Yes – an extremely rich woman is
extremely dead and it made the news.
I know. You are shocked – even while distracted by
the two squabbling fat stupid spoilt brats with the really bad hair who want to
nuke the planet and the news that fascists are back in the German Bundestag. But
it’s true. Last week the amazing phenomenon that the rich die too, was proven,
yet again, by the death of the “world’s richest woman” – a strangely empty
epitaph all things considered.
Early in the life of this blog I penned a piece
called ‘Dinosaurs cured my performance angst’
(blog 4). It outlined how understanding one’s lack of
importance in the great scheme of things can be hugely liberating and, in fact,
could allow you to achieve much more.
This is not to be confused with the sense of entitlement, self-aggrandisement,
selfishness and arrogance imbued in the ranks of elite school boys who have
made a pretty good job of trashing Britain with their over-promotion and un-earned
privilege (see blog187. British boarding
schools breed posh psychopaths).
But Lilliane Bettencourt, described in The Guardian
on 21st Sept as “heir to the French L’Oréal hairspray empire” is
dead. The same paper also drops this wonderful little gem…
She
was the daughter of Eugène Schueller, a chemist and one-time Nazi sympathiser
who made a fortune as the inventor of modern hair dye and founder of L’Oréal.
Despite her estimated fortune of £29bn I’d never
heard of her but then I’ve not been to a hairdresser in over 15 years. Ms
Bettencourt was wealthy beyond imagining due to money made from cosmetics,
which makes mad sense in a world where we fete the shallow and image-obsessed.
Her family didn’t find a cure for cancer or invent the jet engine but they have
done everything to help keep hair in place. For that, this woman was lauded, indulged,
lived in opulence few can imagine and for that this woman
died among claims by her family that various hangers on and vultures were trying
to con her out of some large sums of dosh.
And I say again – if only the rich would get over
the idea that they are also immortal – they might behave better.
A new drug-resistant strain of Malaria is spreading
in Thailand, Vietnam and other parts of SE Asia but there is still no magical
human made wonder drug to deal with that potentially global disaster. While the
mainstream media are preoccupied with avoidable man-made horrors such as Trump’s
America and Brexit Britain, real issues with the ability to put a serious dent
in humanity’s time on the planet are way down the agenda.
If you want to know what is wrong with the world you
cannot do better than look at the strange anomaly laid out in the fact of
Lillian Bettencourt’s death (and life!). This woman – who may well have been
pleasant enough – did nothing of note with her existence other than be born to
an old Nazi who invented hair product. She died a modern day Ms Midas.
Several months
ago I posted, Viagra – Yes. Effective
Cure for Malaria – No! blog 97. It was an indictment of mankind’s
stupidity, vanity, wrongness in all ways. I thought nothing would top that.
But, in the face of the massive threat from this new form of Malaria, surely
news of a woman dying – the richest of her sex – not because of the invention
of something that would genuinely benefit all humanity but because of a
horrible, chemical vanity product, shows why we are, as a species, truly and
monumentally messed up.
As the avaricious and empty, squabble for cash over
Lillianne’s cadaver, her death delivers the same message as all the other
unread signs and portents around the planet – humans need to start spending
time, effort, money and intellect on caring for each other and the earth
because – surely ‘we’re worth it’.
*
This Thurs 28th Sept is NATIONAL POETRY DAY – Check out Casey & the Surfmen. Performed this
year in The Scottish Parliament as part of 2017 Environment week, this poetry
story was originally a spoken word piece. It is now in a brand new print
version.
Casey
& the Surfmen
is an environmental story for all ages, written in verse.
This
contemporary fable takes form somewhere between The Rime of Ancient Mariner and Avatar.
With
magic, menace and mystical creatures, the verses take the reader onto the expanse
of a child's imagination, on to a dreamscape apocalypse and back to the shore
of humanity's original promise.
*
NB – What happened in relation
to the BT nonsense? (See blog 233 – BT
ignoring your customer complaints – just do a doodle) I waited to see if
the new debt collecting firm engaged by BT would get tired of sending monthly threatening
letters. They did not, so a couple of weeks ago I sent them a cease and desist or I’ll sue you letter
and have received now a full written apology (19th Sept) and
confirmation that I will not be hearing from them again. To be fair – they also
say they bought the ‘debt’ in good faith from BT. Dealing with BT ‘in good
faith’ seems to be not a great idea…