I was struck by a small article in the Sydney Morning Herald today. It happened to mention an island in the Caribbean with a harbour where the ultra rich and the still richer congregate occasionally and compare boats.
Now, just to give you an idea of size, the boat shown above is 228 feet long. It requires a large crew to run it to say nothing of hordes of cooks, barmen, entertainers, maids, etc. The maintenance costs alone are astronomical. Meanwhile, in the Caribbean, two of the boats, one at 286 and one at 416 feet long, can't get into the island harbour because they are too big!
Rupert Murdoch, one of the boasting billionaires, owns a boat that is only 186 feet long and, poor chap, he feels somewhat inadequate (you might want to send him a donation so he can move upmarket). The irony is that all of these busy people would be lucky to use these luxurious, hundreds of millions of dollars to buy craft for a maximum of six weeks a year!
While most of world's people starve or live in poverty and thousands of children die daily of preventable diseases, a handful of people enjoy a lifestyle that defies imagination.
Of course these parasites love the unjust capitalist system, one which is based on massive exploitation of other nations and people, the support of right-wing politicians, deliberate inequality and endless war.
Why do the people of the world allow this obscene, immoral imbalance to continue?
2 comments:
well, it's hard to start a rebellion when you are starving- is the short answer. why we- in the western world- allow it baffles me. i think it is because we have been brainwashed by and large to aspire to that level. we have been the dominant force in the world for so long- we simply take it for granted that it will always be that way- and let's face it- the rank and file in the western world doesn't give a damn if poor african or asian or south american- or anywhere else- starve. i have heard that we have a population problem you see. i find it disgusting.
did you enjoy your time off? :) not much has changed.
My time off has unsettled me, Betmo, made me unsure of things. I feel ho-hum about life, the world, its many problems, my blog, myself.
Hopefully the feeling will pass soon!
Post a Comment