Perspective
We turn on the news and get depressed - the economy may or may not be out of recession, MPs have been claiming for this, that and I daresay “the other”, Dave and Gordon have been having a row in parliament, though neither has actually told us anything we don’t already know, taxes will be going up to pay for the banker’s bonuses, there’s been crowd trouble at a football match.
In the last two weeks though the news has been dominated but a real true disaster - the earthquake in Haiti. Up to two hundred thousand dead and I don’t know how many injured. The people are poor and by that I mean really poor! The hospitals can’t cope with the demand, there is nowhere for millions to live.
I am a full believer in charity beginning at home but when it comes to something like this we all have to question our beliefs. The wealthy nations have responded, governments have sent aid in all forms and the populace of those wealthy countries have put their hands in their pockets. However could we have done more?
The answer has to b “yes” but unfortunately it’s a “yes if…” and the “if” is this:-
IF - we hadn’t spent God knows how many millions on the multiple inquiries on whether the UK should have gone to war in Iraq.
IF - we hadn’t spent billions on bailing out the banks.
IF - we hadn’t spent probably hundreds of thousands on setting up a new expense system for our MPs.
IF, IF, IF….
OK, so all those things are now done, we can’t change it. Similarly we can’t change the geological make up of our planet but what we can do is be more prepared. Our political leaders need to wake up to the fact that basically people care about other people. They need to make sure that the bankers, or any other industry for that matter, can never destroy world economies as they have - Barak is right, no bank should ever become so big that it is not indispensable - if they fail they fail and the bankers are unemployed, not the rest of us.
How I wish that we had the money available to cover any natural disaster and to help the people prepare for these happenings. So that should be our aim. Once the economies are fixed, instead of frittering our wealth away we shuld be,and I hate to use the term, banking it for an earthquake, tsunami, flood, drought day.
I have just updated the text on the page for kerosene suppliers, I know that it might surprise you that I am working on some things for an oil company; but I don’t think they are as enviromentally irresponsible as I once concluded. Plus, I’ve sold out the rent is due and I need the cash!