose to, Tracey's response was far from understanding.
"Four wives? That's disgusting, that is!" she shrieked, forcing Hasan to defend himself and his religion. "If you have four wives," he explained, "you've got to treat them all with equal respect."
But Shaneen showed she was the most tolerant of the group. Instead of showing contempt for Hasan's beliefs, she opened up the conversation to talk about love in general. "I believe that when you're in love with someone, the thought of being with someone else doesn't even cross your mind."
As the most mature member of the group, Shaneen also took on the maternal roles of comforter and nurturer. When Tracey was having doubts about her ability to learn her lines for the navigation task on Day One, Shaneen gave her much-needed reassurance. "Stop being negative," Shaneen told her. "Just try your best."
Shaneen also took on most of the cooking and cleaning duties. This was something Jade only appreciated once she realised that Shaneen was about to be voted out. "We don't realise how much we need her," Jade confessed to Big Brother in the Diary Room. "She does all the cooking and cleaning."
Tommy discovered that the kind of language he used at home with his friends wasn't acceptable to Muslim Hasan. Referring to Chinese people as 'chinkies', Tommy was quickly reprimanded by Hasan. "When people say 'chink' they mean it as an offensive term for all oriental people," he snapped, clearly offended.
Apologising, Tommy said he hadn't intended to be disrespectful. "I didn't think it was a racial thing," he said. "I thought it was a nickname. I can't help it, it's where I live."
But James pointed out that earlier, Hasan had made a comment about "poofs", a label James believed to be offensive to homosexuals, and in particular, to housemate Paul. So although Hasan was very sensitive to racial issues, he didn't show the same amount of sensitivity towards sexuality.
Every group needs a leader and during the tasks, Caroline was happy to take on the role. In the navigation task on Day One, she took responsibility of being the pilot. In the pop song task on Day Five, she volunteered to write the music on the keyboard.
Part of her success was that although she volunteered to take control, she immediately offered up the leader role to someone else. Only when she had the full backing of all the housemates did she accept responsibility. This made her a popular leader and kept the group happy.
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