The vulture culture conundrum

The greatest example of renunciation, of repudiation of wealth and power, of its transient nature, of one’s inability to take it when one leaves the world, has to do with Alexander the great.

By the time he died at age 33, Alexander had conquered the Old World. To understand what Alexander possessed (and left behind) is to understand what the lesser mortals of the world fight for to acquire. On his deathbed, Alexander asked his generals to hang both his hands over the edge of his coffin with his palms open to show that despite conquering all the lands of the Old World, despite acquiring all the treasures of gold and silver he could lay those same hands upon, he was leaving the world and all of it behind, empty-handed.

Today, through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, there is a renewal of that Alexander-esque understanding that regardless of the wealth that one amasses, one could use only so much of it and that the rest one leaves behind. Billionaire Warren Buffet has donated billions to the Gates foundation, telling his children that he is not going to leave the bulk of it to them — as those hell-bent on getting rich say as an excuse for pursuing wealth, the devil is said to pursue souls to populate his hell.

It is for my children, they say, when they choke and rob, when they make deals, when they outsmart their own brothers and sisters, their parents, to property that belongs to all of them, but which they try to steal from under them ignoring that they share the same flesh and blood, grew up together and all (except the vulture among them) silently pledging that they would stand by one another, share equally what belongs to all of them in a fair and just manner — showing the world that despite the greed and unfairness that permeates it, they are an exception; they are civilised and enlightened.

But that is too utopian for even a fiction writer to envisage. Corporate raiding and political wheeling and dealing are the way of life in those worlds where the theme music is all is mine followed by the lyrics, I will never have enough, be contented, until the god of death says enough is enough, be gone demon.

What defies imagination is that within families such heartlessness, such inconsideration could take place with the same ruthlessness as if, where greed is, flesh and blood is just a genealogical accident.

One speaks of this to help us understand Warner’s enigma. Maligned, but his constituents come close to deifying him. Whatever might be said of Warner, one thing for them that elevates him to cloud nine is the fact that as a parliamentarian he takes one dollar as his salary. Which rich person they ask (saint or sinner) would forego that kind of money. Which one gives anybody anything? Truth is, the more the rich (and corrupt) possess the more they want. Warner could have done as all his rich brethrens and say the more the merrier and head for the bank. Chaguanas West has a point. Whether it is a Robin Hood or a Robbing Hood gesture, that act defies logic...as are the other seismic rumblings about him.

Desmond Cartey say all ah we tief, but which one of them gave back a black cent to a needy person or cause?

I write of these things because it seems that greed, having long eyes as we say, gives one the right to take or steal what one has no legal right to.

You leave your car parked and someone breaks it open and drives away with it. You burglar proof your house, make it into a fortress and bandits hold you up at your gate and make nonsense of your security system. Our courts are filled with cases where parents leave land and property to all their children, but one member from amongst them believes that his greed gives him license to steal what are theirs — the rest are caught off-guard, unbelieving that one of their own would try to steal it all and leave them impoverished.

I see this and I wonder if they never heard of Alexander the great; of the Gates Foundation which recognises that to die rich while living poorly, while living without care for others, without a conscience, is as evil as making deals and shaking hands with the devil?