Ostentatious wealth and poverty

 Ostentatious affluence: wealth and misery cheek by jowl in Belfast

Should you be travelling i along Belfast’s Chichester street you may notice a building with a splendiferous sign declaring that those within are in the business of ‘wealth management’.

Now I have no idea what the hell is wealth management, but it is safe to say that the majority of those reading this post will not have sufficient assets to require such services as financial planning,, income streams, estate management or pension planning.

And, those struggling with addiction and homelessness seen on other streets in Belfast will not require wealth management; their needs are therapy, support, a roof over their heads and to be shown a little kindness from the state and not the many wonderful charities.

Also, spotted on the streets of Belfast were the ostentatious displays of wealth via motor vehicular transport. Sitting on a bus I noticed a Bentley, three porches nd a Ferrari pass by. Later walking to the train station I saw another Ferrari and Lamborghini. And, that’s not to mention the uquitious Mercedes Benz, BMW’s, Range Rovers, Audi’s all manner of SUV’s. A Skoda or Ford or Vauxhall does the same job of transporting you from A to B. And, heaven forfeit those displaying such ostentatious wealth would use public transport.

I do not think that they consciously think ‘I’m all right Hack, so screw everyone else’ but at some level they must consider it.

The homeless, those struggling with addictions, those who barely earn the minimum wage, those who clean, those who serve in retail, those battering through life via food banks and wondering wher the next energy price will be can only dream of a lottery win as an escape from the misery.

Meanwhile they are force fed reality television and aspirational

advertisements 

Yeah, the Ferrari driver, those using wealth management utter ‘Let them eat cake’ and keep them in their place well away from ‘our type’.

Conscience? It seems that once you achieve a certain level of wealth. Maybe their private health care involves a surgical removal of their conscience

Musings - Tragedies repeated

As the count of the dead and maimed grows in Sudan, Ukraine, Gaza, and the 100+ conflicts, pogroms and dictatorships trade the flesh of their citizens and neighbours they all forget they too will face death, they too have blood that runs red, their time will pass, and for what?

These lyrics from the 80s, when east and west engaged in proxy wars across the world, stlll hold true.

I see convoys curbcrawling west german autobahns

Trying to pick up a war

They're going to even the score

Oh... I can't take any more

I see black flags on factories

Soup ladies poised on the lips of the poor

I see children with vacant stares, destined for rape in the alleyways

Does anybody care, I can't take any more!

Should we say goodbye?

I see priests, politicians?

The heroes in black plastic body-bags under nations' flags

I see children pleading with outstretched hands, drenched in napalm, this is no vietnam

I can't take any more, should we say goodbye

How can we justify?

They call us civilised!

Blind Curve - Marillion