Okay. So the Notre Dame cathedral burning is absolutely terrible, and it’s definitely sad that such a historic landmark has been dealt this blow.

However. HOWEVER.

600 million Euro donated within 24 hours for restoration? 600 million. By just two wealthy families. The city of Paris also contributed a casual 10 million Euro. Although the Vatican is reportedly worth 130 billion Euro, there has been no pledge from them. And it’s their fucking church (pretty much)!

Now, it’s definitely not wrong to place importance on heritage sites and want to restore them. But when you have a country that is experiencing such vast wealth inequality and social issues like terrible pensions etc, then to the constituents of that country, it is a giant slap in the face. It sends the message that to the wealthy, their fellow people are not important. These wealthy people have the ability to do some incredible things with their buckets of money, yet the only contribution they seem to be interested in making is to restore a church. I mean, it’s a very nice church. But buildings are NOT more important than people. That sends such a disgusting message to their fellow man. It also highlights the fact that there are a few wealthy elite that guard over half the world’s income, that could knowingly resolve world hunger and various giant social problems, yet they actively choose not to. These people literally have buckets of wealth (apparently with enough spare to flick a few hundred million at a broken church), yet they are content to watch their fellow citizens of the planet suffer.

It’s not that all wealth should be shared and that if you work hard to amass a fortune you shouldn’t be able to keep it for yourself (I’m not a communist). It’s more that when you reach a certain echelon of wealth, then is all that extra money actually going to be able to truly benefit you? If you have 50 billion dollars, but directed 20 billion of it into fixing social issues, is your life going to actually be all that different with only 30 billion dollars? I can’t imagine that you would have to downgrade your lifestyle in any measurable way at that point. So why hoard money, just for the sake of hoarding? It makes my mind reel just thinking about it. I think it takes a very obtuse person to be able to have a vast wealth and not be more self-aware of your own lifestyle and the lives of others. I really do. I can’t for the life of me imagine how people like that can feel totally comfortable living in a world of so much inequality and economic suffering, so many people living below the poverty line, while you have a casual hundred billion in the bank doing nothing but earning you more money. It’s mind-boggling and it’s sad.

Love, Akika xoxoxoxoxooxox