The front page of the SMH today had two stories, The first one began like this, “The chief executive of Macquarie Group, Allan Moss, will leave the “millionaires factory” with a fortune worth more than $80 million, setting new standards in a debate about how much executive pay is too much”. It goes on to tell us that, “It also equates to Mr Moore earning $3053 an hour, awake or asleep, all year.”

The second was about Burma, however the first line was slightly different to the one above, “Don’t worry about the dead bodies; the fish will eat them.” The story went on to describe the situation there, “People were begging on their hands and knees for a single packet of soup,” a team member said. “Please don’t leave us,” cried a hungry young mother nursing her child. She had lost her husband, mother and three other family members.

How has the world come to this? While I don’t think any of us have not thought about these issues before I couldn’t believe that it was there on display in such an obvious way. I suppose, if it gets people thinking it is a good thing but I am concerned it won’t. This is so common place, so normal now. It stunned me though and left me feeling pretty empty.

However thanks goes out to David. I came back to blog this and discovered his post. A speech by Martin Luther King which everyone must read. The paragraph that I most needed was this,

“I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive goodwill will proclaim the rule of the land.”