![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I've just seen on the BBC news channel, some of the opening ceremony for an obscenely expensive hotel complex in Dubai.
$7 million dollars worth of fireworks.
Is it just me, or is it really quite appalling to spend so much money on needless frivolities when there are people dying in Zimbabwe and Congo because they lack the basic necessities of life?
$7 million dollars worth of fireworks.
Is it just me, or is it really quite appalling to spend so much money on needless frivolities when there are people dying in Zimbabwe and Congo because they lack the basic necessities of life?
Don't get me wrong - I like a bit of needless frivolity as much as the next person, but this just seems totally OTT and wasteful.
The Saudis have more money than they know what to do with. It doesn't occur to them to give it away. To them, it's the fault of the infidel, imperialist West that there are poor people. It's not their problem.
Yeah, it's OTT and wasteful, but they don't care. Western Capitalism is the scourge of the world.
I thought the Saudis wer Muslim and that charity was a tenet of the Muslim faith? Mind you, it's supposed to be a tenet of the Christian faith too, and a lot of them don't do so well at it either.
I think this brings out the part of me that winces whenever I see real eggs being thrown at people on the telly - hatred of waste has become an intrinsic part of me. Possibly too much so.
Why do you say that? Christians are supposed to perform their charitable acts in secret.
I think what I was trying to get across was that many religions promote admirable ideals, but their followers, being, like all of us, only human, will inevitably fall short of those ideals some of the time.
I wanted to say that I didn't think the Muslims in Saudi Arabia were the only people who don't seem to live up to their religion's ideals but I did it very badly.
Well how evil of them. IN contrast, US americans burn of a couple of millions worth in fireworks each 4th of july while just the same people starve in the Congo because they aren't clever enough to make it in a capitalist world, or because of evil colonialism in the 19th century.
And the west Europeans spending money on rockets at New Years Eve have their own reasons.
In truth I think it's more complicated than all that. It's not really that people don't care. For a lot of people it's the feeling of helplessness, that donating 30 bucks instead of spending them on the frivolity of the moment is a drop on a hot stone at best.
And while we're busy spending all that money on BluRay players and the like we'll be trying to save as much money on our turkeys - damaging our health, ruining an industry and the livelihoods of thousands, thousands who will then lower the quality of the workforce in other jobs and eroding our entire economy, condemning an animal to a poorer life to keep costs down and feed our greed rather than our hunger.
$7m isn't really a lot of money these days. Terry Wogan said on the QI CiN special that they need £150m to reverse the decline for British children, the current £30m more or less just slows the problem down. Sure it's still somewhat excessive by many measures but meh.
That $7m goes somewhere. Some will be to skilled workers taking home more than an annual wage for the job and some will go to factory workers in various countries and to labourers in the area. The workers will shop and eat and fuel the local economy, and the factory workers likewise in their areas. It's also advertising - it's gotten them news coverage and although you're not impressed your holiday budget is probably a few tens of thousands below the market they aim for, those who will respond will repeat the funding cycle all over again - trickle down economics tends to work, at least on some level.
That annoys me too, if only in terms of wasted electricity.
Perhaps I should just put on a Victorian nightshirt and change my name to Ebeneezer...
I shan't be doing that at least, being vegetarian.
But yes, I'm guilty of buying things I don't strictly need too.
I think it's the ostentation I find annoying too - "Look! We've got way more money than sense and we're proud of it!"
But then, as you say, I'm not their target market - and even if I were rich enough I'm not the sort of person who enjoys sitting by a swimming pool in the middle of a desert for a week as a holiday
There is a lot of frivolity and a bit of it is all right. But as long as the money is payed to someone it's not lost.
Maybe the worst thing you can do with money is just sit on it and never spend it. Or spend it at some place where just somebody who's rich already will get a bit richer by it.
Weirdly enough I can feel with the sentiment of the original post, too.