Now that I've done my bit for international diplomacy it's back to business. This post is linked with the last New Orleans blog, but it comes with a few new stories which will hopefully come to an apex at the end.
Just before I get started, a good friend of mine asked me whether I was venting in the last blog post?
I'd prefer to say observing, digesting, and analysing....
Several months ago now I was attending a short course lead by a member of the USAF who just happened to be black. As always the conversation drifted away from work and moved onto what I liked about the States, what I missed about home, what he liked about the UK, and more importantly what he didn't like about his home, the U.S.
To my surprise what he said he didn't like about his home was to do with the colour of his skin, this was surprising to me because I'd not seen anything in the form of racism, at least not in the mid-west.
He said that in Europe he never felt that the first thing people saw was the colour of his skin, instead they just saw another person, and the colour of his skin was of no consequence.
Now whilst I've been travelling around America I've passed through many airports.
One of the main things that stuck out to me was that nearly all of the low paid workers in the bars, restaurants, and fast-food chains were black.
This got me wondering whether black people in America were afforded the same opportunities as y'all white folks?
I put this question to my friend in the USAF, the response I got blew me away with it's simplicity, and at the same time its absolute genius.
He said, "have you ever played Monopoly"?
"Yes", I replied.
"Ok then, if everyone starts playing the game at the same time then everyone has an equal chance of winning, and making lots of money".
"But if you don't start playing until after the game has been going on for a few hours, you'll find that all the good properties like, Mayfair, and Park Lane are gone. Instead what you're left with are properties that know one really wants like, WhiteChapel Road, and Old Kent Road".
I don't think you can understate the simplistic logic that this metaphor carries, nor it's relevance.
I'm going to leave you with that for now, and let it sink in while I take you back a few more months for another story.
You may remember I travelled North of the border earlier this year, I flew into Ottawa, travelled around for a few days, and flew back to Omaha from Buffalo. I crossed the border by coach and then took a taxi to the International Airport for my flight back to the mid-west.
My taxi driver from the coach station happened to be a middle aged black women. During the course of my taxi ride she felt it necessary to share her life story with me. I'm usually quite sceptical of strangers who wish to share their life with you, maybe they just want a sympathetic ear, maybe it makes them feel better to load their problems onto someone else? Anyway I digress.
She told me that she was originally from California, but she ran away because a member of her family committed suicide. She said she missed the sea, missed her family, her friends, and that she longed to return. She didn't enjoy living in Buffalo but was unable to leave.
When I asked her why she couldn't leave she told me she was tied down with debt, she had too many loans, too much finance. All of her debt was secured against a property she could ill afford, but at the same time she couldn't afford to sell.
Again, I'm going to leave you with this for now, let it sink in and tell another short story.
You may have read recently in the news back home about comments made by that Great British scholar and Ambassador, Jamie Oliver.
He said something along the lines of, "the poor have big TVs but eat junk".
I'd say he's probably right, but last time I checked BrightHouse (other weekly payment stores do exist) didn't offer finance on chicken dinners?
Furthermore, Jamie Oliver MBE may be right, but he's missed the point by a country mile.
Today corporations that make everyday products don't just manufacture, they are attached to multinational conglomerates, underpinned by investment banks, and with their own finance arms.
So let's get this straight, companies make a product, and then give you the money to buy their products?
Sounds a bit like asking an alcoholic to run the distillery. What's more is that since the government decided de-regulation was the future, the alcoholic running your distillery can choose his own leave allowances, salary, and anything else he deems fit to bestow on himself. And If that weren't enough, said alcoholic has also been charged with looking after your prize 25 year old single malt!
The 1% of the population who own and control all the wealth lend money to anyone who wants it, whether they can meet the repayments or not. They secure the debt against the product or any other equitable source they can find, charge interest on the finance, and so make money on the product as well as the loan. Win win.
Now to bring it all together.
The first story on the face of it looks like simple racism, but I don't see it that way. It may have began as racism but a lack of opportunities is more to do with wealth inequality, at least today it is.
Wealth inequality is at the heart of the second story, the credit given to her by various finance companies wasn't done for her benefit. It was to fulfil a dividend payed to share holders on a board of some holdings company some where in the world, who probably don't even know her name.
And you've probably guessed it, wealth inequality is what Monsieur Oliver was actually describing with his dig at low income families, and I bet with a fortune of around 150 million he has one or two, "big TVs" himself.
One of the greatest challenges we face today is trying to create a greater spread of wealth. Wealth inequality is the source of many of the worlds woes, from childhood obesity, to environmental ruin, to global jihad.
The dissatisfaction that the gap between the have and have nots creates, is more powerful than any weapon that we in the western world currently posses, but while the 1% that control all the wealth also control government I can see nothing changing.
Whats more is that the stories I have described above don't come from the heart of the Congo, or any other third world country. They aren't from a bygone area of segregation or black and white televisions. They are set in the present day, in one of the most powerful countries on the planet, and with one of the largest economies to boot.
"The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose".
James A. Baldwin
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