Progress, really or a hare and tortoise race?

THE WAY THINGS ARE

By Colette NiReamonn Ioannidou

All round us, human progress is rapidly evolving. Still, the rich get richer, and the poor get ever poorer when a mix of events cause prices to soar on almost every necessity. When I was young, comics were cheap, enthralling entertainment. Recently, a 1939 Marvel Comic No.1 sold for 2.4m. Money for some is a plaything.

Old laws unsuited to modern life hear calls to be updated often where women are concerned. In the UK, a misogynistic newspaper article on Labour’s good-looking shadow minister Angela Rayner accused her of trying to unsettle Boris Johnson by crossing and uncrossing her legs. Some men of position or title think women of a certain class or background are sexually loose, and insulting them anonymously is acceptable. Entitlement and misogyny haven’t changed over centuries and all the laws in the world can’t turn a low-level mindset to correct thinking; they can only limit their public abuse.

If Boris were so easily distracted from his debate by a glimpse of kickers, what would that say for him? Writing in the UK’s Sunday Mail, David Randall commented on Elon Musk’s desired Twitter takeover ‘He (Musk) also has posted… on what he should do with his unrealised gains from Tesla’s surging stock price.’ I would tell him: send medical/food aid to hurt and hungry children in Ukraine, Syria and African countries desperately in need of help. Give to Afghan parents forced to sell a child to feed siblings.

Listening to fans rave after his eventual takeover sounded like the track record of a fun-loving, mischievous elf. One interviewee joked on the BBC it was the most boring thing he had done given all his other achievements. Dissenting voices naturally brought up how far his ‘free speech’ Twitter would go and with it the possible return of Donald Trump trumpeting, and the license it could give to a free-for-all bad messages tangle that governments have been trying to reign in to decent behaviour.

I Googled Musk and indeed he has been blessed with astute talent, entrepreneurial foresight and, par for the course for these amazing creatures of good fortune – luck. Yet nowhere could I find the word ‘philanthropist’. Apologies if I missed that bit of info. I’m not alone in thinking how a tiny percentage of his over $273+billion fortune could do so much for the planet.

P&O ferry company’s firing of staff suddenly en masse, so as not to pay them a proper wage and bringing in labourers from India to work for £1.80 an hour seemed to highlight that wealth achievement for some by cold-blooded manipulation of the extreme poor loses neither them nor their shareholders a night’s sleep.

There are wealthy folk who do care and share but they are the exception rather than the rule. A woman in the UK won a huge jackpot and found great joy in sharing it with people in need, she wanted to take make-ends-meet stress out of their lives. A friend told me 6 euros were chopped from her 300+ pension, she had no idea why but that six counted for her. Phones weren’t answered so, she would have to waste precious petrol to find out why.

Patroclos’ CoffeeShop mentioned how public sector workers were asking via their unions for a higher income tax bracket given the rising cost of living over 14 years. He said they were the only workers receiving that. Their retirement bonus Gesy contributions was also up for debate. I have been in government offices where air conditioning was either Arctic or equator levels as staff were not paying the bills; the taxpayer was.

The Water Board is one of the rare government services that doesn’t come under constant fire from the public. I received a letter recently about digital payment, the same one I had already received three times. I posted two and phoned an enquiry as to why a third. I was politely informed everybody got them, just ignore it. What system wastes taxpayers money sending the same letter four times? A system that is not accountable for money-wasting mistakes.

Low earners or low pensioners here are well used to scraping by but the imbalances in who gets what is pretty much the same in another small country, Ireland, Cyprus’ mirror image in many ways. A visiting Irish friend and I once wondered why public servants are so well paid and have such perks. ‘It’s mostly clerical, isn’t it? I mean they’re not working on classified information, or degree level stuff.’ Good question why those who work under the political elite are paid for doing what a secretary in a private office can only dream of. And why a pensioner is cut six euros on top of her Gesy contribution when she has to count every cent. It may have gone to the Water Board.