By: SKIP BANDELE
LOOKING OUT of the window in June, one might very well have become concerned with climate change issues. Far from baking in the early summer sunshine, the Algarve returned to autumnal weather conditions, frequent showers and temperatures struggling to exceed 20ºC.
In fact, the whole of Europe was shivering. Heavy downpours, from Belfast to Berlin, caused serious flooding, while unseasonable snow created chaos in Bavaria, Austria, Switzerland and France. Meanwhile, Russia found itself in the grip of a heat wave, with Moscow sizzling at 38ºC, the hottest it has been in the city since records began. A total of 28 people drowned as they tried to cool off in ponds, fountains and canals. Against this backdrop, it is perhaps appropriate to take a look at the worrying implications of the latest edition of the G8 Summit.
Rostock, on Germany’s extreme north-easterly coast line, was turned into a fortress as if to emphasise the huge gulf that exists between the leaders of the world’s richest nations and those they purport to speak for. The sad truth is, as huge crowds of protesters gathered in the city centre and coast guard patrol boats ran down Green Peace dinghies, the leaders did no more than pay glib lip service to global warming and the enormous problems faced by at least 75 per cent of the world’s population directly.
George Bush was conveniently taken ill on the closing day of the mutual back-slapping exercise but was in rude health with his great pal the Pope, 24 hours later. He had hijacked the ozone by declaring his own emissions initiative beforehand. This effectively took America and other environment sinners outside the United Nations perimeters.
Further uncomfortable topics, such as disease and starvation, receded into insignificance in the shadow of a superpower ruse, an Eastern European missile crisis, which was to disappear as quickly as it was created. The desperately naïve-appearing Bob Geldof and Bono were left shaking their tussled heads, gleaning only a modicum of schadenfreude from the fact that the American President was later to have his wristwatch snatched by orchestrated adoring masses, in Albania.
Hypocrisy
Political expediency, once confined to the cloistered corridors of power, is today an increasingly thinly veiled stratagem, thrown in the face of an electorate assumed to be too stupid to look beyond the obvious by its leaders. With serious questions finally being asked about the invasion of Iraq, other issues smacking of hypocrisy are still being ignored, with potentially disastrous consequences.
Though China has become the major trade partner of the West, barbarism and the total absence of human rights are still inherent, including prison labour and mobile execution vans reminiscent of Hitler’s Germany. The country seems to be given only an occasional playful wagging of the finger. The appeasement of the economically mighty exposes crass moral double standards, which at the same time condone the suppression of those too poor to be worthy of civilised exploitation.
Glaring inequality and the inaction of those in a position to remedy it will eventually cause a major socio-political global breakdown. The situation is not helped by token celebrity gestures, such as the Madonnas of this world cherry-picking Third World babies for adoption, and the disproportionate sums of money spent on buying football players by Russian émigré billionaires, who have accumulated their wealth at the expense of long left behind Chernobyl-like wastelands.
Minorities
Another atrocity rearing its ugly head again is that of the organ trade. What better example of the debauched nature of Western society is there, than to witness a whole Pakistani village compensating for their neediness by selling their kidneys?
‘Hospitals’, installed to extract this valuable commodity, work around the clock to satisfy the demands of their well-healed clients and dead bodies are turning up all over South America, ‘harvested’ of their vital organs.
Libertarian England is not exempt from these problems. The country is breeding an economically and socially disadvantaged subculture, featuring segregated and discriminated against minorities, Muslim terrorists and a gun culture imported by refugees. Add all these factors together and we are not so much facing a melting pot, but a Molotov cocktail waiting to ignite an all-destructive class struggle, fuelled by a lethal mixture of economic inequality and religious fervour.
The Algarve
The Algarve, too, has been affected by this great divide, not to mention the vast regional differences. It is easy to close one’s eyes to the growing problems in paradise. Life in the fenced-off Golden Triangle, with its manicured lawns and spectacular golf courses interspaced by Gucci outlets, does not offer a true perspective of prevalent economic realities.
The cost of living has been spiralling, while incomes have stagnated. The so-called socialist Sócrates government has reneged on all its pre-election promises, instead choosing to increase tax. Even Ukrainian and Moldavian migrant workers have come and gone, preferring the more fertile pastures of Spain. Any Portuguese or foreign resident trying to earn an honest living is finding it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to make ends meet.
Mounting debts are the order of the day, as real disposable income has dwindled to nothing. Not only does the current economic climate diminish spending, thus bringing about economic depression, but it also has a detrimental effect on family life.
Children and relationships suffer as mailboxes fill up with tax demands, unpaid bills and accountant’s letters advising of business failure. There seems little time to worry about or take an active interest in the world’s greater problems.
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