| I just listened to a fantastic podcast of a speech by Indian journalist Palagummi Sainath. He talks about the inequality around the world, including both India and the United States. And he is, in some parts, extremely funny, but he is always extremely poignant. This speech moved me to near tears.
Here is a story he ends with, and I will share it with you as a way of encouraging you to listen to the full speech. Back in ancient Rome, the Emperor Nero held a great party. To provide light for the party (as this was before the age of electricity), he hauled prisoners out of the jails and set them on fire one by one. Sainath points out that it's not terribly impressive that Nero was so cruel - we already knew that - but he wants to know "Who were Nero's guests?" Who were the guests at the party that could sip their wine, glass by glass, as human beings were burned alive? And as he makes the point that extreme wealth does not exist without extreme poverty, he encourages each of us, don't be one of Nero's guests.
If you are interested in more information from Palagummi Sainath, I recommend his book, Everybody Loves a Good Drought, and I also recommend another book referenced in this podcast, Late Victorian Holocausts by Mike Davis. |
