It is luxurious, this life of mine.
Granted not as luxurious as Brand Beckham which pulls in £100,000 a day, an almost obscene amount of money, but they seem like a nice family and put at least some of their vast wealth to good causes. I don’t begrudge them the rewards of their hard work, and it is hard work amassing such a huge fortune honourably, unlike others who make their pile out of the suffering of others or by theft, cheating and corruption.
I watched the news again this morning, Aljazera and the BBC World Service. Both biased and Aljazera pretty cheerless to boot. Wars in Syria, Myanmar, Congo, unrest in the Yemen, Kosova, Egypt, Madagascar, child labour exploitation in Asia and the southern states of the US. The list goes on, grim indictments to our ‘glorious’ past offering scant hope for anyone’s future.
Most schools don’t teach history any more, or if they do it has largely been rewritten to suit the politics of the day with past atrocities being glossed over for the good of the nation.
Last week I saw a documentary on the Congo, a country bigger than Western Europe, a country raped of its natural resources for some 300 years by men and countries alike, bent on adding to their personal pile at whatever the cost.
The cost of wars throughout history is always the same, the same people suffer the most, children, women and the elderly – those least able to fight back.
More children are suffering from malnutrition, starvation and physical and mental abuse than at any other time in the history of the world. More women are being raped, forced into prostitution, mutilated, murdered and denied human rights, more of the elderly are faced with a dwindling future without hope or money to buy basic necessities. Why?
Much of this carnage is perpetuated in the name of religion. Muslims fights Muslims, Christians fights Muslims, Hindus fight Muslims, Jews fights Muslims, even Buddhists are now fighting Muslims.
Much of it is caused by fear of that which we don’t understand and the fuelling of that fear by those it suits to fan the flames; those who have something to gain.
And much is simply caused by greed.
Did any of our gods call for this or, as with the past, is religion being used as a political tool to incite the masses? From what I have read in all the good books, all any god says is “Be nice”.
So I do have a luxurious life albeit a simple one.
Today we discussed how high the tide would come in, nay we positively debated it. I was convinced it was on its way out. I lost.
We watched the ferry on the horizon heading to Koh Tao. Chai explaining that without any papers he could only catch the morning ferry (non tourist) and a friendly Thai would have to buy his ticket.
We all got quite excited when we saw the first ’round the island’ tourist boat enter the bay. It didn’t stop but that was good too.
Chai went out with the nets and we laughed when he only managed to catch one fish.
Jaree groomed Benjy the resident dog, she grooms him every morning and we all studiously examined our bodies for fresh bites.
We have food in our stomachs and no one is pointing a gun at our heads or threatening to rape us. Today we are as rich as Brand Beckham.