The Banking World
We hear today that the HSBC is about to reduce its global workforce by 15% as it did not make the annual profits expected. It only made a profit of 10 Billion – I am not sure whether that is pounds or dollars but compare it with the National Budget for Wales, a small country living as part of the United Kingdom, population 3.139 million people.
Apparently the problem for the HSBC was not in their high street banking affairs but some unwise investments in America. I think that will hardly be comforting news for the 35000 workers who will receive severance pay as part of the ‘rationalisation’ of the bank. Clearly there is no consideration for the lives of those people.
The National budget for Wales 2019-2020? It was calculated at £16,400 million – not even .2% of the sum that HSBC complained about making last year.
There is a myth that governments and banks, and after all governments are subsidiary to – that is to say dependent upon – banks, are ‘for the people’. The current Prime minister of England is calling his government ‘the government of the people’ in the hope that ‘the people’ will be gullible enough to believe his first concern is their well-being.
But this is the age of perception and transparency, and while gungho phrases like ‘government of the people’ and ‘get it done’ may make very good sound bites, when it comes to the aid that is extended to the people whose homes have just been flooded through England and Wales – I have not heard of Scotland’s plight in these storms, – we can expect business as usual – in the sense that their conditions will be ignored. As are passengers held on a luxury liner infested with Corona Virus similarly left to rot. Just as others were before Christmas with the washing machine scare that caused one leading company to recall thousands of their faulty products because of the electrical fire hazard they sold to an unsuspecting public. Three weeks before Christmas the head of public relations for the company in Britain said they would not be doing anything before Christmas. Business as usual appears to mean – we have no concern for your welfare – will even employ shoddy and dangerous goods, as with the Grenfell Tower fire, and the Hilsborough disaster – as long as we can keep money flowing in our direction.
Throughout the last few months it is very clear that Earth and Nature are fighting back against the reluctant governments of the world whose prime interest is not the well-being of the planet and its population, but retaining power at the next election and doing the bidding, apparently, of the corporations who actually run this world. The naked hidden agenda here is to ensure their own careers and income.
Nature told us years ago that aeroplanes were not acceptable as a mode of transport. A flock of geese sacrificed themselves to make humanity see that this was the case. Polluting the upper atmosphere with petrochemical fumes is a recipe for disaster. I wonder if the ‘chem trails’ that many are concerned for are not a measure to take some of this highly flammable residue out of the atmosphere.
However, if 10 billion is not enough for a single corporation and its shareholders, I wonder how the unemployed will feel when they have to sacrifice their houses to put food on their table.
