The rich and the poor, the leaders and the ordinary people, the powerful and the weak, those with influence and those that speak quietly, the entitled and the trodden; the gulf is widening and it’s not in a positive direction.
At the top of the pile there are a few with too much money, power and influence and an enormous minority unable to get out of the extreme poverty trap that knows only hunger, famine, drought, disease, terror, fear and death. Well over a billion of people living in the World today do not have enough to eat today and can only access filthy dirty water. Hunger and putrid water kill millions of us every year, the weakest, the youngest, the oldest and the poorest.
Yet billionaires are on the increase, over 2,100 at the last count and global corporate profits at an all-time high. The net profits posted by the world’s largest companies more than tripled in real terms from $2 trillion in 1980 to $7.2 trillion by 2013, pushing corporate profits as a share of global GDP from 7.6 percent to almost 10 percent.
Hardly just, hardly equitable. There is a very big industry protecting the profits, massive investments into protecting the summit where a small group hang out in The Club. Up there live the lobby groups, political donations, tax scheming, war, spin, blackmail and terror.
Those that have “it” will do just about anything to protect it, to stay at the top of the pile, and will justify their positions with token gestures, while investing billions into spinning the news; to give their views & opinions credibility and legitimacy.
Yet only a small redistribution of the enormous accumulated wealth could solve 2 basic societal problems; people dying from hunger and dirty water. That is just not acceptable anymore. We all need to do more and challenge those in control of political decision making.
How has it come to the point where a small number of people have some much power and influence that they can do literally anything without any sanction. One very significant reason can be found in the influence of the global oil lobby group, the fossil fuels boys, the petrochemical industry and their tentacles of their influence.
A small example of the power they wield was the brutal murder by the leadership of Saudi Arabia of Jamal Khashoggi, a highly respected Journalist, all because he spoke out about some human rights inequalities back home. And most of the world politicians have done nothing, the power of economics ahead of moral leadership. Shame on the lot of them that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salam still sits at their top table.
And what does that message give to other despot’s, men like Putin and Assad, men responsible for war, terror, torture and horrific death?
It is not appropriate for big business and the political class to be put ahead of the interests of the environment and the ordinary people. People committed to public service should not be capable of being influenced by power and money.
It’s us the people that must fight for change. We’ve a long way to go.