In an undisclosed overseas country, Mine Host props up the bar, his only accompaniment a glass of champagne.
In the almost empty bar the late night conversation is between two foreign (western) women and the bartender (a local).
Mine Host cannot help but overhear the bartender talk to the two women of the sad tale of a proposal for a resort development by a foreign entrepreneuer. A development that had been scotched from afar, by the national government acting under pressure from various groups.
The bartender's meaning: A great opportunity lost for the people of his district, in the form of jobs, brand naming of the district on the international tourist scene, and ancillary development, jobs businesses, etc. Perhaps his kids wouldn't have needed to have moved away, or overseas, to find a life.
The response of the only of the two of the vapid western women still able to string a sentence together:
(She'd completely missed the bartender's meaning.....)
"Haha, the [overseas developer] will just have to go & spend all his money at home on fancy cars, luxury holidays & new villas, ha ha ha ha....."
The bartender, bland faced, said nothing....
Mine Host near choked on his champagne. Yes, people really are this stupid. Seeing a resort development only in terms of how much money it will make for the developer (making money is baaad).... and being stupid enough to think that 100% of the cost of constructing the resort was discretionary disposable cash burning a hole in the developer's pocket.
One supposes that there are, somewhere, developments that are not done with borrowed money, but such circumstance would be very rare.
Even less likely would be a developer, who when stymied by vapid western green groups, just spends an equal amount of money on lifestyle.
******
Have either of the two women mentioned above ever heard of the phrase "raising capital", or thought about the meaning behind that phrase?
Have either of them thought of how they seem, laughing to a resident of a district with limited economic propects, at how the district, on the whim of already affluent pressure groups, being arbitrarily denied a life-changing chance at some of the properity enjoyed by those same two women?
They walk among us........
5 comments:
They walk among us.
And they probably vote, which is scarier!
Still not as vapid as the moron who says we have plenty of money - just print more bills.
Yes, seriously.
Sounds like you were in New Zealand.
They walk, they vote, and they sometimes.....reproduce.
Okay, JeffS.
You win for scariness!
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