‘Do you think there is a chance that there will be a reset from income inequality to fair wealth distribution in the rich nations.’
‘You mean the poor should be richer and the rich poorer?’ Camp said, raising one of his prominent, white eyebrows.
‘Well, kind off. I guess I’m talking about the fact that according to the Federal Reserve, the top 1% of households in the US holds 32% of the country’s wealth, while the bottom 50%, the least wealthy households, accounted for 2.6%. That’s at the end of 2021. In Canada it’s a bit better.
‘Doesn’t surprise me,’ Camp said. According to Forbes data, the combined wealth of all US billionaires increased by 2 trillion dollars, 70%, between March 2020 and October 2021, that is during Covid.’
Summer has officially arrived and the days are long warm and ‘we are living in the best place, at the best time and we better appreciate it’, says Clare, my wife and compass who steers me along the winding road, making sure I don’t stray and fall down too often. Walking along the sea shore this time of year is always a pleasure but I had things on my mind I needed to air out with my reliable friend who was already in his customary place at our watering hole by the harbour. He looked at me over the rim of his reading glasses, away from his smart phone, like a teenager caught out. I got right to the point. ‘
Did you know Camp that the Philippines are responsible for 35% of plastic waste in the oceans, three times more tonnage than the next in line: India and twice as much as all the rest of the world.’
‘No, I didn’t. Should I be surprised? Garbage awareness and recycling are acquired traits and need to be taught from an early age.’
‘Exactly. It’s called social responsibility and if everyone throws their garbage into the rivers and lakes and out the car window then that becomes the accepted norm.’
‘As in: Why should I recycle my empty pop bottle if the car in front of me just tossed out a bag full of McDonalds containers?’
‘Yes, most of the roadside garbage originates at fast food outlets but I have to say that here in Canada we’re shamed if we so much as drop a bottle cap in the gutter. Garbage management and recycling are ingrained and littering is fined and not tolerated by the general public.’
‘How many people have died so far in the Ukraine invasion by Russia?’ I asked Camp, prompted by the daily reports of a ‘counter offensive’ by the Ukrainians in a war of aggression and attrition that began in 2014 with the invasion of the Crimea and on 24th February 2022 with the occupation of parts of the Ukraine by Russian troops.
‘Estimates go from 10’000 civilian casualties to ten times that many and up to 100’000 soldiers, many of them from the mercenary Wagner group. And counting.
‘Too many and to what end? A crazy dream by a small man who wants to be bigger than Peter or Catherine? Expansions of present-day Russia to its former USSR borders? NATO and the affected small nations will never let that happen, which means this war will go on for a long time.’
‘I’ll give you a little history lesson,’ Camp said and then launched into a lengthy lecture. ‘In 1700, Peter the Great attacked Sweden, Saxe-Poland and Denmark out of the blue. Although he was almost defeated at first, he was victorious in the end and took over large parts of Eastern Europe. A few years later, Catherine the Great got into a fight with the Turks, the Ottoman Empire (1768–1774), knocked them down and would have liked to march as far as Constantinople (Istanbul) if the British had not stopped her. Nevertheless, she won huge territories, including almost the entire northern Black Sea coast, and shortly afterwards the Crimea. Being a native German, she wanted to resurrect the old Eastern Roman Empire. She founded new cities, to which she gave Greek names such as Odessa, Kherson or Mariupol, at the center of Putin’s present war of expansion.
When Hitler invaded the Soviet Union during operation Barbarossa, causing a bloodbath the likes of which humanity had never seen before, with about 30 million deaths on both sides, it was the Americans, who provided the Soviets with everything they needed to defend themselves against the Nazis. Let me check this,’ Camp said, pawing his smart phone. ‘Oh, here it is: In December 1941, the U.S. decided to send the Russians monthly deliveries, including: 50,000 tons of metals, chemicals, heavy metals, 20,000 tons of petroleum products, 10,000 trucks, 550 tanks, 144 fighter planes and 133 bombers, plus ten shiploads of wheat, flour and sugar. Month after month – until the end of the war, Americans gave the Russians just about everything. Stalin, also a first-class war-criminal, hardly ever paid a dollar but annexed half of Poland, the three Baltic states, Moldova, and northern Bukovina, when he was allied with Hitler. After the war he did not return one square kilometer; rather, he acquired even more territories: from Germany, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Finland and once again from Poland. Meanwhile, America, which had won the war in the first place, did not absorb a single square meter.’
‘Thanks for the update, Camp. History is an endless human drama.’
‘By the way, Russia is still the largest country in this world by far at 17 million ㎢, way larger than Canada at 10 million㎢, or China at 9.7 million㎢ or the USA at a measly 9.3 million㎢.’
While Camp was talking, I was listening and drinking. Now, caught up, he downed his mug in one go, prompting Vicky to swoop in with two cold, fresh brews, on the double.
‘That’s service,’ Camp said admiringly and we left her a nice big tip.
‘Is it better to be poor in a rich country or a poor country?’ I asked Camp during our weekly meet over a couple of pints.
‘We’ve gone over this before. Being poor and destitute is always a subjective and personal experience and lacks the comparative points of view of those on the outside looking in,’ Camp said. ‘It sucks being poor, anywhere, any time.’
‘I agree, poverty sucks,’ I said.
‘The stereotyping of homeless people does not help either.,’ Camp said. ‘I remember reading Jack London’s ‘The People of the Abyss’ about his immersion into street life in Whitechapel in order to better understand the predicament of the poorest and homeless. A hundred and twenty years on and the lives of the homeless and the destitute amongst us has not changed much.‘
‘On one side we have thousands of homeless people living on the streets, even in parked RV’s and cars and filling the insufficient shelters night after night. Some of these trailers and RVs parked permanently on public streets, across North America’s downtowns, are rented and we now have such a species as Vanlords.’
‘Yes, and on the other side of the spectrum we have unprecedented wealth, coupled with conservative and reactionary policies stretching the middle-class to a point of insecurity where many are just a paycheck away from going broke. Home prices and the resulting rental increases are not helping and young families are being squeezed from all sides: the bank, the grocery store, the gas station and the landlord,’ Camp pointed out.
This May was like summer with temps in the mid-twenties and sunshine every day. I love this kind of weather; it’s what we seek out in the winter months. Paradoxically, here on the rain coast, we’re already worried about water. In 4 out of the last 5 years we had stage 4 water restrictions, meaning water only for essential household use. Of course, we all know that this is an engineering and political quagmire issue, not a lack of water but yet, we will once again be restricted for our domestic water use unless it rains in the summer.
I sat down across from Camp who was focused intensely on his smart phone. He looked up, kind of guilty when I sat down.
‘Oh, I’m sorry, I’m just reading about the latest lurch to right, this time in Alberta where the vaccine denier and former leader and betrayer of the Wild Rose Party won a majority for the Conservatives. She is the same one who wants to secede from Canada and interferes with her judiciary to mitigate charges against covid and vaccine deniers. It’s a sad day for Alberta and Canada.’
‘I’m not disagreeing with you,’ I said, but the writing was on the wall. We live in a world where simple answers to complex problems as well as promises of stopping or even reversing time to a revisionist construct of an imaginary past win over the majority of people. They don’t want change; they don’t want to make adjustments or have restrictions on their life styles and they rather deny reality than change their thinking and behavior.’
‘A bit simplistic but it all comes down to trust. Trust in science, trust in statistics, trust in politicians and preachers except the latter two make simple promises they can never keep and motivate their voters with fear of the unknown.’
‘I know, the results are disappointing for those of us who hope for a more inclusive, a more open and a more educated society.’
Bruno's point of view 